For Members and Friends May 2000

WildLaw announced the winners of our essay contest on "What the Endangered Species Act Means to Me." We had hundreds of children participate, and making a final selection was very difficult. There were a lot of great essays submitted.

The winner was Taylor Hartley of Chattanooga, Tennessee. A great quote from her essay is, "If we lose the endangered animals, we will lose the beauty of the earth. The earth will then be dull and lifeless, except for the busy streets and cars. I would hate living without the beautiful animals.... Their beauty would be lost forever making the world more void and ugly."

The four runners up were Hannah Mae Ferreri of St. Paul, Minnesota; Haley Klimecki of Red Bank, Tennessee; Joey Eichler of Red Bank, Tennessee, and Erica Casseday of Red Bank, Tennessee.

Taylor will receive a $5,000 U.S. Savings Bond, and the runners-up will each receive a $100 Savings Bond. Their essays are also posted on WildLaw's Web site.

WildLaw thanks the hundreds of students, parents and teachers who participated in our essay contest. Several schools, especially the Red Bank Middle School in Tennessee and the Children's Center Montessori in Minnesota, really went all out to insure good participation by lots of their students.

Congratulations to the winners, and many thanks to all our participants for their concern and thoughtfulness about endangered species and the law that helps protect them.

After nine years of our working to get legal protection for the Alabama Sturgeon, Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt finally agreed to list the Sturgeon as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA). As stated by Sam Hamilton, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service's regional director for the Southeast Region, "When a species is as imperilled as the Alabama sturgeon, the Fish and Wildlife Service is required by law to take action. In the final analysis, we are required to go where the science takes us, and the science tells us that this fish needs all the protection it can get."

WildLaw Executive Director Ray Vaughan and our clients Ned Mudd and the Biodiversity Legal Foundation have worked for nine years to get this legal protection for the Alabama Sturgeon. Although the fight was long, we never thought of giving up to failure. Now, we must all continue our work to protect this fish and Alabama's rivers, because industry groups have said they will sue over the listing. The war for protection of the environment never ends, but this victory is a major battle we can chalk up to our side.
 

Calling themselves the Coalition for a Healthy Mulberry Fork Watershed, a diverse group of environmental, conservation, and river recreation organizations filed suit against the US Army Corps of Engineers in Federal District Court in Washington, DC. The suit challenges the Corps issuance of a permit allowing the construction of a $40 million dam on the Duck River, a tributary of the Mulberry Fork River flowing through Cullman County, Alabama.

In the lawsuit, the Alabama Rivers Alliance and American Canoe Association are being represented by George Van Cleve of the law firm of Van Cleve and Associates in Washington, DC. The Friends of the Mulberry Fork River and Wild Alabama are being represented by WildLaw.

Coalition representatives allege that the dam project proposed by the Cullman-Morgan Water Board is environmentally destructive and economically unsound and that the US Army Corps violated multiple federal environmental laws when the agency authorized construction of the dam. Stated WildLaw's Staff Attorney Aimee Smith to the Associated Press, "This issue is simple. The Cullman-Morgan Water Board is proposing to dam one of the most polluted rivers in Alabama as a drinking water supply, even though the Alabama Department of Environmental Management is on record as stating that the Duck River is too polluted to be a viable source of drinking water, and even though good, clean water can be provided by Smith Lake."

The Corps was paid by the applicant to manage this project and paid by the taxpayers to consider permits for this project. However, the Corps failed to declare its conflict of interest and issued the permit authorizing its own project.

