The Warbler
newsletter of the Sierra Club Piney Woods Regional Group
February 2008
Volume 8, No. 2
Email Edition:
http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/pineywoods/warbler.asp
Dear Sierra Supporter,
I have attached the last article,
Walt West's Paper Mill Well Monitoring document, as
a pdf file as well---for distribution, or to print and read in a convenient format. The table is reproduced in it's entirety in the body of this email.
Vicki
Pineywoods Sierra Group will meet Tuesday,
Feb. 5 at 7 p.m. at at the U.S. Forest Service Wildlife and Silviculture Lab, 506 Hayter St. The small, one story building is located on the northern edge of SFA roughly between the football stadium and the College of Forestry. It is about one-half block east of Grace Bible Church off of Raguet.
Gobi Adventure
By Dr. Dean Fisher
Enjoy Dr. Fisher's fascinating photographs of the people and landscape of the Gobi Desert. Dr. Fisher spent eight days last October traveling with a small group, staying in gers (Mongolian yurts), hiking and photographing the Gobi and it's people. Come and listen to his adventures of traveling truly off the beaten path.
Dr. Dean Fisher taught biology at SFA for 20 years before retiring in 1995. He has enjoyed spending much of his retirement traveling and taking photographs.
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Outings
See Kerry Barnes at the meeting if you are interested in an outing in February.
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Jane Christensen & Jeanette Singleton will be providing
refreshments for the February meeting. Many thanks to Ruth
Heino and Cheryl Verner for the wonderful refreshments at
our last meeting.
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Letter from the Chair
Dear Friends of the Pineywoods,
I have the very exciting new role of Chair for the Pineywoods Sierra group, and though I don't yet know what this new title will entail, I'm happy to plunge in and see where it takes me. And us.
2008 is a year for change--big and little, near and far. I can foresee that we all will be included in making that change happen in a positive, productive and sustainable way. No, this isn't a pep talk. Just a sense I'm getting all around me. A few examples
I've recently taken on a new job working out of Nacogdoches, organizing internationally to help create a more sustainable paper and pulp industry. Thus far the climate has been extremely open and approachable. People in the industry are ready for change and agreeable to finding common ground with those of us concerned with a healthy and sustainable environment.
Our first Pineywoods meeting of the New Year was very well attended. Cliff Shackelford presented an informative and enjoyable program on the Ivory-billed Woodpecker. A record number of people came out to learn and to be part of the larger community.
Last week, while I was watching a TV program, it struck me how even the car commercials have changed their messaging to encompass the spirit of sustainability. (And I'm not talking about only Toyota or Honda here.) This seems to be a radical shift, even from a year ago. It made me shake my head in wonderment, almost with a sense of urgency. We, as a concerned public, need to keep this fuel-efficient wagon rolling.
The beginning of the year is always so inspiring for me, because for whatever reason, people are driven to do that thing they hadn't been doing before. The energy it creates is very contagious--I say we take full advantage of it!
So my challenge to you is to make 2008 a year for change in your life, your community, our environment. I am hoping to propose a few local and regional issues that the Pineywoods Sierra Group could take on in 2008 to make a better world for ourselves. I hope you will take the time to consider the important issues to you and what role you might be able to play in bringing about a successful outcome. I would love to hear from you. Please send information and ideas my way anytime, but especially now when we can decide early on in the New Year what path we would like to see our group take for the next twelve months.
Until then, I hope you have the chance to make it to our next meeting where we can work together to feed our optimism and create the energy needed to produce meaningful and dynamic change.
All my best,
Pam Blackledge
pblackledge@earthlink.net
936-559-1961
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Don't miss Christine Diamond's excellent article featuring
Walt West---(sometimes it really DOES take a rocket scientist!).
TCEQ to test paper mill landfill for dioxin, other chemicals
By CHRISTINE S. DIAMOND
Cox East Texas
http://www.dailysentinel.com/hp/content/news/stories/2006/08/01/27/paper_mill_fr_nac_0127.html
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Subject: Draft 2008 Texas Water Quality Inventory and 303(d) List
The Draft 2008 Texas Water Quality Inventory and 303(d) List is now available to view through the following link:
http://www.tceq.state.tx.us/compliance/monitoring/water/quality/data/08twqi/twqi08.html
The public comment period for the inventory will end on January 31, 2008.
Instructions for submitting formal comments to the TCEQ are included on the Web site.
We appreciate your support and your input.
Thank you,
Matt Romig
Clean Rivers Project Manager
Angelina Neches River Authority
936-633-6435
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Farmer's Market News
We are considering Saturday, April 19, to have some kind of special event with music, activities for children, food vendors, etc. Please let me know if you would like to be involved and this date doesn't work for you. Please let me know if you would like to volunteer or have any suggestions about music, activities or food vendors.
The Farmer's Market continues to be open every Saturday morning at the [hitch lot] Main and Pearl Sts., Nacogdoches.
Buckley
danabuckley@hotmail.com
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Wetland Reserve Program Sustaining
Valuable Resources -
Louisiana
Black Bear Makes a Comeback
Louisiana Black Bear once was considered abundant, but in the 1950's it reached it's all time lows with only six parishes reporting sightings. These numbers were down from the 1890's with 17 parishes that once reported sightings.
In 1950, estimates showed that 80 to 120 bears remained in Louisiana, and were restricted only to the Atchafalaya and Tensas River Basins.
Black Bears require relatively large contiguous areas of bottomland hardwood forest, which were common to the Mississippi River Delta. However, these large tracts of forest began to disappear with the improvements in farming and land clearing methods. Of the original 24 million acres of bottomland hardwood forest in the Lower Mississippi Alluvial Valley, less than 5 million acres remained in 1980.
In an effort to increase the reducing numbers of bears, the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries (LDWF) began a restocking program. Between the years 1964 and 1967, 161 bear were caught in Cook County, Minnesota and were released in the Tensas and Atchafalaya River Basins. Due to high mortality and dispersal the restocking was considered a failure.
Reversing habitat loss stepped forward as the key to increasing bear numbers. One of the methods to reduce habitat loss is the Wetland Reserve Program (WRP). WRP restores cropland, former and degraded wetlands and riparian buffers.
This restoration consists of planting hardwood trees best suited for the site, hydrology restoration and creating small openings which encourage the growth of desirable herbaceous growth. Through restoration efforts such as WRP, bear numbers are now estimated at 500 to 700 black bears in Louisiana.
WRP is a voluntary program that is administered through the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).
For more information on WRP please visit our
WRP program page.
WRP Success Story prepared by Kristen Lemoine
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Black bears protection questioned
By RICHARD BURGESS
Advocate Acadiana bureau
Published: Jan 11, 2008 - Page: 1BA
http://www.2theadvocate.com/news/13698632.html?showAll=y&c=y
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Read Walt West's complete Paper Mill
Well Monitoring document, as
a pdf file
LUKFIN PAPER MILL LANDFILL MONITORING
WELL DATA REVIEW
1/18/08
Table 1