The Warbler
newsletter of the Sierra Club Piney Woods Regional Group
March 2008, Volume 10 #3, Email Edition
http://www.texas.sierraclub.org/pineywoods
Join us for our next meeting: Tuesday,
March 4, 7 p.m.
Room 211 of the Miller Science Building on the SFA
campus
http://www.sfasu.edu/common/docs/sfasu_campus_map.pdf
SFA Gibson Entomarium: A unique natural history resource
for East Texas;
Insect Surveys and their conservation
impact in East Texas
Dr. Will Godwin, Adjunct Professor, SFA Department of Biology
The program will take place in the SFA insect collection.
Dr. Godwin give a short talk followed by a tour showing
how the collection operates and what insect resources
are available. Identification of endangered species of insects is
a useful and important conservation strategy.
Dr. Will Godwin has been an adjunct professor at Stephen
F. Austin State University for the past 5 years. He
teaches ecology, mammalogy and manages the insect
collection. He has been instrumental in the discovery
of the American Burying Beetle, an endangered species
in East Texas.
Dr. Godwin and the SFA entomology department currently
have several new species that they are working on and
are surveying insects in the Big Thicket and in caves
of East Texas.
The goal of the Entomarium is to build a reference collection of the insects of East Texas. Dr. Godwin works in conjuction with Dr. William W. Gibson, senior entomologist, who has built up the collection since 1962. The SFA Gibson Entomarium is the third or fourth largest in the state, and the only one in East Texas. For more information on the SFA Gibson Entomarium:
http://listserv.uh.edu/cgi-bin/wa?A2=ind0702&L=tx-ento&P=2345
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Thank you:
To Marilyn Eanes and Dian Avriett for furnishing refreshments
for this month.
To Jeannette Singleton and Jane Christensen for the
wonderful Mongolian- and Chinese-themed refreshments
last month.
We have no hosts for the April meeting and we could
use two. Please contact Ruth
jaztoo@suddenlink.net if you can help out.
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Outings News:
There are outing in the works---watch your email box!
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Letter from the Chair:
Dear Friends of the Pineywoods Sierra Group,
We're in an exciting time. A busy time. An important
time. My last letter mentioned the change in the air
I was feeling. Next month we can continue to build that change.
We have a voice here in Texas that we haven't
had in many years. The Texas primary will be important
to the outcome of the Democratic Presidential nomination. Texas has 228 Democratic
delegates, 32 are Superdelegates. Republicans have
140 delegates. The last time Texas played a major role in the Primary was in 1988
when Dukakis beat Jackson and Gore by a narrow margin.
So please, remember to make time in your busy schedules to get out there
on March 4th and vote! Make your voice heard.
Sometimes I still become amazed at our choices for
this Presidential election. A woman, a black man,
and a somewhat progressive conservative (well, at least on some things). Is America
seeking a different way, or what?!? Let's make
sure we continue to build the momentum for positive change with everything we do.
By the way, the Sierra Club has not yet endorsed a Presidential candidate. If you are interested or curious, feel free to consult Appendix A of the Sierra Club compliance guidelines to see how
the Sierra Club tries to make its endorsement decisions.
The guidelines can be found on the Clubhouse web site at: http://clubhouse.sierraclub.org/politics/compliance/scpcguidelines/appendix-a.pdf
In case you are still undecided in how you will vote, there are a few good websites that help lay out each candidate's views on critical contemporary issues. Not all of the sites are thorough,
and some are not completely accurate. It's up to you to decide what you find helpful in your decision-making. I've listed two examples that might be of use:
http://pewforum.org/religion08/ offers a more narrative format for each candidate on numerous issues.
http://www.2decide.com/table.htm offers a table of
symbols that help to describe the candidates' positions.
However you decide to vote, I believe it will make
a difference. And that is the most important thing.
Until next time,
Pam Blackledge
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Farmer's Market:
A community celebration will be held at the Farmer's
Market on April 19th with music and children's
activities. The music schedule is
Chris Edwards at 8:00,
Cindy Grayson at 8:45,
Michael
Collins at 9:30,
Paul Martinez at 10:15
and The Wright
Family; East Texas
Dulcimers from 11:00 till they get tired of playing.
