VOLUME 33, NUMBER 9 JUNE 2002

HOSPITALITY: Following the program, refreshments will provided.

BOARD MEETING: Thursday, June 6, 7:00 p.m., D-125 (Biology Conf. Rm.), Sundquist Science Bldg., APSU.

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE by Sally Schiller

The following people were elected as officers for July 2002-June 2003:

Randy Ellis, President

Daniel Moss, 1^st Vice President - Programs

Barbara Wilbur, 2^nd Vice President - Field Trips

Debbie Hamilton, 3^rd Vice President - Memberships

Steve Hamilton, 4^th Vice President - Publications

Joe Schiller, 5^th Vice President - Conservation & Education

Amy Atkins, Secretary

Gloria Milliken, Treasurer

Suva Bastin, Hospitality

Evette Strickland, Publicity

Barry Podell, Alan Bottomlee, June Stratton, Sally Schiller, Board Members at Large

Thanks to all of you who have volunteered to help throughout the year and most especially to those of you who have volunteered to become officers for the upcoming year. It has been a lot of fun serving as president of the organization and I wish Randy Ellis all the best as he takes over next year.

To keep a worth while organization going it takes a willing group to become the leaders but mostly it takes an involved membership. If you haven’t been to a program meeting or a field trip lately or ever, please mark your calendar and come out to one of the many gatherings throughout the year. If you need a ride or directions to the location, just give one of the officers or board members a call. (See contact information at the end of the newsletter.) Even when it pours cats and dogs on our field trips (like the last one) we are ever optimistic and have a good time! Besides our regular program and field trip activities our group takes an active role in the community by serving as a source of information about wildlife for individuals, schools, and other community groups. Also, the chapter is organized to mobilize when necessary to provide needed input to governmental policy makers on issues of environmental concern. We’d love to see you at the next meeting and at the July picnic (July 13^th, 6 PM, Dunbar Cave) !!

Best wishes for a relaxing summer.

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During the May program, Jim Manning, Power Use Manager for the Clarksville Department of Electricity (CDE), presented the new Green Power initiative through TVA offered by both CDE and the Cumberland Electric Membership Corporation (CEMC). The TVA has started to develop three alternative energy sources: wind power, solar power, and the utilization of landfill gas (methane). Consumers can choose to purchase blocks of green power. Because currently green power has a greater up front cost, each block of green power costs $4 extra per month. On average each block would provide about 12% of a household's power. You can buy as many blocks as you want. You may say - why would I spend more money each month to buy green power? I think there are several answers. This is an investment in the future. The more people that buy green power, the more it will be developed and the cheaper it will become. Green power greatly reduces the amount of pollution generated compared to coal, nuclear and natural gas plants. If you would like the world to be a cleaner place for your grandchildren, invest in these less polluting energy sources. If you have questions about this program you can contact Jim Manning at the CDE or you can contact the representative at the CEMC.

The program on June 6^th will be "Tennessee's Rare Species: The Long Road to Recovery" presented by Richard Kirk.. Richard is the director of the Non-game Species Program for the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency. The program will cover the status of Tennessee's rare wildlife and our recovery efforts.

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Congratulations to Ms. Barbara Wilbur on her recent retirement as Director of Student Support Services (APSU) and Dr. David Snyder, Professor of Biology (APSU) on his upcoming retirement.

The officers and board members would like to hear your suggestions !! If you have suggestions for programs or field trips for the chapter, please contact Sally Schiller (931-387-4071 or schillers@apsu.edu) or one of the other officers or board members.

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Sally, Joe, Eric and Ian Schiller joined Debbie and me on the April field trip. It was a wet one! When we left Clarksville it was raining lightly, but we hoped for improved conditions as we drove north. We were disappointed. By the time we arrived at Audubon State Park in Henderson, Kentucky, there was a steady and rather heavy cold rain.

While the precipitation spoiled our birding plans, we waited for the Audubon Museum to open and took the tour. Although it had been several years since I last visited the museum, I viewed the displays with new interest. Since my last visit, I have learned more about Audubon’s life. At the November 2000 Potluck Banquet, Don Boarman, Curator of the Audubon Museum gave a very informative review of J.J. Audubon’s life. More recently I have been reading a 1930's biography on Audubon (The book a Christmas gift from Hannah, my beloved stepdaughter). Following our tour, we took time to have our lunch at one of the many picnic shelters, then headed back to Clarksville.

