| In this December 2000- January 2001 issue: |
Are
Sierra Club Priorities Being Worked On Locally?
by John Berge
The
Southeast Gateway Group Executive Committee had a chance to review the Groups
participation in the priority programs of the Sierra Club recently when we responded to a
survey sent to all the Groups, Chapters and Regional Conservation Committees. We havent
done much on some of them, possibly because the members of the Group are unaware of what
they are or possibly because of limited interest, even though the priorities were chosen
by the grassroot membership. Former Speaker of the House, Tip ONeil,
said that All politics is local. Are conservation activities also just local?
Questionnaires
were included for each of the four long-term priority conservation campaigns and the four
additional priority programs. Those who worked on filling out the questionnaires felt it
would be worthwhile to remind the membership of what these priorities are, not just by
title, but with the more complete descriptions that accompanied the survey. The four
long-range priority campaigns are listed below with a short summary of our activities in
italics.
End Commercial Logging (ECL) Campaign
The
principal long-term goal of the ECL campaign is to end the Forest Service commercial
logging program. Our long-term goals also include public education, legislative,
litigation and regulatory objectives. In the interim, our goals are aimed at reforming the
Forest Service budget, removing improper agency incentives to log, significantly reducing
the annual volume logged on National Forests, garnering Congressional support for the
National Forest Protection and Restoration Act, and building effective national Sierra
Club and public support and coalitions. In the next year, the ECL campaign will focus on
public education, appropriations, legislation and media coverage. (We wrote some letters
and attended a few meetings.)
Wildland Protection & Restoration Campaign
The
Sierra Clubs Wildlands Protection and Restoration campaign is an ambitious agenda to
secure lasting protection for 100 million acres of wildlands in America over the next
decade. The Wildlands campaign aims to energize, support, and inform wildlands enthusiasts
and activists in every state and ecoregion so that they can protect and restore wildlands
close to home and participate in national campaigns to protect threatened public lands.
This year, the campaign highlighted the Wild Forest Initiative to protect 60 million acres
of roadless National Forests. It also focused on six shining examples of our nations
unique natural heritage. They are: Florida
Everglades, Maine Woods, Northern Rockies, Utahs Canyonlands, Wild Alaska and Sierra
Nevada. (Several members spoke at Forest Service hearings, testified at a County Board
Committee meeting, blocking County opposition, and we wrote letters.)
CAFO/Clean Water Campaign
The
CAFO/Clean Water Campaigns long-range goals are to stop new factory farms, implement
the Clean Water Acts zero-discharge goal for those that exist, and support
environmentally sound livestock production. A CAFO is a Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operation requiring a Clean Water Act discharge permit. Agriculture has enjoyed a 28-year
exemption from virtually all clean water requirements. This campaign will bring industrial
agriculture under effective environmental controls and help address the problem of
non-point source pollution. Recognizing that changing CAFO policy at the state level is
essential to create stronger national policies, the campaign has concentrated its efforts
on building capacity to fight CAFOs at the state and local level. The campaign has
provided written materials, training and on-site organizing assistance, and direct
financial assistance to chapters and groups. The campaign also provides funding to build
citizen water-monitoring programs, which will be useful in fighting CAFOs and in building
support for the Clubs other water programs. (We wrote letters, distributed
factsheets, attended some seminars and had one meeting stressing CAFOs in Wisconsin and
another on water quality.)
Challenge to Sprawl Campaign
Poorly
planned development is threatening our environment, our health, and our quality of life. In communities across America, sprawlscattered
development that increases traffic, saps local resources and destroys open spaceis
taking a serious toll. But runaway growth is not inevitable. Hundreds of urban, suburban,
and rural neighborhoods are choosing to curb sprawl with smart-growth solutions. The
objective of our national Challenge to Sprawl Campaign is to produce national reports on
sprawl and its solutions, provide material, winning campaign strategies, and training and
funding to better equip Club volunteers and staff to change sprawling suburban development
patterns faced by their communities. (More on this topic than any other. Held a press
conference, distributed the report to County Boards, sponsored a workshop and lobbied for
brownfield cleanup.)