We will also have a food vendor. The market is currently
open every Saturday morning.
If you are interested in helping with the April 19th
event, contact Buckley at mailto:danabuckley@hotmail.com
Opportunity:
Jeanette Singleton has an exchange student coming
who is very interested in environmental causes. If
you would be interesting in hosting her, please contact Jeanette at:
bjsingle_1985@hotmail.com
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Issues:
Menhaden fisheries
Save the Bait-Protect Menhaden in the Gulf of Mexico,
(Information taken directly from the Gulf Restoration
Network (www.healthygulf.org) materials)
Little Fish, BIG DEAL!
Menhaden, AKA pogie or bait, are a small, oily fish
that play an extremely important role in the health
of the Gulf of Mexico. They spend their short lives swimming in large schools filtering
algae out of the water and converting it into their
highly nutritious flesh. This provides a crucial link between the primary producers of energy - plants - and the upper levels of the food chain, including red drum,
sharks, dolphins, pelicans, and a host of other sea life that
rely on menhaden.
Few things work as well as menhaden to catch fish.
What many people do not know is that the menhaden
fishery is a big business; the second largest fishery
in the US. Two companies, Omega Protein and Daybrook
Fisheries catch on average more than 1 billion pounds
of menhaden in the Gulf each year. The highly industrialized
fishery uses planes to spot the fish and large factory
boats with vacuums to suck up the fish from the large
encircling nets deployed by smaller boats. The industry
never sells any of this fish at a local market as
no one eats menhaden directly. All of these fish
are "reduced" into
products such as fishmeal and fish oil for animal feed
and other industrial uses.
Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission recognizes the
importance of menhaden and is proposing to cap the
amount caught in Texas state waters based on the average catch in Texas state waters
from 2002-2006. While this is a step in the right direction,
more needs to be done to ensure menhaden stay abundant and fulfill their
role in the larger ecosystem.
What you can do:
Attend the public hearing in Nacogdoches on February
29th, at the Commissioners Courtroom, Room 170 on West
Main at 7pm. If you can't attend the hearing, please send your comments
to the Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission, 4200 Smith
School Road, Austin, TX 78744.
For more information on this issue, and what conservation
organizations are recommending be done to protect
the menhaden fishery, please visit GRN's website at www.healthygulf.org/fisheries.
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Nueces River protection: (from Janice Bezanson, TCA)
Please write to Texas Parks and Wildlife!
Hi, Folks!
The Zavala County Commissioners Court has requested
approval from Texas Parks and Wildlife Department for
a river access plan for the Nueces River that undermines the protections we worked
so hard to get for our beleaguered Texas rivers. OUR
RIVERS NEED YOUR HELP!
If approved, the draft access plan would allow vehicles
to traverse a 13-mile stretch of the Nueces River riverbed
and to cross at several points on the river (other than road bridges). River
traffic would be allowed from 6 a.m. to midnight on
vehicles with tires up to 38 inches.
The Nueces River has chronic problems with illegal
vehicles in the river - roaring up and down the
river and parking in the water (see photos below). This has led to rampant litter, frequent
trespass on private property, repeated destruction
of fences, and other illegal activities. Law enforcement is inadequate (to put
it mildly). While these problems have lessened slightly
since the passage of SB 155, they are still frequent, lead to chronic problems of trespass,
and cause huge impacts to the fish, wildlife, and vegetation
in and along the river.
The five road crossings in the 13-mile stretch provide
adequate public access to the river. Two of the access
points have county-owned land where the public can park their vehicles to access
the river by foot or in a tube or kayak. One, called
Salivar Park, is at a beautiful spot with a deeper pool. At another, at Hwy 83, the
county owns 17 acres.
WHAT YOU CAN DO: Send your comments to Texas Parks
and Wildlife Department by February 27 urging the staff
to deny approval of the proposed Zavala County River Access Plan!
