August 2014 - Texas Conservation Alliance
Transcription
August 2014 - Texas Conservation Alliance
Texas Conservation Alliance Conservation Progress August 2014 BTA’s Neches River Rally Celebrates New Paddling Trail September 6 Saturday September 20 We’ll hear from Fisheries Center 1:00 - 4:00 pm Director Allen Forshage, tour See you there! wetlands with the director of the Trinity River Audubon Center, Ben Jones, and TCA’s intern, Jarratt Willis, and learn how TCA’s many projects fit together to protect rivers, forests, and other wildlife habitats. CLCK HERE FOR DIRECTIONS TO THE FRESHWATER FISHERIES CENTER ► TCA Promotes Alternatives to Cedar Ridge Reservoir Join the Big Thicket Association for its 1st Annual Neches River Rally on September 6 and celebrate the newest State Paddling Trail, Cooks Lake to Scatterman Paddling Trail. The new trail, a looped-style 4-mile adventure along the lower Neches Valley, features beautiful cypress and tupelo forests. Register today at 409-790-5399 or www.BigThicket.org. The Te x a s Paddling Trails program offers public inland and coastal paddling trails throughout the state. These designated areas are ideal outdoor day-trips, with mapped areas, wildlife viewing spots, fishing locations, and trails for kayakers of any skill level. TCA-generated news stories on KTXS-TV, KXVA-TV, and in the Abilene Reporter News pointed out some of the problems with The program features more than building a reservoir proposed by Abilene for water supply. The 3,700 designated streams, 15 proposed Cedar Ridge Reservoir would cost $285 million. major rivers, and 3,300+ miles of coastal paddling TCA commissioned a hydrologist to study the evaporative losses trails. TCA is from the project. He found that, if built, the new reservoir would promoting several lose an average of about 16,000 acre-feet per year (AFY) to new trails on the evaporation, about 26% of the water flowing into the lake. Neches River. “There are lower-cost options for developing the same water,” TCA’s Janice Bezanson told reporters. “Water could be pumped from the Clear Fork of the Brazos, where the new reservoir is proposed, and stored in an existing water supply lake called Hubbard Creek. Or it could be brought from Possum Kingdom Reservoir, which is downstream of the proposed Cedar Ridge site.” Janice praised Abilene for a new water recycling facility the City is developing, saying recycling is the way to go, not building a new reservoir. Click here to watch a 3-minute video by KTXS-12 EPA has Proposed Two Important Rules; TCA Members Urged to Comment The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed two new rules that directly impact TCA’s core mission of protecting native wildlife habitats. One rule would restore protections to millions of acres of wetlands in the U.S.; the other would gradually phase in new standards on carbon emissions from power plants. TCA members have until mid-October to voice their support for the rules - information below for commenting. Restoration of Protections for Certain Wetlands Limits on Carbon Emissions from Power Plants The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed a rule that would restore protections to crucial wetland areas whose status has been in doubt since a 2008 Supreme Court ruling. The ruling left unclear whether wetlands such as playa lakes, coastal marshes, oxbow lakes, and intermittent streams could continue to enjoy the protections they had been afforded for 35 years under Clean Water Act of 1972. The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a limit on carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants, which account for 40% of the country’s carbon pollution. The proposed limits are the result of a years-long collaborative process with input from states, members of Congress, industry, public health advocates, wildlife interests, and many others. EPA’s plan builds on actions already being taken by states, cities, and businesses to create a flexible scenario for states with differing needs and resources. States will have until 2016, with extension to 2018, to submit a plan. The standards will be phased in beginning in 2020. The Clean Water Act is the primary law to protect the waters of the country. Since 2008, the court rulings and administrative rules have put in legal limbo 75% of Texas streams, from which more than 11 million Texans obtain their drinking water. Most of these wetlands were technically given protection, but because of confusion about the Climate change is impacting wildlife migration rules, that protection simply wasn’t happening. patterns, changing the nesting habits of birds, encouraging invasive plant species, and altering The new rule would follow the congressional the habitats depended on by wildlife. The state intent of the Clean Water Act, returning the same climatologist says the weather patterns of Texas’ protection to all waters that feed into waters that decade-long drought have been seen before, but