Archive for March, 2009
Posted by Muir on
March 30, 2009
President Obama signed legislation today designating 2 million additional acres of public wilderness areas. The federal “wilderness” designation provides the highest level of government protection from logging, mining and other forms of commercial use and development.
“This legislation guarantees that we will not take our forests, rivers, oceans … monuments, and wilderness areas for granted, but rather we will set them aside and guard their sanctity for everyone to share,” Obama said at a White House signing ceremony. “That’s something all Americans can support.”
The 2009 Omnibus Public Land Management Act is a compilation of over 160 separate legislative proposals, extends across nine states. It establishes 10 new National Heritage sites, creates 21 new wilderness areas, expands 19 existing wilderness areas in 10 national forests, and grows several national park boundaries. One of the largest newly protected wilderness areas is 380,000 acres in the eastern Sierra Nevada and San Gabriel Mountains in California.
President Obama’s Speech
Following is President Obama’s speech, as provided by the White House:
Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Muir on
March 30, 2009
Mount Redoubt, an active volcano in Lake Clark National Park & Preserve in Alaska, continues to erupt. In the latest update from Alaska Volcano Observatory (AVO): “An intense seismic signal indicates that another explosive event began at about 08:40 AM. The event is showing up on several networks. The ash plume is just showing up on radar. Cloud heights TBD since it is still climbing.”
Here is a photo of Redoubt’s March 27, 7:25 pm eruption cloud, as seen from Homer, Alaska.
See Mount Redoubt Slideshow
Posted by Muir on
March 28, 2009
Next week President Barack Obama is expected to sign legislation that will create a new national park to protect a 77-foot high waterfall in New Jersey and 35 acres of historical sites around it. This will be the first national park Obama will designate during his presidency.
The “Great Falls” waterfall was featured in a philosophical poem by William Carlos Williams. Beyond its intrinsic beauty, the waterfall and the surrounding community of Paterson, New Jersey are rich in history as one of the key starting locations for America’s Industrial Revolution.
However, the designation has been criticized as not having national significance and that the money used to create and maintain a new national park could be better spent elsewhere. No doubt the Paterson community will see an increase in tourism. But will such a small park diminish the national park brand?
The Bush administration thought so and had previously declined protected status for Great Falls. The Washington Times notes that “a 2006 National Park Service study said the site is neither suitable nor feasible, the park system already includes enough waterfalls and similar cultural sites, and Paterson is already well-protected by the state. The study noted that Niagara Falls has never been designated a national park because it is protected by New York.”
Story at EcoWorldly
Posted by Muir on
March 26, 2009
Burned ash from a wildfire last July that scorched 34,000 acres outside Yosemite National Park is now providing the perfect nutrients for hundreds of acres of California poppies and other wildflowers to bloom this spring.
The wildflowers blanketing the Merced River Canyon have brought thousands of gawkers to the Highway 140 passage where the Telegraph Fire. Jan Van Wagtendonk, an emeritus researcher with the U.S. Geological Survey, says he has not seen such a brilliant display of wildflowers in four decades.
Scientists say the wildfire opened up barren places where the flowers could grow without competition. February’s rainstorms brought moisture at the perfect time for the flowers to bloom.
Story at Mercury News
Posted by Muir on
March 20, 2009
A federal judge blocked a last-minute rule enacted by President George W. Bush allowing visitors to carry concealed weapons in national parks .
U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly issued a preliminary injunction in a lawsuit brought by gun-control advocates and environmental groups. The Justice Department sought to block the injunction.
In her ruling, Kollar-Kotelly agreed that the government’s process was “astoundingly flawed.” She wrote that officials “abdicated their Congressionally-mandated obligation” to evaluate environmental impacts and “ignored (without sufficient explanation) substantial information in the administrative record concerning environmental impacts” of the rule.
The regulation took effect January 9th and allowed visitors to carry loaded, concealed guns in national parks and wildlife refuges if the state laws there allowed it in public places. In most states, concealed weapons are allowed with a permit. Before the regulation and now after this ruling, guns are allowed in national parks only if they are unloaded, stored or dismantled.
Story at Washington Post
Posted by Muir on
March 19, 2009
(NAPSI) It’s the 75th anniversary of Great Smoky Mountains National Park, America’s most visited national park. Many people assume that one of the legendary national parks out West gets the highest visitation, but the annual 9 million visits to the Smokies far outpace the 4.4 million of second-place Grand Canyon National Park.
