Major progress was made toward the goal of a commuter rail line along the Milwaukee to Kenosha lakeshore in 1998. The Southeast Gateway Group had a lot to do with that success.

In April the feasibility report was completed by SEWRPC (South East Wisconsin Regional Planning Commission). The report showed that ridership would be (relatively) high, with over 4,500 people per day, and the costs would be (relatively) low, at about $152 million. This project is a go! in the words of one professional analyst.

In October the six political groups, Milwaukee, Racine and Kenosha Counties and Cities, needed to include $27,000 in each of their budgets, so we could proceed to the next step, a Major Investment Study (MIS). The MIS will detail station locations, rail bed improvements and possible funding sources. The State DOT (Department of Transportation) has committed $400,000 for the MIS if the six groups contribute the local portion. Jean Jacobsen, Racine County Executive, was concerned that supervisors might not support this move. This would leave her and Racine Mayor Jim Smith, out on a limb.

The Southeast Gateway Group of the Sierra Club went to bat for this project. Jean McGraw, Betty Gericke and others made phone calls to Sierra Club people in Racine County to cover each supervisor. They urged each person to speak to their supervisor directly. The Racine Interfaith Coalition put the issue near the top of their priority list. Wendy McCalvy marshaled the Caledonia Conservancy. Meredith Connet telephoned Citizens for Commuter Rail members. We are grateful for their willing work on behalf of trains, Racine and Southeast Wisconsin.

S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc. pulled together the business people of Racine, including the Greater Racine Committee (the 30 largest companies). Roger Carron, of RAMAC (Racine Area Manufacturers and Commerce), publicly indicated support.

But the Sierra Club provided the people, the voters. Fifty people showed up for the October 27 public meeting on the budget, most of them to stand for the train! All these people, plus others who kicked in when we needed it that I haven't heard about, deserve the thanks from the elected officials for giving them the public support which is so critical.

The local funds have now been committed, so the MIS is on its way. Ken Yunker, SEWRPC Assistant Director, said they will be getting started soon. There is a rumor afoot that the state is putting together a blue ribbon panel to look into policy issues and global funding ideas for passenger rail transportation generally. I am concerned that this might side track our commuter rail effort, and we might need to ask our representatives in Madison to look into it on our behalf. In particular, Bob Turner is on a legislative transportation committee, and may know where things stand.

The key item is that the Lake Shore Commuter Line is a go! The MIS will begin this spring or summer. Stay tuned for study reports. Be prepared to telephone your legislators.

As the Chair of Sierra Club's Southeast Gateway Group, I will, with your help, do my utmost to carry on the good work of Barry Thomas and other previous Chairs.

We have been quite successful in finding Committee Chairs. They are as follows:

Membership Dana Huck

Membership Co-Chair OPEN!

Phone Tree Coordinator OPEN!

Population Marianne Kolis

Publicity Bev Iverson

Environmental Education Donna Peterson

Outings Eric Howe

Fundraising Barb Meyocks, Mary Ortmayer

Calendars Dian Sorenson

Legislative, Racine Jean McGraw

Legislative, Kenosha OPEN!

Historian Lila Berge

Newsletter Editor Gary Zumach

Delegate to Chapter Susan Michetti

Alternate Delegate Bruce Sedloff

GRI Coordinator Dana Huck

Program Chairs Barry Thomas and Denis Wikel

Transportation Chair Jay Warner

Conservation Nita Larson

Conservation Co-Chairs:

The Campaign to End Commercial Logging on Federal Lands Jean McGraw

The Stopping Sprawl Campaign Bruce Sedloff (Kenosha) & Wendy McCalvy (Racine Resource)

The Water Quality Campaign Melissa Warner

The Wildlands Protection and Restoration Campaign Lila Berge

Ice Age Trail Liaison June Wheeler

Hospitality OPEN!

Betty and Bob Gericke have decided to pull back to spend more time with children and grandchildren and thus we need a new hospitality chair. They will, however, still be the host/hostess for the Hwy 38 cleanups

If anyone can see their way clear to become a chair/co-chair for those areas in which there are openings, please call me Nita Larson at 638-8632.

You did not hear from your legislative watchdog last issue because I was in Egypt; and this month legislation and the country's business have come to a halt while Congress debates whether the President lied about his sex life so I might as well write about Egypt.

Cairo is a flourishing city of fifteen million with a state-of-the-art freeway system, magnificent, perfectly maintained mosques, modern skyscrapers, four-star hotels and one of the world's great museums; but the ancient Coptic Christian churches are badly deteriorated, and on the streets peasants in their carts pulled by donkeys bring their produce to market just as they did two thousand years ago. Fifty-five percent of Egyptians are still small farmers, raising excellent vegetables, sugar cane, dates, cabbage, winter wheat and rice. There is a green, fertile strip on both sides of the Nile about half-a-mile wide, but just beyond one sees stark desert. Case will never sell heavy equipment here because there will always be just small farms.

