Eagle Days
Text & photos by Jay Warner

Three members of the Southeast Gateway Group of Sierra Club, Mary Ann Ortmayer, Melissa and Jay Warner, braved the cold to drive out to Sauk City January 15 for the “Eagle Days” festivities. Eagles like the Wisconsin River near Sauk City because of the conjunction of open water from the power dam outflow for fishing, large tree woodlands near the river for perching and the narrow valleys where they can roost out of the winter winds. The Ferry Bluff Eagle Council puts on the Eagle Days to educate the public and publicize their eagle bonanza.

One highlight was the Live Bird of Prey show, where we got closer to large raptors than is altogether comfortable.

We also watched Marge Gibson from Raptor Education Group, Inc. release two rehabilitated eagles.

Marge Gibson answers a question just before releasing this mature bald eagle. He was found in convulsions from a toxin near Hayward, WI and was rehabilitated by the Raptor Education Group, Inc. The picture text was communicated to Jay Warner by mental telepathy.	Peregrine Falcon. One highlight was the Live Bird of Prey show, where we got closer to large raptors than is altogether comfortable.
The 25 year old bald eagle, fully recovered from ingesting poison, heads out for home.

Calendar:

February 3: Conservation Committee Meeting at Berges’ house, 1529 Crabapple Drive, Racine, at 7:00 p.m. Contact John at (262) 633-8455 with questions, items for the agenda or additional information.

February 10: Southeast Gateway Group ExCom meeting, 7:00 p.m. at Messiah Lutheran Church, 3015 Pritchard Dr., Racine. All members are welcome.

February 12: The Third Saturday Hike will be on the 2nd Saturday to conjoin with the Kenosha Environmental Education Program listed below. Meet at the Kenosha Museum’s parking lot at 10:00 a.m. and learn what is happening at the Kenosha waterfront. Lunch at a local restaurant to follow. Call Roz McHugh for details at (262) 694-3351

February 12: Kenosha Environmental Education Program. Greg Mayer, an Associate Professor of biological sciences will speak about the biodiversity of amphibians and reptiles, especially how these ancient classes of animals are reacting to changes in the water, land and climate. This program will be presented at 2:00 p.m. at the Kenosha Public Museum, 5500 First Avenue. See related article on page five.

February 17: Away From Home Recycling presented by Nancy Gloe, Waste Management Specialist with the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources. There are so many more ways to recycle at summer events and meetings that need to be addressed. The meeting will be held at Messiah Lutheran Church located at Durand Avenue and Prichard Drive in Racine at 7:00 p.m. An optional “get together” dinner will be at the Olive Garden restaurant at 5:30 p.m.

March 1, Tuesday: Deadline for the April–May issue of the Southeast Sierran. Contact information is on the last page of this newsletter.

March 3: Conservation Committee Meeting at Berges’ house, 1529 Crabapple Drive, Racine, at 7:00 p.m. Contact John at (262) 633-8455 with questions, items for the agenda or additional information.

March 4–6: Cross Country Ski or Hike in Door County. Explore the geology and winter environment in Newport State Park. We’ll stay at the Wagon Trail Resort, approximately $35 plus food per person for the weekend. For additional information and carpooling, call Mary Ann Ortmayer (262) 554-5058.

March 10: Southeast Gateway Group ExCom meeting, 7:00 p.m. at Messiah Lutheran Church, 3015 Pritchard Dr., Racine. All members are welcome.

March 17, 2005: Kenosha Schools On Site Environmental Education Areas (Pringle and Bong) presented by Corrine Mueller and Dan Warner. The meeting will be held at the Kenosha Public Museum at 5500 First Avenue in the Daimler Chrysler Room at 7:00 p.m. An optional “get together” dinner will be at Villa D’Carlo restaurant at 5140 Sixth Avenue in Kenosha at 5:30 p.m.

March 19: The Third Saturday Hike will explore the first stages of the Pike River restoration program and learn about the next stages in this innovative project. Meet at the parking lot on the south side of Old Spring Street by the bridge over the Pike River at 10:00. Since the trail is short, we will also hike in a nearby park and then head off for lunch. Call Dana Huck for details at (262) 639-0465

April 7: Conservation Committee Meeting at Berges’ house, 1529 Crabapple Drive, Racine, at 7:00 p.m. Contact John at (262) 633-8455 with questions, items for the agenda or additional information.

April 23: Earth Day Planting in Colonial Park. Starting at 8:30 a.m. we will be planting a native species educational area at the north entrance to the Root River Pathway. Bring gloves, shovels and other suitable tools. With enough willing hands we will be able to eliminate some more invasive alien species and still finish by noon. For questions and additional information call John Berge at (262) 633-8455.

