2008 Annual Planning Retreat:
by Gary Zumach

Our annual planning retreat was held on a mild winter day at the Olympia Brown Church Annex in Racine. The meeting was attended by about 15 club members.

Reports from various components of the group were given -- the conservation committee report is presented below.

Our environmental education program continues, but in a different direction. Contact Barry Thomas to help.

Our monthly programs have been planned out through spring. Many ideas were floated for general meetings in the fall and winter -- watch for their announcements to come.

Many ideas for outings, large and small, were listed in a brainstorming activity. Outings leader training was discussed, and should the Sierra Club offer it this year, the outings person should attend. To help on these, or offer one of your own, contact any ExCom member.

The membership committee discussed an e-mail survey of new members. As a result of surveys already done, two new members were in attendance at the planning session.

Our fundraising efforts from cranberry sales and rain barrels raised over $600, with the calendar sales not reported. Again, all new fundraising ideas are welcome.

The book club group has been doing well, and will continue. See below for information about the next meeting.

An award of some type in the late Jean McGraw’s honor was also proposed.

With all of the activities, planned and unplanned, for this year, we can still use your help. Feel free to contact any member of the ExCom listed on the back page of this newsletter, or, better yet, attend a meeting and offer your help there.


2008 ExCom: (top) Jeff Sytsma, Barry Thomas, (middle) Kari Olesen, John Berge, (lower) Melissa Warner, Nancy Hennessy. Not shown: Laura Feider.

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Calendar:

February 7: Conservation Committee meeting at Berges’ house, 1529 Crabapple Drive, Racine, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Contact John at (262) 633-8455 with any questions, items for the agenda, etc.

February 11: ExCom Meeting. The meeting will be at the Olympia Brown Church Annex, 419 6th St. in Racine at 7:00 p.m. Please note that the meeting is on a Monday rather than the usual Thursday.

February 12: SEGG Book Club. Discuss "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver. Meet at Barb Meyocks and Dennis Flath’s house, 7312 20th Ave., Kenosha at 6:00 p.m. for soup, salad and book talk. Let Barb and Dennis know if you’ll be there. (262) 654-2208

February 21: The Buzz About Bees: 7:00 p.m., Olympia Brown Church, 625 College Ave., Racine. Do you like carrots? How about cucumbers, broccoli, onions, pumpkins, squash, apples, blueberries, avocados, almonds or cherries? These crops, among others, can’t grow without honeybees, and a mysterious die-off of these hard-working pollinators could put $15 billion worth of U.S. crops at risk -- not to mention put a damper on your diet. Come and hear what Tim Fulton, local beekeeper, has to say about his experience with bees. “Eat before we meet” at 5:00 p.m. at the Chancery, 207 Gaslight Cir., Racine.

February 29-March 2: Door County Weekend. Cross country ski, snowshoe or hike. Stay at the Wagon Trail Resort -- cozy condo, whirlpool, sauna, pool. Approximately $45 per person for the weekend. For more information call Maryann Ortmayer (262) 554-5058.

March 1: "Southeast Sierran" Deadline. Send articles, etc., electronically by using the information on the back page, or send by mail to: Gary Zumach, 2548 Pinehurst Ave., Racine, WI 53403.

March 6: Conservation Committee meeting starting at 7:00 p.m. at a location yet to be determined. Contact Nancy Hennessy at (262) 639-5639 or Melissa Warner at (262) 639-0918 for further information.

March 10: ExCom Meeting. The meeting will be at the Olympia Brown Church Annex, 419 6th St. in Racine at 7:00 p.m. Please note that the meeting is on a Monday rather than the usual Thursday.

March 20: Rain Gardens. Kenosha Northside Public Library, 1500 27th Ave. Interest in rain gardens is rising each year because they are a way that most people can contribute to cleaner water in their own community. So celebrate the first day of spring by learning about rain gardens. Charlie Halbleib of Applied Ecological Services will tell us how these specialized gardens are used to improve ground water quality. Join us to "eat before we meet" at the Gateway Cafe, 3619 30th Ave. at 5:00 p.m.

