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This from our friends at the NC Coastal Federation: Volunteers are needed for two projects to help protect and restore an eroding shoreline at the Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve on Stump Sound in Onslow County.

Project: Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve Shoreline Restoration Project

When: Oyster shellbag installation on Saturday July 19nd 10 am – 3 pm (volunteers welcome for entire time or just a couple of hours)

Shoreline planting on Tuesday July 22^nd 10 am – 2pm (volunteers welcome for entire time or just a couple of hours

Where: Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve in Holly Ridge (~ 45 min north of Wilmington)

What: Volunteers are needed to help protect and restore an eroding shoreline at the Morris Landing Clean Water Preserve. The shoreline project involves oyster reef and salt marsh restoration:

1. On Saturday July 19^th volunteers and NCCF staff will place oyster shell bags along the shoreline in shallow water. The bags are passed by hand along a chain of people and then stacked into a reef formation. We will have stations set up so people can work at a pace and level that suits them. There will be lifting of the shell bags by those volunteers who would like to and are able. Each bag weighs between 20-40lbs.
2. On Tuesday July 22^nd we will be planting ~ 2,500 saltmarsh cordgrass seedlings along the shoreline behind the shell bags. This shoreline saltmarsh restoration engages volunteers in digging small holes along the sandy beach, placing a saltmarsh cordgrass seedling in the hole and tamping the hole closed.

What is provided: NCCF will provide lunch, extra drinks & snacks. NCCF supplies all the equipment and gloves.

Volunteers, please:

1. Wear cool and comfortable clothes that can get dirty.
2. Footwear is very important to consider. Old tennis shoes are usually best or something with rubber soles and covered toes that can be securely fastened to your feet. Shoes will be worn at all times. No bare feet, sandals, tevas, aquasocks, flip-flops or crocs please!
3. Bring sunscreen, and a hat. We will have extra sunscreen.
4. Please be sure to bring any medication you will need especially in case you stay longer than intended

Age Range: The age range for these activities is from age 10 and up.

With all of our events we will have an introduction to the project and the importance of restoring oysters and coastal habitats. We will share some educational materials and exhibits with you. Then we will go over the logistics, safety and comfort issues for the day. We ask all volunteers to fill out a release form.

RSVP: If you would like to help out on either Saturday or Tuesday, please sign up with Ted Wilgis at (910) 790-3275 or tedw@nccoast.org. You’ll receive a confirmation email with directions to Morris Landing. If possible, we will set up carpooling opportunities for volunteers coming from the same areas, but please feel free to set up your own carpools as well.

According to two blue-ribbon commissions, America’s oceans are in trouble. The commissions called for greater care in managing our oceans and greater involvement of American citizens in decision-making. Instead of following that lead, however, the National Marine Fisheries Service is proposing to weaken the nation’s bedrock environmental review and public participation law in fisheries management. The proposal opens the door for fishery managers to skip environmental review altogether and severely curtail the public’s right to have a say in how our oceans are managed. Take a moment to tell the fisheries service to throw its proposal overboard!

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The Waterkeeper Alliance® threw a big outdoor birthday party on the lawn in front of the Legislature Building in Raleigh last week for the thousands of children in eastern NC who can’t have outdoor birthday parties because of the pervasive and nauseating stench of “it” (hog waste) that emanates from the region’s slaughterhouses and “lagoons” attached to Concentrated Animal Feeding Operations (CAFOs). The birthday party was the centerpiece of the Alliance’s annual 50 hour vigil on the lawn to urge the governor and the legislature to get off their collective tookus and do something about “it.” Following the party, a delegation led by Lower Neuse Riverkeeper Larry Baldwin walked over to the Governor’s Mansion to hand deliver a gallon jug of the sweet contents of one of those lagoons to Governor Mike Easley, who once promised to eliminate such lagoons in 5 years. That was in 1999. After being told that the Governor wasn’t home, the delegation walked back to the Governor’s office in the capitol and delivered the jug there with a polite note. The current whereabouts of the jug of “it” are unknown, but there are millions more gallons where it came from. Just a guess, but there will probably need to be another vigil on the lawn next year. Here’s hoping our next Governor does more than make promises. Text of open letter delivered with “it” to the Governor:

Text of open letter delivered with “it” to the Governor:

Dear Governor Easley:

Today at noon a broad-based coalition of grassroots community and environmental representatives will arrive at the front gate of the Governor’s Mansion in Raleigh to deliver one gallon of hog waste to you.

Where you reside and work in Raleigh, you and your family do not have to live with the terrible odor and other consequences of hog waste, including its serious health impacts. We suffer from it daily. It makes our lives unbearable.