Global Warming Program
Global
warming is the most serious environmental threat we face. The worlds leading
scientists have concluded that global warming has begun. They project that within our
childrens lifetimes, it will increase Earths average temperature 2 to 6
degrees Fahrenheit. This will cause a 6- to 37-inch rise in sea levels this century,
causing major coastal, wetland and river flooding. Rising temperatures will allow
disease-carrying rodents and insects to spread infectious diseases into new areas, cause
longer and deadlier heat waves, and prompt severe drought and more frequent storms and
weather extremes, which in turn can claim thousands of lives. These temperature and
precipitation changes will destroy wildlife habitat and cause shifts in animal and plant
ranges. Not only does the pollution spewing from Americas cars and trucks threaten
public health, every gallon of gas burned adds 28 pounds of CO2 to the atmosphere.
Increasing the fuel economy of cars and light trucks is the single biggest step the United
States can take to reduce U.S. emissions of these pollutants. (Again did letter writing,
distributed factsheets and reports and distributed postcards.)
Human Rights & the Environment Program
There
is a common crisis afflicting human rights and the environmenta steady, but
preventable, slide toward a see no evil U.S. foreign policy. Our elected
officials are all too willing to cast human rights and environmental concerns aside
whenever trade issues are involved. Multinational corporations, often in collusion with
corrupt and undemocratic governments appear to encourage, benefit from, or directly cause
human rights and environmental violations overseas in order to increase their profit. All
too often, environmental activists have been the targets of these violations. The Sierra
Club believes that in order to protect the environment from corporate and government
malfeasance, that the civil and political rights of environmentalists should be protected.
Our objectives in a joint campaign with Amnesty International are to increase pressure on
the U.S. government to include the human rights of environmental advocates as a central
feature of its foreign policy, and to provide direct grassroots support for activists in
other nations, who are confronting corporate and governmental abuse. (Showed a video, wrote some protest letters, but
not much else.)
Global Population Stabilization Program
In
the 21st century, the connections between population growth, wasteful consumption, and
environmental degradation are increasingly clear. The new millennium is beginning with six
billion people on earth, of which one billion are young people between the ages of 15 and
24, at the height of their reproductive years. The ecological footprint of human
population is at the heart of dramatically increased rates of species extinction,
deforestation, desertification, climate change, and the destruction of natural ecosystems.
The goals of the Global Population Stabilization Program are to protect the global
environment and provide a brighter future for the children of the world by stabilizing
population and addressing wasteful consumption in the context of social and economic
equity. To achieve these goals, the Population Program works to develop a grassroots
constituency of conservationists to support an approach that integrates information and
access to family planning services, girls education, and womens empowerment
with environmental protection efforts. (We did more on this in previous year, but wrote
some letters to the editor, etc.)
Responsible Trade Campaign
Our
economy has gone global; our environmental standards have not. American corporations are
taking jobs, capital, and know-how overseas, but not their obligation to the environment.
Instead of raising the rest of the world to American standards of air and water quality
and wilderness and wildlife protection, competition in the global economy is creating
pressure to reduce protections at home. The Sierra Club is promoting responsible trade
that raises environmental standards among our trading partners, holds corporations
accountable for their behavior regardless of where they operate, and defends U.S.
environmental laws from being attacked as trade barriers. The Sierra Club does not oppose
trade, but we believe that trade rules
should not be used to compromise environmental standards. To clean up Americas
polluted international trade policy, the Sierra Club is urging President Clinton to take
executive action to: open the making of WTO and US trade policy to citizen participation;
conduct a thorough, objective, and participatory environmental assessment of the WTO,
NAFTA and other trade agreements; and fix current trade rules so that they no longer
undermine our hard-won environmental and health standards. (Probably did less on this
priority than any of the others.)
If
one or more of these priorities interests you and you would like us to schedule programs
or to work on them during 2001, contact one of the ExCom members listed on the back of
this newsletter, before the Planning Retreat listed in the calendar on page 2. Better yet,
why not attend the Retreat?
Calendar:
December
5: Farm Forum on preserving the family farm at Waukesha County Technical College, 800 main
St., Pewaukee at 1:004:00 p.m. or 6:009:00
December
9: John Muir Chapter Executive Committee Meeting at the First
December
14: Southeast Gateway Group Executive Committee Meeting, 7:00
December
21: Southeast Gateway Group Holiday Party beginning at 7:00 p.m. at Messiah Lutheran
Church, corner of Durand Avenue and Pritchard Drive in Racine. Also installation of the
2001 Group Executive Committee will occur.
January
1: Deadline for the next issue of the Southeast Sierran.
