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Bob Gericke (far left) and Paul Berge (far right) working the shovels with a lot of help from others. |
Approximately forty hard-working people spread chipped-wood mulch and transplanted over 1000 native plants along the Root River Pathway in the woods of Colonial Park as Racine celebrated the 30th anniversary of Earth Day on May 26. About half of the workers were members of the Sierra Club and half were other friends of the environment that came out to help the Southeast Gateway Group on this project. John Berge and Melissa Warner were the leaders of the project which originated in a January 10 meeting with the Public Works Commissioner and others.
Approximately ninety seedlings and saplings of six species of shrubs and under story trees were planted along with over 900 plants of eighteen species of spring and summer flowering plants. Their “nativeness” were all checked against Professor John Curtis's “The Vegetation of Wisconsin” and with the advice of the Group's consultant, Richard Barloga. The shrubs and trees were protected by wire cages made from hardware cloth by John and Lila Berge, Jay Warner and Nancy Hennessy prior to the Earth Day project. Milorganite was sprinkled around the plants because it is reputed to be a rodent repellent and as fertilizer. Water to give the plants a good start came from the nearby Root River and special thanks go to those who were willing to wade in and carry the many buckets of water that were necessary for over 1000 transplants.
The area of the planting was disturbed by the construction of the Root River Pathway and the removal of invasive species such as buckthorn and honeysuckle. The area planted covers approximately one acre, 500 yards long and up to 15 yards wide between the newly reconstructed bridges at the west end of West High Street and at Lincoln Park near the Root River Steelhead Facility. The Conservation Committee of the Southeast Gateway Group will continue to monitor the area for several years to remove regrowth of these invaders and to encourage the spread of native plants. Additional volunteers who would like to help on this long-term phase of the project should call Melissa Warner (262-639-0918) or John Berge (262-633-8455).
Purchase of the plants and other materials was made possible by a $4,020 grant from the Root-Pike Watershed Initiative Network (WIN), the cooperation of the Public Works Department who helped with the writing of the grant application and the Parks, Recreation and Cultural Services Department who provided and delivered the mulching material.
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| Top Row:
(left) Jay Warner (in hat), Dian Sorenson (right); (right) Dian Sorenson's
Grandson (center, with shovel) and Bob Gericke (right). Center Row: (left) A
local high school student; (center) Mary Ann Ortmayer and Bev Iverson; (right) Dana Huck. Bottom Row: (left) Melissa Warner (in white hat) and Jay Warner (in hat, left rear), (right) Jay Warner (in hat) and Dian Sorenson (right).
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June 5: Conservation Committee will meet at John Barge's house, 1529 Crabapple Drive, Racine at 7:00 p.m. Contact John at (262) 633-8455 for information.
June 12, 7:00 p.m.: Southeast Gateway Group Executive Committee Meeting at Messiah Lutheran Church located at 3015 Pritchard Drive in Racine. All members are welcome.
June 19, 6:00 p.m.: The June meeting will be our annual picnic. It will be held in Sanders Park in Racine. The address is 4809 Wood Road. Meet at 6:00 p.m. at the first picnic site. Please bring a dish to pass and your dishes and silverware. This is a great time to socialize and review our year and discuss coming events. Guests are welcome.
June 21, 2003, 10:00 a.m.: Hike the Root River Pathway. Meet at the Colonial Park parking area at the end of West High Street in Racine. We will hike south on the path, and back. The hike will be followed by lunch at at local restaurant (Infusinos lunch buffet?). Contact Dana Huck at (262) 639-0465 if you need additional information.
July 1: Deadline for the August-September issue of the Southeast Sierran.
July 3: Conservation Committee will meet at John Barge's house, 1529 Crabapple Drive, Racine at 7:00 p.m. Contact John at (262) 633-8455 for information.
July 10, 7:00 p.m.: Southeast Gateway Group Executive Committee Meeting at Messiah Lutheran Church located at 3015 Pritchard Drive in Racine. All members are welcome.
