Wilderness areas such as The
Sangre de Cristo National Forest
in the mountains of Colorado will be affected by proposed changes to the Roadless Area Conservation Rule.
Photo: Marla Donato
Chef Colin Turner, of the Tin Fish restaurant shows surgeons his cutting techniques. Photo: Courtesy Edward Hospital, Naperville
November 2004 | Choice News
Illinois Leading the Fight Against Wilderness Roads
Illinois residents are joining the chorus of voices trying to protect the dwindling number of roads that are less traveled. Illinois ranks second behind California for states most strongly opposed to repealing the federal Roadless Area Conservation Rule, according to Citizen Action/Illinois, a state-based conservation group. More than 121,000 Illinois residents participated in a letter-writing campaign aimed at the U.S. Forest Service.
There has been so much public outcry that the Forest Service extended the deadline for public comment until Nov. 15.
And local advocates hope the Illinois Forest Service will hold a public hearing for residents to air their concerns, said Lara Melton, campaign organizer for Citizen Action/Illinois.
If the Bush Administration is successful in its effort to scale back the roadless rule, nearly 60 million acres in dozens of national parks will be opened up to new roads for commercial logging and oil drilling industries, according to a report by the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees.
So far, of the 2.2 million people who have responded nationwide, 95 percent support leaving large tracts of land in national parks alone, including 11,000 acres in Shawnee National Forest.
According to President Bush’s proposed changes, currently protected federal lands would be open for road construction.
State governors could attempt to block the construction by petitioning the federal government.
“Even when governors go to the trouble of putting together a petition to protect the forest, there is no guarantee that the federal government will honor the request,” Melton said.
The Bush Administration is not acting on behalf of the voting public, Melton said. Preservationists across the country feel that the federal government has given the commercial timber industry enough of a break, she said.
The federal government handed down $140 million in subsidies for timber road construction between 1998 and 2002, according to the Coalition of Concerned National Park Service Retirees.
“What’s worse, is the government is supporting the timber industry with our tax dollars,” Melton added. Last year, the government spent $35 million in tax revenue for new logging roads in the Tongass National Forest in Alaska.
“Overturning this hugely popular rule would be not only bad policy direction, it would be a slap in the face to America’s taxpayers, who have already footed the bill for millions of dollars in timber industry subsidies,” said Dave Herrington, president of the Illinois chapter of Republicans for Environmental Protection.
Only 4 percent of the Shawnee falls into the category of federal land protected by the roadless rule. Those sites, including Burke Branch, Ripple Hollow and Camp Hutchins, are rich in geological and biological diversity. Burke Branch is home to Brasher Cave, which provides a habitat for the endangered Indiana bat.
Send your comments on the road-less rule to the U.S. Forest Service via e-mail at statepetitionroadless@fs.fed.us or by mail: Content Analysis Team, Attn: Roadless State Petitions, USDA Forest Service, P.O. Box 221090, Salt Lake City, UT 84122
— Erin Meyer
Scientists Study Climate Meltdown
SCIENTISTS WORKING in the Arctic have concluded marine fieldwork that is expected to determine whether the current climate meltdown is cyclical or a strictly modern phenomenon.
Hundreds of researchers from around the globe spent the summer aboard a Canadian icebreaker anchored near the Beaufort Sea, where they drilled holes into the mud along Canada’s northern shore. Scientists suspect that continental shelves such as the MacKenzie are climatic hotspots that may serve as early indicators of global climate change.
The sedimentary core samples contain microscopic, fossilized algae that give clues to climatic conditions thousands of years ago. By looking at the samples from top to bottom, researchers can observe patterns of ancient climatic changes.
“It’s sort of like a crime scene,” said Trecia Schell of Dalhousie University. The evidence will indicate which organisms were on the shelf and when, and whether they died there or were brought in and deposited.
Arctic ice is rapidly melting. Scientists hope to analyze the samples and conclude whether this melting is a natural 100- or 200-year cycle, or if current conditions are in sharp contrast with those of the past 10,000 years.
— David Tycho
Evanston Battles to Save Dutch Elms
SUBURBAN EVANSTON has quiet neighborhoods with tree-lined streets that provide a lush canopy of shade in the spring and summer, thanks in part to the American elm tree. But the regal trees have faced a tough year due to Dutch elm disease, a beetle-borne fungus that has felled about 540 of Evanston’s elms this summer. That’s a record number since the disease first appeared in the area in the 1950s. Healthy elms can easily live 300 years or more.
The increasing numbers of stumps has lovers of the trees becoming community activists to prevent the further spread of the disease.
“They’re gorgeous, just gorgeous,” sighed Evanston activist Virginia Mann, who with neighbor Mimi Peterson founded To Rescue Evanston Elms (TREE) “There’s nothing like an American elm.”
