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4/12/04
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1. No Refuge From Factory Farms
2. Tamarsk:
Public Enemy Number One?
3. Now Playing Through On A
Biotech Course Near You
4. Beetles, Drought and Forests
Like Unlit Matches
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1. NO REFUGE FROM FACTORY FARMS
The Washington Daily
News reports this week that Roseacre Farms is still talking with
the state of North Carolina about building a 4- million-hen
egg-laying factory farm. They want to place the huge coop
in Hyde County near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge.
With outbreaks of avian flu nationwide, questions are being
asked about the wisdom of locating the facility so close to a
wildlife refuge with a huge waterfowl population. Roseacre,
reversing an earlier stance that it did not need a federal
permit, has now filed for a National Pollutant Discharge
Elimination Permit.
Defenders of
Wildlife, and a coalition of
environmental groups, have issued a letter stating, "...
Given its enormous pollution potential, the unique ecosystem at
risk, and the potential harm to the migratory waterfowl and
endangered red wolves that the Pocosin Lakes Refuge is managed
to attract, we ask that you review carefully any proposals to
construct the Rose Acre Facility and ensure that all the
required permitting processes are complied with."
2. TAMARISK: PUBLIC ENEMY NUMBER ONE?
Throughout the west,
ranchers, environmentalists and municipalities agree: tamarisk,
a water-guzzling invasive shrub, is a serious contender for the
title of "Public Enemy Number One." Since its
introduction in the1800s as a soil stabilizer and ornamental,
tamarisk has gone on to infest 1.6 million acres of the West's
precious riparian areas.
Teddy Roosevelt, a staunch
republican conservationist and wilderness advocate lauded their
benefits as fence posts. But Roosevelt could not foresee
their spread, now sucking the life out of western rivers and
displacing native vegetation.
According to an article this week
in the Land Letter, "salt cedar consumes 2,000,000 to
4,500,000 acre-feet of water each year over what native plants
would use. This is enough water to supply 20 million people or
irrigate 1 million acres of land. The plant is also a
hot-burning fuel for wildfires, adding to their
eradication." More than 400 scientists, policy makers and
land managers meet this week in Albuquerque seeking strategies
for control.
While exploring traditional methods,
including physical, chemical, and biological control, attendees
also acknowledged the problem will require extensive restoration
with native willows and cottonwoods; examination of management
practices (such as dams) that have helped tamarisk to gain such
a foothold; and of course, a large infusion of cash. The full
story is available to subscribers.
3. NOW PLAYING THROUGH ON A
BIOTECH COURSE NEAR YOU
As land managers across the U.S. use
herbicides as a front line defense against invasive species, a
new biotech golf course grass is being created that is RESISTANT
to herbicides. According to the AP the "Scotts
Company" is testing a "Roundup Ready" version of
a popular turf used for golf courses and greens -creeping bent
grass. Read
more.
While biotech proponents promote it as a golf
course managers dream, the idea has both the BLM and the Forest
Service worried. "Our concern is that if it was to escape
onto public land, we wouldn't know how to control it," says
Gina Ramos, senior weed specialist for the Bureau of Land
Management. With the product in its final stages of
approval both agencies have urged a delay until further studies
can be done.
"What we're saying is let's be very careful
until it's proven that it's not going to do the things we're
concerned about - like take over," says Jim Gladen,
director of the Forest Service's watershed, fish, wildlife, air
and rare plants division.
Four years ago, a group dubbing
itself the Anarchist Golfing Association broke into a seed
research facility in Portland, Ore., and stomped on experimental
plots, then spray-painted the walls with the slogan,
"Nature Bites Back."
4. BEETLES, DROUGHT & FORESTS LIIKE UNLIT MATCHES
With an
unprecedented Pine Bark Beetle infestation and a severe drought,
western states fear another bad summer fire season. The
beetles which invade and kill drought stressed trees have left
thousands of acres of dead forests standing like "unlit
matches" across the west.
"We have a
historically unprecedented infestation of Western bark beetles
that have destroyed the trees," said Karen Terrill,
spokeswoman for the California Department of Forestry and Fire
Protection. "Last year we saw when the fire got into the
trees killed by insects, it became very aggressive."
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Barring heavy spring rain or snow fall, firefighters fear a
repeat of 2002 when huge fires raged over much of the
West. Read
more.
Cultivating a vision where rural and urban communities join together
to ensure abundant family farms, healthy critters, clean water and a wild Earth.
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Rural Updates!
Scotty Johnson and Aimee Delach
National Rural Community Outreach Campaign
sjohnson@defenders.org
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