July 19: Highway 38 Clean-Up for County Highway K to 5 Mile Road. Meet at Bob and Betty Gericke’s house 3927 North Lane, Franksville at 9:00 a.m. to pick up assignments and equipment. Pot luck lunch after the pick-up. For additional information call Bob or Betty at 262-886-9057. Many hands make short work.
July 19, 2003, 10:00 a.m.: Hike the Lake Geneva lakeshore path (section from Williams Bay to Lake Geneva). Meet in front of the Library. We will shuttle to Williams Bay to start our hike, hike to Lake Geneva, have lunch in Lake Geneva. Contact Dana L. Huck at (262) 639-0465 for additional information.
Group ExCom Nominating Committee…
This is a call for volunteers to work on the combined Nominating and Election Committee. Call Dian Sorenson at (262) 633-6974 before July 10 if you can help on this committee. We will be electing three members of the ExCom with the ballot appearing in the October-November issue of the Southeast Sierran so the call for nominations must go out in the issue before that. Therefore the Nominating Committee should start work this summer.
Your Legislative Watchdog
by Jean McGraw
As a follow-up to last month's discussion of threatened ocean resources, some great seafoods are being harvested responsibly, so those concerned for the environment can eat them with a clear conscience: halibut, Atlantic striped bass, squid, Pacific albacore, mahi-mahi, Australian rock lobster, farmed mussels, clams, and oysters, Dungeness crab, wild Alaskan salmon. By buying these products you are supporting healthier oceans. For more information check this website: www.msc.org.
While the public and the media have all their attention focused on Iraq, the Bush administration is quietly going about destroying twenty years of environmental progress. Extractive industry personnel and lobbyists are being placed in charge of all environmental government agencies, and they have only one object in mind: the $ sign. In short, foxes are guarding the hen house
Gale Norton, head of the Environmental Protection Agency, a former business colleague of James Watt, has revised the Clean Air Act which required power plants and other industrial facilities to install up-to-date pollution controls if they expand their operations. This will allow thousands of aging facilities to avoid anti-pollution measures. The Administration so-called “Clear Skies Initiative” ignores carbon dioxide pollution and would repeal existing state deadlines for air cleanup.
Norton is the chief cheerleader for opening the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil drilling. At Yellowstone National Park, where heavy snowmobile traffic has forced rangers to wear gas masks, she not only overturned a recent ban on snowmobiles but increased the number allowed to 1100 a day—35% more than before.
Wildlife is being harmed by air pollution, noise and disturbance. These are just two of the many anti-environmental actions of Norton. To sign a petition to replace Norton, log on to StopNortonNow. org.
With the change in power in Congress, Senator Ted Stevens of Alaska, a longtime ardent advocate of the timber industry, is now in charge of the Senate Appropriations Committee. He is trying to attach an add-on to the massive fiscal 2003 budget that would undo years of forest protections. The final bill doubles the 20-year average cut from the Tongass National Forest and allows the Forest Service to let logging companies decide which trees should be cut. The Administration continues to push to begin oil drilling in the ANWR. Wisely, Congress has for the moment voted against this, but the pressure is mounting.
These are only a few samples of the devastation the Administration is wreaking in our environmental programs. If ever it was important for environmentalists to elect pro-environmental candidates, support them, and write letters, make speeches, do anything possible to make the public aware of the damage being done, it is today. Please do your part.
The first section of the Root River Pathway between the North and South County Bicycle Trails will be officially open and usable by June 1, according to the City of Racine Commissioner of Public Works, Richard Jones. A portion of the Pathway near Lutheran High School will be a temporary trail until the construction next year of the final new bridge in Island Park. Restoration and seeding work along the disturbed area in the several parks that the Pathway traverses will continue this spring and should be completed by June 1.
The East-West portion of the Pathway between Washington Park and the Main Street Bridge is expected to be completed by Labor Day of this year, Jones said. Official dedication ceremonies have been postponed until then. The Southeast Gateway Group of the Sierra Club has been invited to participate in those ceremonies because of their continuing interest in the Root River.
Paper work on the Lake Michigan Pathway has already started, with bids being called for by August 1. Construction of the southern portion of the Lake Michigan Pathway would start shortly after Labor Day.
