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S I E R R A A T L A N T I C 1w w w.newyork.s i e r r a c l u b . o r g • w w w. s i e r r a c l u b . o r g

SierraAtlanticThe Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club — Serving New York State Volume 36 Spring 2009

Natural gas rush: It’s time for the Feds to step upby Stanley Scobie, Ph.D.

Though New York has 13,000active oil and gas wells, until lastyear only a small group of insid-

ers knew that the state sits atop ahuge natural gas field locked in theMarcellus shale, a geological forma-tion beneath four states (New York,Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylva-nia). Now, natural gas development ispoised to begin at an intensive levelnever contemplated by state regula-tors.

While the Department of Environ-mental Conservation has begun toreview its regulations governingnatural gas extraction, it is clear fromthe dismal experience of Westerngas-producing states, and the inter-state nature of the resource, that theindustry also should be subject tofederal regulation. Drillers, for ex-ample, cross state lines to dispose ofproduction waste fluids. Air pollutionfrom drilling operations and massivewithdrawals of water from rivers(used in production) show no re-spect for state boundaries.

One would suppose that an indus-try that began in the 19th Centurywould be well regulated by now. Butduring the early years of the Bushadministration, the oil and gas (O&G)industry won two major victorieswhich rolled back environmentalprotection.

First, the Environmental Protec-tion Agency determined that thehydrofracturing technology used tocapture natural gas from tight shaleformations poses no environmentalor health problems, despite the useof toxic substances injected under-ground. It now appears the EPA’sconclusion in 2004 was shortsighted,premature, and possibly inappropri-ately influenced by O&G interests.

Second, then-Vice President DickCheney’s Energy Policy Act of 2005exempted the O&G industry fromfederal clean air, clean water, and safedrinking water laws. The energy leg-islation suggested that individualstates could impose replacementregulation. This has not worked out,and now, almost four years later, indi-vidual states are struggling with theproblem in a very clumsy and mostlyunsuccessful manner.

This leaves the southern half ofNew York vulnerable — includingthe watersheds of New York City(the Catskills) and the Southern Tier.Unless federal standards are re-estab-lished, far less competent regionalbodies will continue to struggle withthe core technical issues, distractedby the recession, stymied by politicalcorruption, and out-gunned by a le-gion of well-financed O&G lobbyistsarmed with junk science.

The O&G industry has consis-

tently claimed that the chemicalsand processes used in hydrofrac-turing are safe; yet it consistentlyrefuses to disclose just what chemi-cals it uses. The logic is twisted. Ifthe “frack” fluids are safe, why notdisclose them, and why fight for ex-emptions that no other industryenjoys?

Most industrial activities arestrongly controlled and physicallysegregated. We can usually choose tolive nearby or not — usually not.However, O&G companies are notbound by zoning regulations orother “home rule” controls; they canset up operations wherever some-one sells them a lease, including resi-dential neighborhoods or the down-town area of a major city, as they arenow doing in Fort Worth, Texas. Thus,the right-to-know principle becomescritically important. By this reason-ing there is little or no basis for ex-emptions from clean air, clean water,or safe drinking water regulations,nor for any allowable secrecy regard-ing toxic or potentially toxic sub-stances injected under residencesand their water wells.

Right to knowTo sharpen this point, consider

that chemical disclosure requests bythe DEC have, so far, produced woe-fully inadequate information fromthe gas companies. A typical re-sponse lists a variety of very genericterms, with no specific chemicalnames nor the amounts stored andused on site. While the DEC’s recentscoping document suggests that theagency will require chemical disclo-sure, it is silent on whether the infor-mation it obtains will be available tothe public. Without such transpar-ency, it will be very expensive andextremely difficult for homeownersand municipalities to test and moni-

tor their drinking water.The industry claims that the

chemicals it uses and the hazardous/toxic substances in “produced” fluidsit brings to the surface (brine, heavymetals and some radioactivity) are sodiluted that they couldn’t possibly beharmful. However, there is absolutelyno grounded, coherent science thatsupports this assertion, in part due tothe industry’s secrecy.

Anti-drilling activists target muchof their criticism on the injection ofhazardous chemicals deep under-

ground during hydrofracturing. How-ever, before workers start huge, noisy,smoke-belching diesel engines thatpower the injection process, thechemicals are stored on drilling sitesand diesel fuel is trucked in andtransferred to tanks. Spills and acci-dents happen. Even best practicescan’t prevent all of them. Reasonableregulations and enforcement, notblanket exemptions, provide incen-tives for better practice.

Cumulative impactsCurrent state regulation treats

each well as a separate entity, and upto 16 wells on one five-acre pad areallowed in a 640-acre unit. It simplymakes no sense to ignore the cumu-lative impact of this process, but thatis what the DEC does by assumingthat if one well poses an acceptablerisk, then it makes no real differenceif a site contains 16 wells. In fact,exploiting the Marcellus shale is go-ing to be a fairly major industrial ac-tivity, with air pollution from largediesel engines, dust from equipmentmoving over bare ground, methanegas releases, etc., over a three-yearperiod and probably much longer —at each multi-well site. And therewill be thousands (or possibly tensof thousands of wells) in the South-ern Tier and the NYC watershed. Thissort of development is not the quick-and-then-quiet activity often por-

continued on page 5

S ierra Club volunteers across New York state regularly do the workof three with little or no resources. They are helping to protectclean drinking water from contamination and holding polluters

accountable for their actions. They are teaching the value of energyefficiency and opposing new coal-powered plants. They are readingenvironmental impact statements, press releases, newspaper articles,and e-mails — and that’s just before breakfast! They do all of this, andthen pay to photocopy educational material out of their own pockets,because they know that our funds are limited and precious. Theywould love to be able to expand their efforts, but lack the resources.

This March, the Atlantic Chapter is asking for your support — pleasegive it, because it will be returned to you a hundred-fold, often in waysyou will never hear of because our volunteers are there before a fester-ing problem becomes bad news.

Look for the Appeal letter in the mail. To support the work we aredoing in New York, you could use the reply envelope and tear-off en-closed in the mailing or simply send a donation today to:

Sierra Club Atlantic ChapterPO Box 886Syosset, NY 11791-0886You may write a check payable to Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter in

any amount, or donate by Visa or MasterCard by supplying your ac-count number and expiration date. Contributions, gifts and dues to theSierra Club are not tax-deductible; they support our effective, citizen-based advocacy and lobbying efforts. Thank you.

Support Chapter’s volunteerswith annual March Appeal

SPRING 20092 S I E R R A A T L A N T I C

Sierra Atlantic (ISSN 0164-825X) ispublished quarterly for $1 by theAtlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club, 353Hamilton St., Albany, NY 12210-1709;518-426-9144, 518-427-0381 (fax)

http://newyork.sierraclub.org/

EDITORS Hal Smith and Dorinda White,[email protected]

ADVERTISING Circulation 40,000. Adrates, specs and deadlines availableupon request from Bobbie Josepher,[email protected]

ATLANTIC CHAPTER STAFF

Conservation Director Norreida Reyes,[email protected]

Conservation Associate Roger Downs,[email protected]

Chapter Coordinator Bobbie Josepher,[email protected]

ATLANTIC CHAPTER OFFICERS

Chair Susan Lawrence, 518-489-5721,[email protected]

Vice Chair Frank Morris, 516-410-8461,[email protected]

Secretary James Lane, 212-697-8942,[email protected]

Treasurer Steve Kulick, 315-476-0695,[email protected]

CONSERVATION

Chair Jessica Helm, 631-849-5373,[email protected]

SIERRA ATLANTIC MISSION The missionof the Sierra Atlantic is to educate andenlist the people of New York state toprotect and restore the quality of thenatural and human environment. Wewill do this by providing informationabout important environmentalissues; sounding an alarm when theenvironment is threatened; reportingon the activities, outings and cam-paigns conducted by the AtlanticChapter; celebrating nature; andinviting our readers to join us.

SUBMISSIONSSend us a letter, an article,

news briefs, comments, photos,graphics or other items ofinterest. Contact the editors atthe e-mail address above forsubmission format and details.When querying, please write“Sierra Atlantic” in the subjectline.

DEADLINES –SUMMER ISSUE

May 15 — Final copy andcamera-ready ads due

June 15 — Newsletter mailedto 40,000 members

Printed on 100% recycled paper

Yes, we can — ‘green’ and regrow our economy!

Message from the Chairby Susan Lawrence

These are hard economic timesfor our country and world. Gov-ernor Paterson’s 2009-10 Execu-

tive Budget calls for drastic cuts instate programs to protect our envi-ronment. We cannot stand aside andlet this happen.

With our many dedicated volun-teers across the state and our Albanystaff, we will be fighting harder thanever to restore funding for these pro-grams and push for new funding, lawsand regulations to greatly reducegreenhouse gas emissions and pro-tect our precious natural resources.

We need to tell the governor andLegislature loud and clear that wewant the Environmental ProtectionFund increased to $300 million asrequired by law, not cut by $95 mil-lion, and we want more jobs filled atthe Department of EnvironmentalConservation (DEC), not a 240-jobcut through hiring freezes andgreatly reduced appropriations toDEC. These job cuts mean that DECstaff will be down below the massivestaff cuts of 800 during the Patakiadministration.

And our governments, businesses,and citizens need to move quickly tosupport major initiatives for a sus-tainable economy, a green economy,a low-carbon economy. PresidentObama, in his inauguration speech,said, “The world has changed andwe must change with it.” He alsochanted with the people that day,“Yes, we can!”

Yes, we can take giant steps suchas installing — on a massive scale —

solar energy units over flat roofs inNew York City and parking lots andbrownfield sites around the state.According to Professor RichardPerez, of SUNY Albany’s AtmosphericSciences Research Center, if onlythree quarters of one percent of thestate’s geographic area was coveredwith solar installations, New Yorkwould have all the electricity that itneeds each year. If Germany, withmuch less sun than New York, caninstall solar energy in a massive way,so can our state.

Jessica Helm, our new Chapterconservation chair, writes in her col-umn (page 4) about the 130,000 jobs

New York could gain in two yearswith a $7 billion investment in greenjobs. Today, the United States is losing500,000 to 600,000 jobs a month.The federal stimulus funding isaimed at filling some of those jobs.We need to fight for those jobs to begreen ones in so many areas.

Today, no jobs are available for thefour out of five individuals who areunemployed. If our society totallyreorients its activities toward a sus-tainable future — where we greatlyreduce pollution and protect ournonrenewable resources and investin human skills, not non-productivefinancing schemes — yes, we cancompletely regrow our economy.

Investing in new coal-fired plants,massive hydropower systems, newnuclear power plants, and even mas-sive new gas drilling in the Marcellusshale formation are not sustainableoptions for the next five, ten, 20 or30 years or beyond. These pollutingfuel resources and plants will peaklong before they would produce thepower we need for years to come.

Instead, we need to greatly accel-erate investments in energy conser-vation, efficiency and renewables toprovide our electricity, heat ourhomes and businesses, power ourindustries, and provide our transpor-tation.

E ach March, the Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter has a one-month window ofopportunity to write to its members for donations that go directly to theChapter’s programs. You may have received or will receive shortly my

letter asking for your donation this year to our March Appeal. The Atlantic Chapter needs a very generous response to our March Appeal

letter to support all our efforts for public funding, laws and regulations toreduce greenhouse gas emissions in a big way in our state and to protect ournatural resources, including our drinking water, our wild spaces, and ourfarmlands.