March 22: Work Day at Colonial Park (8:30 a.m. to noon, meet at the foot of West High St.) and Pringle Nature Center (10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m.) to remove invasive, alien plant species. Identification and instruction will be available. Wear appropriate work clothes including work gloves, and bring loppers, pruning shears, spades, weed diggers and/or garden trowels if you have them. Some tools will be available through WeedOut! Racine.

April 3: Conservation Committee meeting at Berges’ house, 1529 Crabapple Drive, Racine, beginning at 7:00 p.m. Contact John at (262) 633-8455 with any questions, items for the agenda, etc.

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Highway 38 Cleanups

The schedule for the Southeast Gateway Group's cleanup of Highway 38 between Highway K and Five Mile Road in Racine County was established at the Group's Planning Session in January. As an experiment and because of the lack of unscheduled spring Saturdays, the first cleanup will be on Sunday afternoon, May 4. The next two will be the usual Saturday mornings on July 19 and October 4 followed by a potluck lunch. Please mark your calendars now to save these dates for this important public service that our group provides. Check future issues of the "Southeast Sierran", for starting times and other details.

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Thank You Donna!

For 25 years Donna Peterson has been a voice for the Southeast Gateway Group actively promoting environmental educa-tion. She worked effectively with other environmentalists to create an environmental education program that became a showcase for wildlife and enriched the lives of countless children and adults

At our Annual December Pot Luck, Group Chair, Nancy Hennessy expressed appreciation and thanks from the Group for Donna's years of dedication and hard work. Nancy read comments by Barry Thomas, who on joining the Environmental Education Committee, which Donna chaired, was impressed by her enthusiasm and organizational abilities. Barry said this about Donna: "Long before we heard about 'nature deficit disorder' and 'no child left indoors', Donna recognized that our future lies in the hands of today's children and we had better provide them with an appreciation for the environment if we want things to get better. She has truly been a pioneer and a visionary in this regard. Our legacy is what we leave behind and Donna has touched the lives of hundreds if not thousands of children and adults. The letters that children have written to her expressing their appreciation of the programs are priceless."

Donna has received numerous awards over the years recognizing her accomplishments in the field of environmental education. She has much to be proud of -- and we are very proud of her. As a token of that appreciation she was presented with a Sierra Club certificate acknowledging her years of work in environmental education, a card of thanks from Southeast Gateway Group members and a copy of the book "The Last Child in the Woods". Donna is a shining example of what the Sierra Club is about. Thanks, Donna. We are proud that you are one of us.

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From the Chair
By Nancy Hennessy

I happened on an interesting little article in NEA Today, a magazine that I continue to receive as a retired teacher. It was the title of the article that caught my eye: "No Child Left Inside". I thought you might be interested too.

The following is from the article.

Legislators are working on a number of changes to improve NCLB (No Child Left Behind) for students, but a few of the proposed changes might help Mother Earth too. Congressman John P. Sarbanes (D-MD) wants a voluntary grant program built into the legislation (which is currently up for reauthorization in the U.S. Congress) to reward states for developing environmental education standards and infusing them into their curriculum.

Joining him in sponsoring this bill, titled "No Child Left Inside", is Sen. Jack Reed (D-RI). Reed and Sarbanes' effort to get students as literate in recycling as they are in reading are being fostered by a coalition that includes NEA, the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, the Sierra Club, the National Wildlife Federation and other environmental watchdogs.

Under the proposal, teachers would be eligible for environmental education training modeled on math and science teacher training partnerships. Also, to qualify for the grant money, states would have to develop and submit a K-12 plan outlining how they will ensure their high school graduates are environmentally literate.

"The next generation faces enormous national and international environmental challenges", Sarbanes says. "Sound environmental education will make for healthier lifestyles and provide a foundation for the next generation to tackle these challenges head-on."

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Spring Elections
by Barbara Meyocks, Political Committee Co-chair

The leadership of the Southeast Gateway Group has identified four priority action issues: household hazardous waste, global warming, Great Lakes issues and invasive, alien plant species. Therefore, when you attend a candidate forum for the spring elections, it is important to determine the position each candidate holds regarding these concerns. Listed below are several questions that you can pose to elicit the stand of each candidate.

