[TN-Bird] Sam Venable's article

  • From: Charlie <cmmbirds@xxxxxxxxx>
  • To: cpnichol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx, TN-Bird Listserve <tn-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>, ConsPolComm@xxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 17 Jan 2005 05:12:37 -0800 (PST)

Thanks to Chuck for posting those articles.  A smile came to my face
when I read Sam Venable's article early yesterday morning.  I was
going to post after my day birding.

For those who do not know, Sam Venable, noted columnist for the
Knoxville News Sentinnel, will be speaking at a Dogwood Arts Festival
event sponsored by the Knoxville Chapter of Tennessee Ornithological
Society on Friday evening April 22 at Ijams Nature Center.

Charlie

--- "Charles P. Nicholson" <cpnichol@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

> Below are two good editorials from today's Knoxville News-Sentinel
> on the
> recent increase in selling off publicly owned lakefront lands in
> Tennessee
> for the development of private homes and golf courses.  This
> increase is not
> restricted to the East Tennessee lakes mentioned in the article and
> is one
> of the greatest, if not the greatest, threats to public lands in
> the region.
> 
> Thank goodness there is one public agency willing to say no!
> 
> Chuck Nicholson
> Norris, TN
> 
> 
> URL:
>
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/news_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_359_3474169,0
> 0.html        
> Just say 'no' to land sales 
> By SAM VENABLE, venob@xxxxxxxxx
> January 16, 2005 
>  </kns/columnist/0,1406,KNS_359_1660,00.html> When I heard the
> rumor, I
> laughed. 
> "Somebody wants to buy part of Chuck Swan Wildlife Management Area
> and turn
> it into an upscale housing development? Hoo-boy! That's a good one!
> What
> other jokes have you got?" 
>       
> Advertisement
>               
>               
>               
> I'm no longer laughing. I'm dead serious. Indeed, I want to shed
> tears for
> the future of public land throughout Tennessee. 
> I hold in my hands a proposal by Sunset Bay of Sharps Chapel, a
> division of
> National Land Partners. It purports to do precisely what the rumor
> mill was
> saying: Buy a piece of prime public shoreline on Norris Lake and
> convert it
> to houses and golf courses. 
> Calling its bid a "land diversification plan," Sunset Bay laid out
> a
> "win-win" deal. The state would reap a windfall from the sale of
> the
> property, the homeowners would fund ranger positions and the area
> would
> remain open to the public. 
> (For now, anyway. Who knows what changes the future could bring?) 
> The proposal was made Nov. 21 to the Tennessee Wildlife Resources
> Agency,
> which shares management responsibility of the 24,444-acre tract
> with the
> State Division of Forestry. 
> It didn't take long for TWRA to respond. On Dec. 9, the agency sent
> a short
> reply to Sunset Bay. Thanks, but no thanks. 
> Bully for TWRA! 
> At last, here's an agency that sees these pig-in-a-poke
> arrangements for
> exactly what they are: A raid on the public pantry. 
> Unfortunately, the same can't be said for the Tennessee Valley
> Authority. 
> TVA, which once set the gold standard for public land stewardship,
> now seems
> hell-bent to get rid of some of the property it acquired via
> imminent
> domain. 
> Actually, "acquired" is a tame word. On the Tellico project, TVA
> virtually
> stole thousands of acres of bottomland farms that were not needed
> for the
> reservoir itself. The one saving grace was that these lands would
> be held
> for the public good. 
> What constitutes this "public good"? 
> Keeping it public would do for starters! 
> But TVA has already engineered the sale of 116 acres for the Rarity
> Pointe
> development and in so doing hung a "Land Office Open For Business"
> sign on
> its front door. Not surprisingly, developers up and down the
> Tennessee
> Valley want a piece of this lucrative action. 
> I don't blame them. If I were a developer, I'd be drooling, too.
> But the
> fact remains these are public lands. They should remain public.
> From now on.
> Period. 
> TVA likes to call the Rarity Pointe deal a "land swap." The agency
> points
> out that the developer, Mike Ross, bought 256 acres and gave it to
> TVA in
> exchange for the right to buy the 116. 
> That's technically correct. But the 256 was public land to begin
> with. It
> was part of the Tellico Reservoir Development Agency's industrial
> property. 
> TVA can sugarcoat this shell game all it wants. But it is ethically
