Alan Gregory’s Conservation News

Listen carefully to this rendition of “Home on the Range,” an original American folk song that for too many years lost its real spirit among TV “cowboys” and the fly-infested Western livestock corral. Conservationists should reclaim this song and play it often. Thanks to Andy Kerr for putting the link up on his home page.

The unincorporated wilds of Maine deserve protection, not suburbanization as Plum Creek proposes for the Moosehead Lake region.

Here’s a brief overview of the plan from Jym St. Pierre, director of RESTORE: The North Woods:

“There has been an outpouring of public concern in recent years in Maine about our forests. Misplaced development, unsustainable forest practices, and unstable ownerships threaten the ecological integrity, traditional recreational access, economic viability, and scenic beauty of Maine’s North Woods wilderness.

“In April 2005, Plum Creek corporation submitted a proposal for the largest residential real estate development in Maine history. It included 975 house lots, a 3,000-acre destination resort at Brassua Lake, a 500-acre resort at Lily Bay on Moosehead Lake, and other developments. After more than 1,000 Mainers turned out at public meetings to voice their concerns about the ramifications of such sprawling development, Plum Creek said they listened and reworked their proposal.”

In April 2006, Plum Creek presented a revised plan. It still included nearly 60 subdivisions with 975 house lots, two resorts, and associated development. Plum Creek’s Moosehead plan 2.0 raised even more concerns than the first version.

Today, one year to the day since the last plan was unveiled, Plum Creek has offered plan 3.0. There are a few improvements; some of the development has been moved around. However, the plan it still presents a lot of problems. Plum Creek’s newest plan includes just as many subdivision lots, just as many resorts, more residential units in total, and nearly twice as many acres.”

Read the full statement from St. Pierre. You know what to do. There is a lot at stake here. Not the least of which is one of the best remaining wildlands in the Northeast.

Here’s news of yet another politically motivated ripping apart of a scientifically-driven conservation plan:

“A high-level team of Bush administration appointees in Washington, D.C. — including a former timber-industry lobbyist — ordered changes in a plan produced by scientists and other experts to save the Pacific Northwest’s spotted owl.”

Read more about this sordid bit of chicanery in this Seattle Post-Intelligencer article.

The board that oversees the state’s wildlife agency, unfortunately called the “Game” Commission, is largely holding the line on deer-hunting licenses for the 2207-08 seasons. It’s mostly good news for conservationists who’ve been pleading for a larger harvest, something the agency itself has slowly been working toward. Some of the state’s laziest hunters, though, want to return to the days of a deer behind every tree. And they’re bending a lot of ears in the legislative halls down in Harrisburg. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette has this story about the board’s decision for the next hunting seasons.

New bicycle racks along the tour route at Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge in Delaware were donated by the local telecommunications company. Each bears a little sign like this. You have to get within 10 feet or so to read each sign, so they are, in fact, pretty innocuous. But I wonder what kind of a precedent this is setting. I noticed as well that the half-dozen or so picnic tables placed on the lawn adjacent to the visitor center were also donated by this corporate benefactor. The Fish and Wildlife Service is being starved for funding, by the Bush administration and Congress. So I can sort of understand the agency’s willingness to accept gifts such as these and even allow some signage pointing out where the gift came from. But it’s a slippery slope from here.

In Pennsylvania, the Department of Environmental Protection has abdicated — too many times lately — its “environmental protection” mission in favor of “economic promotion.” A retired county commissioner I know often refers to the agency as the “Department of Economic Promotion.” In any case, read how the Pennsylvania DEP is rolling over in favor of the oil and gas industry when it comes to protecting waterways in the Allegheny National Forest. The link comes from Ryan Talbott of the Allegheny Defense Project, a kick-ass organization that’s going all-out these days to document the resource extraction damage to the 500,000-acre forest in northwestern Pennsylvania.

The writer of this Associated Press article about the estuary is being too generous when referring to the bay’s health like this. There are plenty of signs and bumper stickers and T-shirts and fund-raising appeals from groups like the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. But the multi-state Chesapeake Bay Program is a largely symbolic effort. The Bay (I live within its upper reach, in the Susquehanna River Basin) is dying and humans are singularly responsible, whether it’s nonpoint-source pollution or fertilizer runoff.

Here’s a newspaper column I wrote about a year ago.