1. Will you support a pact with the city of Kenosha/Racine for the collection and disposal of hazardous waste?
2. Would you support county-wide hazardous waste collection and disposal?
3. How will you support renewable energy use in your municipality?
4. Since water conservation issues are holding up the enactment of the Great Lakes Pact in Wisconsin, what water conservation measures are you willing to enact and have enforced in your municipality?
5. What measures are you willing to support to identify and eliminate DNR-identified invasive plant species on municipal properties?

The political committee of the Southeast Gateway Group intends these questions as starting points for promoting conversations with the candidates.

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ExCom Update…

At the January ExCom meeting Nancy Hennessy was reelected to the position of Chair and Melissa Warner was elected vice-chair. Laura Feider and Jeff Sytsma were reelected to the positions of Secretary and Treasurer, respectively. Nancy and Melissa were elected to serve as the Group’s Delegate and Alternate Delegate to the John Muir Chapter ExCom.

Retiring from the ExCom after two terms is Gus Hauser. Thanks Gus.

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DNR Rules on Invasive Species
by John Berge

Like most Midwestern states, Wisconsin’s laws and regulations on weeds and other unwanted species were based on agriculture and the needs of farmers to keep certain "noxious weeds" out of their fields. Now the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is in the process of developing a new rule, creating ch. NR 40, "relating to the identification, classification and control of invasive species".

To inform the public and receive their input, the DNR held "listening sessions" across the state in January. Several members of the Group's Conservation Committee attended the session in Milwaukee at the Wisconsin State Fair Park on January 15 to ask questions and give their input. The deadline for public comments, written and oral, was January 25, 2008. After that, the DNR will revise the draft rules and submit them to the Natural Resources Board for approval for "formal public hearings in early 2008", according to the December 20 announcement from the DNR.

The proposed rules call for classifying and listing invasive plant and animal species according to specified criteria, based in part on recommendations of the Invasive Species Council. The rules "prohibit or restrict the transportation (including importation), possession, transfer (including sale) and introduction of invasive species that are classified as 'prohibited' or 'restricted'." The rules allow certain exemptions including, "Any person may transport, possess or give away a restricted invasive species for the purpose of identification, control or disposal without a permit issued by the department." (Emphasis added because this is what we are doing in Colonial Park and at the Pringle Nature Center.) This exemption applies to both the prohibited and restricted invasive species categories. The differences between the two categories appear to be mainly where a species is located and whether it has already become established.

The prohibited species list in the draft rule included 16 aquatic plants, 35 terrestrial plants, 17 fish and crayfish, 9 aquatic invertebrates other than crayfish, 7 terrestrial invertebrates and a number of terrestrial vertebrates including a catchall category -- too many to list in this article. Some are on the prohibited list for specific areas or counties of the state where they have not become established and they reappear on the restricted list for the rest of the state.

Those invasive alien terrestrial plant species we have been removing in Colonial Park and at the Pringle Nature Center appear on these lists along with many others which we have not identified as problems there. Omitted from the list are burdock, dandelion and creeping charley (presumably noxious “weeds”) which we have also been removing.

These rules, when officially amended and adopted, will reinforce what we are trying to do in Colonial Park and Pringle Nature Center. They will underline our need for volunteers at the work days on the fourth Saturday of each month, weather permitting. They also remind us to remove these invasive alien species from our own yards and talk to our neighbors about cleaning them out of their yards. To see the complete lists of prohibited and restrictive species, visit the DNR's website at:
www.dnr.state.wi.us/invasives/
classification/.

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Conservation Committee Establishes Priorities
by John Berge

Invasive, Alien Plant Species; Global Warming; Great Lakes Issues; and Expansion of Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) Collection were the four areas that the SEGG Conservation Committee selected to be their priority areas for the year 2008. Obviously, some were a carryover from last year and will continue to be priorities in years to come. Efforts have been made to establish quantifiable, verifiable and attainable goals or objectives within these priorities. This has proven to be harder than expected because some of the areas are broad and our resources are limited.