From the Chair…
by Barry Thomas

For those of you feeling a little depressed over the results of the recent Presidential election, you might be cheered by reading ten great things that happened in 2004 to give us reasons for hope in the future. The following list was taken from RAW: The Uncooked Facts About the Bush Assault on the Environment. You may subscribe to RAW at: www.sierraclub.org/raw/subscribe.asp

1. On 40, Going on Forever
The Wilderness Act reached a major milestone this year, celebrating its 40th anniversary. To date, there are more than 655 million acres of land “where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.”

2. Eye on the Prius
What cynics assumed would be a gimmick turns out to be a goldmine. Toyota has sold over a quarter million of its Prius sedans, a gas-electric hybrid, proving that this fuel saving technology is anything but a flash in the pan.

3. Riding That Train
Baby, you can drive my car. I’m going to take the train. In 2004, voters passed no fewer than 40 ballot initiatives to fund public transit, ranging from San Antonio, TX to Kalamazoo, MI.

4. Stepping on the (Greenhouse) Gas
California finalized rules for its landmark law to curb global warming pollution from cars and trucks. Now other states like New York and Massachusetts and even Canada are considering adopting the same rules.

5. Rocky Mountain High Five
The Bureau of Land Management announced that it would no longer consider oil and gas drilling along the Rocky Mountain Front. The Front was made famous in the journals of Lewis and Clark and is the only place where grizzly bears still venture onto the prairies.

6. Tune In, Turn Out
The Sierra Club completed its most ambitious voter education effort ever, knocking on more than 1 million doors, making 1.5 million phone calls, and recruiting 12,000 new volunteers.

7. Nobel Peace Is the Answer
A longtime associate of the Sierra Club’s Human Rights and the Environment campaign, Wangari Maathai was awarded a Nobel Peace Prize in October for her work leading Kenya’s Green Belt Movement and mobilizing poor women to plant 30 million trees to stave off deforestation.

8. Voting for Dollars
Voters nationwide approved 120 out of 161 local and state conservation ballot measures, raising more than $3 billion for land conservation.

9. Grab Yer Partner
Protecting the environment is about finding common ground, and the Sierra Club found a lot of ground to celebrate this year by teaming up with labor unions to promote clean energy technologies, standing ground with ranchers against the Bush administration’s aggressive agenda to expand oil and gas drilling, and working with hunters and anglers to protect America’s wetlands.

10. Supreme Rejection
The Supreme Court rejected the Bush administration’s argument that it has a constitutional right to keep the workings of its Energy Task Force secret and sent the case back to the Court of Appeals. We won’t know what happens until 2005, so hold onto your hats!

SEGG Election Results & Officers Announced:

The Elections Committee is pleased to announce the election of Barb Meyocks and Juanita Patterson and the reelection of Nancy Hennessy and John Berge to our SEGG Executive Committee. Welcome and thanks for your commitment.

The SEGG Executive Committee elected officers at their January 13 meeting. The officers for 2005 are: Nancy Hennessy, Chair; John Berge, Vice Chair; Jeff Sytsma, Treasurer; and Barb Meyocks, Secretary. Barry Thomas will chair the 2006 Autumn Assembly Committee. Thanks also to Dennis Flath and Roz McHugh who have

From the Political Committee…
by Barbara Meyocks, Political Committee Co-chair

We fought a hard battle in the days and weeks leading up to the election. However, the Bush Administration won and will be setting environmental policy for the next four years. We must, therefore, resolve to fight the hard battle against the forces which would degrade and destroy the environment. Let us then resolve to take action, to stay informed, to speak out, and to stay connected in 2005.

We are all familiar with the weapons we have to wage the battle against the assaults on the environment. These include writing letters and guest editorials, being vocal at meetings and hearings, and contacting your representatives.

Resolve, then, to take some action. Perhaps even writing on your calendar the date that you will submit that letter, attend a meeting, or visit the Sierra Club web site. At this site, you can join the Action Network, read recent press releases, and subscribe to RAW. RAW is a twice-weekly update on the latest Bush Administration’s “environmental outrages.” See Barry’s From the Chair column on this page for the website information.

April’s “Batty” meeting…

Our April meeting will be held at Messiah Lutheran Church in conjunction with our Racine Environmental Education program. The program, “Batty About Bats”, will be presented by Ken Bowman from Bat Conservation of Wisconsin in Sun Prairie. More details will be in the next Southeast Sierran.