are protected and all waters within floodplains. this time the impacts of those patterns are greater because temperatures are higher. Texas Significantly, it continues to exclude man-made agriculture and forestry are already impacted. ditches and ponds, and irrigation systems, and it gives exemptions for normal farming, ranching, TCA submitted testimony in support of the and forestry activities. Eliminating the confusion emissions limits. The limits will spur growth in will help landowners, industries, and others know renewable energy sources, such as wind and solar, what they can and cannot do. both growth industries in Texas. Texas Conservation Alliance strongly supports the Polls show that 65% of Americans support limits EPA’s proposed Waters of the US rule and urges on industrial carbon emissions. Show your support you to make favorable comments to the EPA. by submitting comments at the links below. Comments Due by OCTOBER 20 Docket # EPA-HQ-2011-08 Comments due by OCTOBER 16 Docket # OAR-2013-0602 Send an email to [email protected] Or, submit comments online (link below) Send an email to [email protected] Or, submit comments online (link below) Click on this link to comment on the Clean Water Act for U.S. Waters Cick on this link to comment on Carbon Pollution Guidelines August 2014 TCAtexas.org Conservation Easement Protects Longleaf Pine TPWD and Partners Protect 17,000-Acre Unique Ecosystem The Texas Forest Service and the Nature Conservancy have completed a conservation easement protecting 4,785 acres in the Longleaf Ridge area of East Texas, using funding from the federal Forest Legacy program. The new easement is located north of Jasper on land managed by Campbell Global. Texas Parks and Wildlife Department (TPWD) partnered with the TPW Foundation, The Nature Conservancy and The Conservation Fund to acquire the 17,351-acre Powderhorn Ranch in Calhoun County, to protect its remarkably unspoiled coastal land, forests of coastal live oak, and intact wetlands. The Forest Legacy Program, which is overseen by the U.S. Forest Service, provided $1.8 million to purchase the easement. The Nature Conservancy provided $570,000 in matching funds. Much of the $50 million price tag comes from the Gulf Environmental Benefit Fund, a $2.5 billion fund created with money BP and Transocean agreed to pay in plea agreements following the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill. The Powderhorn is the largest land acquisition made using the Gulf fund and the largest dollar amount ever raised for a conservation land purchase in the state. Longleaf Ridge is recognized by public and private organizations for its outstanding diversity and scenery. It is one of the few places in Texas with significant stands of longleaf pine and features spring-fed creeks, hilltop views, pitcher-plant bogs and Catahoula barrens rock outcrops. Longleaf pine produces such valuable timber that lumber from virgin trees is still salvaged from old buildings and reused. Early settlers to East Texas described those giant trees, which grew in open, park-like stands that people could walk through comfortably. Most original longleaf forests were logged a century ago, then replanted in other species such as loblolly pine. Less than two percent of its original extent in Texas is left today. The easement will allow Campbell Global to continue harvesting timber, but will prohibit subdivision and development. Campbell plans to continue restoring and maintaining longleaf forest and other rare plant communities. TCA’s founder Ned Fritz p o p u l a r ize d th e n a m e “Longleaf Ridge” and called attention to its unique scenic features and natural diversity. At TCA’s urging, national forest land in the vicinity has been designated the Longleaf Ridge Special Management Area. TCA is the State Affiliate of the National Wildlife Federation The purchase comes after a decades-long effort to protect the tract from looming development. TPWD plans to create a state park and wildlife management area for public use. Most of Powderhorn is prairie/savanna, with native grasses such as bluestem, punctuated with slightly elevated areas holding coastal live oak mottes. The tract features scores of temporary and permanent freshwater wetlands, 5.5 miles of frontage on Matagorda Bay, almost 6 miles of shoreline on Powderhorn Lake and several bayous. Brackish and salt water marshes provide habitat for coastal marine species, including shrimp, redfish, and blue crabs, the main food source for wintering whooping cranes. Live Oak Trees and Wetlands at Powderhorn Ranch "It has been one of those Holy Grails of coastal conservation," Carter Smith, executive director of Texas Parks and Wildlife Department, said of the 27 -square-mile tract between Port Lavaca and Port O'Connor. “The abundance of wildlife and natural areas offers great potential to provide high-quality outdoor recreation for Texans.” Page 3
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