Your donation to the March Appeal is critical to the success of the Chapter.Only a small portion of your membership dues come to the Chapter to payfor its many programs, including the work of our staff and many dedicatedvolunteers. The Albany Update column in this Sierra Atlantic (page 5) high-lights the Chapter’s “Clean Energy Economy and Clean Water” legislative pri-orities for 2009 and our first-ever statewide district office Lobby Day, March 6,when we urged our state legislators to prioritize green jobs programs andfunding.

This year, we are dedicating some of our limited budget to special initia-tives that will empower our members to lobby their public officials forgreatly increased public funding for green infrastructure and green jobs, andother programs protecting the environment. The Chapter is also taking bigsteps this year to upgrade our “action alert” system and our website to informour members and the public about critical environmental issues and howthey can quickly act on them.

The Chapter’s programs are the linchpin between the Club’s national pro-grams and the activities of our Groups in New York. A portion of our Chapterbudget each year goes to support each Group. At the national, state and locallevels, the Sierra Club is working more closely together to efficiently and ef-fectively move our economy and society to a sustainable level.

Please give as generously as you can to our March Appeal for the AtlanticChapter. Every donation is greatly appreciated. And, as always, the volunteerefforts of our many volunteers across the state make all the difference.

Susan Lawrence

Why do we ask you to donate tothe Chapter’s March Appeal?

If only three quarters of

one percent of the state’s

geographic area was

covered with solar

installations, New York

would have all the

electricity that it needs

each year.

E X P L O R E , E N J O Y A N D

P R O T E C T T H E P L A N E T


-800

— John Muir

Hudson Valley veganic farm attracting worldwide attention

K ate Khosla had a dream — tooperate a small farm. Her hus-band, Ron, came to share her

vision. With Ag-related degrees, butno practical experience, they tookthe plunge in 1999 and purchased 77acres in the rolling hills of theHudson Valley.

For 10 years, the Khoslas, who areSierrans, have been transformingtheir dream into a successful reality:a full-fledged organic operation thatprovides their customers with morethan 125 varieties of vegetables,fruits and cut flowers. They are aCSA (Community Supported Agricul-ture) serving 200 families in the area.

Their Huguenot Street Farm is alsoveganic: unlike many organic farms,they won’t use slaughterhouse by-products. They consider these wastestoxic and find their use completelycounter to organic clean living.

They gave up their “certified or-ganic” status when the U.S. Depart-ment of Agriculture (USDA) tookover certification of farms, but theyhaven’t changed their growing prac-tices, which are far stricter than theUSDA. Ron credits support from theSierra Club’s Mid-Hudson Group andAtlantic Chapter with helping him tostart a low-cost and less bureaucraticalternative to the USDA program. In2002, the Chapter was the first orga-nization to endorse his plan for a“certified naturally grown” initiative.It subsequently took root and todayat least 100,000 farms worldwide are“certified naturally grown” opera-tions. (See www.naturally

continued on page 9

The Atlantic Chapter of the Sierra Club will host its first Annual Awards Din-ner Saturday, June 6, at the Inn at Great Neck, in Great Neck, Long Island.The theme of the awards dinner is Green Jobs for New York State.

Very rarely does New York’s environmental community have the opportu-nity to come together to celebrate our important work. What’s special aboutthis awards dinner is the breadth of its outreach. The Atlantic Chapter will behonoring not only our stalwart volunteers, but members of the labor, religious,student, business, and political communities, all united in their specific effortsto protect the environment.

The Atlantic Chapter Awards Dinner will feature an original art sale duringthe cocktail hour to support our Chapter’s work. (If original artists would liketo consider showing their work, or if there are any questions, please [email protected] or (516) 410-8461 to discuss details.)

The cocktail hour, starting at 6 p.m., will be followed by dinner at 7 p.m.The Inn at Great Neck is a leisurely five-minute walk downhill from the

Great Neck train station, 35 minutes from New York City. It’s located at 30Cuttermill Road in Great Neck.

For dinner tickets, please send a $75 check, payable to Atlantic Chapter Si-erra Club, to Sierra Club Atlantic Chapter, PO Box 886, Syosset, NY 11791-0886.Donations are not tax deductible.

FRANK MORRIS

Join us at awards dinner June 6

grown.org.) Last year almost 100farmers from around the countryand world visited the farm to learnabout their methods.

Ron works with the InternationalFederation of Organic AgricultureMovements. He serves the UnitedNations Food and Agricultural Orga-nization as its international organiccertification consultant.

Ron and Kate have made veganicfarming a viable occupation, in partbecause they’re growing truly greatfood. But they’ll be the first to tellyou it takes much more than that. Tomake their business cost effectivethey have had to be innovative, aswell as becoming efficiency experts.Among the impressive list of Ron’sinnovations are a solar electric trac-tor (instructions are on their web-site), a radiant heating system fortheir greenhouse and the CoolBot, asystem to run their walk-in coolerusing a standard air conditioner.

Ron considers the latter to be hismost precious invention so far. TheNew York State Energy Research andDevelopment Agency is supporting itand the United Nations wants to putthem in developing countries to re-duce losses due to food spoilage.

Ron took time from his busyschedule to answer questions fromthe editors of Vegetarian Voice maga-zine.

In what ways is veganic/or-ganic growing similar to tradi-tional organic practices andwhere are the departures?

RK: The biggest difference is justin our fertility choices. Historically,organic farmers were very partial tothe idea that animals and animalwastes are a necessary part of ahealthy and holistic farm nutrientsystem. The farmer would keep ani-mals (which were eating hay grownon that farm) and recycle the wastesback into the fields. Whether or notyou are vegetarian, you can appreci-ate the “full-circle” ideals of thosefirst organic farmers.

Now, of course, modern USDAcertified organic farms are nothinglike that. The organic industry onboth large and small farms in the U.S.is completely wedded to factory-farmed confinement animal opera-tions. Mostly it’s the chicken indus-try, but there’s also fish emulsion,bone meal, blood meal and

leathermeal that you’ll find in la-beled organic fertilizers.

Many other farms just get bulkdrop-offs either by the dump truckload or in what are known as “1000-lb. Super Sacks” of offal, including thewaste from the live animals as wellthe ground up and sometimes pellet-ized bodies of the culls. It’s not justthe cruelty that this represents butwhat you end up eating. When youbite into that USDA certified organiccarrot that you probably bought atthe health food store, you have tothink about what those animals arefed, including antibiotics, hormonesand growth regulators like arsenic.All that stuff builds up in the animals’bodies and then it’s spread onto theorganic fields. And right now, no onereally seems to care.

There’s a great report from theUniversity of Minnesota from last fallabout how the antibiotics used inthe factory chicken farms does notbreak down in the chickens’ bodies...does not break down after the [or-ganic] farmer spreads it on hisfields... and does not break down asit’s taken up by the carrots and pota-toes and lettuce you buy in your lo-cal health food store. But would yourather buy conventionally growncarrots (which also use factoryfarmed wastes) or conventional pota-toes that are grown with “systemic”

pesticides that enter the tissue of theplant so the farmer only has to sprayonce a year (though you can neverwash them off!)? It’s just a reallyweird time to be trying to live“healthy” in the U.S. right now.

How do you maintain soil fer-tility? How do veganic methodscreate healthy, well-balancedsoil? Do you depend on outsidesources for any soil amendments?Do you think you could ever cre-ate a completely closed cycle onyour farm?

RK: This could be a whole articlein and of itself, but the crux is that weplant a lot of “green manure” covercrops. Basically, where another farmermight plant a hay crop to feed to hiscows... and then he takes the manurefrom the cows and uses it to fertilizehis vegetable crop fields and build uphis soil, we do the same thing, but wejust eliminate the cow from the pic-ture. So... we grow crops to feed themicro-organisms in the soil. Someleguminous crops, like soybeans, peasand vetches, have a relationship withbeneficial bacteria that fix nitrogenfrom the soil. Then there are othersthat we grow just to build up the car-bon in the soil, which helps us tobuild up organic matter in generaland helps hold water like a sponge.By eliminating the cow, we’re actuallymore efficient.

Can we ever create a completelyclosed cycle on our farm? Well, wecan’t really make a completely closedcycle unless we want to start collect-ing all the waste from the hundredsof humans who get their summerproduce here (including their bodieswhen they’re done with them!). Wecompost everything we can, andencourage the farm members tobring their compost back to thefarm as well. The local tree trim-mers bring truck loads of woodchips, too. I think we’re about asclose as we can practically hope tobe to run a closed system.

Would you say that your farmis more environmentally friendlythan the standard organic farmthat raises animals?

RK: Well... we visit a lot of farms,

Creative technology,ban on manure drawsbacking from UN

A toddler helps Dad pick vegetables at Huguenot Street Farm in the Hudson Valley. Thanks toearly recognition and support by the Mid-Hudson Group, the farm’s innovativeness has made ita model for organic farmers worldwide.


Are ‘green’ jobs any different?

by Jessica Helm, Conservation Chair

Conservation Action

Darwin still influencing thought about the natural world

Add the word “green” to anythingthese days and you give it anew market and a new image,

without any real change required.Are green jobs any different?

Green jobs are real, and the oppor-tunities are great.

Past economic growth and profithave relied on cheap and disposablenatural resources. These resourceswere plentiful, and the immediatecosts were very low compared withprofits. The true cost of massive re-source extraction, production, andconsumption was hidden. The costwas hidden in emergency roomasthma admissions and in pollutedrivers, neurological disease in fieldworkers and lung disease in mineworkers, and in increasing levels ofatmospheric carbon dioxide.

The good news is that these costshave become too great to hide. Thetrue costs have grown so high thataddressing them is becoming lessexpensive than business as usual!

Energy is a prime example of this

changing reality. Traditionally, theonly costs that affected the energymarket were the actual costs of fuelextraction and energy production.Then, in 2008, New York State Attor-ney General Andrew Cuomo reachedan agreement with one of thenation’s largest power plant builders,Xcel, that requires Xcel to fully in-form investors about the risks cli-mate change poses to its business.Now U.S. Energy Secretary StephenChu is saying that a tax on carboncould be in our future. As energycosts begin to include the costs tothe environment, efficiency in everysector of the economy becomes abetter investment.

Green jobs and businesses canturn a profit with conservation —income comes from protecting ourresources rather than exhaustingthem. This is a paradigm shift.

At present, the focus is on greenjobs related to energy productionand efficiency, in part because theseare the most obviously related to

fossil fuel use and climate change. Toreduce greenhouse gas concentra-tions to safer levels (below 350 partsper million of atmospheric carbondioxide, compared to 387 parts permillion at present) will take a majorsustained effort. Millions of workerswill be needed across the country. A2008 report from the Center forAmerican Progress estimates thatNew York could add 130,000 jobs injust two years with a one-time$7 billion investment in green jobs.That’s six percent of a single year ofthe state’s annual budget, or five per-cent of the portion of the stimuluspackage going to energy stimulus.By the second year the entire invest-ment would be returned to the stateeconomy in wages!

Weatherization and home effi-ciency retrofits will provide a majoropportunity for contractors, electri-cians, plumbers, engineers, and re-lated occupations in the now slug-gish building sector. Electrical utili-ties will need to work day and night

to meet the complex technical re-quirements of an electrical gridtransitioning to renewable sources.

