Southern Appalachian Digital Collections

Western Carolina University (21) View all

Western Carolinian Volume 67 Number 14

items 7 of 16 items
  • hl_westerncarolinian_2002-11-06_vol67_no14_07.jpg
Item
?

Item’s are ‘child’ level descriptions to ‘parent’ objects, (e.g. one page of a whole book).

  • ewsma azine *conservative news november 6-12, 2002 A key. in-house architect Of the Changes was Steve McCormick, 50, longtime head Of the California Nature Conservancy, who became executive director of the•ntire. organization last year, after Sawhill died, Petroleum, timber and farming royalties accounted for about a third ofthe Texas chapter's $.17Lmillion budget last yeae—and the lion's share Of that was gas royalties from the Texas: City Prairie Preserve, But McCormick said •the primary aim Of the # Working'* landscapes is not: to make moneycln numerous cases; the conservancy;is. paying .rancher€; farmers and others to use. more environmentally friendly said, McCormick Conceded that Chere are potential biological risks to a Strategy that puts industry Side by side with conservation, But it. isa necessary strategy, said, because buying isolated fragments of land has not been enough to protect rare. Species that need whole mountain ranges. or Natersheds stretching hundreds ofsquare milesv There Will never be enough money io buy such vast said, The solution, he .is to stitch together habitat by forging partnerships vith ranchers timber companies and Othér. rural'landowners who have often opposed environmental laws, such as theEndangered Species Act, "Our desire' is. to work with those rural communities in ways that respect their culture;: respect cheir economies but in a fashion that is compatible with preservation Of endangered •species," McCormick "Is that risky terrain? Yes, ic is, because it puts usin a position ofworking With extractive uses" such as oil drilling, he Said. "But the alternative is to stand on the sidesvishingit •werenYt sow" Critics said that doesn'tjustify the conservancyvtaking similar risks on its own land* knew the founders of this organization on a first-name basis; and they would be turning over. in their graves' said Huey Johnson;a Northern. California environmentalist who was the Nature Conservancy's first Western. region manager, 40 years ago. '"It would take just one dumb move to destroy the integrity accumulated over 50 years by .this organization." CONSERVANCY OIL: About 20 of the 40 Attwater's prairie chickens living in the wild Can found at the Nature Conservancy's preserve in Texas City, Texas. (02002 Los' Angeles Times photo by Mark Bosier.) S' There are millions of acres being logged already by timber companiess millions of acres being grazed by private cattle ranches. Why does the Nature Conservancy have to become a timber baro_nP asked Kieran Suckling, executive director of the Center for Biological Diversity, which has the .same mission as the conservancy, but uses lawsuits and other adversarial tactics. The larger question is whether working landscapes actually provide protection for fragile terrain and wildlife. "The question is not whether working landscapes are a good idea in the abstract, but whether it's a good or a bad idea for a particular species,» said Michael Bean, director of the wildlife division Of EnVironmental Defense, "l certainly am not prepared to Say •it'S always a good idea.» But Bean said that the conservancy has an "outstanding track record" Of preserving land and that; in specific cases;i research has shown the approach could work, k 'The Nature 'Conservancy fills an important niche. (It) accepts money from large corporations and big polluters who we could not take money from," said Robert E Kennedy Jr., .head of the Waterkeeper. movement, which works to clean up. U.S. waters. "But it's possible to compromise your ideology, your reputation by making too risky choices. Braun, the grouse expert'! is more critical: "The Nature Conservancy is speaking out of both .sides of its mouth: € We can have this wildlife; and we can make money too: Well; that's not true; he Said, "They're exploiting the Attwaterss prairie chicken to make money." At the conservancybs Texas City Prairie 'Preserve, none Of. the more than $2 million set aside to help in the bird's recovery had been spent as of this spring. Conservancy officials and others said the money Will be Vital to fund captive breeding programs; to try, €0. persuade a host of other wary private landowners to set aside additional habitat, for the birds} and to reseed prairie grasses, The homely, bird once numbered about a million; its habitat stretching across the Texas and Louisiana coastal prairies. The chickens are a Southern cousin of another bird greatly reduced in number—the prairie chickens Of the Midwestern prairies. Likethem, thé Attwater*s has been pushed almost out Of existence by over*huntings overgrazing; farming, roads and other development. "Their habitat is now Houston; NASA and said Mark a biologist who runs. a prairie chicken funderaising effort forTexas Parks and Wildlife. As for the drilling. and grazing on the preserve, conservancy officials insisted that rigorous protections are •in place and that there is no evidence of harm from the commercial Surface pumping .is confined to small areas; and drilling is limited to months when there is no .mating. and nesting, Close to 50,000 nonnative Chinese tallow ..trees that threatened to choke out native grasses Vital to the chicken's survival have been ripped out. As foi grazing; state fish and game biologists said the cattle. help to create the clumpy patches ofgrassland that the bird needs; much as bison historically did.. But even those who think that the Conservancy is. making valiant efforts to preserve the bird have misgivings. Staff members at the Lone Star Chapter. of the Sierra Club, the Houston branch of the Audubon Society and area federal regulators said there always will be a risk; however small'? of a major pipeline blowout, a bad spill or. even the gradual sinking of the bird's mating ground as natural gas is sucked out from And for all the intensive. restoration work; without the. tegular release of captivebred birds here and elsewhere, the species probably would already be gone, said Braun and Others. "The Attwater?s prairie chicken doesn't really exist anymore' said Braun} noting that many of the introduced birds have been crossbred With Midwestern prairie chickens, f Theyire not extinct; but that's .in name only," Braun. said, "All I can say a poor end for a fine American bird." @ 2002 LA TIMES-VASHINGTON POST
Object
?

Object’s are ‘parent’ level descriptions to ‘children’ items, (e.g. a book with pages).