When asking for our votes, you made a written promise to us that you would rid this state of hog lagoons in five years or less. Unfortunately, your promise made remains a debt unpaid. Today all of the lagoons that existed when you took office are still there, disrupting our lives and injuring our health as before. Our streams and rivers continue to be poisoned by hog pollution. In fact, under your term as Governor the situation has worsened as many more lagoons have been added.

In recent media reports you claim to have solved this problem through legislation passed last year. It is foolish and inappropriate to take that position. We live with the problem and we know the truth. Say what you will; history will judge you, not on your words, but on your actions, or the lack of them.

It is not our goal in bringing this hog waste to you to cause you any physical harm. Our purpose is to share just one gallon of this unhealthy fecal marinade with you. We were specifically denied permission to bring hog waste to Halifax Mall as it was deemed “hazardous”. This is the same substance that is sprayed over our homes and communities, but when we bring it to your backyard it becomes toxic waste. It is our hope that you will open it and take a deep breath as we do daily. Then you will know what kind of existence you have condemned us to suffer. When you are finished, please dispose of the waste by applying it to your garden. You will find its lingering effects to be present for many days.

It is our request that you have the courage to meet with us at the Mansion. You will find us cordial and willing to listen to what you have to say. If you choose not to meet with us we will walk to your office and deliver our package there.

Governor, we are not law breakers. We will not bring hog waste onto Halifax Mall. However, we will not stop reminding you of your responsibility to honor your promises. We will be back every year until our lives and communities get the respect and protections that they deserve. We respect the laws, especially those granted under the Constitution of the United States, but we have been denied the most basic of protections: the rights to breathe clean air, drink clean water and fully enjoy our property. In large measure, you are responsible for that.

Sincerely,

Cape Fear River Watch

Concerned Citizens for Tillery

NC Environmental Justice Network

Neuse River Foundation

New River Foundation

Pamlico-Tar River Foundation

Rural Empowerment Association for Community Help

Waterkeeper Alliance

Photos for CFRW by Alan Cradick

Wrist Slapping
The EPA has announced that four of the largest homebuilders in the country have agreed to accept $4.3 million in fines to resolve “alleged violations” of the Clean Water Act. These fines come as part of an effor to address storm water violations from construction sites across the country. The full list of past and current construction sites covered by these fines runs 45 pages, with some 40 – 50 developments per page. That’s about 2,000 construction sites. So the fine works out to a little over $2,000 per housing development. If we assume an average of 100 houses per development that works out to a fine of a little more than $20 per house. Sure, that’s gonna hurt. Way to go EPA!

Closer to home, the Wilmington District of the Corps of Engineers has proposed a fine of $7,500 against Bill Clark Homes for violating the terms of its permit affecting Smith Creek wetlands near its Carrington Woods development. The Corps alleges failure to maintain fill activity, soil erosion and sediment control, water quality management measures, as well as the failure to remove temporary fills and return the area to its pre-existing condition. The Corps has also proposed a fine of $7,500 against Clarendon Park, LLC for actions in a different development in the same watershed. There the Corps alleges the developer cleared and filled land beyond that covered in its permit.

People are paying attention.

We got word late Wednesday that Senators Burr and Dole, with Congressman Jones, introduced legislation to overturn the negotiated settlement all parties agreed to related to Cape Hatteras management and return to the failed plan of last year. Even though one of the parties signing on to the agreement was representing the off-road vehicle drivers, it appears that disgruntled members among those groups pushed for this bill — a really bad precedent of Congress trying to overturn a court-approved settlement on natural resource management. The bill language and our response is below.

I just spent two days looking at virtually every available area of the National Seashore, ran into people who were driving and fishing there but also approved of the bird protections, and found room for all to recreate. I also saw great improvements in management approaches and more birds as a result.

PLEASE contact your congressman and both senators (go to web and google their names to find their web sites which usually allow you to call/email from there) and let them know this is not acceptable. Look for coverage in local papers and write letters if you can. We worked very hard to compromise on a science-based approach that all could live with (and agreed to!) in the final settlement.

