| Slaughter of Cormorants |
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Here is a follow-up newspaper article on a story from the summer of 1998.
From the Tribune-Review, Saturday, April 10, 1999: 10 admit killing up to 2,000 birds Syracuse, NY (AP) - Ten men - three Lake Ontario fishing guides and seven avid anglers - pleaded guilty in the slaughter of as many as 2,000 cormorants, a federally protected bird with a voracious appetite for fish. In federal court Thursday, nine of the men admitted shooting the birds last summer. The 10th man admitted hiding the weapons. Sport fishermen and guides on eastern Lake Ontario have long complained that the cormorants are ruining the fishing and threatening their livelihoods. The birds were shot on Little Galloo Island, an uninhabited 52 acres five miles offshore that is the cormorant's principal colony in eastern Lake Ontario, with an estimated 7,500 nesting pairs. Hundreds of the birds were wounded and left to die; many of the hatchlings were left to starve to death. "There is no excuse for the inhumane way in which these birds were slaughtered and left to die," said Ron Lambertson, regional director for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The defendants could get up to six months of home confinement and fines of up to $2,500 at sentencing Aug. 11. They will also have to donate collectively a tax-deductible $27,500 to the National Fish and Wildlfie Foundation. The double-crested cormorant is protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. In December, a state study reported that the cormorant consumed an estimated 87.5 million fish from eastern Lake Ontario in 1998, including 1.3 million small-mouth bass, the lake's most popular sport species. Last month, state officials unveiled a plan to reduce the Little Galloo colony to 1,500 nests within five years by killing adult birds and spraying eggs with oil to suffocate the embryos. But the defendants couldn't wait and instead "acted as vigilantes," said John Cahill, state commissioner of environmental conservation. Defense attorney James McGraw said his clients, Ronald Ditch and his three sons, were pushed by the state's inaction. Ditch has been a fishing guide on the lake for more than 30 years ans saw the birds "cutting into his livelihood, ruining the health of the lake and destroying the local economy'" the attorney said. "They waited and waited and watched the destruction of the fishery. Finally, they did something about it," McGraw said. ~end of article~ My thoughts: The Little Galloo Island cormorant colony is going to be reduced either by the illegal actions of vigilantes (gunning) or by the legal actions of state officials (oiling of eggs). The vigilantes killed an estimated 2,000
cormorants in the summer of 1998. NY state officials, according to the
newspaper article, plan on reducing a colony estimated at 7,500 nesting
pairs (15,000 individuals) to 1,500 nesting pairs (3,000 individuals) in
five years, akin to killing 2,400 individual birds per year. So the
vigilante fishermen were not far off the mark of the state's official plan.
The cormorants have been found guilty of competing with humans for natural
resources, and we all know who wins such competitions in the wars and
battles of voracious appetites. |
| Slaughter of Egrets |
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My opinion: The slaughter of Egrets at Bethany is not so much a matter of illegality to me, it is Outrageous, be it legal or illegal (legalities can be whimsical, changing according to the political currents). What happened at Bethany is a step backwards, reminiscent of the prior days when the killing attitude justified to itself the mass destruction of wildlife. Passenger Pigeons & Carolina Parakeets come to mind. Government agencies alone cannot be trusted to safeguard wildlife. It is up to individuals & wildlife conservation organizations to see to it that wildlife & wildlife habitat is protected. What took place at Bethany must answer to an ecological conscience that no longer accepts such behavior. Goto: Illegal Slaughter of Egrets in Bethany, Oklahoma |
| Proposed Expressway |
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The proposed Laurel Valley Expressway (LV) is planned to be a 24 mile, four lane highway running from New Stanton, past the Westmoreland County Airport, north to Rt22. Early estimated costs of the highway are up to $500 million taxpayer dollars, so far. No mention is made of the yearly maintenance costs that such a highway would require of the taxpayers. Organizations pushing for the Laurel Valley Expressway are the Eastern Westmoreland Development Corporation (EWDC), Central Westmoreland Development Corporation, Eastern Economic Development Corporation, and the Westmoreland County Industrial Development Corporation. These organizations seek to transform a substantial area of the countryside of eastern Westmoreland County - farmlands, woodlots and hamlets - into a suburban sprawl of highways, industrial parks, housing developments, shopping malls, golf courses, parking lots, etc., etc. The proposed expressway would significantly alter the character of eastern Westmoreland County from that of a pleasant pastoral landscape to one dominated by an expanse of concrete and asphalt. It would open an entirely new corridor for suburban sprawl, especially around interchanges, and would likely encourage the further abandonment of inner cities. That many people prefer to live in eastern Westmoreland County because it is NOT a congested, densely populated, highly developed region does not factor into the long range plans of these ambitious development organizations and corporations. The negative aspects of such an expressway are not emphasized in the advertising one sees concerning the expressway, things such as the forced buyout of homes and property to make way for the expressway, loss of farmland, loss of wildlife habitat, further fragmentation of the environment, increase of water runoff, increase of noise, increase of air pollutants, increase of water pollutants, etc. One of the questions to ask is this, at what point in time does development and infrastructure begin to detract from the quality of life rather than enhance quality of life? What kind of communities do a majority of the people want to live in? Communities that are surrounded by countryside - working farmland, woodlots, wetlands, etc. - and linked by country roads; or communities that merge from one into another without farmland and woodlots inbetween and linked by a massive expressway?