> and
> morally wrong. It needs to stop - and it needs to stop now before
> other
> agencies lose their bearing. 
> Can you imagine how many billions of dollars the National Park
> Service could
> get for a housing development in Cades Cove? Or logging the
> watershed of
> Mount LeConte? 
> Heaven help us. 
> Sam Venable's column appears on Sundays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and
> Fridays. He
> may be reached at 865-342-6272 or venob@xxxxxxxxxx
>
****************************************************************************
> ***
> 
> URL:
>
http://www.knoxnews.com/kns/sports_columnists/article/0,1406,KNS_303_3474727
> ,00.html      
> From TVA mud flats to the land of muckety-mucks 
> By BOB HODGE, hodge@xxxxxxxxx
> January 16, 2005 
> DANDRIDGE -- Lying in red clay mud is no way for a 43-year-old man
> to spend
> the morning. 
> But days of being able to lie in the mud around Douglas Lake might
> be
> numbered. 
>       
> Advertisement
>               
>               
>               
> It's been about 20 years since I had gotten some burlap, a few
> decoys and
> went duck hunting on the mud flats at Douglas. Granted,
> temperatures were
> high enough to almost -- emphasis on almost -- make me believe in
> global
> warming. Any ducks hanging around the lake probably were there to
> get a tan.
> 
> But there we were in the mud, a spread of decoys and a sense of
> urgency. Was
> it because duck season only has two more weeks? 
> No. 
> It's because Tennessee Valley Authority headed up by Bill Baxter
> seems
> hell-bent on selling off every acre they, uh, make that we, own. 
> It's not that there are plans to sell off any chunks of the public
> land
> around Douglas, but that's probably because no one in the twin
> towers has
> gotten that far north yet. They've got to finish up Rarity Pointe
> on
> Tellico, get rid of that danged 1,500 or so acres on Watts Bar,
> then they
> can start looking around at the other lakes. 
> It's kind of like a big yard sale with TVA saying, "Public land? We
> don't
> need no stinkin' public land!" 
> But all we're really talking about here are some trees, rocks, dirt
> and some
> wildlife. Sure, it's a place to hunt or hike or fish or camp, but
> that's a
> bit overrated. 
> Condominiums, half-million dollar houses and golf courses are what
> the
> public really wants. It's all about jobs and economics and
> expanding tax
> bases and stuff us dullards in the public can't begin to
> understand. 
> Last April, I probably was among the last people to enjoy Rarity
> Pointe in
> its natural state . . . or at least what was left of its natural
> state. 
> Along with Britt Limpus, I turkey hunted the woods that were still
> standing,
> one minute working our way across an oak flat, the next working our
> way
> across a muddy wasteland a bulldozer had knocked flat. There were
> turkeys to
> be had, but I didn't go back last year. 
> Now, I never will. 
> In a few months, shrubs and driveways and those all-important
> expanded tax
> bases will replace the mud. The turkeys, hunters and rest of the
> public can
> go someplace else, but it seems that selling someplace else already
> is part
> of the plan. 
> This isn't about a farmer cashing out his property. This is about a
> public
> institution cashing out our property. 
> Oh well. 
> The public seems more or less resigned to letting it go. Mention
> drilling
> for oil a gazillion miles away in the Arctic and people march in
> the
> streets. Mention turning public property in our own backyards over
> to
> developers and you get static. 
> Heck, it's only some trees and dirt and rocks, and right now it's
> all kind
> of mucky anyway. But after the draw down the points and flats of
> Douglas are
> perfect for duck hunters who don't mind suck-footing their way
> through the
> muck. 
> With two dozen decoys and some burlap for camouflage Billy Fly,
> Jerry
> Dinkins and myself hid in plain sight. We went home with about a
> half-dozen
> ducks and enough red clay stuck to us to make our own mud flat . .
> . which
> we may have to do if TVA gets its way. 
> Bob Hodge covers outdoors. He may be at 865-342-6314
> 
> 

> ATTACHMENT part 2 application/ms-tnef name=winmail.dat



=====
**************************************************
Charlie Muise, Naturalist near
Great Smoky Mountains National Park

"Growth for the sake of growth is the ideology of cancer."  -Edward Abbey
**************************************************


                
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