Influencing Your Legislator
by John Berge
“Call your state senator” … “Write your congressman” … “Send an e-mail to the Governor”. How many times have you and I been asked to do this by someone in the Sierra Club? Do you wonder whether it works or not and what is the best, or worst, way to do it? I attended a session at the 2003 Wisconsin Stewardship Network Conference in Stevens Point last February 14 and 15 entitled: How to speak with and influence your legislator on conservation and environmental issues. The session was led by former Assemblyman and State Senator Jim Baumgart from Manitowoc and Sheboygan Counties, and I wish more Sierrans from Southeast Wisconsin had been there so that more of you would respond to those calls for action. This and other sessions of the Conference are available on video tape.
First of all, he told us it does work. Telephone calls, letters and e-mails are effective ways to influence your legislator if done right. And there aren't too many ways to do it wrong. Legislators are waiting to hear from their constituents; they want to know if they care and they want to have a reason not to go along with the highly paid lobbyists … the men and women in the blue suits that are always there in Madison and Washington.
Sometimes, he said, it takes only a few well-written letters or well-informed telephone calls from their constituents to influence a legislator. After all, he or she wants your vote the next time around.
It is always nice to start out the letter or call with a thank you for a vote or action that your legislator has already done. They, too, want to be appreciated. Then try to tie in your own relationship with an issue. If it is a river to be protected, tell of your experiences canoeing or hiking along that river or how it might affect your drinking water. Be factual but not argumentative in a nasty or derogatory way. Don't be overly verbose; their time is precious and a long, rambling letter is not going to be read. One, or at most two, pages should be able to say what you want to say. Don't threaten, but offer your help.
Is there a preferred means of communication? Almost anything is better than a form postcard or a letter written by somebody else, he said, although to show mass support, even these can be worthwhile when delivered by the box full. Personally written letters and telephone calls are probably the most effective. Keep the letter to just one particular issue. It is going to be filed in a folder specific to that issue. Don't be bothered by speaking to staff if you are talking to the proper staff person for that particular issue. The legislator is dependent upon the advice of staff on many issues, and a longer more specific discussion is often possible with staff.
I asked Senator Baumgart if what he had said about legislators applied to County Board Supervisors. With a twinkle in his eye he said, “Yes, but…” County Board Supervisors are the least known of elected government officials. Telephone calls, even to their homes, are the most effective means of influencing the County Board, since three or four calls are a ground swell on most issues. On the other hand, Supervisors are probably the most entrenched and independent of all elected officials. They seldom are challenged for reelection and so may not be looking that hard at the next election. If their position is already staked out, they are probably the hardest to change, but if they are still making up their mind, they will appreciate any information and personal experience you can share with them. They don't have much staff to help them with information so yours will be more important.
To be effective, be informed, friendly and concise. Get to know your legislator and let him or her know you, but don't call on every little issue that one could possibly think of.
Intervenor Funds Received From PSC by Sierra Club
The Southeast Gateway Group of the Sierra Club was one of four organizations receiving $203,000 of intervenor funds from the Wisconsin Public Service Commission (PSC). This will allow us to become active participants in the hearings and proceedings regarding WE Energy's application for a Certificate of Public Convenience and Need for their expansion of their power plant on Elm Road in Oak Creek and/or Caledonia. When Wisconsin lost its Office of Public Intervenor back in 1995, the PSC was required to set up such intervenor funds so that the public's interest could be heard before the PSC.
The Sierra Club's share of these funds is $28,000, although we had applied for $48,325. Our local treasury will not see the funds directly, because expenses must be first incurred by us and then reimbursed by the PSC. Therefore, the Midwest Office of the Sierra Club, who has been assisting us on this issue and our opposition to the use of coal for this expansion, will handle the funds for us. Most of the money will go to hire Mr. Dennis M. Grzezinski as our attorney for the hearings and to sift through all the legal paper work that is required. He has agreed to work for a much reduced rate. But some money will be available for mailings to our members, a phone bank and/or yard signs which you probably will have heard about before this Southeast Sierran was distributed.
