La Crosse area blufflands news

There are three notable news items relating to Coulee Region blufflands.

Blufflands Master Plan Public Information Meeting

The La Crosse Area Planning Committee has published the first draft of their master plan for the area blufflands – “A Plan for Conservation and Recreation Throughout The La Crosse – La Crescent Region.” A link to the draft is on their website.

There is a public informational meeting on Thursday night, June 2 from 7 to 9 p.m. at the Black River Beach Neighborhood Center, 1433 Rose St., La Crosse. Anyone concerned about the La Crosse-Onalaska-Holmen-La Crescent blufflands is encouraged to read the plan and attend the meeting to give their comments.

Friends of the Blufflands

A new group has been formed – The Friends of the Blufflands – “to promote sound conservation practices in the Coulee Region blufflands and to be a voice for a wide variety of blufflands users who value the area blufflands for the animal and plant habitat they provide, for the natural beauty they provide for residents and visitors to the area, for the outdoor nature study and recreation opportunities that they provide, and the values green space provides to local communities and their residents.“ For more information or to express interest, contact Pat Wilson.

City of La Crosse Bluffland Restoration Work Days

The La Crosse Park and Recreation Department is making a major effort to restore the blufflands in Hixon Forest and other park properties in the bluffs. The goal is to eliminate invasive species and to clear the goat prairies of invading plants. The Park Department hired Sunshine Love as the Hixon Forest Vegetation Manager. Sunshine has scheduled two public work days to help clear the goat prairies, though tremendous progress has been made already.

Scheduled work days are:

* Thursday June 16, 2016. 10am-1pm -- Rain Day June 20, 2016

* Tuesday July 26, 2016. 10am-1pm -- Rain Day July 27, 2016

Chainsaws will be in use at the site, and only those 18 years old and older are allowed. For more information or to register as a volunteer, call 608-789- 7309. You could be applying herbicide, using a brush cutter, or, for those with chainsaw safety certification, using a chainsaw.

Chris Hubbuch of the La Crosse Tribune wrote an excellent recap of actions taken this week by the alliance to ban frac sand mining and address climate change. A video of the Tuesday rally is available on YouTube.

The coalition of at least 18 groups from western Wisconsin and southeast Minnesota participating in this action included the Coulee Region Sierra Club.

Here are remarks made by chair, Pat Wilson, at the Alliance press conference on Monday (with footnotes to Sierra Club pages and stories):

The Coulee Region group of the John Muir Chapter of the Sierra Club joins today with the Alliance to ban frac sand mining and address climate change in opposing any new frac sand mines in our area and urging law makers to ban frac sand mining altogether for the health and safety of our environment and our citizens.

The Sierra Club-John Muir Chapter calls for a moratorium on issuing any frac-sand mining permits until the state conducts a comprehensive study of the impacts and the adequacy of local control. 1

Frac sand mining is a very dangerous business on many levels from local to global:

+ More than 100 frac sand mines in Wisconsin use open pit, hilltop removal processes that destroy landscapes, affect quality of life, and poison our air and water. 1

+ The Wisconsin Department of Transportation estimates Wisconsin is on track to ship about 50 million tons of sand each year out of our state. That is 9,000 truckloads of sand PER DAY. 1

+ Frac sand processing wastes precious clean water. A recent WDNR study showed that with evaporation and water that is incorporated into the sand, a system can use anywhere from 420,500 to 2 million gallons of water per day, or 292 to 1,380 gallons per minute. 1

+ Polyacrylamides are used to wash sand and can contaminate drinking water with acrylamides, which can cause cancer and nerve damage. 1

+ Rivers and streams are polluted with sediment form breached containment ponds 1

+ Everyone who lives, works, or plays near a mine is at risk for health problems from breathing fine silica dust and particulate matter. 1

+ Frac sand mining is part of a larger destructive and dangerous system of fracking to release fossil fuels to burn for transportation and energy production.

+ Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels burned for transportation and energy production make up more than half of US emissions 2

+ The process of fracking for natural gas is destructive for the environment, people, and the planet 3

+ The chemicals mixed with sand in the fracking process are poisonous and unregulated by the Clean Water Act 3

+ The more than 700 chemicals used in the fracking process include well-known carcinogens, more than 130 hormone-disruptors, and chemicals that can harm fetal health. 4

+ Air pollution is generated at fracking sites by major truck traffic, diesel generators, gas venting, gas flaring, and leakage of air pollutants. The density of wells in a fracked gas field leads to hundreds of sources of air pollution. 5

+ Each natural gas well requires millions of gallons of water to conduct the fracking. On average, 10 to 20 percent of the produced water (water, sand, and chemicals) is returned to the surface and must be disposed of, either by injection or surface treatment and discharge into rivers. 5

+ Failed well casings lead to irreversible contamination of underground aquifers -- the lifeblood of our homes, farms, and fisheries. 5

+ Total greenhouse gas emissions from natural gas are nearly identical to coal, once methane leakage is taken into account. 5

We are nearing a climate change tipping point that is already affecting the lives of millions around the world. We must move from fossil fuel use as quickly as possible to avoid the most extreme catastrophic effects of climate change.

Fracking for fossil fuels to be burned here or to export does not fit into an equation for a habitable earth for our children and theirs. Therefore, any initiative, program or process that encourages, supports or facilitates new fossil fuel development must be stopped.

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1 http://www.sierraclub.org/wisconsin/issues/mining
2 http://www.sierraclub.org/wisconsin/moving-beyond-oil-clean-transportation
3 http://content.sierraclub.org/naturalgas/clean-up-drilling
4 http://sierra.force.com/actions/National?actionId=AR0042698&id=70131000001Lp1FAAS
5 http://content.sierraclub.org/naturalgas/

Rally to Ban Frac Sand Mining and Address Climate Change May 10 5 pm La Crosse Center

(rain is scheduled to end by 3! but the rally goes on - rain or shine!)

The Alliance to Ban Frac Sand Mining and Address Climate Change is holding a Rally on May 10 at the La Crosse Center. It will be on the Plaza in front of the Center at 5 pm. There will be pre-rally activities starting two hours before. Several elected officials and representatives of major groups leading the opposition to frac sand mining will speak at the rally. This will be an opportunity to support the goals of the Alliance.

Join us in demanding action by our government representatives to chart a different, better energy future starting with banning frac sand mining and fracking for gas and oil.

This is a very important opportunity to refute the Koch Brothers-backed message of Climate Denial and support for extreme energy production. FRAC SAND mining is the first step in a dangerous and earth killing process of extracting and using fossil fuels.

[ View Fracking 101 from the Sierra Club: https://youtu.be/FuQNqm6dk2g ]

The Rally coincides with a Frac Sand Industry Conference also being held at the La Crosse Center at the same time. The frac sand industry representatives at this conference are whistling in the dark. They ignorantly believe or deceptively say that in the long term they are a viable industry. They are attempting to convince the public and elected officials into believing this. In the short term they want to continue to profit by exploiting our region for sand, making possible fracking for oil and gas that are locked deep in the earth and that require extreme measures to extract. In the long term, their industry will collapse.

Please make a real effort to join our Rally to Stop Frac Sand Mining and Address Climate Change. And help us spread the word about this Rally by forwarding this email to your friends and other likeminded people.

May 10 Rally to stop frac sand mining

On May 10 and 11, a frac sand conference will be held at the La Crosse Center.

The National Sierra Club's position on fracking is that it should end as soon as possible because it is a threat to our climate and pollutes air and water.

The John Muir chapter of the Sierra Club is working to block destructive mining in our state including frac sand mining. Trempealeau and Monroe counties, part of the Coulee Region Sierra Club, are dealing with environmental, economic, and community disruption caused by frac sand mines and frac sand processing facilities.

An ad hoc group of regional groups and organizations, The Alliance to Ban Frac Sand Mining and Address Climate Change, will hold a peaceful family friendly rally on the plaza outside the La Crosse Center (Second and Jay Streets) on Tuesday, May 10 at 5 p.m. to highlight the dangers to our environment, our existing businesses, our health, our communities and our planet of continuing use of fossil fuels.