Mann and other members of TREE have worked nonstop to raise awareness of the disease, which is spread by the innocuous bark beetle. The bug secretes a nutrient-blocking fungus as it munches on elm leaves. If spotted early, the disease can be arrested by cutting off infected limbs. But once the fungus reaches the tree’s roots, nearby elms become infected, and whole rows of elms have to be destroyed.
The only way to protect healthy trees is to inject the trees with Arbotect, a fungicide that protects trees for three years.
Initially, Mann and her neighbors came up with the cash to inoculate the trees on their street. They soon realized they’d need a lot more help to get all of Evanston’s elms out of danger.
TREE took its fight to the city council in August, which voted to inject trees starting this fall.
“We’ve inoculated 75 trees on public lands in the past two weeks alone,” said Doug Gaynor, director of the city’s Parks and Forestry Department. “The city council also has us creating a request for proposal for trees on private land, so we can get an estimated cost of inoculating all of the trees.”
Previously, the city cut down about 150 trees per year. This year they budgeted to cut down 191 trees — less than half the number crews actually wound up cutting down.
Gaynor said many factors could be contributing to the faster spread of the disease this year, but he also noted that the bark beetle, which normally goes dormant in the winter, stayed more active in last year’s warmer winter.
Mann and other TREE activists have insisted that inoculating trees with Arbotect is cheaper than having a work crew cut up a tree, haul away the debris and plant a new tree. Mann and her neighbors paid $12 per inch of trunk diameter to inject their trees, but Gaynor said the bidding process the city uses to buy the fungicide in bulk has reduced the price to $9.25 per inch.
The city will most likely cover the cost of inoculating all 3,300 trees on city property within the next two to three years, but the city council hasn’t decided what to do about trees on private land.
When the city has to cut down a diseased tree on private property, the property owner is billed, and the council has considered passing an ordinance that would also bill property owners for injection.
Mann and her fellow activists in TREE are advocating a compromise, where homeowners and the city split the cost of injection.
For more information or to make a donation, call 847-328-4886 or e-mail help@torescueevanstonelms.com.
— Peter Bernard
State EPA Lowers Water Standards
WHEN ALL else fails, lower your standards. That appears to be the new motto of the Illinois Environmental Protection Agency, according to environmental advocates concerned about radium in state waterways and soil.
Last January, the Illinois EPA proposed lowering the radium water quality standard by 400 percent, or from the current maximum of 1 Pico curie per liter to 5 Pico curies per liter in state waterways and soil.
That action came following a USEPA mandate that Illinois clean up drinking water sources. The agency found more than 100 municipalities had unsafe levels of radium, a radioactive material, in drinking water.
Consequently, the agency required local government to remove excess radium from drinking water by Dec. 8, 2003.
But the deadline has come and gone while the controversy remains. The first question is what should be acceptable levels of radium, and the second is how best to dispose of the radium after it is extracted from wells that provide drinking water for numerous communities, including some in DuPage, Will and Kane counties.
IEPA officials argued that protecting nearly all waters at current quality standards is excessively stringent, according to minutes recorded during a recent Illinois Pollution Control Board hearing. They pointed out that communities would have trouble meeting the EPA requirements if radium standards for waterways are not lowered.
But representatives from Will County’s Citizens Against Ruining the Environment said any increase would be irresponsible. In a recent letter to the Pollution Control Board, CARE cited a warning that appears on all Rockport water bills: “... a dose of the 5 pCi/L ingested over an extended period of time may result in the development of bone cancer in a very small portion of the population.”
But when the radium is removed it still presents problems.
Some methods to remove the radium just return it to the environment through municipal sewers, said Doug Dobmeyer, a Rogers Park resident who has been working with Illinois Public Interest Research Group on the issue.
Three of the available methods for removing radium, including hydrous manganese oxide (HMO), ion exchange and absorptive media, produce a radioactive byproduct. Both the HMO and ion exchange discharge the radium into sewer systems, which eventually return water to rivers, lakes and streams. “That is a violation of state law,” said Dobmeyer.
“The best long-term solution for the land, environment and drinking water is to remove the radium altogether so that Illinois residents are not threatened by this radioactive substance in the future,” said Charles Williams, president of Water Redemption Technology, a Chicago company credited with creating the absorptive media, an alternative to putting radium in sewers and turning it into sludge and spreading it on farmland.
WRT extracts radioactive materials from water and transports what is left over to low-level nuclear facilities for storage.
If the IEPA is successful in raising the acceptable level of radium in state waterways, WRT’s method will become even more important, according to Jeff Fort, an environmental lawyer representing the company.
— Erin Meyer
Children Free to Make Happy Noise
THE GUEST of honor at a swanky affair on the 67th floor of the Sears Tower nervously approached the podium to address partygoers.
Juana Camacho cleared her throat and steadied herself amidst the applause. “I wrote a speech because I am so nervous,” she said.