Our universities will train a gen-eration of scientists and engineers inmaterials science, physics, and engi-neering. All this is from the energysector alone. The logic of a sustain-able economy also quickly expandsto encompass food sources, drinkingand waste water infrastructure,manufacturing and service industries,and ripples outwards to reshape ev-ery aspect of our world.

What can we do to help take ourcountry and our ailing economy inthis new direction? By supportingresearch and development in energyefficiency and renewable energy wecan generate an ongoing demand forworkers at every level from basicscience to the rooftop. We canstrengthen regulatory agencies andfund them to enforce our environ-mental laws, and reward good busi-ness practice by offering incentivesfor sustainable behavior. We can votewith our wallets by selecting locallyand sustainably produced goods andservices. Finally, we can talk to ourleaders and tell them about greenjobs. On May 5, our Earth Day LobbyDay will provide the perfect oppor-tunity to do so — sign up for ActionAlerts for more information: [email protected] .org with themessage “Subscribe ATL-ACTION-ALERTS@LISTS. SIERRACLUB. ORG,your first and last name.”

by Moisha Blechman

In 1837, 28-year-old Charles Dar-win wrote in his notebook, “Onespecies does change into another.”

At the time it was an inviolate truismthat plants and animals were fixedand permanent. That point of viewwas a foundation stone for the entireinternational culture.

Challenging an entire culture is aserious undertaking and, interestingly,after 150 years, it is still going on.What was it about Darwin thatopened his mind in such a completeand prescient way that On the Originof Species is still alive both as a scien-tific text and as a great piece of litera-ture? How is it that Darwin wrote abook that is today still considered themost significant single scientific bookever published, and that still exerts anextraordinary influence?

I am in awe of how Darwinthought very carefully and deeplyabout his observations and then said,in effect: I suppose this or that maywell be true. He then explains thebasis for his thoughts.

Ever since, scientists have beenfleshing out these suppositions, in adetail Darwin never imagined, and inthe process proving him correct.Although that detail represents 99percent of our knowledge, it rests onDarwin’s one percent. Scientists re-main astonished at how much he gotright. There was much he did notknow, such as plate tectonics, yetscience has come down solidly onhis side. It appears Darwin’s work isthe backbone of the natural sciences.

Being a towering genius is not the

whole story of how Darwin becameDarwin. We should take the opportu-nity at Darwin’s 200th birthday toexamine those factors that made hissuccess possible.

The first is the intellectual milieuof his family. He grew up in a familywho, over several generations, in-sisted on thinking freely for them-selves. Intellectual prohibitions ormythologies did not exist. The Dar-win family was considered progres-sive and “free thinkers.” It is amazingthe extent to which people closedoors in their minds, effectively edit-ing their thoughts before they evenhave them. Not Darwin’s mind. Itwas wide open.

Second, Darwin was absolute inhis fidelity to the truth, which hepursued through constant and pas-sionate observation. And then he

connected the dots. In a way, howcould he fail if all his thoughts werebased exclusively on the observationof reality? But this is not easy to do.It takes rigorous discipline.

Darwin demonstrated that thepursuit of truth is the foundation of arational society, which can makeprogress in either the arts or scienceonly to the measure of its integrity.

For Darwin, nothing was too small

Charles Darwin

or insignificant to study. He couldnot help but mention that an animalor bird was wonderful. In time hecalled them his “ardent” loves.

How would he feel if he werealive today? He would immediatelysee that we, worldwide, are involvedin the rapid dissolution of everythinghe studied.Moisha Blechman chairs the Chapter’sGlobal Warming Committee.

Executive Committee Reportby James Lane, Secretary

The Atlantic Chapter ExCom held its annual organizational meeting in NewYork City and thereafter in telephone conference calls. Elected Chapterofficers for 2009 are: chair, Susan Lawrence; vice chair, Frank Morris; secre-

tary, Jim Lane; assistant secretary, Harold Cohen; treasurer, Steve Kulick; SierraClub Council delegate, Rachel Treichler; alternate Council delegate, Frank Mor-ris; NERC delegates: Jessica Helm and Bonnie Lane Webber; first NERC alter-nate, Frank Eadie; second NERC alternate, Margaret Hays Young. The SteeringCommittee is Susan Lawrence, Frank Morris, Moisha Blechman, DianeBuxbaum, Jessica Helm, Jim Lane, Hugh Mitchell, Jurgen Wekerle, Annie Wilson.In the appointed positions, Jessica Helm succeeded Hugh Mitchell as Conser-vation chair, with Hugh now serving as assistant Conservation chair. TheExCom also adopted a calendar and a budget for 2009. The budget envisions adeficit (a drawdown from reserves), arising in part from difficult economicconditions and in part from initial outlays this year that, it is hoped, will im-prove our fundraising and online media abilities.

The Chapter will hold an awards dinner at The Inn at Great Neck on theevening of Saturday, June 6, in conjunction with the quarterly ExCom meeting.See page 3 for details. The Chapter made its first-ever endorsements for thenational Board of Directors (see page 7). Finally, the ExCom approved SierraClub participation as amicus curiae in Save the Pine Bush v. Common Coun-cil of Albany, a lawsuit involving the issue of standing to sue under state law.


2009’s core issues: clean energy economy, clean water

Albany Update

by Norreida Reyes, Conservation Director

This message becomes clearerevery single day: the success ofboth the economy and the envi-

ronment are powerfully intertwined.In the midst of devastating losses inthe stock and housing markets, anextraordinary opportunity has arisento change the way the public usesenergy, and to make great stridesagainst global warming.

This year, the Atlantic Chapter hasdesignated the twin core issues of aclean energy economy and cleanwater as our top legislative prioritiesin Albany. We are urging legislatorsand the governor to leverage federalstimulus monies in direct spendingon clean energy technologies andecological restoration investmentsthat create the green jobs that willboost the state’s economy. Billions ofdollars and many tons of reducedcarbon emissions are at stake.

This is why the Chapter organizedour first-ever statewide District Of-fice Lobby Day. As I am writing this,members of the Atlantic Chapter allacross the state are poised to turnout in force on March 6 at local legis-lative district offices to urge statesenators and assemblymembers toprioritize green jobs for a greenplanet. We will continue to keep thepressure on the Legislature as well asstate agencies, as they will be direct-ing the stimulus funds to localitiesthrough existing programs.

Although the state is set to receivebillions in stimulus monies, it is alsobillions of dollars in budgetary defi-cit. The state’s Environmental Protec-tion Fund (EPF) is slated to be cut by$95 million — a 32 percent cut. Thegovernor has proposed $124 million

from unclaimed Bottle Bill depositsto help mitigate that loss, but theBottle Bill was supposed to supple-ment the EPF monies, not replacethem. If the Bottle Bill does not pass,then vital environmental protectionprograms — including open spaceinitiatives — will be indefinitely on hold.

The Department of EnvironmentalConservation (DEC) is also losingmany vital staffing positions throughattrition due to budget cuts. Alreadyunderstaffed for years during thePataki administration, these disap-pearing positions greatly undermineDEC’s ability to enforce laws andincrease risks to the environmentand human health and safety.

The turbulence from this time lastyear, beginning with the resignationof Governor Spitzer, is finally subsid-ing as our new Senate majoritysettles into its leadership role.Buffalo’s Antoine Thompson, the newSenate environmental conservationchair, has a solid environmental trackrecord and shares many of the SierraClub’s priorities. With AssemblymanBob Sweeney, he is a co-sponsor onthe Greenhouse Gas Pollution Con-trol Cap bill, which has an excellentchance of passing this year.

Some of the top priority legisla-tion that Albany staff and volunteersare working to enact this year include:

Greenhouse Gas PollutionControl Cap This bill would directthe DEC to develop programs thatwould reduce statewide globalwarming pollution 80 percent by2050. Calls for reporting from allsources are to begin this year.

Wetlands Protection Act Thiswould protect isolated wetlands of

one to 12.5 acres in size no longerprotected under federal law.

Environmental Access to Jus-tice Act This measure would restorethe original legislative intent of theState Environmental Quality ReviewAct (SEQRA) by allowing groups ofindividuals to challenge a SEQRAdecision if they can demonstrate thatthey will suffer harm as a result ofproposed projects’ environmentalimpact, without having to show thatharm is different from that sufferedby the public at large.

eWaste This bill would requiremanufacturers to submit for stateapproval an electronic waste man-agement plan and implement theplan. Manufacturers would also berequired to collect a minimum of 25percent of their annual equipmentsales (by weight) each year, and in-crease the collection rate to 45 percent.

Marcellus shale natural gasdrilling The Atlantic Chapter willcontinue to participate in theSupplemental Generic Environmen-tal Impact Study process to ensurethat new applications to horizontallydrill for natural gas in deep shaleformations will be absolutely protec-tive of water, air, ecosystem and ourcommunities. Through legislation, wewould like to see severance taxesand permit fee increases to supportinspection and enforcement of thenatural gas industry, more authoritygiven to local governments to man-age the impacts of drilling, full disclo-sure and accountability for drillingfluids and wastes, and authoritygranted to the DEC to regulate allconsumptive water withdrawals.

At the time of this writing, thenew Senate had not yet introducedall the new bills that would be perti-nent to this column. Your Albany staffwill keep you updated through Ac-tion Alerts and through the Chapter’sLegislative Committee. There will bea number of opportunities to lobbyfor top-priority legislation. Join us onTuesday, May 5, Earth Day LobbyDay, in Albany. June is always busywith a final legislative push — yourparticipation to push priority billscan make all the difference in creat-ing wins for the environment.

If you haven’t already done so,please sign up for Action Alerts to-day! To do this, e-mail: [email protected] with the message “Sub-scribe [email protected]. ORG, your first and lastname.”

continued from page 1

Natural Gas: Feds should step uptrayed by industry sources. We needa planned regional approach thatacknowledges the profound impactthat such development will have onthe landscape and community life.

Recommendations• The exemptions for the O&G

producers in the 2005 Energy Actshould all be removed. CongressmanMaurice Hinchey (D-NY) and Con-gresswoman Diana DeGette (D-CO)are working on this with H.R. 7231,but the Senate has no comparablebill at this time.

• The exemptions for O&G priorto 2005 (such as those in the CleanAir Act and in EPA regs under theResource Conservation RecoveryAct) should also be removed. Thefree pass for O&G should end. Thereare no plausible reasons for the in-dustry not to bear the full real costof production.

• The EPA has been foot-draggingsince 2002 on implementing newrequirements for spill prevention,control, and countermeasure (SPCC).Spills of dangerous, hazardous, andtoxic substances are a major sourceof environmental contamination.Revised requirements should beimplemented now.

• The Kid-Safe Chemical Act (H.R.6100, and parallel bill in the Senate)is being sponsored by SenatorSchumer, Congressman Hinchey andothers. It could be invoked to controlgas drilling, which is likely to impair

water and air quality near schools,daycare centers, playgrounds, andparks. The burden needs to be placedsquarely on industry to prove safety.The public cannot be expected toprove danger when industry is con-cealing the toxic chemicals it is using.