January
13: Annual planning retreat for the Southeast Gateway Group from 8:30 until we are done
(surely by 3:00 p.m.) at Messiah Lutheran Church, corner of Durand and Pritchard Drive in
Racine. Lunch will be served. Open to all who have an interest in what we will be doing.
This will include the January ExCom meeting.
January
18: Southeast Gateway Group General Meeting with Patti Nagai, Horticulture Agent for the
University of Wisconsin Extension Service in Racine at the Kenosha Northside Library,
starting at 7:00 p.m.
January
20: John Muir Chapter Executive Committee Meeting at the First
UW
Extension Horticulture Agent to Speak at January 18 Meeting
Dr.
Patti Nagai (pronounced Nah-guy), the UW Extension Horticulture Agent for Racine County,
will speak at the January 18, 2001, meeting of the Southeast Gateway Group. As a
member of a four-county Urban Initiative Team partnering with UW-Parkside and neighborhood
groups, I am working to help make our communities better places to live. Our focus is on
education, with topics ranging from land use issues to parenting to youth to gardening,
she said.
An
ongoing Youth Gardening Program has been in place for more than five years, partnering
with the Racine/Kenosha Nutrition Education Program, neighborhood businesses and churches.
A new Urban Master Gardener program was begun this past year. Master Gardener Volunteers
provide more than 1500 hours of community service per year to Racine County projects.
Patti will discuss how UW Extension works in our community, and what is being planned for
the future.
Patti
is a graduate of Cornell University and Mississippi State University with degrees in
Agronomy and Horticulture and post-doctoral work at Purdue University. She has done
research in Japan studying natural biodiversity and was a high school biology teacher and
an interior plantscape maintenance supervisor before coming to Racine.
Since
Gateway Technical College could not assure us of a room on the Kenosha campus at this
time, the meeting will be held in the Kenosha Northside Library. Because of their strict
closing time, we want to start promptly at 7:00 p.m.
Welcome
New Members
Delavan:
Mrs. Elton Lees, Jack Wallace, Jr.
East
Troy: Patricia Kies, Sandra Snow
Kenosha:
Robin L. Chick , June Grogan, Elan Namath, Patricia S. Pechura
Pleasant
Prairie: Charles Knickrehm
Racine:
Glenn Cordon, David V. Holmes, Christopher & Sandy Jamieson,
Twin
Lakes: David Johnson
From
the Rockin Chair
by Lila Berge
By
the time you get this there should be a considerable reduction in political hot air
(pollution ?) coming over the radio and television, so I want to devote my last column as
SEGG chair to several water quality issues.
A
new organization is being formed to protect, restore and sustain the ecosystem of the Root
and Pike River Watersheds. This Watershed
Initiative Network (WIN) will be funded by grants from the Racine Community Foundation and
the Greater Kenosha Area Foundation. Volunteers and organizations are needed to help
evaluate projects, which may involve farming, wildlife, recreation, storm water,
education, etc.
The
WIN concept is based on the success of Saginaw Bay, Michigan projects. For more
information, call Dave White at River Bend Nature Center, (262) 639-0930.
The
Wisconsin Wetlands Association and Sierra Club are fighting a large wetland fill in
Superior where there are seven rare species of wetland plants, including smooth black
sedge which is found nowhere else in the state. Unbelievably, the 34.6 acre wetland is to
be filled so they can build a new middle school, playfields, football field and parking
lots! This would be the largest wetland fill since the DNR adopted Wetland Water Quality
Standards, NR 103 in 1991. The school district recently got permission to fill another
14.92 acres nearby for an elementary school. Such wetlands should be protected and used to
provide environmental education about the value wetlands provide for wildlife and water
quality
not sacrificed for development of any kind.
There
is another chapter in the Crandon Mine saga. In October the Canadian company Rio Algom
sold out to a South African mining company called Billiton. The Crandon mine has now gone
from Exxon Coal and Minerals (1975) to Exxon and Phelps Dodge (1992) to Exxon and Rio
Algom (1994) to Rio Algom (1998) to Billiton. The anti-mining coalition in Wisconsin is
urging the new owner to cut its losses and write off the Crandon mine. Rio Algom wasted
$65 million trying to get it permitted, but so far Billiton isnt revealing its
plans.