The Bush administration continues to privatize everything that’s not nailed down. Among the White House’s targets: the National Park System, national forests, wildlife refuges, etc.
Here are three visions to consider:
1. Vision One — The Traditional camping/hiking/angling trip (the kind you remember taking with dad and mom and brother and sis back in the 60s, when the family car was a rusty old Chevy wagon with a V-8 motor and no A/C).
You bounce down a wash-boarded forest road – windows open all the way – for what seems like an eternity until you come upon your favorite lake.
It’s the same place you traveled to last year and the year before, coughing and wheezing through the road dust all the way.
But hey, the fishing (wild rainbows and cutthroats!) is great and there’s no crowd and Styrofoam worm buckets aren’t littering the shoreline.
Once there, you’re treated to a magnificent setting, a pit toilet, a few rustic tent sites and maybe a hiking trail that leads into the backcountry – starting on the backside of the water next to the 500-year-old pines and Douglas-fir trees.
The glacier-fed lake itself is quite peaceful and so pristine that you can easily imagine this is how it’s always been. You contemplate a skinny dip before setting up your old backpacking tent and slipping into your sleeping bag for the night.
The next day you’ll do a little fishing from your canoe; maybe go for a hike; or simply enjoy a picnic with the ants and dragonflies while marveling at the wild setting.
Later that evening you’ll get out your cooler and fire up your camp stove while preparing for a night under the stars and a rare opportunity to become one with the Big Outdoors as nature provided it.
Before lights-out (your trusty old Coleman lantern), you peer at 12 o’clock high and marvel at how bright the stars and Milky Way are at 7,000-feet altitude.
2. Vision Two — Industrial Strength Recreation.
You race down a freshly paved forest road in your $150,000 RV – hoping that you won’t get any road oil on the finish of the shiny new vehicle you purchased after taking out a second mortgage – to that same lake; having first made reservations for a premium site at the new KOA campground.
The old tent sites have all been freshly upgraded and turned into pull-through ribbons of concrete, complete with chlorinated water, sewer, electrical and Internet hookups (which you’ll use to make your next night’s reservations).
Once you’ve leveled your motor home, with a Bush/Cheney decal on the back window, you unhitch the trailer, unload the ATVs from it, put on your helmet, and go for a look around.
Perhaps later on you’ll play a quick round of golf before enjoying cocktails and grilled cheese sandwiches at the marina. You might even rent a Jet Ski for an hour or so before returning to the RV and microwaving a quick dinner of beef ravioli and hot fudge cookies. After dark, if you’ve still got the energy, you might visit the amphitheater and listen to Ranger Rick’s wilderness presentation and marvel at the fake flames from the natural gas-fueled fireplace.
3. Vision Three — Industrial Tourism.
You cruise down that same paved road in your very own Exxon Valdez, this time stopping frequently to explore hardened nature trails and to learn how “active forest management” creates wildlife habitat and maintains healthy ecosystems. You stare in amazement at the cleared land behind the beauty strips of third-growth trees alongside the smooth three-lane roadway.
After several stops to ponder the road-killed raccoons, you reach a 20-acre parking lot and pay $19.95 to take the monorail to the lakeside visitor center, where you gladly pay a $5 entrance fee.
Once there, you purchase reserved seats for the 3 p.m. showing of the 20-minute movie “The Lake” (with washed-up cop actor and infotainment star Erik Estrada narrating).
While waiting, you’ll visit the gift shop, eat in the concessionaire’s restaurant, capture a few “magic” moments at the Kodak Photo Stop and perhaps look at still more taxidermy displays in the 20,000-square-foot Disney Interpretive Center before spending a few quiet moments on the manicured lawn out front while awaiting the film.
Inside, you marvel at the footage of swamp buggies moving swiftly over the nearby marsh. Years later, even with your memories, digital photos and home videos to remind you of that wonderful visit, you will note with sadness that nothing can begin to compare with having seen “The Lake,” in person, on the giant IMAX screen.
Welcome to wild nature, the Bush way.

Three California men were charged yesterday with contributing to the deaths of hundreds of Caspian and elegant terns. The birds were on nests atop an abandoned barge when the  three landlubbers decided to move said vessel. The birds fled the scene and later began washing up on the shoreline, dead. “Honest mistake” or not, these and other seabird species already face too many challenges in trying to produce young. There have been other reports of late of dead seabirds washing ashore in the Pacific Northwest, their stomachs empty.

An unnamed creek in Potter County, Pa., June 2006. Photo copyright Alan Gregory

Cattle and sheep are well known destroyers of streams in the West. But guess what? They also stomp and kill creeks in the East, like this little “run” in rural Potter County, Pa. I photographed this scene while running a Breeding Bird Survey route for the USGS.