But three words into her speech Camacho’s gaze fell to the floor, spilling tears. “I apologize,” she said. “It really has just hit me that this is true. We really have our own home.”
Camacho and her husband, Enriquez, are the proud owners of a new house in the Chicago neighborhood of Pilsen on the near south side. The house is being built by Windy City Habitat for Humanity, a local branch of the national not-for-profit that builds affordable housing for low income families.
“We are all so happy,” said Camacho. “In our apartment I have to tell my children to be quiet when they are just playing. Now they can play outside and make all the happy noise they want.”
The couple and their children, Enriquez Jr., 8, and Anthony, 4, will have to wait until spring to move into their new home, which is under construction on the 1000 block of W. 20th Street.
The local Habitat group also plans to increase production to as many as 15 new homes annually by 2010, according to Pam Hallett, Windy City’s board president. To make that goal, the group needs more resources, which was part of the reason for the event recently hosted by the Metropolitan Club, a professional and social networking group, which has committed to raising funds for the project.
Bank of America donated $90,000 to Windy City for this project and says it will be paying its employees to spend time getting their hands dirty on the construction site. The cost of the land is covered by donations and volunteers take care of most of the labor.
The Camachos, for their part, are required to put in 350 hours of nail pounding, sawing and sanding.
“We won’t quit working when we have finished the 350 hours,” said Enriquez. “We will go on and do more.”
In addition to the sweat investment, the family must agree to pay back to Habitat the cost of building materials and any professionals contracted to complete specific jobs, such as roofing. But the Camachos’ home loan will incur no interest while they work to pay it off.
“This is not a handout, it’s a hand up,” said Janice Whitehead, the local Habitat volunteer responsible for selecting families for the program.
Until the home’s official ribbon cutting next April, the family will remain in its rented basement apartment in Cicero.
Camacho said she is especially excited about the large window in her new living room. “Our apartment has only three little windows,” she said. “Living with all that sunlight will be a whole different world.”
For more information, to volunteer or make a donation visit www.habitat.org, or phone 312-243-6448, or write 515 N. State St., suite 2300, Chicago, IL 60610.
— Erin Meyer
Take A Pass On the Sea Bass
IT TURNS out there may not be “a million fish in the sea,” at least not Chilean sea bass.
That’s the common name for Patagonian and Antarctic toothfish on the menus of upscale restaurants and at seafood stores.
Over-fishing has resulted in a dramatic drop in the number of fish, according to a recent report by the National Environmental Trust entitled “Black Market for White Gold.”
Toothfish are protected by the Commission for the Conservation of Antarctic Marine Living Resources, an international trade organization that regulates the amount of toothfish commercially harvested. But growing demand and skyrocketing prices for this savory seafood have resulted in regular abuse of the laws intended to protect them.
As the population thins, commercial fishing operations continue to exploit loopholes in the system and venture farther and deeper into the ocean in search of a larger catch.
A coalition of conservationists is asking consumers and restaurant owners in Chicago to join the “Take a Pass on Chilean Sea Bass” campaign.
Diners in Chicago and other cities are willing to pay upwards of $25 for an artfully prepared seafood entrée.
The toothfish, referred to by conservationists as “white gold,” are an easy target for pirates and smugglers, said Pam Blackledge of Conserve Our Ocean Legacy.
Large illegal shipments of toothfish, frozen or identified as whitefish, pass under the radar of U.S. customs officials and wind up mislabeled at grocery stores.
“Unfortunately, there is no way to be sure that the sea bass we consume was not illegally obtained,” Blackledge said. “So the only real option is to stop eating it altogether.”
The report found that many countries are lax in tracking the flow of toothfish across their borders and issue fishing permits illegally.
Each year the amount of toothfish illegally caught and sold doubles, according to ocean conservation groups. The report found that 13 percent, or more than 1 million pounds, illegally passed through U.S. customs last year.
In spite of pressure from some consumers hooked on the buttery taste, about 50 area restaurants have joined the campaign to “Take a Pass on Sea Bass.”
From Charlie Trotter’s downtown to at Spiaggia on N. Milwaukee Avenue, cooks have replaced sea bass with other succulent fish like wild Alaskan halibut or black cod.
“When we have hunted this fish into extinction we will never get it back,” said Carrie Nahabedian, head chef and owner of Naha restaurant, 500 N. Clark Street.
To help protect dwindling fish populations while out dining or shopping, download the Shedd Aquarium’s sustainable seafood wallet card. The handy card will keep you apprised of the population status of fish. To download the card in PDF format, visit the “Right Bite” entry on the Shedd’s Web site at: www.SheddAquarium.org; or call Conserve our Ocean Legacy at 618-457-8722; or write The National Environmental Trust at 913 S. Illinois Ave., Carbondale, IL, 62901.
— Erin Meyer
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