More details are here. Please plan to participate and/or share this information with other groups who may be interested in co-sponsoring this event.

Earth Fair and Road Cleanup

Nine members picked up 25 bags of trash today on our adopted highway - River Valley Drive! 

Hope to see you at Earth Fair at Myrick Park tomorrow. Stop by the Sierra Club booth in the Vendor Tent.

La Crosse Area Planning Committee Meeting

Unfortunately, the LAPC passed a resolution supporting phase 2 of the La Crosse Area Transportation Study at their meeting last Wednesday.  There were two encouraging things about the meeting - First that so many people showed up to voice their opposition to new road construction.  Second, that Mayor Kabat made clear his opposition to the study by being the lone no vote.  Mayor Kabat also was able to add the Strategy H "no build" option back into the study, and attempted to have two destructive options removed from the study.

Mayor Kabat will be at the March 29 Sierra Club meeting to give his view on La Crosse area transportation, along with Chuck Lee, who will present alternative means of meeting transportation goals.  Please come to the meeting to thank the mayor for his actions, and to plan what our next steps should be.

Here's a copy of my presentation at the LAPC of the Coulee Groups position on the transportation study:

Coulee Region Transportation Study

The Department of Transportation is going to propose going ahead to study six road construction options as the only solutions to a predicted north-south transportation problem.  The six strategy packages include five possible roads through the marsh and an option to expand Hwy 16 and La Crosse Street. 

New and expanded roadways encourage expanded urban sprawl, increasing the number of vehicles on the road, ultimately leading to more congestion.  The additional vehicles also increase fossil use and CO2 released to the atmosphere, adding to global climate change, a problem that state employees aren’t even allowed to discuss.  The expanded roadways damage neighborhoods and local natural areas, ultimately degrading the city.
The Sierra Club recommends a more progressive approach to getting people and goods efficiently to their intended destination - increase mass transit, bicycle, and pedestrian facilities; encourage carpooling and ride sharing; stager work starting times; foster compact mixed use development; use smarter traffic control systems while making targeted improvements to existing roads.  This kind of solution requires putting neighborhoods and natural areas at a higher priority than highways.  It’s more challenging than building new roads because it requires modification to the way we develop our area.  But this kind of change is already occurring in the country – A smaller percentage of people own cars than at any time in recent history.  Young people are waiting longer to get drivers licenses.  More people are moving to compact city neighborhoods close to work and shopping.   Uber is creating new ways to travel by car, with autonomous vehicles a distinct possibility in a few years. 

The transportation scene will be much different in 2050, and the DOT is still proposing the same old solutions.  They say the no-build option will be evaluated, but I don’t expect serious consideration.  If it was, they’d be talking about seven solution options instead of six.  We don’t need to spend more time and money evaluating build options.  Spend the study and construction money on getting people to their destination without using cars – the money will go a long way to making a mass transit system and a bike ped system in an attractive community that really works for the residents.

 

Sierra Club joins anti-TPP letter

From the National Sierra Club

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, 40 leading environmental groups including the Indigenous Environmental Network, Bold Nebraska, Friends of the Earth, 350.org, and the Sierra Club sent a letter urging Congress to oppose the Trans-Pacific Partnership trade deal. The letter, sent to Congress a day before President Obama and Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau meet in Washington, D.C., follows TransCanada’s January announcement that it plans to use rules in the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) to force American taxpayers to compensate the company for President Obama’s rejection of the Keystone XL project in November 2015.

In January TransCanada announced its intent to use the “investor-state dispute settlement” (ISDS) system in NAFTA to ask a private tribunal of three lawyers to order the U.S. government to pay them more than $15 billion as “compensation” for the pipeline rejection -- a decision that spared communities the threat of increased climate disruption and spills of dirty tar sands oil.

The Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) -- a pending trade deal symbolically signed by the 12 member nations’ leaders at a ceremony in February but still requiring approval from Congress -- would extend virtually the same broad rights that TransCanada is claiming to more than 9,000 new foreign-owned firms operating in the U.S., roughly doubling the number of foreign corporations that could follow TransCanada’s lead and challenge our environmental protections in unaccountable tribunals.