• Build wastewater infrastructurenow. One of the very clear needs inNew York, and likely in other states,is for an order-of-magnitude improve-ment in the facilities for handling theextremely large volumes (millions ofgallons per well) of the hazardous/toxic waste fluid produced by natu-ral gas production. For example,Pittsburgh-area authorities had tostop disposal of drilling wastewaterin the Monongahela River, a sourceof drinking water, after they discov-ered very serious contamination ofthe river. New York, too, lacks a co-herent plan for disposal of large-scalegas drilling waste. Because there areno authorized treatment facilities,the current options include: (1)spreading on dirt roads, (2) truckingwaste out of state, and (3) injectionwells (to store the waste deep in theground in perpetuity). None is a goodoption. The federal governmentshould not allow gas drilling withoutproof of access to appropriate dis-posal facilities, preferably built byentrepreneurs or the O&G industry.Stanley Scobie, Ph.D., is a landowner inBinghamton, where he retired as a pro-fessor of psychology at Binghamton Uni-versity. Roger Downs, Wes Gillingham,Deborah Goldberg, and Michael Lebronhelped with development of this article.

One of the Chapter’s toplegislative priorities thisyear is the WetlandsProtection Act, whichwould protect wetlandsof one to 12.5 acres insize. Wetlands in thissize category are nolonger protected underfederal law. Also criticalis passage of the BottleBill, which would helpcontrol litter and replacefunds the governorproposes to cut from thestate’s EnvironmentalProtection Fund.


Mamaroneck goes cool: Mom has no choice but to ‘step it up’by Catherine Hiller

Remember Step It Up? In De-cember, 2006, five Middleburystudents and their advisor,

noted environmental author BillMcKibben, launched a website and aclimate change campaign. Theywanted to trigger a series of publicactions on a single day, April 14,2007, to call attention to globalwarming. Their method was Internetorganizing: a flexible template thatcould be applied locally, offereddownloadable posters and docu-ments, and a dynamic, inspiringwebsite. They ultimately initiated1,400 actions nationwide.

I organized an event inMamaroneck. Full disclosure: I wasconscripted. My son, Jon Warnow,was one of those Middlebury stu-dents, and one day on the phone hesaid, “I can’t believe there isn’t a StepIt Up event in Mamaroneck!” Whatchoice did I have? Our rally at Har-bor Island Park attracted kayakers,kite-flyers, singer Elza, and Congress-woman Nita Lowey. One hundredfifty people signed our petition.

When the chance came to bringabout change, not just awareness, Icouldn’t resist. I signed on as theCool Cities lead in Mamaroneck.Cool Cities provided our town withSierra Club credibility, a national net-work and achievable goals.

The first step was assembling aCool Cities group. I wrote to all theSierra Club members in my zip code(most were actual, U.S. postal deliv-ery letters!) and to everyone whohad signed the Step It Up petition,asking them to meet in my home. Ibegged my husband, Mark Thomp-son, to sit in the room with us so theturnout would be less pathetic. I washappy when we got 11 people, andMark volunteered to take minutes,which he has continued to do twicea month since December, 2007.

One meeting a month is notenough to accomplish much fast, sowe meet twice a month. But meet-ings are onerous: everybody knowsthat! I decided to try a one-hourmeeting policy. Somehow that one-hour limit makes us very efficient,and at 8 p.m., one hour is not a bigcommitment.

At first, in January, 2008, we werediligently working the Cool Citiessteps. We knew we had a special op-portunity because a new village ad-ministration with an ecologically-minded mayor had just been elected.Our first goal was to get the mayorto authorize a municipal greenhousegas emissions audit, so we invited themayor to an early Cool Cities meeting.

We were very surprised when shetold our group that global warmingwas not even on her list of top 40priorities! She sympathized, she said“some day,” but she held out littlehope for early action. She had toomuch else to do, having inheritedmany problems from the previousadministration.

And, indeed, running a village isnot an easy job. For a tiny salary,mayors often work ten-hour days andgo to many meetings, most of whichdo not have a one-hour limit! Still, we

felt our cause had been unnecessar-ily deferred.

The mayor wanted to know whatwas involved in an audit, so wewrote a report. Steve O’Rourke, anactive member of our group, ar-ranged for an intern from the Collegeof New Rochelle to input data intothe audit software. We raised moneythrough the WESPAC Foundation andan anonymous donor to join LocalGovernments for Sustainability(ICLEI). No response from the mayorand trustees.

We began reaching out to thecommunity. We showed a film, “Six

Degrees Can Change the World.” Weset up a table at our Historic StreetFair, with an eco quiz and children’sactivities. We had a seminar withRosalind Peterson, of CaliforniaSkyWatch, in a local church.

We sent out minutes about all ofour activities to many more than ourcore team. One meeting’s minutessummarized our discussion aboutupcoming elections, noting that wewanted to throw our support behindthose candidates who supported us.As we were disappointed by our cur-rent officials, we would be exploringour options.

Two days later we heard from themayor, saying she was ready to autho-rize an ICLEI audit. Somehow, we hadmade it to a higher spot on her list ofpriorities! Coincidence? Perhaps. Inany event, I was delighted to sitdown and talk.

On October 14, our board of trust-ees and the mayor unanimouslyvoted on a resolution to join ICLEI.The trustees will see that the villagemoves through ICLEI’s five mile-stones of sustainability. We were gladto see that campaign literature forthe fall elections stated that the trust-ees up for reelection had “workedwith Cool Cities.”

Now, as we await the result of ouraudit, we are planning the Earth Daylaunch of our new campaign,MAGnet: Mamaroneck Avenue GreenNetwork. We will promote localshopping and recognize participat-ing businesses with a sticker on theirdoor if they take significant steps togreen their businesses.

It has quickly become clear thatour “interim project” is likely to keepus busy for years!Catherine Hiller, a writer and editor(www.ExecutiveEditor.com), is a mem-ber of the Lower Hudson group and thelead of Cool Cities Mamaroneck.

by Bob Siegel and Linda Isaacson Fedele

In keeping with Sierra Club’s num-ber one priority — addressingglobal warming via the Climate

Recovery Campaign — the RochesterGroup has been working to engageindividuals and households in curb-ing carbon emissions. And, to put itmildly, we have rather ambitiousplans for a major three-year cam-paign starting this year.

This past fall, our Global Warmingand Energy Committee rolled out theLow Carbon Diet Challenge. We cre-ated partnerships with the City ofRochester, several suburban towns,and dozens of other sponsors, andtogether facilitated eight three-ses-sion workshops around the Roches-ter area. At each site, trained facilita-tors led discussions about howhouseholds can reduce their carbonfootprint, and participants were chal-lenged to reduce theirs by 5,000pounds, five percent of the averagehousehold’s emissions. The programwas based on David Gershon’s LowCarbon Diet workbook, which laysout actions to reduce household car-bon emissions while saving money,energy, and, hopefully, the planet.The challenge was both to reduceone’s household emissions and tocompete against the other teams inthe community for the greatest re-ductions.

In total, 119 households partici-pated across the Rochester area.While not all households reportedtheir results, we saw an average re-duction of 10 percent in carbonemissions. Those reporting yieldedthe following statistics:

• cumulative household carbonemissions savings/year: 400,634 lbs.

• average household carbon sav-ings/year: 10,828 lbs.

• total loss pledged by year’s endvia engaging others: 257,000 lbs./year.

Perhaps more impressive than thecarbon emissions saved was the sup-port garnered for this effort. Commu-nity leaders — including Rochester’smayor, town supervisors, village may-ors, school superintendents, and thepresident of Rochester Institute ofTechnology — all supported the ef-fort, enthusiastically encouragingparticipation, providing resources,and even taking the Challenge them-selves, thus acting as true role mod-els for the community.

At the completion of the Chal-lenge, a grand awards celebrationwas held at Rochester’s City Hall,hosted by the mayor and attended byparticipants from all eight sites andthe general public alike. Individualsand teams were recognized for thegreatest carbon reductions, and “just-for-fun” awards were given, too. Non-participant groups were also recog-nized for other environmental ef-forts, including newly established

town-sponsored “green teams,” aswell as grassroots environmentalgroups.

At the celebration, committeemembers announced that this wasnot the end, but the beginning of amajor effort to “scale up” this initia-tive to a truly community-wide effort.The team threw down the gauntlet,announcing the ambitious goal of100,000 or more Rochester area resi-dents going through the programover the next three years, with theaim of reducing our region’s annualcarbon emissions by hundreds ofmillions of pounds. At this point, weknew that the program was a suc-cess based on the level of excite-ment generated, the level of support,and, perhaps most importantly, thenumber of volunteers who signed upto help continue the effort.

Our goals might sound bold, andthey are, but the effort is also neces-sary, for the situation is dire. AsGershon writes, of all the options

Carbon reduction drive takes ‘cool’ Rochester by storm

Students at Fairport High School prepared murals for the awards celebration. Other studentsprovided child care while their parents attended carbon reduction workshops.

continued on next page

Activists in the town of Mamaroneck are planning the Earth Day launch of a new campaign,MAGnet: Mamaroneck Avenue Green Network. It will promote local shopping and recognizebusinesses with a sticker on their door if they take significant steps to green their businesses.


Of senators, CAFOs and cows

continued from page 12

by Larry Beahan[The following article first ap-

peared as an op-ed piece in the Janu-ary 5 edition of the Buffalo News.]

The Environmental ProtectionAgency is proposing a well-deserved tax on the greenhouse

gas, methane, produced by New Yorkstate’s 146,600 dairy cows. Industrialfarm lobbyists seem to have gottento Senator Schumer, because he callssuch control “absurd.” Tell the senatorhe has stepped into something thatsmells.

We all favored “right-to-farm” laws.Then corporations invented CAFOs(concentrated animal feeding opera-tions). These polluting profit ma-chines flew in under the radar. Nowthey produce 80 percent of our milk

and meat. We have 14 of them in ErieCounty. Wyoming County has thehighest concentration of them in thestate.

In 2003, 1,000 small New Yorkstate farms closed, unable to com-pete with expensive, federally-subsi-dized CAFOs. These factory farmscan feed 7,500 cows jammed intotiny lots. The manure from these lotsdrains into lagoons to evaporate intothe air and seep into the water.

In 1920 my dad was a 16-year-oldfarm hand on the Black River. Cowsin his charge wandered in pastures.In a balanced cycle they ate the grasswhich their manure fertilized.

Now, oceans of cow manure pro-duced by CAFOs are so far from croplands that transporting it makes ma-nure too expensive to use as fertil-

izer. It is loaded with bacteria: giardia,salmonella and E. coli. It is contami-nated with hormones and antibioticsfed to the animals to keep them alive.Fumes given off are hydrogen sulfide,ammonia, methane and carbon diox-ide. They are nauseating, irritating,flammable, explosive and potentcontributors to global warming.

The United Nations warned, inLivestock’s Long Shadow: Environ-mental Issues and Options, “Live-stock are responsible for 18% ofgreenhouse gas emissions, a biggershare than that of transportation.”

In The Wasting of Rural NewYork State, the Sierra Club quotes aformer resident of Eden who livednext to a 400-head factory cow farmon Church Street in the middle ofthat village. He said, “They are mak-ing me ill in my own house.”

John Minick, of Ransomville inNiagara County, says, “You can sit inthis house with the windows closedand taste it.” He lives a mile from a3,000-head CAFO.

In the Finger Lakes region, theMather family farm is near WillettDairy’s 7,500-cow feed lot. Groundwater and air pollution have forcedthe Mathers and neighbors to takeWillett to court. They complained tome, “What about our freedom tofarm? We can’t even go outside andbreathe the air.”

The Freedom to Farm Law shouldprotect farms — not factories, notCAFOs. It has tied the hands of localgovernments.