Related links:
More links: Want to express your opinion about the proposed Laurel Valley Expressway? Then feel free to do so with the following form (click your answer): |
| 4,500 acres for sale on Chestnut Ridge |
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The SMT Family Partnership has placed for sale 4,500 acres (7 square miles) atop Chestnut Ridge in Derry and Fairfield townships. The motives of the groups interested in buying the land range from investment and development, mineral extraction, using the land as a coporate retreat, to recreation, conservation, and preservation. Sale of the parcel includes the rights to all surface and subsurface mining, six million feet of harvestable timber, coal, 125+ million tons of Loyalhanna limestone, large deposits of sandstone, and natural gas. The land might sale for between $600 and $900 an acre ($2.7 million to $4.05 million for the 4,500 acres). The 859 member non-profit Chestnut Ridge Conservancy (CRC) is interested in purchasing the land, in partnership with other conservancy groups, to conserve it and preserve it as open space. Hopefully the latter holds true. It will be a sad day if such a parcel of land in Westmoreland County does not serve as an undeveloped commons of nature, a protected and preserved open space where no extractive industries are allowed to ruin the geological and ecological treasures. |
| Watershed Associations in business |
The Loyalhanna Watershed Association and the Kiski-Conemaugh River Basin Alliance have plans to develop and market the natural areas of the respective watersheds for the tourism and recreation industries. Instead of protecting undeveloped natural areas from development these associations are working with business and government to develope the infrastructure (amenities) and advertising necessary to bring about a higher volume of usage of these areas. Personally, I prefer to have places to go where I can experience nature in the rough. Places that are left alone. Places where I can get away from the crowds. However, such places are becoming harder to find. Wild, undeveloped, relatively inaccessible natural areas are an antithesis to these conservation organizations. The polluted waters of the Loyalhanna Creek north of Latrobe and the polluted waters of the Conemaugh River have saved those waterways and the adjacent land from development and suburban sprawl, and has kept the recreational crowds at bay, which has been a good thing. In the words of the US Army Corps of Engineers at Conemaugh River Lake:
"Due to the absence of power boating, Conemaugh Lake has maintained a rich natural environment which is unique in the region." - http://www.lrp.usace.army.mil/rec/lakes/conemaug.htmHowever, the Loyalhanna Watershed Association and the Kiski-Conemaugh River Basin Alliance want to turn this around and make the waterways a haven for weekend crowds. I find it ironic that conservation organizations be so active in promoting for recreational development the natural areas that have been hitherto undeveloped.
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| Logging Boom Times |
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The harvesting of timber in southwestern Pennsylvania is a booming business these days. Old growth trees that had escaped previous rounds of timbering are succumbing to the bite of the chainsaw this time round. Woodlots containing old growth trees are being timbered by loggers and landowners eager to take advantage of the monetary value of standing timber. Local and out-of-state logging (wood product) companies advertise in the local papers, post signs along the roads; solicit door to door, through the mail, and by phone looking for landowners willing to have the timber on their property harvested. The timber is a commodity to be sold on national and world markets, to generate tax and export dollars for government, etc. Government, lumbermen and foresters deal with trees as an agricultural crop. The opportunity of having impressive, inspirational stands of old growth trees is again being denied the present and future generations. Logging without restraint in the past has determined the reality of the forests we experience now. That kind of logging continues today except with a technological efficiency that puts past logging to shame. Nature lovers and tree lovers have to content themselves with scrubby second growth woods. Each time forested land is timbered, the forest grows back with less vigor. The subsequent growth does not quite match the age and size of the previous growth, as has happened since the cutting of the virgin forest. One would think that eventually the soil, poor in some areas to begin with, would gradually become exhausted as timber is repeatedly harvested in the same areas. It requires much energy for the land to regenerate a forest. Cycles of harvesting, over long periods of time, may exhaust the soil. Some conservation organizations contribute to this logging boom by encouraging landowners to manage the timber they own through selective cutting as part of a "forest management/sustainable harvest" program. The percentage of old growth forest in the state is being kept to a miniscule scale. An old growth forest has a Spirit, a Grandeur, that second growth (managed & harvested) forests lack. Suggested reading: A Natural History of TREES of Eastern and Central North America by Donald Culross Peattie.
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