It was in 1934 when a big piece of Appalachian backcountry-eventually 800 square miles-became the national park. Today, it’s the biggest piece of wilderness in the Eastern U.S. and a magnet for hikes, wildflower treks, photography expeditions and driving tours.
Indeed, it was the desire for a scenic location for driving tours that helped establish the national park. The movement began in the 1890s, but it was motorists’ clubs-early branches of the AAA in the mid-1920s-that pushed the effort into high gear.
Unlike in the West, where the federal government could carve out national parks from land it already controlled, land for Great Smoky Mountains National Park had to be acquired privately and then donated to the U.S. That also meant that about 1,200 people moved away when the park’s boundaries were set. What was acquired was not necessarily prime land. Most of what we see today as forested wilderness was logged over by timber companies and was in terrible shape. Mother Nature has healed a lot of wounds in the last 75 years.
The park’s next-door neighbor, Pigeon Forge, Tennessee, is a great home base for a national park vacation because it combines the joys of nature with the delights of a family vacation destination. The park’s Mt. LeConte rises to the sky south of Pigeon Forge and provides a breathtaking backdrop for the tourist community has Dollywood, WonderWorks, 13 theaters, scores of restaurants and dozens of family attractions.
Six Pigeon Forge festivals scattered throughout the year are on the national park’s official 75th anniversary calendar, and there’s a special show at Dollywood that’s helping to celebrate the occasion. That show is “Sha-Kon-O-Hey! Land of Blue Smoke,” which pays tribute to the music, heritage and traditions of the mountains. “Sha-Kon-O-Hey” is the phonetic spelling of the Cherokee word for this lovely mountain region.
Posted by Muir on
March 18, 2009
The National Park Service (NPS) is concerned about Alaska’s new predator control effort of shooting wolves from helicopters. The Alaskan Department of Fish and Game began killing wolves Saturday to boosting caribou numbers in the state. The goal is to shoot as many as 150 wolves before they eat too many caribou calves and before the snow and wolf tracks disappear. The state has killed at least 30 wolves so far.
But NPS officials questioned what the shooting will mean for wolves who travel between state land and a neighboring 2.5-million-acre national preserve. They also worry that the state overestimated how many wolves live in the area and will kill too many.
“We don’t want to see the wolf population, or those packs that frequent the Yukon-Charley Rivers National Preserve, be eliminated or reduced significantly,” said Debora Cooper, NPS associate regional director for natural resources.
After meeting with the head of the national preserve last week, the state agreed not to shoot wolves wearing NPS research radio collars, and to limit shooting wolf packs that are known to move in and out of the preserve, said regional Fish and Game supervisor David James. “We’re not trying to eradicate the wolf population,” he said.
Defenders of Wildlife, a national environmental group that targeted Governor Sarah Palin’s support of aerial hunting, criticized the new helicopter kill. “This is an extreme response to what has never been more than an arbitrary target with no scientific backing. There is no biological emergency to justify this kind of action.”
Story at Anchorage Daily News
Posted by Muir on
March 17, 2009
The Nature Conservancy has donated 34 acres in East Maui, Hawaii to the National Park Service, which will use the land to create a gateway to the Kipahulu section of Haleakala National Park. The parcel will also protect access to upland parts of the park that are being used to educate the public about traditional cultural practices at a demonstration taro farm at Kapahu.
The land was bequeathed to The Nature Conservancy in 2005 by the estate of Cordelia May, who was a conservationist and birder who supported environmental and conservation causes through the Colcom and Laurel foundations that she established.
Story at Honolulu Advisor
Posted by Muir on
March 17, 2009
A 67-year-old rock climber fell to his death after losing his grip on a steep rockface at Joshua Tree National Park.
Curtis Stark was killed Sunday when he fell from the Great Burrito rock formation. He was the lead climber during the descent when he became dehydrated, lost his grip and fell. His equipment that was meant to stop a fall had also failed. Stark died at the scene.
On the way down, Stark struck a second climber, Alfred Kuok, who sustained broken ribs and back injuries but did not fall.
Story at Mercury News
Posted by Muir on
March 16, 2009
South Carolina’s only national park is getting ready to grow. Congaree National Park will use $2.69 million of federal stimulus money pay for the latest installment in the purchase of the 1,840-acre Riverstone tract. The new land will expand Congaree National Park to about 26,500 acres and provide wildlife with a 30-mile natural open corridor to the Wateree River.
“It’s just taking us one step further to protecting that entire corridor,” said park superintendent Tracy Swartout. “Protecting this land for future generations is the best way we can have an impact.”
Story at The State