Send to: Texas Parks Wildlife Department
Att: Melissa Parker, Team Leader
Post Office Box 1685
San Marcos, Texas 78667
POINTS TO MAKE:
Illegal vehicles in the river are a chronic problem
along this stretch of the Nueces that lead to trespass,
property damage, litter, and a huge impact on fish, wildlife, and the native vegetation
of the river and riverbank ecosystems. This river access
plan would greatly exacerbate these problems.
The draft access plan calls for vehicles to stay "below the persistent vegetative line on rock and gravel bars".
Vehicle drivers could not reach these gravel bars all
the way up and down the river without either driving
in the water or getting on to private property, neither
of which is allowed by state law or TPWD's river access
guidelines. Therefore, the plan should be denied.
The five bridge crossings in the 13-mile stretch of
the river, two with county-owned land for parking vehicles,
provide adequate public access to the river without the need to drive along
the river bank.
Neither Zavala County nor Texas Parks and Wildlife
Department has adequate law enforcement to keep vehicles
out of the river, enforce curfews, or protect landowners from chronic trespass
and property damage.
Even if enforced, the "restrictions" of
the access plan are so minimal that they would not
protect the fish, wildlife, water quality, and other
natural resources, as is required by the TPWD guidelines
established following SB 155.
If you are a landowner in the area and you were not
contacted by Zavala County officials before the plan
was adopted by the Commissioners Court, tell TPWD this in your comments.
Coordination with landowners and anyone with jurisdiction
over the area is a requirement of the process.
Concerned citizens in Zavala County have established
a website, nuecesriver.org, where you can download
the draft access plan and the guidelines for approval of the plan.
Holler if you have any questions!
Janice
Janice Bezanson, Executive Director
Texas Conservation Alliance
Formerly Texas Committee on Natural Resources (TCONR)
512-327-4119
Cell 512-921-1230
bezanson@texas.net
TCAtexas.org
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Global Warming:
SUSTAINABILITY NEWS OF THE WEEK:
NEW STUDIES
TIE AGRO-FUELS TO GLOBAL WARMING
Two new studies published in the journal Science will
hopefully Force Congress and the Bush Administration
to think twice about the billions of federal tax dollars used to subsidize
corn-based ethanol instead of other tried and tested
programs such as energy conservation and solar or wind power. One study, conducted by Princeton
University and Iowa State, concluded that over 30 years,
use of traditional corn-based ethanol would produce twice as much greenhouse
gas emissions as regular gasoline.
A companion study
found that the current process of converting rainforests,
peatlands, savannas and grasslands in Southeast Asia
and Latin America to produce biofuels from soybeans
and palm oil will increase global warming pollution
for decades, if not centuries. In the last issue of
Organic Bytes, the OCA called on readers to sign its
ago-fuels petition.
Learn
more and take action here:
http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_9980.cfm
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Trans-Texas Corridor:
Comments are due March 19, 2008
You can make comments at the Tx DOT website:
http://ttc.keeptexasmoving.com/comments_questions/comments_i69.aspx
In addition, be sure to write to your elected officials
expressing your opposition to the Corridor. The definitive web site for corridor opposition is:http://www.corridorwatch.org/ttc/index.htm
Other sites:
www.texasturf.org
http://www.texastollparty.com/action_tellYourReps2.php
Beware the NAFTA Super Highway! Christopher Hayes -
The Nation
http://www.banderasnews.com/0712/edat-superhighway.htm
NAFTA Highway Faces Uncertain Future, Mike Sunnucks
- The Business Journal of Phoenix
http://www.banderasnews.com/0607/edat-naftahighway.htm
Do you need to know more about the Corridor? Below
is a brief statement by Independent
Texans on the subject
with ten reasons why we are calling for a Congressional investigation and
hearings.
Linda Curtis,
Independent Texans,
http://IndyTexans.org,
PO Box 14294,
Austin, TX 78761
Stop the Corridor Corruption
Independent Texans are universally opposed to Gov.
Rick Perry's plans to put the massive 4,000 mile, 1,200 foot wide toll road network and utility corridor through the heart of Texas simply to allow more goods (primarily Chinese) to be imported
in to the US through Mexican ports.
The Governor and his insider political friends in Austin and Washington, have cynically and, probably illegally, manipulated our political process to literally run over rural Texas and its people, many of whom are just hearing about this massive project.