We flew to Aswan and farther south to visit Abu Simbel, Rameses II magnificent temple, which was moved stone by stone and reinstalled in the side of an artificial mountain so it wouldn't be flooded when the Dam opened. For those of you who don't think the UN does anything, it spearheaded the drive that relocated eighteen temples which would have been submerged.

Egypt extends 350 kilometers south of Aswan, but the population is no longer Arab. The people are Nubian, a handsome black race. Because of the Dam 200,000 to 2 million Nubians (depending on whom you talk to) had to leave their villages where their ancestors had lived for thousands of years. The government did build them new homes.

Was the Dam a good idea? The consensus is the advantages outweigh the disadvantages. Before the Dam Egyptians never had to fertilize because the Nile in flood brought a rich layer of silt every year. Now the silt is trapped behind the Dam, and Egypt is the heaviest user of artificial fertilizers in the world. There used to be forty-seven varieties of fish in the Nile. Now there are hardly any, they were killed by pollution. However, the government is working on a plan to collect the silt from behind the Dam and distribute it below. (The bird life along the River still seemed abundant to me - similar species to ours but just a little different.)

There is still plenty of water in the Nile delta, the richest, most productive land, unlike our Colorado which is reduced to a trickle at its former delta. Probably that is because there are few or no swimming pools, golf courses and no Las Vegas along its route. The peasants are now able to harvest three crops a year instead of just one very important since the population of seventy-five million and still growing vastly exceeds the estimated seven million living in the valley in the time of the Pharaohs.

Trouble is looming for the magnificent monuments in the form of carbon dioxide (from human breath) and other pollutants. The paintings inside the tombs (which still look like new after 4,000 years because they were shut up at an even temperature of 68 degrees) are starting to deteriorate; and when I was there, a visit to the interior of the Great Pyramid (Khufu) was not permitted, as extensive repairs were being done in the passages. I feel lucky to have visited the tombs of four kings and four queens. (There are 62 tombs of kings.) One of these days visitations may have to be severely restricted or forbidden (as in the Cro-Magnon caves of France and Spain) if these world heritage treasures are to be preserved.

Well, enough of Egypt; and let's hope our legislators make good resolutions to give priority to the country's business, considering all the money we pay them to do just that.

Happy New Year!

Recently, the Chiwaukee Prairie Preservation Fund added three properties to the protected area of the prairie at a cost of $11,800. All of the lots are south of 116th St.

"Continuing to ignore population growth may see us committing the ultimate global blunder, one from which there is no recovery," said Werner Fornos, President of the Washington, D.C. based Population Institute, while addressing the University of Wisconsin-Parkside on November 24, 1998.

The event was sponsored by the following local groups: the Southeast Gateway Group of the Sierra Club, Gateway Technical College, Planned Parenthood, the National Organization for Women and the University of Wisconsin-Parkside.

Fornos continued, "It took all of history until 1830 for the world's population to reach one billion. By 1930 the number was two billion, three in 1960, four in 1975 and now it is approaching 6 billion and on course to double in the next 50 years."

The expanding need for resources will mean further environmental degradation. Fornos observed that in the last decade, nearly 600,000 square miles of forest were cut down, an area more than ten times the size of Wisconsin.

Ninety-seven percent of the growth occurs in the poorest parts of the world, where governments are struggling to accommodate their rapidly expanding populations. Fornos noted that the world's population last year increased by 80 million people instead of the more than 90 million that had been expected. He explained that this was a result of faster than anticipated acceptance of family planning, delays in marriage and an increase in death rates.

The key to the world's demographic future, Fornos said, will be the reproductive behavior of three billion young people equal to the entire world population as recently as 1960 who will enter their childbearing years within the next generation.

He observed that "when replacement level fertility of slightly more than two children per woman is achieved, population growth does not come to a screeching halt. The population continues to grow for decades because of the large proportion of young people, as there is in many poor countries."

Meanwhile, he said that 400 million women either want no more children, did not want their last child, or want to determine the intervals between their pregnancies, but do not have access to family planning. This unmet need contributes to 600,000 women who die annually of pregnancy related causes.

Fornos concluded, "Anyone who would make the case that these problems are unrelated to rapid population growth has the world-view of a clam submerged deep in Lake Michigan."

The Population Institute, a Washington, D.C. based non-profit organization with members in over 190 countries, seeks a more equitable balance between the world's population, environment and resources.

The Chapter Leadership Retreat will again be held at the MacKenzie Nature Center, Poynette, March 12-14, 1999. This event is open to all members. This is a great program and is a great preparation for current officers and leaders in our groups.

The weekend's activities will offer a variety of workshops and presentations for both leaders and also those members who are looking at taking a more active role in preserving, protecting, and enjoying the wild places of Earth.

Statewide leaders will be on hand to help those members who want to know more. All chapter and group executive committee members and other group leaders are strongly encouraged to attend.

Registration includes lodging for Friday and Saturday nights in His and Hers bunkhouses (heated and with showers). You must provide your own pillow and sleeping bag. Also included by registering are snacks for Friday evening, 3 meals on Saturday and 2 for Sunday. Fees: Adults are $15.00 and children are $10.00.

See your Muir View issue for the registration form.