The DEC is understaffed andunderfunded. In 2005, a huge CAFOmanure lagoon spilled into 20 milesof the Black River, killing 375,000fish. That disaster is a wake-up call tothe DEC.

If Senator Schumer has been toEden lately he did not inhale. I was atthe Church Street farm recently. Itsmells bad.Beahan is a member of the NiagaraGroup and serves on the Chapter’s ex-ecutive committee. He also chairs theopen space/sprawl committee.

available to us, only energy conserva-tion is immediately and affordablyavailable to millions of people. Fortu-nately, it can also be tremendouslyeffective.

So, we are now officially under-way on our scale-up efforts. We areplanning a major roll-out in thespring. The new name is “Cool Roch-ester.” Results and information willbe posted on www.greenopolis.com.We will be working directly withDavid Gershon, who will be helpingus with strategy and logistics. He isconcurrently working on the “CoolMass” program, in which the goal isto have 25 percent of householdsacross Massachusetts reduce theircarbon emissions 25 percent by2012. Perhaps a New York statewideeffort is next?

For more information, [email protected]; phonethe Rochester Regional Group at 585-234-1056; or see newyork.sierraclub.org/Rochester/lcd.htmBob Siegel and Linda Isaacson Fedele aremembers of the Rochester Group’sexecutive committee; both serve on theGroup’s global warming and energycommittee, which Siegel co-chairs.

continued from previous page

‘Cool’ Rochester

Bridge, will bring together representatives from Canada and the U.S. to markthe treaty and call attention to the need to continue to protect the Great Lakes.

Several members from the Niagara Group attended a hearing called by theDEC in January to oppose an attempt by Chemical Waste Management to ex-pand its current site without a new permitting process. The proposal, tenta-tively given approval by the DEC, does not change the boundaries of the land-fill but reduces the size of the cap, greatly increasing the capacity so that160,000 more tons of toxic wastes could be brought there. Bob Ciesielski, ourGroup chair, Art Klein, and others protested this and called upon the adminis-trative judge to reverse this DEC approval. The Niagara County Legislature hasstated that if it is not stopped it will initiate a lawsuit.

CHARLES LAMB

SusquehannaGroup focuses on gas drilling, partnership with sustainability coalition

Our principal activist focus in the past four months has been on the issuessurrounding the proposed drilling for natural gas in the deep Marcellus shaleformation. This region of New York’s Southern Tier and Pennsylvania’s North-ern Tier are prime locations for use of new technologies for fracturing deeprock formations (about 10,000 ft. down) with high-pressure water whichforces out natural gas. This involves use of very large volumes of water (mil-lions of gallons), mixed with proprietary fracturing fluids of unknown toxicity,large numbers of heavy trucks to drill each well, considerable noise from thedrilling, construction of access roads and “gathering” pipelines to connectwells to major trunk pipelines. To educate the public about this major threatto the environment, the Group (largely through the efforts of former Groupchair Scott Lauffer) co-sponsored a forum last October, “Making Sure We Get itRight,” which brought in speakers from around the State. We have also sched-uled films and future speakers at our meetings on the subject.

We are also linked with a new Binghamton Regional Sustainability Coalition(BRSC) which is promoting and coordinating sustainability issues in the re-gion. Food issues (a food coop, community gardens, farmers’ markets, and ac-cessible grocery stores) and the natural gas issue have been major foci. OurChris Burger, chair of the Chapter’s solid waste committee, is co-leader ofBRSC and is organizing a two-day, regional sustainability conference in Bing-hamton scheduled for mid-March.

The Group awarded its annual Lynda Spickard Award (for environmentalservice to the community) to Virginia Oggins, a community volunteer whoserved on and chaired many local environmental groups over the past threedecades. She was particularly appreciated for her exacting diligence in gettingthings done and done right.

JULIAN SHEPHERD

Group Roundup

by Susan Lawrence

By now you have heard thenews of Governor Paterson’sappointment of Congress-

woman Kirsten Gillibrand as the jun-ior U.S. Senator from New York.

The Sierra Club leaders and staffwho have come to know KirstenGillibrand by working actively forher elections in 2006 and 2008 fullyunderstand how well qualified she isto be our senator. The Hudson-Mohawk Group, the Atlantic Chapterand national Sierra Club stronglyendorsed her in 2006 and 2008, andthe national Sierra Club provideddollar and staff support to help withher key elections.

Kirsten has a keen intelligenceand is amazingly knowledgeableabout a range of key issues and pri-orities. She has been very open in

meeting with her constituents, hasheld many open houses around thedistrict and listens and learns, as wellas very clearly communicating herthoughts to those attending.

I have been fortunate enough,along with other leaders from theHudson-Mohawk Group and our re-gionally-based national staff, to havemet with her at least three times forin-depth conversations on SierraClub concerns. I assume her doorwill certainly be open to us in thefuture. She says she will work hardfor initiatives to reduce global warm-ing, including new technologies anddevelopment of green jobs for NewYork. Her track record to date as oneof the new Congressional leaderswho gets things done bodes well forour state.Susan Lawrence is chair of the AtlanticChapter.

Senator Gillibrand open to Club’s concerns

You will be receiving a ballotfor voting in the election formembers of the national boardof directors. The board has 15members, with five elected eachyear for a three-year term.

The Atlantic Chapter recom-mends a vote for Lane Boldmanand Frank Morris in the upcom-ing election for the Sierra Club’sBoard of Directors.

Chapter endorses twofor national board

Senator Kirsten Gillibrand


sions and tried to block agreementby the other nations to curb globalwarming.

Bush’s disinformation became adefining element of his policy, whichwas echoed by big media, and con-fused the public enough to avoid asignificant backlash. Never againwould we see the mass outcry thatcreated the EPA in 1970. TheAdministration’s covert attempts todeny the science was exposed inOctober, 2004, when James E.Hansen testified before Congressthat the Bush administration wasrejecting or deleting material fromhis agency’s reports on global warm-ing. Interference with scientific find-ings became a standard tool in hisanti-environmental strategy.

A key goal in Bush’s environmen-tal policy was the elimination of allregulations. He did this by repeatedlygutting or weakening the Clean Airand Clean Water acts, de-funding en-forcement and falsifying data, as ex-emplified by decisions on arsenic,formaldehyde, mercury, lead, PCBs,and a common farm pesticide thatkills honey bees. The Administrationrepeatedly declared the highly toxicair in New York City safe after 9/11,and pulled the rug out from underimplementation of PCB cleanup inthe Hudson River.

George W. Bush devoted himself tokilling the Endangered Species Act(ESA). He did not succeed, but hesubstantially weakened it. Onemethod of attack that he used for allthe agencies was to hire a directorwho would subvert its purpose inevery conceivable way. For example,the person who headed the endan-gered species program of the U.S.Fish and Wildlife Service intervenedrepeatedly to prevent new additionsto the ESA list, and intervened im-properly to overrule the recommen-dations of field biologists. The pur-pose was to release lands for re-source extraction. This is why Bushfought endlessly to keep polar bearsoff the ESA list. He did succeed inremoving ESA status for wolves andgrizzly bears, which has opened upthe slaughter of both. To date, up-wards of 700 wolves have beenkilled.

It was for the same reason that inMarch, 2001 — soon after takingoffice — Bush started to roll backthe “Roadless Rule” created byClinton at the end of his presidency.Only roadless areas have a chance atremaining wild, and only they can betrue sanctuaries for our dwindlingwildlife and for maintaining a frac-tion of our ancient forests. Theselands belong to the American people,

Not to worry, Mr. Bush: You have your legacy — it’s black, not greenby Moisha Blechman

During the election campaign in2000, George W. Bush promisedto cap CO

2 emissions from coal-

burning power plants. Less than twomonths into his presidency, he re-neged on his promise, declaring thatCO

2 is not a pollutant and, therefore,

not covered by the Clean Air Act.This was the fastest turnaround

on a campaign promise in the his-tory of the presidency. It took yearsbefore Bush admitted that globalwarming existed, and more yearsbefore he finally had to recognizethat it was due to man’s activity.

In 2007, it took the SupremeCourt to rule the inescapable truth,that CO

2 is a pollutant. Under the

Clean Air Act, the Environmental Pro-tection Agency (EPA) is required toregulate pollutants. In defiance of thelaw, the EPA under Bush did nothingto regulate CO

2.

This was the single most definingenvironmental issue of the Bush ad-ministration. As the planet heats up,and the damage becomes increas-ingly apparent, George W. Bush willforever be the symbol of cata-strophic global warming.

Up to his last days in office, hewas fervent in his opposition tobinding reductions of global warm-ing pollution. (Under Bush’s watch,global warming pollution increasedby 6.6 percent and oil dependencegrew by 10 percent.) As late as June,2008, the White House refused toopen an e-mail from the EPA report-ing that global warming pollutionfrom vehicles endangered public health.

In 2001, Bush rejected participa-tion in the Kyoto Treaty.

Environmentalists felt that themanner of his exit provided the mostsustained damage by casting doubton the science that underpinned theneed to deal with climate change.“The idea of a head of state puttingthe science question on the table theway that he did was horrifying tomost of the rest of the world,” saidEileen Claussen, president of the PewCenter on Global Climate Change. Ateach successive meeting of the par-ties to the Kyoto agreement, theBush administration remained ac-tively obstructionist. For example, inBali in December, 2007, Bush refusedto accept mandatory caps on emis-

who, through millions of letters, de-clared their strong wish to keep theRoadless Rule.

Bush never considered his man-date to be from the American people.His mandate, rather, was from thecoal, gas, oil and logging industrieswho funded his elections. He suc-ceeded partially in certain states, andmanaged to open millions of acres tologging, drilling and mining. He ex-empted the huge and magical forest,the Tongass, from the Roadless Rule.The forest is now punctured withdevastating clear cuts.

At the behest of the coal miningcompanies in Appalachia, the WhiteHouse worked since 2001 to create arule that allows mountaintop miningto continue and expand. The August,2007, ruling will lead to the furtherpillage of vast tracks of land, the fill-ing in of valleys, and the obliterationof hundreds of miles of streams.

Should citizens complain throughlaw suits, Bush sought to stop themthrough the appointment of environ-mentally unsympathetic judges, in-cluding at the level of the SupremeCourt. In July, 2005, for the first timein history, the U.S. Navy began con-ducting high-density sonar trainingwithout safeguards to protect whalesas they either migrated or were intheir feeding grounds. The suit broughtagainst this tragically inhumane prac-tice was defeated in the SupremeCourt. The ocean has become a noisyplace for many marine species whocan no longer sing their songs orcommunicate with one another.

The Bush Administration energyplan called for oil, coal, gas andnuclear power, and no real programof research for alternative energiesand the alternative lifestyle that isimperative for the age of peak oil.

The list of environmental trans-gressions goes on and on. But thereare three other issues for which Bushbears responsibility. Their environ-mental consequences are of suchtremendous magnitude they must bementioned.

One problem area is the possiblecontamination of the DNA of allplant and animal species by geneti-cally modified plants and animals.This is the baby of the MonsantoCorporation. The Bush administrationdid not require strong regulation ofthis initiative, and it was never prop-erly tested once implemented. Wedo not know where it will go, but itcould undo biological systems thatproved themselves by trial and errorover millions of years. This is a corpo-rate money-making scheme that rea-sonable judgment would have re-jected as unwise.