Members of the Coalition for a Healthy Mulberry Fork River also allege that political pressure played a substantial role in the issuance of this permit. Under the current permitting system, the US Army Corps of Engineers has the primary responsibility for issuing permits to allow filling of wetlands, dredging of rivers, and building of new dams. However, a sister federal agency, the US Environmental Protection Agency has the authority to veto the Corps permit decisions. Based on its assessment of the permitting decision, the EPA Wetlands Division staff in Atlanta proposed to "elevate" the project to EPA Headquarters in Washington, DC for review. This recommendation to "elevate" the case to Washington represented the first step in EPA's move toward a veto of the project. The EPA's internal documents supporting this decision state that the agency's main goal in elevating the permit would have been to work with the US Army Corps to develop a more detailed environmental study "that would look into projected water needs, and develop a planned regional approach to ensure water supply rather than the current project by project approach." However, the move by the EPA to stop the project angered local project proponents and caught the attention of elected officials. A January 21, 2000 letter provided on the letterhead of Congressman Robert Aderholt and signed by all members of the Alabama congressional delegation with the exception of Bob Riley, urged EPA to support issuance of the 404 permit. A similar letter was mailed by Governor Don Siegelman of Alabama on January 17. After receipt of these letters, the USEPA decided against elevating this permit and the Corps issued the final permit on February 1, 2000.

On behalf of Wild Alabama, Wild South and the Alabama Wilderness Alliance, WildLaw appealed the Amendment #17 to the Land and Resource Management Plan (LRMP) for the National Forests in Alabama. Amendment #17 does away with any requirements that the Forest Service actually survey for rare and endangered species before they log and build roads. A year ago, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Atlanta held that the Forest Service has to conduct population surveys before logging in order to insure the viability of rare species in the public's forests. The Forest Service then immediately proposed this amendment to the LRMP in order to get around that court ruling.

To add insult to injury, the Forest Service refused to give the public an opportunity to review and comment on the EA they did on this amendment. They made their decision without ever releasing it to the public beforehand, as they usually do on all EAs and as the law requires them to do on extraordinary changes in policy like this.

WildLaw appealed the Wiggins timber sale project on the Oakmulgee Division of the Talladega National Forest in central Alabama. Filed on behalf of Wild Alabama and Wild South, the appeal contests the Forest Service's continuing devotion to a 15-year old LRMP that mandates short-rotation pine plantations. The only good thing about this project is that they plan Longleaf Pine Plantations instead of Loblolly Pine Plantations, but what is bad is that the Forest Service will cut many hardwoods and refused to consider hardwood restoration, a very real need for the Oakmulgee. They also refused to consider the cumulative impacts of this logging project with other projects recently done in the area and those planned for the future.

This appeal is also being used to contest Amendment #17 mentioned above, because the Forest Service is using it in this project as an excuse not to bother looking for rare and endangered species before they log.

On behalf of Superior Wilderness Action Network and Heartwood, WildLaw won our appeal over the Southeast Pine logging sale on the Lakewood-Laona District of the Chequamegon-Nicolet National Forest. The logging proposal included 157 acres of clearcutting, 748 acres of thinning, construction or reopening of 2.2 miles of road, release cutting of 51 acres, "improvement" cutting of 22 acres, overstory removal of 36 acres, and prescribed burning of 158 acres. These activities would have resulted in 4.8 million board feet of timber for sale.

The Regional Forester found "a lack of analysis and documentation to support the decision made by the RO in reference to the cumulative effects as presented in the Southeast Pine Sale in the EA."

The Biodiversity Legal Foundation (BLF), Wild Alabama and Edward W. Mudd, Jr., filed suit against Secretary of Interior Bruce Babbitt, the Department of Interior, and the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) for their failure to comply with the Federal Advisory Committee Act (FACA) when they developed in secret a "conservation agreement" for the Alabama Sturgeon. Industry groups and politicians are arguing that the "conservation agreement" means that Babbitt did not have to list the Alabama Sturgeon as an endangered species under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).

The "conservation agreement" is entirely voluntary; there are no mandatory requirements for any agency or party to it. Under the FACA, it is illegal for an agency to use the product of an illegal advisory committee process. We are asking the Federal Court of the Middle District of Alabama to enjoin Sec. Babbitt and the FWS and order that they cannot use or consider the "conservation agreement" in any way.