Ending the Energy Stalemate?
by John Berge

The National Commission on Energy Policy, a non-governmental organization, published a report in December of last year, which they hope will end the stalemate in Congress over Energy Policy. As in any compromise, probably no one, least of all the Sierra Club, will be satisfied with all of the proposed solutions, but the Commission urges that all the proposals be taken as a package.

The bipartisan Commission of 16 diverse members was founded in 2002 by the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, The Pew Charitable Trusts, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, and the Energy Foundation. The 148-page report is available as a pdf file from the Commissions web site at www.energycommission.org.

The recommendations of the Commission are grouped under six general categories: Enhancing Oil Security, Reducing Risks from Climate Change, Improving Energy Efficiency, Expanding Energy Supplies, Strengthening Energy-Supply Infrastructure, and Developing Better Technologies for the Future. The recommendations reflect the presence of chairmen of two energy companies and a group vice-president of an automotive company. There were a number of former government officials, including several from the Department of Energy and the Environmental Protection Agency, and one Co-Director of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

To discuss the entire report would take another 148 pages, so I will limit this article to only a couple of points. One is raising fuel economy standards. The report notes that in the United States “new vehicle fuel economy is now no higher than it was in 1981, but vehicle weight has increased 24 percent and horsepower has increased by 93 percent”! This and the ads on TV show where our current emphasis is and what needs to be changed. Various recommendation were reviewed including that of the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (2001) which would increase gas mileage from the current 24 mpg to 40-45 mpg with currently available technology. With Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) set at 44 mpg and several other policies in place, we could reduce projected growth of oil used by the year 2025 by 5 million barrels per day (or about 58%) compared to not changing CAFE standards and policies. Additional policies include standards for heavy-duty tractor trailer trucks, replacement tires and renewable fuel deployment.

It is interesting to compare what other countries are doing regarding fuel efficiencies. By 2010, Canada has legislated increases from 25 to 33 mpg, Australia from 30 to 35 mpg, China from 30 to 37 mpg, the European Union from 38 to 48 mpg, and Japan from 46 to 48 mpg. The U.S. shows only an increase from 24 to 25 mpg by 2007 and no rules enacted for after that. Gasoline-electric hybrids are strongly advocated in the report, but the CAFE standard cycle does not adequately reflect driving in Wisconsin winters. (Gas mileage in my Prius hybrid has failed to live up to published values so far this winter since distances are so short in Racine that I have reached my destination about the time the engine has warmed up enough to give the 50-60 mpg that I get on longer trips. The first five minutes or so yield only 20–35 mpg. This effect is hidden on conventional cars without the computer readout that comes with the Prius.)

A study by two automotive engineering firms (Martec and AVL) concludes that new passenger vehicle greenhouse gas emissions can be cost-effectively reduced by up to 47 percent. Relying solely on technological improvements to conventional gasoline-powered vehicles, they report a 30 percent reduction.

As to greenhouse gases, the Commission recommends a “mandatory, economy-wide, tradable-permits system” for industries and an “environmental target based upon annual reductions in emission intensity”. Unfortunately, this system would not go into place until 2010 and the target is based on a 2.4 percent annual reduction in greenhouse gases per dollar of gross domestic product (GPD). Thus if the GPD increases by 2.4 percent per year, which is not out of the realm of possibility, the greenhouse gases (carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride) wouldn’t be reduced at all.

Under their proposal, 95 percent of the initial tradable permits would be given out at no cost to emitting sources. The rest would be auctioned off by the government to new entrants, thus raising money to cover the federal subsidy for research on new technologies, improving energy efficiency and pollution reduction. Most of this money would go to the gas, oil, coal, nuclear, automotive and electricity generating industries. One should notice how well the proposal protects the current operators.

One last note: The Energy Commission could reach no consensus on drilling in or protecting the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, so that was left out of their recommendations.

Being Caribou…
Join The Sierra Student Coalition and the Sierra Club in conjunction with the Urban Ecology Center and Friends Milwaukee’s Rivers for the premiere of Being Caribou, directed and written by Leanne Allison and Diana Wilson, with an introduction by James Cambell author of The Final Frontiersman: Heimo Korth and His Family, Alone in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Environmentalist Leanne Allison and wildlife biologist Karsten Heuer follow a herd of 120,000 caribou on foot, across 1,500 kilometer of rugged arctic tundra. Learn what is at stake if proposed oil and gas development goes ahead in the herd’s calving grounds in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

The presentation is February 13 at 1:00 p.m. at the UW Milwaukee Union Theater, 2200 E. Kenwood Ave.

Admission: Adults: $5 Students $3.