Every time one talks about therapidly deteriorating environment,the conversation comes to rest onpopulation. There are those who pol-lute a lot, and those who pollutemuch less, but all people eat. Thepopulation of the world is way be-yond a sustainable level. Clearly, toavoid mass starvation and cruelty,there must be a program of rapidpopulation reduction. Bush did theopposite. He insisted on basing aid toforeign countries on the conditionthat they reject family planning and

contraception. The same was true inthe U.S. The government spent bil-lions on it, and it did not work. Thishas nothing to do with “faith.” It haseverything to do with a “growtheconomy” which needs ever-increas-ing consumer demand. Yet we arerapidly facing the limits of growth,and the probability of collapse.

The third area of great concern iswar. The planet cannot afford morewar. The total carbon footprint ofAmerican wars and the maintenanceof more than 700 bases is probablyunknowable, but the Pentagon uses320,000 barrels of oil daily for trans-port, and is the single largest user ofoil in the world. What the 130,000U.S. contractors in Iraq are burning isunknown.

Today’s wars use depleted ura-nium (DU). The word “depleted”gives the wrong picture. DU particlesremain radioactive for 4.5 billionyears, the same age as the planet.When a bomb containing DU ex-plodes, it releases DU oxide particlesso small they penetrate the protec-tive tissues of the body and travel inbody fluids to all the organs, wherethey lodge and start to bombardneighboring cells. This action dam-ages DNA, breaks down the inter-organ communication system, andleads to malfunction of vital organs.It may express itself as cancer, myste-rious maladies all over the body, andhorrific birth defects, a major con-cern of pregnant Iraqi women. Newbombs are larger and throw radioac-tive DU particles higher, where theyare caught by wind currents and willtravel anywhere in the world. Thedecision to wage a war which hasresulted in the explosion of over1,500 tons of DU in Iraq is the re-sponsibility of the Bush White House.

There have been many articlesproposing a commission to examinethe subversion of the law and theuses of torture in defiance of theGeneva Convention. It is consideredby many to be necessary if we are toavoid future abuses of this kind. Oth-erwise, they are effectively acceptedand will happen again.

I think it is even more importantto establish a commission that willexamine the full thrust of the Bushanti-environmental agenda. In 2004,Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., wrote a book,Crimes Against Nature: How GeorgeW. Bush and His Corporate Pals ArePlundering the Country and Hi-jacking Our Democracy. Bush hadfour more years to compound theenvironmental tragedy of his policies.He used them up to the last possiblemoment.

An environmental commissionexamining the full sweep of the Bushadministration’s destructive initia-tives will serve to inform the peopleof what we need to repair. Unfortu-nately, when it comes to globalwarming and other forms of pollu-tion such as genetic codes and DU,the past eight years will have a last-ing impact. I don’t think we canquantify, or even yet comprehend,the legacy that Bush has left us.Much of it is forever.Blechman chairs the Chapter’s Publica-tions Committee.

Disinformation, echoed by

big media, became a

defining element of Bush

policy. It confused the

public enough to avoid

significant backlash.

The Sierra Student Coalitionis gearing up for another sum-mer of leadership training. Thisyear it will run nine SummerEnvironmental Leadership Train-ing Programs (Sprogs) aroundthe country. These week-longprograms teach high school andcollege-aged youth how to beeffective advocates and providegrassroots organizing skills.

Programs range from June toAugust, with the majority occur-ring in July. More details at:www.ssc.org/sprog

Sierra StudentCoalition offers

summer training


Sierran Kate Khosla drives an electric-powered cultivator developed by her husband, Ron. It’s aclever reconfiguration of an old piece of Allis Chalmers gasoline-powered equipment. Dozens ofother farmers have used his conversion plans to make obsolete equipment “green.”

acre as we did six years ago, and cer-tainly our harvests per acre of mostcrops are well above even conven-tional national acreage yields. I wish Icould say it’s just because of howgreat our veganic growing methodsare, but I don’t believe it’s true. After10 years in this, I think it’s more aquestion of spacing, weed control,and managing nutrients and water ina healthy soil environment. No doubtveganic farming builds up an excel-lent soil, but I’ve also seen some ex-cellent healthy soils and manage-ment practices on both conventionaland more “normal” organic farms.

Modern day veganic/organicgrowing appears to have its

roots in Europe. Khadigar Farmin Maine has been using veganicmethods for decades, but thereappear to be few other suchfarms in North America. Do yousee this situation changing here?

We have a great new programcalled the North American VeganAgricultural Network and, with theirhelp, we’ve launched a new certifica-tion program for veganic farmershere, but we haven’t had a chance topublicize it at all… The certificationprogram is at www.certifiedveganic.org. It’s a free system, based on theCertified Naturally Grown programwe started in 2002, which has grownto almost 800 farmers around thecountry (and is not veganic). I hopeboth those things will give the move-

ment a great boost forward!There appears to be a growing

number of outbreaks of food poi-soning attributed to plant foods,such as the recent case of toma-toes contaminated with salmo-nella. What is the real source ofsuch contamination? As the num-ber of conventional farmersswitches to using standard or-ganic methods, do you envisionthe situation growing worse? Dovegan/organic methods reducethe risks?

There’s no doubt veganic methodslimit our exposure to salmonella andother pathogens in our vegetablecrops. Animal production is a majorsource of contamination, with 10percent of cows acting as carriers forsalmonella not to mention the salmo-nella (and so many other disease or-ganisms) present in poultry. But as aveganic farmer, I often hear that or-ganic farming with manures is theculprit, and although I agree that or-ganic farmers should stop using ma-nures from factory farms, it’s for rea-sons other than salmonella contami-nation, because the standards requirelong intervals between the applica-tion of the manure and harvest of thecrop (there are no interval require-ments for conventionally grown pro-duce). Rather, I am more concernedwith long-term sustainability issuesand contamination of our food sup-plies with antibiotics and hormonesas well as antibiotic resistance fromfactory farming techniques (not tomention the ethical considerations).

The CDC claims there are over abillion cases of salmonella poisoningin the world each year. It doesn’t justhappen on organic farms. Many con-ventional farms use animal waste intheir food production, and skyrocket-ing fertilizer costs means the use ofanimal manures is increasing every-where. But even if you eliminatedmanure, animal waste is impossibleto avoid. It comes from neighboringfarms, from irrigation water that’scome from hundreds of miles away(or flooding, which happens morenow with global warming) and itcomes from the humans in process-ing and cleaning plants — not tomention wild animals.

It’s more important now than ever

before to buy local and to get toknow your farmer. Ask them if theyuse factory farm wastes in their cropproduction and about sanitation andstorage of crops before you pickthem up. We visited one small farmthat was giving out carrots they’dpicked the night before. Rats hadobviously been climbing over thecarrots and munching away, sochewed up pieces of carrot and fecalmatter littered the bins. They rinsedthem out, but it was pretty gross. Wedidn’t hang around, but I wonderedif the CSA members noticed, cared orwere just too afraid to ask. You haveso much more power than you knowjust by asking questions! Mostpeople aren’t bad, they just need anextra push to goodness!

Contamination can happen at somany different stages, and I think ingeneral it’s going to hit the plantspost harvest. Organic farmers arevery regulated in the timing and useof manures, so that stops contamina-tion from those sources actually. Con-ventional farmers using manures arenot beholden to those rules, so I’dactually be more afraid of what theyare doing, but again, I think the realproblem is in the packing and sort-ing facilities post harvest.

What advice would you offerthe home gardener who wants togrow vegan/organic?

Get the book Growing Greenfrom Chelsea Green publishing andget started! And go easy on yourself.I’ve seen so many people try to getstarted and then give up. The firstthree years are the hardest, so don’tmake things so hard on yourself thatyou’re likely to fail and then stopforever. There is a great program inIndia I worked with (that I was ini-tially ideologically opposed to, butI’ve since completely changed mymind) that prohibited small farmersfrom using pesticides but allowedthem to “fall back” on using smallerand smaller amounts of chemicalfertilizers. The net effect ontransitioning hundreds of thousandsof peasant farmers to a system oftruly sustainable production overthree to five years was much greaterthan when they got them all excitedabout changing everything overnight.Farming teaches you to be patient.I’m a big proponent of incremental,yet constant, progress forward!

This article is adapted with per-mission from a longer interview inthe Vegetarian Voice, which is pub-lished by the North American Veg-etarian Society, PO Box 72,Dolgeville, NY 13329; www.navs-online.org/

continued from page 3and I think most of the small organicfarmers I know take excellent careof the animals they have, and theyare actually a pretty healthy compo-nent of the farm. I don’t get howthey can be so nice to them, andthen eat them. One guy proudlyclaimed he makes such great friendswith his pigs that they happily fol-low him right up the ramp to theslaughterhouse each fall. It’s so weirdto me.

I think the far bigger negative en-vironmental issue is all the farms thatrely on factory farm wastes for theirprimary nutrient source — and thatnow certainly includes the majorityof farms we visit, which is such a shame.

I got a call from a small NOFA-NY[Northeast Organic Farming Associa-tion of New York] USDA-certifiedorganic farmer this year who wastelling me how messed up his soiltests were from putting tons of fac-tory farmed chicken waste (whichare high in salts and phosphorousfrom their crushed bones).

I hear the same stories from Cali-fornia, where they have even less rain.The salts build up, the land is destroyed.So I wouldn’t say it’s the keeping ofanimals that’s so much the problemas the using of animal wastes.

What type of equipment doyou use? With rapidly rising en-ergy costs, do you think yourfarm serves as an eco model forothers running small-scale farms?

We’re all about appropriate tech-nology. There’s great stuff out therethat’s so helpful to small farmers —it’s just finding and modifying it sothat it works to improve our meth-ods and reduce labor. We farm withtwo solar electric tractors that I de-signed and built myself using the oldAllis-Chalmers “G” tractors from1947. [The instructions are postedfor free at www.flyingbeet.com/electricg. Dozens have been builtaround the country.]

Our farm is also part of an exhibitin the Museum of Natural Historycalled “Water” because we use a high-tech system of solenoids on timerswith an oddly configured electricpump to manage irrigation on thefarm, minimizing waste of water, la-bor and pumping fuel.

In 2006, I patented a new ap-proach to cooling for small farms[www.storeitcold.com] whichwouldn’t even have been technicallypossible just 10 years back but nowsaves us over 50% on electricitycosts (now small grocery stores, foodcoops, restaurants... and ironicallymortuaries use our system, too!) Weuse sensors and small motors to takea new approach to heating thegreenhouse that saves us hundredsof dollars in propane each year. So,we love technology!

One important concern forfarmers, of course, is crop yields.Have you been able compareyours to that of other organicand conventional (chemical)growers?

RK: This is a great question. Ouryields have been increasing steadilyper acre every year. We harvest aboutfour times the tons of vegetables per

Huguenot Street Farm is lo-cated at 205 Huguenot St., NewPaltz, NY 12561. Ron and KateKhosla can be reached [email protected]. To learnmore about their farm, visithttp://flyingbeet.com.