Many of these good folk are heading to federal hearings being held as required by the National Environmental Policy Act,
to find out whether they're one of the unlucky tens of thousands who stand to lose up to over 1 million acres of prime Texas farm and ranchland.
The "Tran-Texas
Catastrophe", as former Republican Comptroller
and an independent candidate, Carole Keeton Strayhorn
called it in her 2006 bid for Governor, is universally
opposed by all political parties in Texas, and has become
a lightening bolt for the emergence of the Texas independent
political movement. 1.3 million Texans voted independent
in 2006, a full 31,000 votes ahead of the Democratic
nominee, but we split our votes between two candidates,
allowing Rick Perry to be reelected with only 39% of
the vote.
Our day -- Texas Independent's Day -- is coming,
as the extraordinary 2008 presidential race unfolds
and Texans have a chance to weigh in. Help us reach out across the state and to make
our voices heard!
Ten Reasons for a Congressional investigation and
hearings on the Corridor are:
1. The Governor's claim that Texans voted for
the Trans-Texas Corridor, when it was never placed
on the ballot, nor were there ever meaningful public hearings asking Texans whether we
wanted the Corridor.
2. A deceptive lobbying effort leading to the passage
of a transportation omnibus bill (HB 3588) in 2003,
implementing the Corridor.
3. Shifting billions in highway dollars to intimidate
county and state officials who have questioned these
projects.
4. An illegal lobbying by TxDOT of the federal government
to allow federal highways to be converted to toll roads.
5. The misuse of public funds for the purpose of “selling” these
projects to the public.
6. The withholding of public documents -- specifically,
a signed contract with CINTRA, a Spanish-based toll
road consortium, which appears to have favored status to build the Corridor.
7. CINTRA lobbyist, Dan Shelley's, employment
with the Governor's office.
8. Interference by the Federal Highway Administration
appointees with ties to CINTRA.
9. The refusal of officials to state the key purpose
of the TTC – that it is primarily a trade route
to move more imports (primarily Chinese) from Mexican
ports in to the US.
10. The refusal to address the very real threat of
this project to homeland security and the sovereignty
of the United States.
Further, the Governor has chosen to ignore his own
Business Council and nationally recognized transportation
experts who suggest that, if Texas needs additional funds for roads, they should
simply index the gas tax and consider a modest gas
tax increase.
Last, Texans of all political persuasions believe
that in order to justify the largest taking of private
property in the history of the US that this project
demands, Texans should have the right to vote on it.
We have been afforded no such thing. We need federal
action now!
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Upcoming Events:
NACOGDOCHES The SFA Mast Arboretum will host their
annual Garden Gala Day on April 12, 2008 from 9 am
until 2 pm at the SFA Intramural Fields on Wilson Drive.
This event features
the annual spring plant sale fundraiser benefiting
the SFA Mast Arboretum, Pineywoods Native Plant Center, Ruby M. Mize Azalea
Garden, and their educational programs. All of the
plants are produced at SFA by the staff, students and volunteers. For more information
and a list of plants for sale visit http://arboretum.sfasu.edu and
click on “upcoming events.
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29th Annual Texas Wilderness POW
WOW
Different setting...different agenda! Join us and see what a difference can make.
29th Annual
Texas Wilderness POW WOW in the Big Thicket National
Preserve Village Creek State Park, Lumberton, TX April 25-26-27, 2008
Beautiful location and great facilities, wonderful
nature walks and riverside campsites. Accommodations
available for non-campers. Fun and education for youngsters
and oldsters. Special events are planned and we've
added an exciting Saturday evening group dinner. Bring
the kids… there's an adjacent
playground.
And, of course, you don't want to miss a great bonfire with entertainment by Bill Oliver
and others. All ages will enjoy visiting the nearby
Big Thicket Visitor's Center. For more information, see http://www.tconr.org/Home.html
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4th Lone Star Regional Native
Plant Conference hosted
by SFASU in Nacogdoches, Texas.
May 28 - June 1, 2008
See http://pnpc.sfasu.edu/brochure.pdf for more details
Attached is a flyer about the TLC
Ivy Payne outing.