What is
Zero Waste?
Further reports from the 2003 Wisconsin Stewardship Network Conference
by Lila Berge
When I decided to attend the session on Beyond Recycling: zero waste and producer responsibility at the Wisconsin Stewardship Network (WSN) Conference, I had never heard of the Grassroots Recycling Network (GRRN) or the national Computer TakeBack Campaign. I did have a vague idea what student PIRGs (Public Interest Research Groups) are.
David Wood's rapid fire talk gave reasons why we as consumers and taxpayers are creating “Mount Trashmores” that threaten our health and degrade the environment. Our current industrial system takes natural resources on a one-way trip, selling us short-lived products which we cannot repair or recycle, and then making us pay again to have them collected for landfill or incineration. For every household garbage can full, the manufacturing process creates 71 garbage cans full of waste. Our taxes pay for anti-environmental subsidies for the mining, oil, gas and forestry industries so that manufacturers have no incentives to conserve natural resources.
Have you been told that recycling is not worth bothering with? Told that by both governments and individuals? They are wrong; recycling can be successful! It creates good jobs and saves natural resources. In 1999, 192.5 billion alumin-um, glass and plastic beverage containers were produced but only 88 billion (46%) were recycled. In states that have deposit laws, 71.6% are recovered.
How can Zero Waste be achieved? First Woods said, producers must be responsible for their products and packaging throughout the product's life-cycle. This is done in Europe with incentives to minimize waste and maximize recycling. Materials with embedded metals and mixed plastic containers are difficult to recycle … so design them out of the product and its packaging. Redesign products to be durable, repairable and non-toxic. Advertising should not promote single-use, disposable attributes of products. Fads and frivolous changes to products would not be selling points if manufacturers were held responsible for collecting them for reuse or recycling.
Second, retail stores should reduce waste by not stocking over-packaged, badly designed, easily broken, unrepairable merchandise.
Third, laws making producers responsible for non-recyclable products are not enough. We must not permit the shipment of hazardous waste to third world countries where it is taken apart by workers in very unsafe conditions. This is now happening with our discarded computers and other electronic equipment.
Millions of computers become obsolete every year, accumulating in closets and basements. It is estimated that there are over 200 million of them just sitting around now and over 300 million more will be obsolete within a few years. Like other electronic equipment, most contain mercury, lead, bromine-containing flame retardants and polyvinyl chloride. Companies selling these products in Europe are already implementing take-back programs, but here in the U. S., they are just beginning. For more on this subject, contact GRRN at 2203 Regent St., Suite B, Madison, WI 53726 or visit their web site at www.grnn.org. There is also a lot of information at: http://www.hp.com/ hpinfo/ globalcitizenship/environment/ recycle/ hardware.html.
The last session I attended was on Forest Fragmentation Issues in Wisconsin. Forester John Schwarzmann (Wisconsin Board of Commissioners of Public Lands), David Zaber (JMC's Forestry Chair) and John Pohlman (Land Management Specialist with the DNR) gave powerpoint presentations on the impact of this fragmentation. There are two big timber sales in the Nicolet and Chequamegon Forests coming up for approval this year affecting 7,700 acres. The Trap Hills forest contains the best old growth in the Midwest, but the DNR built a road into it a few years ago which prevents it from being declared a wilderness. Intact forest is needed for wildlife and should be connected to other forests by forested corridors. The speakers pointed out that “checkerboard” logging practices are bad for wildlife, cause more storm-damaged trees, insect invasions and erosion of soil.
An interesting report on the DNR's Wisconsin Land Legacy survey, which some of us participated in last winter, resulted in the public input adding 600 places to the list. Obviously there isn't money to protect all of these places, so the DNR is setting up criteria to identify those most worthy. Some of their considerations include sites that provide groundwater recharge, recreation in areas lacking it, unspoiled natural areas, forests and wetlands. Southeast Wisconsin sites qualify on almost all of these criteria because of population density. I was surprised to see that the entire tier of Northern Wisconsin counties is where the most population growth is expected in the next 20 years. What that portends for our forests and wildlife is not too hard to imagine.