For information about theinternational Vegan OrganicNetwork, go to http://www.goveganic.net/

For More Info

Hudson Valley veganic farm attracting worldwide attention

Ron Khosla


Chapter Conservation CommitteesCONSERVATION CHAIR Jessica Helm,631-219-6449, [email protected]

Adirondacks Roger Gray, 518-434-8681, [email protected] John Nemjo, 518-279-0771, [email protected] (co-chairs)

Air Quality Warren Berger, 212-663-3768, [email protected]

Airports Julius Shultz, 914-946-1271, [email protected]

Biodiversity/Vegetarian Outreach Linda DeStefano, 315-488-2140,[email protected]

Clean Water/Watershed Carolyn Zolas, 718-884-8482, [email protected] Julie McQuain, 212-477-0472, [email protected] (co-chairs)

Energy Annie Wilson, 212-388-9780, [email protected]

Environmental Education Jeff Bohner, 607-621-8241, [email protected]

Environmental Justice Aaron Mair, 518-374-5243, [email protected]

Farm and Food Erin Riddle, 607-372-5503, [email protected]

Global Warming Coordinating Moisha Blechman, 518-329-0531,[email protected]

Great Lakes Wayne Howard, 585-359-0782, [email protected]

Hudson River PCB Cleanup Bill Koebbeman, 518-399-5027, [email protected]

International Population Diane Buxbaum, 718-855-2399,[email protected] and Kathy Schwarz, 914-631-1560,[email protected] (co-chairs)

Open Space/Sprawl chair TBA

Solid Waste 607-692-3442, [email protected]

Sterling Forest/Highlands Jurgen Wekerle, 845-744-5116

Sustainable Forestry Gerald Davison, 845-339-4509

Toxics Joe Gardella, 716-833-6735, [email protected]

Transportation Bart Chezar, 718-636-3157, [email protected]

Wetlands Liz Kaszubski, 716-695-3570, [email protected]

Wildlife & Wilderness Hal Bauer, 585-335-2623, [email protected]

WHATEVER YOUR INTERESTS, opportunities abound to work withfellow Sierrans to enjoy, explore and protect the beautiful state of NewYork. Listed here are the names of conservation committees and their

chairs. Pick your passion and join us.

Pick your passion

by Roger Gray

The Sierra Club has joined withthe three Adirondack advocacygroups to oppose a NYS Depart-

ment of Environmental Conservation(DEC) decision to allow floatplaneuse on Lows Lake in the AdirondackPark.

The other groups are theAdirondack Mountain Club, the Asso-ciation to Protect the Adirondacks,and the Residents Committee to Pro-tect the Adirondacks.

Ten-mile-long Lows Lake is in thewestern Adirondack Park. It lieswithin the Sierra Club AdirondackCommittee’s proposed GreatOswegatchie Canoe Wilderness, apotential 500,000-acre wilderness inthe western Adirondacks. Lows Lakeis northwest of Little Tupper Lake,where, in 1997, the Sierra ClubAdirondack Committee first formu-lated its Great Oswegatchie CanoeWilderness proposal with its success-ful Save Whitney Park campaign. Thisresulted in New York’s acquiring15,000 acres surrounding, and in-cluding, Little Tupper Lake, subse-quently designated as a wildernessarea.

Lows Lake currently is part of theAdirondack Park’s Five Ponds Wilder-ness Area. So, what are floatplanesdoing in a state-designated wilder-ness area, where motorized use isprohibited? Therein lies anotherchapter in the fascinating but com-plex tale of the administration of theAdirondack Park under theAdirondack Park State Land MasterPlan (APSLMP), adopted in 1987. Ad-ministration of the APSLMP requiresapproval of Unit Management Plans(UMP) for the various parcels whichmake up the Adirondack Park.

The UMP for the Bog River Com-plex and Lows Lake, approved in2003, called for the phase-out offloatplane use over a five-year period,ending January 30, 2008. Accordingto the DEC, “The decision to elimi-nate float plane access was based ontwo factors: (1) the UMP’s conclu-sion that significant user conflictsbetween float planes and paddlerswere occurring; and (2) the desire tofulfill the management goal in theAdirondack Park State Land MasterPlan (APSLMP) of establishing aLows Lake-Bog River-Oswegatchiewilderness canoe route.”

Unmentioned in the DEC state-ment is the fact that as part of thestate-designated Five Ponds Wilder-ness, DEC is mandated to prohibitor remove from the lake any non-conforming use, including motor-ized use.

According to an October 10, 2008,article in the Syracuse Post-Standard,“Floatplanes were rare on Lows Lakeuntil the mid-1990s. Sometime before1990, non-native bass were illegallyintroduced into the lake, and as pub-lic awareness of the bass fisherygrew, floatplanes and motorboat useincreased.”

Lows Lake is the centerpiece oftwo grand canoe routes. One routestarts at the eastern end of the lake,

Lows Lake and Floatplanes:Unhappy Together in Adirondacks

traverses the length of the lake, andthen connects by a carry to the up-per reaches of the OswegatchieRiver. Another potential route wouldlink Lows Lake with Lake Lila andLittle Tupper Lake.

But, back to the APSLMP story.Rather than moving forward toimplement the requirements of the2003 UMP to end floatplane use ofthe lake, last year the DEC proposedan amendment to the UMP whichwould extend floatplane use on thelake for another 10 years. In May,2008, the four groups opposed thisdecision and filed an Article 78 suitagainst the DEC to require it toimplement the floatplane ban. TheAdirondack Park Agency (APA),which must approve all UMPs, in anoteworthy rebuke to the DEC lastOctober, rejected the proposedamendment to the UMP and sent theDEC back to the drawing board.

In response to the APA decision,Neil Woodworth, executive directorof the Adirondack Mountain Club,stated, “There is much more at stakehere than whether commercialfloatplanes should be allowed on aparticular Adirondack lake; the realissue is whether DEC is bound bythe provisions of the AdirondackPark State Land Master Plan. APA saidtoday that they are.”

But the story does not end there.Instead of accepting the decision ofthe APA, the DEC has proposed arevised UMP which continues toallow floatplane use on Lows Lakeunder special restrictions. The fourgroups are continuing their Article78 suit against the DEC to requireconformance with the AdirondackPark State Land Master Plan in themanagement of Lows Lake. Staytuned.Roger Gray co-chairs the Chapter’sAdirondack Committee.

What You Can Do• Send a letter to the NYS

DEC and the APA. Tell them toadhere to the APSLMP and pro-hibit floatplanes on Lows Lake:

Peter J. FrankNYS DEC, Lands & Forests625 BroadwayAlbany, NY [email protected]

Curt Stiles, ChairmanAdirondack Park AgencyPO Box 99Ray Brook, NY 12977

• Please consider a tax-deduct-ible contribution to theAdirondack Committee Fund tohelp pay the costs of the lawsuit.Mail your contribution to:Adirondack Committee/LowsLake, Sierra Club, 353 HamiltonStreet, Albany, NY 12210.

Please make checks payableto Sierra Club Foundation/Adirondack Committee Fund.

Group ChairsFinger Lakes Kate Bartholoemew, 607-228-7371,

[email protected]

Hudson-Mohawk Paul Caver, 518-753-4205, [email protected]

Iroquois Tasha Cooper, 315-446-3750, [email protected] andMartha Loew, 315-492-4745, [email protected]

Long Island Frank Morris, 516-410-8461, [email protected]

Lower Hudson George Klein, 914-941-25505, [email protected]

Mid-Hudson Bibi Sandstrom, 845-255-5528, [email protected]

Niagara Bob Ciesielski, 716-634-3394, [email protected]

New York City Dan Miner, 917-310-2924, [email protected]

Ramapo-Catskill Stanley Mayer, 845-342-3997, [email protected]

Rochester Deb Muratore, 585-385-9743, [email protected]

Susquehanna Scott Lauffer, 607-341-3746, [email protected]

There’s nothing like learning about na-ture with fellow Sierrans. New York’sGroups offer a great variety of activities —and lots of them — for you to have funwhile expanding your understanding. For anup-to-date list of Sierra Club outings, go tohttp://newyork.sierraclub.org, open thebox that says “Select a Place” and look atwhat the local groups offer.

Or, subscribe to the Chapter’s ImpromptuOutings listserve. Log onto http://newyork.sierraclub.org/outings/ andscroll down to the waving hikers. Then clickon “Join or leave the list” and follow thelinks. For more info, call Bob Susser at 212-666-4371.

Get Out There

O U T I N G S • O U T I N G S • O U T I N G S


Do I hear songs of spring? Hasthe basement flooded, the firstfresh beer can sprouted at

road’s edge? These things have hap-pened. A warming time is upon us.

At this time of year, writers notespring signs in journals. Their entriescontain welcoming reports of earlyarrivals. First woodchucks and red-winged blackbirds often are noted, asif to prove with written words thatwe were abandoned but not forgot-ten by the migrants and hibernatorswho left winter in our laps. The jour-nals also brim with goodbyes: to thewood smoke smells, turkey tracksand ski trails that always make win-ter worthwhile.

Here are several entries from lastMarch’s diary:

3/13 — A dark morning with windwhipping from the southeast. Hugeflocks of Canada geese flew lowoverhead, pushed hard by a jumbledtailwind. One flock suddenly veeredin honking confusion over the river,its wedge-shaped ranks faltering. Anythoughts of dropping in were vetoedby consensus. The squadron re-

Journal chronicles signs and songs of spring

by Betsy Naselli

Here chick chick, here chickchick! This is how we used toencourage the hens to their

food dish so we could gather eggswhen I was young. These days, as avegetarian, the chicks I am gatheringare of another sort: chick peas. Orgarbanzos. Or ceci beans. By anyname, they are all the same delicious,nutritious, and versatile bean. Theyare available dried or canned, orground into flour.

Chickpea flour, known as besan orgram flour in India and farine de poischiches in France, is commonly usedthroughout India and in parts of theMediterranean. It may be made intopancakes, pizzas, dumplings, soups,stews — you get the idea! In Francea street food called socca is nothingmore than a chickpea flour pizza.

Most of us Americans might recog-nize them as the third bean in athree-bean salad, or realize that theytake the leading role in traditionalhummus. But, try out the recipeshere to enjoy the versatility of thisgreat little bean. One cup ofchickpeas has 269 calories and 141/2

grams of protein. Chickpeas are highin manganese and folate.

If using dried chickpeas, one cupof dried chickpeas yields three cupsof cooked, drained chickpeas. Tocook, soak dried beans overnight,drain, and in a medium pot add sixcups of water and bring to a boil.Cover and cook gently for one tothree hours until they are tender, not

Wheel of Seasonsby Rick Marsi

grouped and flew on.3/14 — What are the colors of early

spring? They include brightening yel-lows on a weeping willow in full sway;reds on soft maple buds, swollen withspring’s promise of leaves and flowers;orange legs and green heads on malemallards, pink feet on buffleheaddrakes, the blood-red bill of a commonmerganser — all designed to enhancebreeding appeal.

3/15 — Robins appeared in thesnow this morning, their flock hav-ing arrived overnight. They sat onfence posts, or scratched throughnew powder, wondering where tofind food. Male robins come backfirst, traveling north with warmweather. Some books say you cancount on their arrival when averagedaily temperatures reach 35-37 de-grees. It was 40 today, which didn’tappear to be helping.

3/16 — Digging around in thewoodpile, I uncovered a sleepywoolly bear caterpillar. It uncurled inresponse to the warm hand engulf-ing it. Usually we see woolly bearsdoing the opposite: curling into a

ball of hairy bristles as a defensemechanism. This works with mostpredators, but not skunks, which rollthe caterpillars on the ground untiltheir hairs fall off and then eat them.