Some
background on Billiton: the mining giant Gencor took it over from Royal Dutch Shell in
1994. In 1995 the South African regulatory control over mining was nearly nonexistent, and
the industry was directly responsible for 100% of highly toxic pollutants entering the
waters. The industry record of worker health and safety was horrific, with hundreds of
miners dying annually for at least the previous 30 years. White owners of South African
mining took full advantage of Apartheids labor laws and cheap labor. Such history
makes the passage of a ban on the use of cyanide in Wisconsin mining absolutely critical
now. The fight over Crandon goes on.
A
$7.8 billion plan to restore the Florida Everglades and reverse damage from 50 years of
ill advised dredging and canal building by the Army Corps of Engineers has been the
centerpiece of congressional efforts to pass the Water Resources Development Act 2000
(WRDA). The House added a string of pork projects to their version, encouraged mission
creep and lacked civilian oversight or controls. For these reasons the Sierra Club
had opposed passage of WRDA 2000 and urged passage of the Everglades $1.4 billion
separately. When the Senate stripped most of the pork projects out of WRDA it passed. The
first steps to restore the Everglades include ten construction and four pilot projects. It
is expected to take 30 years and $7.8 billion to complete.
Cleanup
of the Fox Rivers in Wisconsin is also going to take decades. A Friends
organization has formed in Waterford to address sedimentation and other issues on that
Fox. The other Fox was heavily contaminated by paper mills in the Green Bay area for
decades. Getting agreement on cleanup of that river is proving far more difficult.
Finally,
I want to thank members of our 2000 Executive Committee, our Program Chair, Nita Larson,
our Environmental Education Chair, Donna Peterson, our Conservation chair, John Berge, our
legislative watchdog Jean McGraw and the Editor of this newsletter, Gary Zumach.
Happy
Holidays everyone! Rock on.
Forums Bring Farmers & Activists Together to Save Family Farms
Wisconsin
Citizen Action has been holding forums across the state for farmers, food quality
activists, environmentalists, rural development advocates and anyone else who wants to
help pass state legislation to preserve the family farm system of agriculture, promote
healthy rural communities and protect our family farms and environment from a pending 50%
increase in industrial livestock operations. At forums held recently in Monroe and La
Crosse, more than 70 participants learned more about the the problems facing Wisconsins
family farmers, the environmental challenges for both large and small farms, potential
legislative solutions and strategies for passing a Wisconsin Family Farm Protection Act.
Participants also offered input and suggestions on what our state government can do to
protect family farms and the environment. The last forum in the current series, and the
one closest to us, is scheduled for Waukesha County Technical College, 800 Main St.,
Pewaukee, WI, on Tuesday, December 5. There will be two identical sessions: one from 1:00
p.m. to 4:00 p.m. and the other from 6:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. For more information call Sam
Gieryn at (608) 256-1250.
Your
Legislative Watchdog
When
you read this, the election will be over; and the prospects for protecting the earth will
have taken a big upswing or a big downswing. I shouldnt say the earth; its in
no danger though it might take some time to repair the damage we have done. No, rather I
am concerned that the tiger, the panda and the human might go the way of many other
extinct species. It couldnt happen? There used to be billions of salmon, now down to
a few thousand in the Pacific Northwest. Remember the billions of passenger pigeons.
That
aside, my subject is diet. There is little we can eat today without its problems unless we
grow it in our own garden. Genetically
modified foods are permeating our cereal, our bread and our TV dinners. The European Union
will not permit the importation of genetically modified grains and foods. Do you really
think all those countries would ban foods or grains without pretty solid reasons? But we
have to eat them and arent even told we are doing it.
Take
meat. Its laced with antibiotics since its impossible to raise steers and hogs
in the close quarters of factory farms (50 now in Wisconsin) without constant infections
and diseases. Not to mention it is a most inhumane way to treat our fellow animals. If
meat were raised and slaughtered in a humane way, one could have much less guilt. Give us
the old barnyard and pasture where animals led a pretty good life until the day of
reckoning came. And then often just a quick shot meant the end.
