VOLUME 34, NUMBER 7 APRIL 2003

HOSPITALITY: Martin and Anna Ragland will provide refreshments after the program.

BOARD MEETING: In the Sundquist Building biology conference room, D126 at 7:00 p.m..

FIELD TRIP: Welcome Spring at Dunbar Cave, Sunday, March 30, 1:30 p.m. Hike lead my Amy Atkins Wallace.

Wildflower Hike on Cumberland River Bicentennial Trail in Ashland City, Saturday, April 5. Meet in McCord lot, APSU at 1:00 p.m. Hike lead my Dr. Wayne Chester.

Spring Birding in Land Between The Lakes with Dr. David Snyder, Saturday April 26. Time options below.

The sound of frogs once again fills the night air. I now know that spring is here, although it won't be official until the first tick I see. Let us appreciate the spectacular beauty and diversity that will erupt in the next several months. Let us renew our commitment to learn about, to teach about, to enjoy, and to conserve the wonders of our natural world.

Prairies in the Hill Country" was the title of our March 6^th program presented by Dr. Wayne Chester of the Austin Peay Biology Department. Dr. Chester talked about the remnant prairies, or barrens as they were called by early settlers, located in the Pennyroyal Plain of Kentucky and Tennessee. These barrens consist of native grasses (e.g. little bluestem, big bluestem, Indiangrass) and other unique vegetation distinct from the Midwestern prairies. Prior to European settlement, they were burned periodically by Native Americans. Most of the barrens have disappeared due to agriculture and urban growth. However, Fort Campbell has some of the most extensive barrens remaining – largely because of the prescribed fires used to control woody vegetation growth. Loss of these unique, native barrens mirror the declining populations of our grassland and shrub/scrub birds. Our thanks go to Dr. Chester for such an entertaining program!

Please join us April 3^rd for our next program on the Spencer cave hydrology system by John Hoffelt, Project Manager for Tennessee Division of Superfund. This cave system gained recent news headlines when the town of Spencer wanted to discharge wastewater from the treatment plant into the cave. Come find out how John and his associates diverted these plans.

March 30, 1:30 p.m. Dunbar Cave State Natural Area Join Amy Atkins Wallace and Welcome Spring with a leisurely walk along the trails at Dunbar Cave looking expectantly for Early Saxifrage, Spring Beauty, Hepatica, Dog-toothed Violets; watching and listening for Brown Thrashers, Purple Martins, Chipping Sparrows and nesting Phoebes. Isn’t spring wonderful!!!!

April 5, 1:00 p.m. Cumberland River Bicentennial Trail, Ashland City, TN (meet in McCord parking lot) Dr. Wayne Chester will lead a Wildflower Walk along the well developed Rails-to-Trails project. The wildflowers are extraordinary; the trail level, easy to access. Don’t miss spring at its best!!

April 26, 6:00 a.m. Land Between the Lakes (meet in McCord lot at 6:00; or for an early, early start be at the South Welcome Station at 6:00) Dr. David Snyder will lead us as we look and listen for Spring Birds, including Cerulean Warblers, Magnolia Warblers, Solitary Flycatchers, a variety of shorebirds; no telling what magic Dr. Snyder will perform. BE SURE to bring lunch, drink, binoculars, spotting scope, field guides.

Congress is marking up legislation for the coming year and will almost certainly attach a provision allowing oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) to the budget bill while it is still in committee. It is much harder to remove a provision from a bill once it comes out of committee than it is to add a provision as an amendment. They will do this so the issue cannot be debated on its merits and so legislators who might otherwise vote against it will feel compelled to vote for it because they will not want to be seen as voting against the budget bill. Both of Tennessee’s senators support drilling ANWR and probably support this backhanded prostitution of the democratic process as well. It seems unlikely that writing them will change their votes, but you may feel better for telling them what you think of their tactics.

The House budget Chairman Representative Jim Nussle (R-Iowa) supports opening the Refuge to drilling, but has opposed efforts to include such provisions in past budget bills, believing it did not belong in there. The Senate budget committee chairman, Senator Pete Domenici, also supports opening the Refuge to drilling, and a willingness to include it in the Senate's version of the bill. It seems our best hope for preventing ANWR drilling is to keep the drilling provision out of the house bill.

There is an important environmental issue unfolding in our own back yard. You may have heard of the Uranium Enrichment plant in Hartsville, TN to be built and operated by an outfit called Louisiana Energy Services. The proposed plant refines uranium into a form that can be used as fuel in nuclear power plants. The site will accumulate large metal casks, 14 tons each, of Uranium Hexafluoride (HF6) at the rate of up to one per day over its 20 to 50 year expected operating life. There is no place where this material can be disposed of and little if any market for the HF6 for other products. HF6 is not highly radioactive, it is classified as low level radioactive waste, but it is very toxic, very corrosive, and volatile. A fire or other accident could release tons of this deadly gas. Since HF6 reacts violently with water, a fire involving HF6 storage casks could not be extinguished with water. Please contact your state representatives and governor Bredesen to express your opinion about this plant. I do not believe the LES plant’s predicted economic benefits are justified by the potential risks and liabilities. Many question the profitability of such a plant at a time when there is already an abundant supply of enriched uranium. However, even if the plant operates profitably over its expected lifetime, what will be done with the thousands of corroding waste tanks containing highly toxic HF6?

Many of you have perhaps seen the recent update on the Operation Migration website (www.operationmigration.org) and noted that we were awarded the "Volunteer of the Year Award" by the Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership at their meeting in Texas. While we are sincerely appreciative of the award and very flattered to receive the honor, we want to acknowledge that we did not conduct the Whooping Cranes Over Tennessee walk-a-thon by ourselves. As we acknowledged to the group upon accepting this award, there were additional members of the group who worked very hard to make the walk-a-thon a success. Others who helped to organizing the event and worked very diligently to make it a success were Cynthia Wilkerson from Chattanooga; Chris Mahoney from Chattanooga, who incidentally designed and made the Whooping Crane kite that each walker carried; Dave & Robbie Hassler from Byrdstown and Ken Dubke from Chattanooga. Another player to whom we owe a huge debt of gratitude is Dan Hicks from the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency in Crossville and his two bosses, Clarence Coffey and John Mayer.

Let us not forget to give credit to the 110 different walkers who walked portions of the route and those who made monetary contributions. Thanks to all of you for your support in making the project successful.

Whopping Crane Eastern Partnership co-chairs Beth Goodman (Wisc. Dept. Nat. Res.) and John Christian (U.S.F.W.S., reg. 3) present Sandy and Jerry Ulrikson with the "volunteer of the year" award for their work in organizing the 2002 "Whooping Cranes Over Tennessee" walk-a-thon.

Jerry and Sandy Ulrikson