3/17 — A true sign of spring today.With sun streaming through an up-stairs window, the season’s first clus-ter fly appeared. It did a few lazyfigure eights around a ceiling light,

dipped into a stall maneuver, floppedon a window sill, turned over on itsback and expired.

3/18 — The river is high, muddyand filled with ducks. Lesser scaup,ring-necked ducks and goldeneyesfill binoculars. Goldeneye drakespaddle about in a dither, pursuinghens and throwing their heads back-ward in a time-honored courtshipritual. By early April, these brass-eyeddivers will be gone, headed for theforest country of Canada, New En-gland and the Adirondacks.

Also on the river: a caddis flyhatch. Adult caddis flies are poorfliers, and today’s cool temperaturesmade matters worse. Most of thempreferred crawling about on thebank, membranous wings foldedover their backs, normally twitchingantennae stone-still.

In summer, caddis flies canemerge from rivers in slow-movingswarms that fly blindly toward carand street lights. The Pan AmericanExposition of 1901 had to be movedfrom its originally selected locationnear Buffalo’s Niagara River when afew million caddis flies descendedupon it in unprecedented swarms.Not today — much too cold. But to-morrow may bring warmth and ahost of spring migrants. Tomorrow orthe day after that.

Naturalist Rick Marsi, a member of theSusquehanna Group, is a journalist,public speaker and leader of eco-tours.His book of favorite nature columns isWheel of Seasons, available atwww.rickmarsi.com. ©2009 Rick Marsi

mushy. You may add about one tea-spoon of salt at the end of cooking ifthe recipe you are making doesn’tcall for any. The cooking water canbe saved and used as a vegetable broth.

The flour is generally found in thenatural foods section of your super-market, at a natural foods store, or atan Indian grocer.

The recipes below feature chickpeaswith seasonal produce. Enjoy!

Chickpea Stew with Spinach11/2 C dried chickpeas, prepared

as above, drained, or two 15-oz. cans,rinsed and drained

2 celery stalks, cut into 1/4-inch dice1 lb. spinach, trimmed, washed,

and cut crosswise into thin ribbons(or two bags baby spinach)

11/2 - 2 t. sea salt1/4 C olive oil1 medium onion, peeled and

finely chopped4 to 5 garlic cloves, peeled and

finely chopped3 medium tomatoes, peeled and

finely chopped (or 1 can of choppedtomatoes)

Hot red pepper flakes to taste(optional)

Put the chickpeas and spinach in alarge pot together with the celeryand sea salt. If you cooked thechickpeas yourself, cover with thereserved cooking liquid. If you areusing canned, cover with about onecup water. Bring to a boil, turn theheat to low, cover and simmer untilthe spinach is tender.

Meanwhile put the oil in a large

frying pan and set over medium highheat. When hot, add the onion andgarlic and reduce heat to medium.Saute until the onion just begins tobrown a little.

Add tomatoes and cook for threeto four minutes. Transfer contents ofthe frying pan to the pot with thechickpeas and spinach. Stir to mixand continue to cook gently for an-other five to ten minutes. Add moreliquid as necessary, and season withred pepper flakes to your liking.

Chickpea Crepes withAsparagus and Cheez Gravy11/2 C spelt flour1/2 C chickpea flour1 t. salt2 T olive oil2 C waterCombine the flours and salt in a

medium size bowl. Add the waterand oil and blend until completelysmooth with an immersion blenderor a hand held mixer. (If you ownneither, mix with a fork for an honestthree minutes.) Cover and let sit inthe refrigerator for half an hour or so.

Preheat an 8-inch crepe pan orskillet, preferably non-stick. Spraywith nonstick cooking spray orlightly coat with olive oil. Pour 1/4 Cof batter into pan; tilt and rotate so itcovers the bottom. When the toplooks set, and the edge is just begin-ning to brown, flip and cook theother side for just about one minute.

Remove by folding into quartersor by stacking on a large plate, with apiece of waxed paper between each

crepe. Cover with foil as you makethe rest of the crepes.

Cheez Gravy (adapted fromthe Uncheese Cookbook)

1/2 C whole-wheat pastry flour1/2 C nutritional flakes3/4 t. saltPepper11/2 C non-dairy milk1 C vegetable broth or water (or

cooking water from chickpeas)2 T balsamic vinegar2 T sherry (optional)Place flour, nutritional yeast, salt

and pepper in medium saucepan andstir to combine. Gradually whisk innondairy milk, beating well to avoidlumps. Whisk in remaining ingredi-ents until very smooth. Bring to aboil over medium-high heat, stirringconstantly. Reduce heat to low andcook, stirring almost constantly withthe whisk until thick, hot and bubbly,about five minutes.

Serve crepe filled with steamedasparagus, or steamed spinach oranother vegetable or medley of yourchoice and pour a bit of the gravyover top, or serve it on the side.

Betsy Naselli owns The Holistic LifestyleCompany in the Syracuse area.www.TheHolisticLifestyleCompany.comThe Atlantic Chapter encourages you to movetoward a plant-based diet to protect the environ-ment and human health and to make better use ofnatural resources. To learn more and to receivemore recipes, contact the Biodiversity/VegetarianOutreach Committee at ldestefano3@ twcny.rr.comor 315-488-2140 and the Farm and Food Com-mittee at [email protected], or goto www.newyork.sierraclub.org/ and in the“Select an Issue” dropdown list select “Biodiver-sity/Vegetarian Outreach” and “Agriculture.”

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Chick peas, garbanzos or cecis: By any name, they’re the same versatile bean


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Finger LakesForum on gas drilling impacts drew front page coverage

The Elmira Star Gazette gave front page coverage to our February gas drill-ing forum on the health and environmental impacts of new gas drilling tech-niques. Attendees viewed a documentary film on the impacts of horizontaldrilling and hydraulic fracturing in Colorado. The film features landowners andtown and county officials discussing the impacts of the gas drilling on theirlives. The film also features Dr. Theo Colburn, a research chemist who lives inColorado, discussing her studies of the chemicals used by gas drilling compa-nies. The film was followed by discussion. About 70 people attended.

Dr. Colburn’s website, http://www.endocrinedisruption.com/, gives theresults of her studies of the health effects of the products and chemicals usedin the gas production process. Her research provides a glimpse at the patternsof possible health hazards for those living in proximity to gas development.

IroquoisLisa Daly named ‘City Democrat of the Year’

The big news was that our own Excom member Lisa Daly was honored bythe Democratic Committee of Onondaga County as City Democrat of the Year.She was recognized for her role as Central New York coordinator for theObama campaign, overseeing 800 volunteers and as director of new media forthe Dan Maffei congressional campaign. It was a great event, dinner and recep-tion, attended by over 200.

Now that “green” is in, there are many conferences to attend, and the mostprominent one here is the annual Cazenovia College symposium. This year it’stitled, “Smart Growth and Transportation.” A fine array of speakers from EPA,New York state, NRDC and NYSERDA; U.S. Congressman Michael Arcuri; mod-erator Kit Kennedy; and a great breakfast and lunch all contribute to the popu-larity of this event. As in the past, Iroquois members will be assisting.

We will wind up our season of monthly programs with our annual forum inMay. All the many environmental groups in the area are invited to table, net-

Group Roundup

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work, and hear a presentation on home energy efficiency and sustainable en-ergy systems. This always is a well-attended and popular event.

MARTHA LOEW

Long IslandProgram on reducing home energy costs, solar systems set for April 18

On Saturday, April 18, at 1:30 p.m., the Long Island Group has arranged atwo-hour educational program on reducing home energy costs. It will be heldat the Heritage Center at North Shore Heritage Park, Mt. Sinai.

Attendees will get a tour of a very efficient public building and learn waysto reduce their home’s energy consumption (costs) while making it morecomfortable.

Presenters will include a tour guide from the Heritage Center at NorthShore Heritage Park and Chuck Schwarz, from L.I. Green, who will describehome energy audits and how to get one for no (or very low) cost. Two ven-dors will jointly describe the solar systems their companies install (PV and hotwater) and explain how you can get a system with no out-of-pocket costs inexcess of what you are paying today.

Lower HudsonGroup opposes airport expansion which could threaten reservoir

The Westchester County Airport is an ongoing concern. It is only 250 yardsfrom the Kensico Reservoir through which the drinking water of New YorkCity and Westchester flows. In past years, we were able to pass resolutionsthrough the Westchester County Legislature, the NYS Assembly and Senatecalling for no expansion, no additional hangars, no additional parking or im-pervious surface. The county has an environmental program for the airportbut has given leases to JetBlue and NetJets. Flights are down but passengershave nearly tripled. There has been an increase in parking for NetJets, resultingin more impervious surface, and an application to build a parking garage at theedge of the airport has just surfaced. It could add 1,400 additional parkingspaces to the 1,200 on airport property. This would almost certainly result inincreased flights of private and corporate jets. County officials are unwilling toassist in stopping this project; that leaves the ball in our corner.

An effort is under way by the Metropolitan Transit Authority to establish aregional bus system including Westchester and Nassau counties using 21stcentury technology, including bus rapid transit. We intend to get involved.

JULIUS SHULTZ

New York CityFrom birds to coal plant financing to energy volatility, Group stays active

• Jack Hoyt is organizing birding trips at Gateway National Park and FloydBennett Field.

• Annie Wilson has submitted testimony on air emissions regulations per-taining to Con Edison’s 14th Street generating plant, pointing out that the adja-cent East Village has one of the City’s highest incidences of childhood asthma.Annie continues her advocacy in support of carbon taxing as opposed to capand trade.

• The New York City Group partnered with the national Sierra Club’s coalcampaign to bring former NYC Deputy Comptroller Tom Sanzillo to speak onhow major banks are taking a big risk in financing new coal plants. Not onlyare such plants likely to be bad investments, imperiling bank shareholders, butsuch financing also weakens the market for the new renewable power infra-structure we need to build.

• Conservation Chair Margo Bettencourt is working on upcoming events,and welcomes prospective volunteers.

• Secretary Jim Lane is overseeing the group’s participation in an annualstreet fair.

• Chair Dan Miner edited The City Sierran’s 16-page newsletter, with thehelp of layout wizard Richie Villavicencio. Read it online at www.nyc.sierraclub.org, thanks to webmaster Wendy Siegel.

• Dan continues to spread the word about the importance of preparing forthe return of high oil prices, as world oil production has peaked and is ex-pected to go into permanent decline imminently. Since many non-environmen-talists still don’t take climate change seriously, pointing out the certainty ofhigher prices is perhaps a more persuasive approach, and one that dovetailswith SC’s Cool Neighborhoods program, Mayor Bloomberg’s PlaNYC, andPresident Obama’s green recovery efforts. Dan is trying to enlist support forIntro. 0891, which would create a NYC Council Energy Volatility Task Force.He is also enlisting volunteers to organize neighborhood green action forumsand networks. At these events, established sustainability programs such as theNYS energy agency, local gardening groups, and the Office of Emergency Man-agement would pitch their programs to network partners and neighbors.

DAN MINER

NiagaraInternational celebration of Boundary Waters Treaty scheduled for June 13

Approximately 100 people came together for a general membership meet-ing in January at the Buffalo Historical Society. We viewed the award winningfilm, “Flow,” which stressed the importance of protecting our water every-where on this planet.

The group is getting ready for some major events during the Year of SharedWaters. On June 13 we will celebrate 100 years since the Boundary WatersTreaty was signed between the United States and Canada. Many events areplanned during June 5-14, but the one on the 13th, held at the Rainbow

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