Much
of our milk no doubt is laced with BGH which makes dairy cattle much more susceptible to
disease with resulting antibiotic contaminants in our milk.
Seafood?
Endangered turtles are being slaughtered along with the shrimp catch. In fact, any sea
life, edible or inedible, that gets in the way of trawling nets, is destroyed. The entire
sea bottom population is killed along with the desired food. The dead are thrown back into
the sea. Steller sea lions in Alaska are dwindling every year and are endangered because
humans are eating pollock, which used to be a trash fish, and which is the sea lions
staple diet.
The
once boundless bounty of the sea no longer exists because greedy humans are overfishing
everything. Indigenous peoples who relied on the sea for food are finding it isnt
there. In some cases they are suffering from malnutrition and starvation. Some of our
favorite food fish stocks are severely depleted: lobster, bluefin tuna, seabass, cod,
orange roughy, red snapper, shark, shrimp and swordfish probably should no longer be
fished.
Unfortunately,
it seems we must pay a price for every technological advance which makes our lives easier.
There would seem to be only two solutions: reduce the world population to the point where
resources can be sustained, or allow war, famine and disease to take care of the problem
while the fortunate few remain on their island of prosperity and careless over
consumption.
Do
you really believe the gurus who think the problem can be solved with genetically
engineered crops (incidentally enriching themselves beyond belief)?
The
Navys latest project to protect us from a nonexistent force of aggressive nuclear
submarines is an oceanic radar system which emits tremendous noise over huge areas of
ocean. After a recent Navy battle maneuver in
the Caribbean, deafened whales with burst eardrums were washed up the shore. It is now
undeniable that the Navys high-powered sonar systems can and do kill marine animals.
In
the meantime we continue blithely on our lifestyle of over consumption with no regard for
the welfare of Gods creatures, either animal or human. Its hard to see how
this can be acceptable to men of good will.
A
third solution to world problems would be the resumption of the nuclear arms raceprobable
if the U.S. implements its Star Wars missile program (which doesnt work) which
violates anti-nuclear proliferation treaties. Other nations have threatened to increase
their nuclear arsenal if we do this. A mistake would take care of all of our problems. Any
survivors would have a different set of problems.
I
realize Im preaching to the choir; and most citizens, overworked and underpaid, are
too busy with their own problems of immediate survival to think much about the problems of
world management; but all of us need to actively involve ourselves in the education of the
public. Remember Cassandra who predicted the fall of Troy, and no one listened because
Troy was too strong, too rich and too well defended to suffer defeat.
However,
I do hope I can do a little to protect my fellow human beings
Christmas
Bird Count (CBC) Volunteers Needed
The
first Christmas Bird Counts were started on Christmas Day 1900. It was then that readers
of Frank Chapmans publication Bird-Lore were urged to begin a new holiday tradition
of counting birds, rather than engaging in Christmas Side Hunts where groups
that brought in the biggest pile of feathers won.
The
CBC tradition has continued since. Count areas nationwide have grown from 27 to over 1800
today across our hemisphere. The data from 100 years of CBCs have yielded valuable
insights into the shifting patterns, distributions, and population trends of bird species
during the count period, which runs from December 14 to January 5.
Field
observers are assigned a portion of a designated 15-mile diameter circle. Getting out by
car and on foot we aim at counting as many birds of as many species as we can find. The
more people that help, the smaller the area that each group has to cover on that day.
Those that only have time for counting birds at their feeders are also needed.
The
following is a list of four count areas in the area of SEGG, and their respective dates
and contact persons. To see a picture of the count area locations in detail, visit the
SEGG website.
Burlington CBC: Sunday, December 17, John Bielefeldt, (262) 514-2376
Kenosha CBC: Saturday, December 16, Ron Hoffmann, (262) 654-5854
Lake Geneva CBC: Saturday December 30Bryce & Paula Dreeszen, (262)
Racine CBC: Saturday, December 16, Eric Howe, (262) 633-0086,
David
Brower, Dead at 88
The
Sierra Club mourns the death of David Brower, who shaped the face of the modern
environmental movement and helped guide the Clubs rise to national prominence.
Brower died Sunday, November 5, at his home in Berkeley, California, at the age of 88.
Brower,
a Sierra Club member since 1933, served as the Clubs first executive director, a
position he held from 1952 through 1969.
