[TN-Bird] Public Hearings

  • From: "Dick Preston" <dickpreston@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: <TN-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Sat, 5 Mar 2011 23:46:08 -0600

March 5, 2011
TOS Action Alert: Threat to Cerulean Warblers and other songbirds.

The Office of Surface Mining (OSM) is holding three public hearings in 
Tennessee to discuss the Stateâ??s proposal to protect over 500 miles of 
Tennessee mountain ridgelines on public lands on the northern Cumberland 
Plateau from mountaintop removal coal mining. The proposal covers ridgelines in 
the North Cumberland Wildlife Management Area and the Emory River Tracts 
Conservation Easements. These mountains are important recreational areas, and 
they provide vital habitat for wildlife, including the Cerulean Warbler and 
other vulnerable migratory and resident songbirds. The area is also upstream 
from the Big South Fork National River and Recreational Area (NRRA).

TOS supports the State of Tennesseeâ??s petition (Alternative 1) to designate 
all of the petition area as off-limits to future surface mining. 

The petition area is essential Cerulean Warbler breeding habitat, and habitat 
for other rare migrant and resident bird species. The petition area supports 
the highest nesting densities of the Cerulean Warbler found anywhere in its 
breeding range. This species and other forest-interior species are dependent on 
large tracts of mature forest to breed successfully. The Cerulean Warbler is 
facing a high risk of extinction, stemming from its rapid population decline 
due to continuing loss and fragmentation of habitat.

Cerulean Warblers also favor the steep slopes and mountain ridge tops that 
surface mining destroys. By clearing the forested ridge tops and fragmenting 
the contiguous tracts of old growth forest, surface mining in the petition area 
will threaten the continued survival of the Cerulean Warbler and other rapidly 
declining songbirds.

TOS further believes surface coal mining on these ridgelines would destroy 
forests, wildlife habitat and scenic views, and contribute to substantial water 
quality degradation, threatening aquatic life, including numerous federally 
threatened or endangered aquatic species found in the Big South Fork River. The 
Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) must address these serious, long-term 
impacts of coal mining on the large blocks of mountain forests that Cerulean 
Warblers and other wildlife require.

Public hearings will be held:

March 8th,   Huntsville Middle School at 6:30 PM (EST).
March 10th, LaFollette Middle School at 6:30 PM (EST)
March 15th, Oak Ridge High School at 6:30 PM (EST) 

Please consider attending one of these public hearings. OSM particularly 
desires to hear from people who use the petition area or adjacent or downstream 
resources, such as Frozen Head State Park and Natural Area, Big South Fork 
NRRA, or the Cumberland Trail. Consider mentioning the activities you enjoy 
doing in these areas and the qualities of these resources that are important to 
you â?? bird watching, hiking, scenic views, hunting, biological integrity, 
etc. and state how surface mining would effect your enjoyment of these 
activities and resources. Public comment is vital.

Thanks to the TOS Conservation Policy Committee for their diligence in 
following this issue. 

Dick Preston
President
TOS
Munford (Tipton Co.)
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