In the May/June 2000 issue of Mother Jones magazine, renown outdoor writer Ted Williams wrote an incredible article on the damage being done to the South's environment and economy by industrial timber practices. Called False Forests, the article is the best exposé yet on the destruction of natural forests and their replacement with loblolly pine plantations. WildLaw and our client Wild Alabama are featured in the article with coverage of our work to defend the Bankhead National Forest and to protect private land owners from damages caused by the irresponsible timber practices of large multinational corporations. The article also highlights the work of environmentally-responsible logger Donnie Williams, Georgia Forest Watch, the Southern Environmental Law Center and a number of scientists. Accompanying the article are fantastic photographs by Charlie Seifried, the Alabama photographer who does all of Wild Alabama's magazine covers.

If you wish to get your own copy of this watershed article on the loss of southern forests, the issue hit bookstores on May 5.

On May 9, the United States Forest Service announced their roadless area "protection" proposal for our National Forests. The proposal can be found at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/index.shtml. What it is is nothing more than a ban on more road building in "officially designated" roadless areas, and it completely leaves out the Tongass National Forest in Alaska and hundreds of smaller roadless areas throughout the country, including Alabama. The Forest Service proposes to allow logging, whether from existing roads, by use of "temporary" roads (made by log skidders) or by helicopter, in our roadless areas. In fact, half of all logging projects currently proposed in roadless areas can be accessed without new roads and will go forward under this proposal. The Forest Service also proposes to allow off road vehicle (ORV) use in our roadless areas. They propose to allow mining, oil and gas drilling, grazing and anything else that does not require the building of a "new" "permanent" road. This proposal will not reduce the logging on the National Forests as a whole; those roadless areas which do receive some protection under this proposal will have their timber extraction quotas made up from other areas of the National Forests, most likely from forests in the South and North Woods areas.

Polls throughout the nation consistently show that 70% of Americans want our National Forest roadless areas protected. Why? Because that same 70% want ALL our public lands protected from all forms of degradation. Indeed, subsidized logging on our National Forests losses the American taxpayers more than $1.2 billion every year. On the other hand, recreation on our National Forests creates 38 times more money and jobs than the subsidized logging does.

Beautiful places like the Brushy Fork Roadless Area and the Sipsey Headwaters Roadless Area in Alabama's Bankhead National Forest are completely left out of the proposed "ban" on road building. Outside magazine named the Sipsey Headwaters as one of America's top 12 public lands deserving wilderness designation. So too Rebecca Mountain in the Talladega National Forest is left out; it is the site of Alabama's most spectacular mountains, cliffs and scenic views. It also was recommended for wilderness protection by Outside.

What You Can Do:

- Attend the public meetings the Forest Service will hold on their roadless area proposal. In Alabama those meetings will be at 6:00pm on May 30 and June 28 at the Holiday Inn at the intersection of Interstate 65 and Oxmore Road in Birmingham. A list of public meetings in other states is at http://roadless.fs.fed.us/meetings/index.shtml. Speak out and say that this poor excuse for roadless "protection" proves that the Forest Service cannot be trusted with our valuable public lands. Demand that all commercial extraction and exploitation on public lands be banned permanently. For the short term, demand that this proposal be changed to give total protection to all roadless areas over 1,000 acres in all National Forests from all road building, logging, mining, oil and gas drilling, grazing, ORV use and anything else exploitive.

- Write similar comments to the Forest Service on this proposal. The comment period is open until July 17. USDA Forest Service-CAET, Attn: Roadless, PO Box 221090, Salt Lake City, UT 84122. By e-mail to roadlessdeis@fs.fed.us.

For more information on ending the taxpayer-subsidized commercial logging welfare program on our public lands, contact the National Forest Protection Alliance at www.forestadvocate.org.

300-B Water Street, Suite 214

Montgomery, Alabama 36104