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It is always interesting to look back at the letter I wrote one year prior to the current letter. This has been a momentous year in many ways. Last year at this time I predicted the defeat of the Bush administration’s effort to open ANWR to oil drilling. It’s nice to call them right now and then, but I didn’t think it would be so close. Had it not been for the defection of Senator Jeffords of Vermont from the Republican to the Democratic party, ANWR very likely would have been lost. As you may recall, the House passed an energy bill that authorizes drilling ANWR and the Senate passed a bill that does not. Now the two bills must be reconciled in Congress.

I also described the problem of mountaintop removal mining for coal. This is where the entire top of a mountain is removed to access a coal seam. The overburden is then dumped into the adjacent valleys, filling them in and obliterating any streams found therein. The Bush administration is trying to promulgate an administrative order that would redefine the spoil dumped into these streams so that it is no longer legally considered "pollution." Recall, this is the president who criticized his predecessor, Bill Clinton, for obfuscating on the definition of "sex." Talk about Orwellian. Unfortunately, the outcome of this struggle is not yet in sight. Federal District Judge Charles H. Haden II has prohibited the Army Corps of Engineers from issuing new permits to fill valleys on the basis of the proposed new rule. In his ruling he states that it represents legislating by the executive branch because it changes both the letter and the intent of the Clean Water Act passed by Congress. The Senate has also started to mobilize to block the administration on this issue by formulating a bill that explicitly prohibits filling of stream valleys with mine spoil. As an aquatic ecologist I have studied these streams for the better part of my professional training and career. As a child I played endlessly in such streams. For me, viewing photos of mountaintop removal is like attending the funeral of a close friend who died a horrible death by some awful and senseless crime. For me it is truly personal, but it should be personal to everyone. Who gave these people the right to take from us these beautiful valleys and their babbling brooks, each one full of biological wonders. We are not talking small numbers here. Currently, so called "environmental regulators" in four states have issued 6,000 permits for valley fills that would destroy 75,000 acres of streams. It is not just the streams that will be affected. Although the mining industry says that it reclaims the land, this is what federal investigators concluded in the draft Environmental Impact Statement that is being written on the subject (quoted from the Charleston Gazette): "surface mining significantly alters terrestrial ecology."

"Plants and wildlife that require forest habitats are replaced by those that inhabit grasslands," the summary said. "Fragmentation-sensitive bird species such as the cerulean warbler, Louisiana waterthrush, worm-eating warbler, black-and-white warbler, and yellow-throated vireo will likely be negatively impacted as forest habitat is lost and fragmented from mountaintop mining/valley fill operations."

"In addition, the studies found that the natural return of forests to mountaintop mines reclaimed with grasses under hay and pasture or wildlife post-mining land uses occurs very slowly," the summary said.

"Full reforestation across a large mine site in such cases may not occur for hundreds of years." This initiative is one of the many direct consequences of the energy plan cooked up by Vice President Cheney in his secret meetings with energy industry moguls last spring. If it had not been for the ENRON debacle the administration’s prospects for passing this new rule would be much better. However, ENRON’s collapse and the spotlight it has focused on the Bush administration’s cozy relationship with energy industry execs, has made it much more difficult for them to pay back the hundreds of millions of dollars in campaign contributions they these companies paid to them.

Another momentous event of the past year was, of course, the bombing of the World Trade Center. This has sparked a renewed wave of patriotism throughout the country. The Department of Defense and the Bush administration are currently attempting a cynical exploitation of the patriotic mood in the country by passing a Department of Defense authorization bill that would exempt the DOD from all environmental laws. They would no longer have to worry about migratory birds, endangered species, or wilderness protection. Clearly this is an over zealous approach to providing the military with the resources and capability to train its personnel to protect our country. I would simply ask "in what way does this prevent something like the World Trade Center attack or mailing of Anthrax tainted letters?" It seems to me that the troops currently serving in Afghanistan are doing a pretty damned good job, and they all trained without the benefit of the proposed environmental waivers.

Please let your elected representatives know that you do not want the conference committee to weaken the senate version of the energy bill prohibiting drilling in ANWR, voice your opposition to the practice of mountaintop removal coal mining, and tell them you want a strong military, but not a military run amok that does not have to protect the environment like all the rest of us.