Audubon Ohio News - February 10, 2003 CONTENTS 1. DeWine Comes Through Again for the Arctic 2. Arctic Explorer Reports to Audubon Chapter 3. Audubon Ohio Opposes Great Lakes Navigation Project 4. What's Up with Wetlands? 5. Birding and Monitoring Workshop: How You Can Put Your Birding Skills to Work by Adopting an Important Bird Area 6. Correction 1. DEWINE COMES THROUGH AGAIN FOR THE ARCTIC Ohio Senator Mike DeWine is one of six Republican Senators who signed a letter opposing any effort to use the congressional budget process to open up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling. In so doing, he has broken with the Bush Administration on this important conservation issue, and helped to signal that the Administration will face great difficulty in persuading Congress to approve drilling in the Refuge. In the last Congress, Sen. DeWine cast a key vote against drilling. The threat to the Arctic is even greater in the current Congress. The Bush Administration has devised a new strategy of attempting to insert drilling language in a budget bill, thereby bypassing normal congressional review and approval procedures. By signing the letter, Sen. DeWine has put the Administration on notice that this type of back-door policymaking is not acceptable. Senator DeWine needs to hear from Ohioans who approve of his action. The Senator's office can be reached by phone (202-224-2315) or through an e-mail form on his web site (dewine.senate.gov). 2. ARCTIC EXPLORER REPORTS TO AUDUBON CHAPTER The President Rutherford B. Hayes Audubon Chapter got a first-hand account of the harm that drilling would do in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. At a chapter program in Fremont on Sunday, February 9, Chad Kister of the Arctic Refuge Defense Campaign presented a slideshow of his one-person tour of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and surrounding areas. Kister toured the Arctic the hard way. He ventured hundreds of miles through the Refuge and the adjoining Brooks Range solo, using an inflatable raft and going on foot. He subsisted on food he could pluck from the land or catch with a fishing rod. In the process he documented both the natural wonders within the Refuge and the damage that has occurred in adjoining areas where drilling has occurred. Kister, who is writing a book on his trip, will present his program to the Clark County Audubon Chapter on February 24. He has offered to do his presentation for other Ohio Audubon chapters. He can be contacted through his website, www.arcticrefuge.org. 3. AUDUBON OHIO OPPOSES GREAT LAKES NAVIGATION PROGRAM If you look up "boondoggle" in the dictionary, you may well find a picture of a dredge with "Army Corps of Engineers" on the side. The Corps is pushing a project to expand navigation channels in the Great Lakes through a massive dredging project to allow access of more foreign ships that are currently too large for the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. This project threatens the basin's waters, marshes and shorelines that provide irreplaceable habitat for hundreds of species of fish, migratory birds, native waterfowl and mammals. In recent years, progress has been made in cleaning up and restoring the Great Lakes. Balancing the needs of commercial shipping with the need for healthy habitat and clean water is important to the region' s economy. In this instance, however, the balance clearly tips against the proposed project. The project would require dredging hundreds of millions of yards of Great Lakes channels and St. Lawrence River sediment for deeper, larger ships. Much of these sediments are laced with toxic mercury and PCBs. The project could re-release this pollution, lower lake levels, increase shoreline erosion and destroy critical wetlands and wildlife habitat. In addition, increased and larger foreign ships entering the basin could increase the frequency and diversity of aquatic invasive species introduced into the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River. Aquatic invasive species are destroying the Great Lakes environment, crippling Great Lakes fisheries, and costing taxpayers millions of dollars each year. We need to stop the influx of invasions now, not facilitate more introductions. The Great Lakes navigation project threatens to undo much of the progress we have made in improving Great Lakes water quality and protecting wildlife and wildlife habitat in the region. It could also harm the region's critical fishing, recreation and tourism industry. Audubon Ohio is a co-signer of a letter to congressional representatives opposing funding for a study that would be the first step in the project. We will keep our readers posted on whether this project is moving forward, and if so, what needs to be done to stop it. 4. WHAT'S UP WITH WETLANDS? In 2001 the United States