Chris

***************************************************
Chris Canfield
Executive Director/Vice President
Audubon North Carolina
123 Kingston Drive, Suite 206A
Chapel Hill, NC 27514
919-929-3899; 919-929-4599 (fax)
ccanfield@audubon.org

The Act:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. REINSTATEMENT OF INTERIM MANAGEMENT STRATEGY.
After the date of the enactment of this Act, Cape Hatteras National Seashore shall be managed in accordance with the Interim Protected Species Management Strategy /Environmental Assessment issued by the National Park Service on June 13, 2007, for the Cape Hatteras National Seashore, North Carolina, until the National Park Service issues a special regulation and long-term off-road vehicle management plan for the use of Cape Hatteras National Seashore by the public.
SEC.2. INAPPLICABILITY OF CONSENT DECREE.
The April 30, 2008, consent decree filed in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of North Carolina regarding off-road vehicle use at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina shall not apply after the date of the enactment of this Act.
——————
Our response:
June 11th, 2008

Contact:
Chris Canfield, Audubon North Carolina, 919-929-3899
Derb Carter, Southern Environmental Law Center, 919-967-1450
Jason Rylander, Defenders of Wildlife, 202-772-3245

Legislation aims to strip vital protections from threatened wildlife on Cape Hatteras National Seashore

WASHINGTON – Legislation introduced today by U.S. Sens. Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr and U.S. Rep. Walter Jones (all of North Carolina) would allow the short-sighted wishes of small special interest groups to take precedence over the continued survival of the unique national resources that make Cape Hatteras National Seashore so special.

The bill threatens to return Cape Hatteras to a management strategy that had proven woefully inadequate in safeguarding our natural resources. The benefits of the science-based consent decree to Cape Hatteras’ threatened wildlife are already being seen in the increased number of birds using the seashore this nesting season.

“This attack on the laws that safeguard our parks and seashores could set a dangerous precedent,” said Jason Rylander, attorney for Defenders of Wildlife. “Basing the management of Cape Hatteras on the desires of a handful of special interests would do a disservice not only to the wildlife and natural resources the seashore was created to protect, but also to the thousands of visitors who travel to the seashore to enjoy those same resources each year.”

Legal action would not have been necessary if the Park Service had complied with the law and implemented responsible ORV management plans. In July of 2007, Judge Terrence Boyle ruled that the Park Service was not complying with the law in their management of off-road vehicle use on Cape Hatteras National Seashore.

“This bill would put back in place a failed plan to manage the natural resources of the Seashore and degrade a national treasure established for the enjoyment of all Americans, ” said SELC attorney Derb Carter.

The consent decree that is currently in place was based upon recommendations developed by the Park Service’s own scientists, and is the result of collaboration and agreement between all interested parties – including Dare and Hyde Counties and the Cape Hatteras Access Preservation Alliance – a coalition of Off Road Vehicle groups.

Over the past 10 years, the numbers of imperiled birds nesting at the seashore declined by 86 percent. Already this year the threatened piping plover has at least seven pairs breeding, up one so far from last year, and the American oystercatcher numbers have improved from 22 breeding pairs in 2007 to 33 pairs, according to National Park Service figures.

“Management under the interim plan was clearly not working, resulting in some of the lowest numbers of nesting birds in the history of the Seashore,” said Chris Canfield, Executive Director of Audubon North Carolina. “The consent decree represents an approach that was agreed to by all parties involved – including the Park Service, both local counties and representatives of the beach driving community.”

Even with the consent decree’s increased protections for natural resources, more than 22 of the Seashore’s 66 miles of beach remain open for driving, and almost 55 miles are open to pedestrians, according to the National Park Service’s June 5 access report. Just 12 miles of the beach are closed due to the need to protect natural resources; the other closures are based on routine seasonal or safety needs.

The consent decree also provides a great deal of flexibility, with temporary closures that can be lifted and reopened to vehicles once wildlife is no longer using the area. Already, some areas have been reopened this season.

“The consent decree is already showing signs of improving natural resource protection while still allowing abundant access for visitors. I just spent two days at the Seashore; Cape Hatteras remains a wonderful place for all to visit and enjoy,” said Canfield.

Last Saturday’s “Day on the River” celebration in conjunction with the Town of Leland was a  resounding success. Threatening clouds earlier in the day made way for light breezes, blue skies and moderate temperatures as more than 75 in every variety of canoe and kayak listened to Rob Maul describe the history and ecology of Sturgeon Creek before paddling their way down the creek to the Brunswick River at Eagles Island before returning on the incoming tide.  Some went further, a few turned around earlier, nobody drowned.  Nobody even fell out of a boat.

It was a tight fit getting all the boats launched and recovered at the site of Leland’s soon to open Environmental Education Center, but the new small boat ramp proved very kayak friendly (after a few last minute modifications) and the location was certainly beautiful.  The crowd grew to over 100 as paddlers and non-paddlers alike enjoyed the music of The Barnraisers as they dug in to the spread provided by Middle of the Island Catering.  Thanks to Kemp Burdette and Elise Rocks for organizing the event. More photos from the paddle are available here.

The Democrats may get back the White House in November. What does that mean for the environment?