The Many Tasks of the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources
by Lila Berge

The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (WDNR) has become a whipping boy for many in and outside of the legislature. The WDNR has been assigned the massive responsibility for natural resource protection in the state. But their work has been seriously affected by the state’s budgetary woes. Both state and federal dollars have been cut in recent years, causing the elimination of 32 staff positions. Adding to their problems, the legislature recently passed the so-called Job Creation Act requiring the WDNR to speed up approvals for environmental reviews so as to facilitate permits. Half of the projects submitted for review were declared exempt from permit need. With fewer staff to conduct environmental reviews to see if permit requirements were being met, fewer site visits can be made. Will the protection of our clean air and water be affected?

Clean water is the lifeblood of citizen health and the state’s economy. Access to public recreational waters comes under the Public Trust Doctrine in our State Constitution. The shoreline rules were updated in 2004. The WDNR needs to help property owners understand the changes and oversee enforcement for the public. The WDNR also enforces the Clean Water Act law which affects cities, industries, farms and suburban development as well as recreation seekers. Everyone uses the groundwater or draws water from streams or the Great Lakes. In an increasingly arid world, Wisconsin’s location is a priceless jewel that must be held in trust for future generations.

We do have certain challenges. Invasive species have been introduced into the Great lakes, requiring both long-term study and action. The WDNR manages the fisheries, gathering eggs right in Racine from salmon migrating up the Root River. Recent lack of rainfall and lower stream level affected the migration for a time. Stream habitat improvements have been made along the Pike River, and some area lakes have had their problems addressed by WDNR.

There is a role for citizen organizations working on clean water issues. Governor Doyle established an Invasive Species Council in 2004, charged with establishing a procedure for giving grants to public and private groups. The Legislature authorized spending $500,000 annually for eligible projects. Locally, the Watershed Initiative Network has been giving grants for watershed improvement projects. These include the Pike River Restoration Project and several other study programs, the English Street Outfall Project, the storm sewer labeling project and others.

Clean Air monitoring is another responsibility of WDNR. Racine and Kenosha Counties are still listed as ozone non-attainment areas, while Walworth County air quality has improved enough to remove it from that list. New emission limits on 2004 vehicles have taken effect, but heavy duty diesel trucks won’t have to meet new limits until 2007. Funding for air monitoring sites is tight, so some have been automated and ‘consolidated’. Wisconsin revised its mercury and other hazardous air pollutant emission rules in 2003, but the federal EPA rules need to be strengthened.

Two clean air programs are available to teachers for helping children learn about air quality and public health. “Where’s the Air” is for children ages 10 and beyond from Easy Breathers. “Air Defenders” kits for ages 8 to 11 contain a multi-media program put out by WDNR and Wisconsin Environmental Health Association. Information on these programs can be obtained from www.easybreathers.org and www.airdefenders.org. Other web sites for environmental education materials are available at: Environmental Education for Kids, www.dnr.state.wi.us/org/caer/ce/eek/ ; and DNR Air Management Bureau, www.dnr.wi.gov/org/aw/air/.

A final WDNR note from Paul Smith in Racine’s Journal Times: In January 2004 a wild deer was killed in Brighton (Kenosha Co.) that tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease (CWD). This January the WDNR will be trapping deer in urban areas including Rock, Walworth, Kenosha and Racine Counties to check the spread of CWD, and to reduce the number of deer. I know we have had deer munching on our garden and trotting down our street in 2004. Like many Sierrans we enjoy seeing deer, but there truly are too many in urban areas, and the spread of CWD is a very serious situation. Don’t call DNR to complain.

Kenosha Environmental Education Program…

The Kenosha Environmental Education program will be in February this year. All the middle school sixth grade classrooms will be participating plus there will be a program for the public on Saturday, February 12. We will have the program at the Kenosha Public Museum at 2:00 p.m. We are hoping some of our hikers may be able to hike in Kenosha and attend the program after the hike.

The funding for the program is partly from the Rotary Club, a Root Pike Watershed Initiative Network (WIN) grant, the Audubon Society and our Sierra Club Group.

The sixth grade programs will be presented February 8, 10 and 11. Greg Mayer, an Associate Professor of biological sciences and Director of Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin-Parkside will be our speaker. He will be presenting on amphibians and reptiles and may have some live animals to display. Greg has conducted research of vertebrates, especially tropical amphibians and reptiles. His research was in the West Indies and Central America.

Greg’s program will include the biodiversity of amphibians and reptiles, especially how these ancient classes of animals are reacting to changes in the water, land and climate. We can learn much about the state of our own environment from studying these animals.