The
world has lost a pioneer of modern environmentalism, said the Sierra Clubs
president, Dr. Robert Cox. Like the California redwoods he cherished, David towered
above the environmental movement and inspired us to protect our planet. If not for Davids
leadership, the Grand Canyon could well have been dammedbut he led the fight tooth
and nail to preserve that awesome treasure. His colleagues at the Sierra Club are deeply
saddened by his death. We will miss the Archdruid for both his vision and his courage.
In
the last decades of his life, Davids passion became restoring the earth from the
damage people had wrought, Cox continued. David spread the gospel of what he
called Global CPRthe need for conservation, preservation and restoration
to repair our world. As a new generation of environmentalists picks up Davids mantle
and practices what he preached, restoration well may become Davids greatest and
longest-lasting legacy.
Perhaps
Browers best-known accomplishment was his success during the 1960s in leading
a Sierra Club campaign to block two hydroelectric dams proposed for the Grand Canyon.
Brower took out full-page ads in The New York Times equating the proposal to flooding the
Sistine Chapel. He also led Sierra Club efforts to pass the Wilderness Act, halt dam
construction in Dinosaur National Monument, and create Kings Canyon, North Cascades and
Redwoods National Parks and Point Reyes and Cape Cod National Seashores.
An
avid mountain climber and skier, Brower served in the 10th Mountain Division during World
War II and pioneered 70 first-ascents in an outdoor adventure career that took him around
the globe. In addition to leading the Sierra Club, Brower was nominated for the Nobel
Peace Prize three times, and he founded the Sierra Club Foundation, League of Conservation
Voters, Friends of the Earth and the Earth Island Institute. Through Sierra Club Books,
Brower also launched the genre of large-format conservation photo books to heighten public
awareness of wildlands, bringing images of Americas landscapes and a strong
conservation ethic into peoples homes.
UN
Panel Raises Global Warming Predictions
The
United Nations Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change reports stronger evidence that
human activities are influencing climate and that the air temperature of Earth is likely
to increase more during the coming century than previously predicted. The panel estimates
the average global air temperature at the Earths surface will increase between 2.7
and nearly 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of the century if greenhouse gas emissions are
not curbed.
In
its report five years ago, the panel predicted a warming of 1.8 to 6.3 degrees. The
predicted warming was increased because concentrations of sulfates in the atmosphere,
which cool the Earth, are expected to dramatically decline in industrialized countries.
The
report, distributed to governments at the end of October and to be reviewed at a meeting
of government representatives next year, is the first full-scale update of the state of
climate science since 1995. Have you checked your CO2 emissions lately?
Ice
Age Trail Activity
Notes:
All work activities will begin at 9:00 a.m. unless otherwise noted. The highway 12 parking
lot is approximately 5 miles east of Whitewater, or 2.5 miles west of LaGrange. Trail
maintenance work may include grubbing to remove stumps, trimming back growth, painting
blazes, installing erosion control, clearing new trail, litter control, etc. For trail
work bring water, lunch, work gloves and work tools such as loppers or bow saws. Wear long
pants and long sleeve shirt, to protect from poison ivy, prickly bushes, etc., suitable
footwear and a hat. Depending on the location and conditions, insect repellent, sunscreen
or rain gear may also be useful. Contact Kangaroo to volunteer for community service or
special projects at times other than those listed below.
Contact
Persons: Bill (Kangaroo) Knickrehm,
(608)883-2825; Barb or Jerry Converse, (262)
473-7304; Sue Clymer, (262) 632-6968; Gary Klatt, (262) 473-4973; Gerry Emmerich, (262)
642-5641; Dolly McNulty, (262) 728-8351; Ingrid Larson, (262) 728-6661; Sally Ward, (262)
495-8362; Vince Lazzaroni, (262) 248-824; June Wheeler, (262) 889-4240.
December
9, Saturday, 9:00 a.m.; Hike on the Emma Carlin Trails. On Cty Z, 1 /4 mile south of Hwy
59. State park sticker required.
December
21, Thursday, 7:00 p.m.; Regular Meeting, FirStar Bank in Elkhorn.
LAST
CHANCE! Get your 2001 Sierra Wilderness ($11) & Engagement ($12) Calendars. Call Dian
Sorenson at (262) 633-6974