Expansion of proper HHW collection and disposal was relatively straight forward since we know what we want to do: expand the cities of Racine’s and Kenosha's HHW programs to include Mt. Pleasant, Caledonia, Somers and Pleasant Prairie or to form countywide programs in both counties. This, I realize, leaves out our members in Walworth County, but we are regrettably not knowledgeable about what programs are already there. Can someone in Walworth County fill us in on what is available and what is wanted?

The goals for Invasive, Alien Plant Species include continuing with removal of these species from specified areas in Colonial Park and the Pringle Nature Center. We are also entering a nationwide program with the National Institute of Invasive Species Science (NIISS) headquartered in Colorado. Under this program, we will permanently specify two areas in both Colonial Park and the Pringle Nature Center which will be registered with NIISS by its description and GPS coordinates. Twice a year, estimates of the percentage cover of four to six invasive, alien plant species will be made and recorded in a national data base. One area may be located where we have been actively working and another area where we may never get to. This has yet to be decided and will be worked out with the proper authorities. With this data base we can compare our success, or lack thereof, from year to year and with other similar projects across the state and nation. A representative of NIISS will be training a number of our people, members of the Pringle board or staff, and St. Catherine's High School Environmental Club on April 11 and 12. The ConsCom believes this is a long term commitment and should be set up for continuity.

At the time this article was written, specific goals regarding Global Warming and Great Lakes Issues had not yet been written, but they certainly will include support of the Great Lakes Compact, alternative energy sources, energy conservation and efficiency.

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Southeast Gateway Events…

Book Group...
"Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" by Barbara Kingsolver is our next Book Club read. In it Barbara Kingsolver and her family vow to buy only food raised in their own neighborhood, grow it themselves, or learn to live without it. Their good-humored search yields surprising discoveries about turkey sex life and overly zealous zucchini plants, en route to a food culture that's better for the neighborhood and also better on the table. Kingsolver makes a passionate case for putting the kitchen table back at the center of family life and diversified farms at the center of the American diet. Join us on February 12 at 6:00 p.m. for soup, salad and banter about the book. See the calendar, above, for details.


"The Buzz About Bees"
February 21, 7:00 p.m. Olympia Brown Church, 625 College Ave., Racine
Do you like carrots? How about cucumbers, broccoli, onions, pumpkins, squash, apples, blueberries, avocados, almonds or cherries? These crops, among others, can’t grow without honeybees, and a mysterious die-off of these hard working pollinators could put $15 billion worth of U.S. crops at risk -- not to mention put a damper on your diet. Come to the Kenosha Northside Public Library and hear what Tim Fulton, local beekeeper, has to say about his experience with bees.


Rain Gardens
March 20, 7:00 p.m. Kenosha Northside Public Library
Interest in rain gardens is rising each year because they are a way that most people can contribute to cleaner water in their own community. So celebrate the first day of spring by learning about rain gardens. Charlie Halbleibof Applied Ecological Services will tell us how these specialized gardens are used to improve ground water quality.


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Environmental Education
by Donna Peterson

This is the second in a series of seven questions from the Timber Wolf Alliance at The Sigurd Olson Environmental Institute:

Q: "How Can You Tell the Difference Between a Wolf and a Coyote?"
A: Coyotes are smaller than wolves. A coyote is normally 20-22 inches tall, weighs 25-40 pounds and is three and a half to four and a half feet long. Coyote paw prints (without claws) average two and a half inches or less, while the wolf averages over three and a half inches. A coyote’s face is more pointed than that of a gray wolf. Wolves and coyotes do not often share territories; in fact, wolves will drive off and sometime kill coyotes. Wolves eat more fresh meat, while coyotes are more frequent scavengers.

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Also of interest:
March 15: Community Supported Agriculture’s 6th Annual Open House, noon to 4:00 p.m. at the Urban Ecology Center in Milwaukee at 1500 E. Park Place in Riverside Park. For more information contact Jamie Ferschinger (414) 964-8505 or jferschinger@ urbaneconolgycenter.org