Supreme Court ruled that the Clean Water Act did not protect so-called isolated wetlands, i.e., those that were not connected directly to a navigable waterway, and were connected to interstate commerce only because they provided habitat to migratory birds. Many such wetlands are, of course, "isolated" because of the widespread destruction of wetlands that has occurred over the past several decades. While they may be isolated, they often provide critical habitat for migratory birds. The Supreme Court did not hold that Congress lacked the authority to protect isolated wetlands. Rather, it held that the Clean Water Act, as written, did not extend to isolated wetlands. The Court left open the possibility that Congress could choose to amend the Clean Water Act to extend it to isolated wetlands. In the current political climate, however, there is little prospect of Congress doing so. The Supreme Court's 2001 decision plainly narrowed the scope of federal wetlands regulation, but the precise degree to which such regulation was narrowed was not clear. The Army Corps of Engineers and the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency have recently announced an intention to try to resolve this confusing by developing new regulations defining what kinds of wetlands are subject to federal regulations. The process of doing so will be long and drawn out. For the moment, these agencies are simply soliciting comments on what form the regulations should take. After receiving those comments, the agencies will propose a set of draft regulations, and invite further comments. Eventually the agencies will release a final set of regulations that will then guide the federal regulation of wetlands until either Congress changes the law or the agencies go through another round of regulatory drafting. Audubon Ohio is monitoring this situation, and will advise its readers on how to participate as it progresses. In particular, we will notify readers when the draft regulations are proposed, and provide instructions on when and how to comment on them. 5. BIRDING AND MONITORING WORKSHOP: HOW YOU CAN PUT YOUR BIRDING SKILLS TO WORK BY ADOPTING AN IMPORTANT BIRD AREA ********************************************** * WHERE: The Wilderness Center, Stark County, 1 mile west of Wilmot, Ohio. * WHEN: Saturday, March 8, 2003 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. * COST: $10.00 / person (includes handouts, snacks, and lunch). * MEALS: Provided, vegetarian options will be available. * REGISTRATION DEADLINE: March 3, 2003. * INFORMATION and REGISTRATION: Call Audubon Ohio at 614-224-3303 or e-mail John Ritzenthaler at jritzenthaler@xxxxxxxxxxx ********************************************** Count, own, act ...use your birding skills to count birds, take ownership of an Important Bird Area, and act for bird conservation by becoming involved in a program that has worldwide scope -- the Important Bird Areas (IBAs) program. Nearly 100 IBAs have been identified around Ohio. IBAs are areas critical to bird conservation. Visit our web site at www.audubon.org/states/oh/oh for information about IBAs. Audubon Ohio and the Canton Audubon Society are presenting a monitoring workshop to enlist birders for surveying birds on their favorite IBAs. We hope that individuals or groups will adopt an IBA and engage in some form of regular bird censusing suited to the site. This workshop is scheduled for Saturday, March 8, 2003 from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. It will be held at The Wilderness Center, an IBA in Stark County, Ohio. The outdoors agenda will include methods for observing birds and conducting surveys of your favorite sites. We will cover point counts, transect counts, area searches, nest searches, and bird banding plus an exciting new web-based data entry system called E-bird. Participants will be able to volunteer to census birds on IBAs in Ohio and see their data used in conservation on these sites. All skill levels are welcome. 6. CORRECTION In the last newsletter we incorrectly identified Ohio Citizen Action as the group whose research on oil and gas drilling in Lake Erie prompted Governor Taft to declare the Lake off limits to drilling. The research was actually done by the Ohio Public Interest Research Group. **************************************************************************** ********************* AudubonOH-NEWS is sent to Audubon chapter leaders, board members, and others interested in Audubon activities in Ohio. If you do not wish to receive further editions, it is easy to unsubscribe: simply send an e-mail message to audubonoh-news-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx In the subject of your e-mail, write UNSUBSCRIBE. We can be reached through e-mail at ohio@xxxxxxxxxxx, phone at (614) 224-3303, or mail at 692 N High St Ste 208, Columbus, OH 43215.