Elaine
Usherson Environmental Scholarship Program Update
- By Maryvonne Devensky, Environmental
Education Chair
Last January the members of the Education
Committee set forth to send ten children to camp this summer. Summer
is here and we are delighted to say we did better than meet our goal!
Thanks to your generous response to our March appeal letter and
to the work of very dedicated Lox. group members, eleven children, ages
9 to 12, received partial or full scholarships this year. Three
attended the Everglades Youth Conservation Camp, as
Wildlife Adventurers and Trail Blazer campers in June. In July,
six children attended one of the various day camps at the Pine
Jog Environmental Education Center in West Palm Beach. Finally, two
boys went to the Sandoway Nature Center in Delray Beach, where they
enjoyed ocean kayaking, among other activities .
Thanks to all of you who contributed financially, and to Sheila Calderon,
Mary Cassell, Alan Parmalee, and Kay Gates for their continuous efforts with
this project. Back to top
Lox
Group’s Conservation Chair’s Letter to the Editor Published
in The Palm Beach Post
-By JoAnn Miner,
conservation chair
Thanks and congratulations go to the
Palm Beach Post for your thorough coverage of the ongoing issues relating
to the development of the Florida home for Scripps Research Institute.
Citizens in Palm Beach County have no excuse to be uninformed on these
issues.
We should all welcome the Scripps Research Institute to our community.
Scripps should be a valuable asset and member of our community and not merely
the recipient of our largesse. It is good to read that Scripps President
Richard Learner may be willing to locate within the heart of our community
instead of the proposed, isolated location on the outside at the Mecca
Farms site.
It is an excellent opportunity for the Scripps Park to anchor the Riviera
Beach Waterfront Development. This location has existing infrastructure
and transportation connections. It is just over the Blue Heron Bridge
to the beach on Singer Island. It is a short drive to Clematis Street
or Worth Avenue. Scripps Park can provide the heart transplant to revitalize
Riviera Beach and benefit the whole of Palm Beach County.
It would be dumb to allow the development of Scrippsville on the MeccaVavarus
sites. This would open our Central Western Communities Sector to malignant,
cancerous sprawl. Large-scale landowners in the Sector and also in the
Everglades Agricultural Area are already clamoring to develop their
properties. We cannot afford to allow sprawl to ravage uncontrolled
like a mad disease.
The decision can be simplified to one question. What would the world-class
scientists and business leaders of Scripps prefer to see through the
windows of their corner offices; lawn tractors mowing the grass around
a man-made, stormwater retention pond or sailboats gliding on the Intracoastal
Waterway? Back
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Smokestacks,
Impacts and Talkbacks
Open dialogues about Bush administration
policies, air pollution and what we can do about it
-By Kay Gates
Smokestacks, Impacts and Talkbacks
Open dialogues about Bush administration policies, air pollution and
what we can do about it
Smokestacks, Impacts and Talkbacks is an exciting interactive event
unlike any other Sierra Club meeting you’ve been to before. Smokestacks,
Impacts and Talkbacks are dialogues and opportunities for exchange,
not one-way presentations with speakers, forums, or rallies.
This event is especially for people who are concerned about the environment
and what the Bush administration is doing to the environment, but don't
feel like they know enough to really talk with confidence about what’s
happening. We'll be focusing on what's going on with air pollution,
Bush administration policies that let polluters keep on polluting, concerns
about asthma and mercury, and how we can do something about it here
locally.
Join us!!! Friday, August 13 ,
7:00 p.m. Call (561) 742-9219 to reserve your spot and for location
address. Back to top
From
the easy chair . . . . .
- Kay Gates, Chairperson
I languish in the dog days of summer
tiring of the ill-fated placement of Scripps, searching for any signs
of conservation in either political party’s platform, yet, looking
forward to Club activities in August and September.
The list of reasons to object to locating Scripps on the MECCA property
keeps growing. The first was the site selection deal completed by Governor
Bush and the County Business Development Board done out of the Sunshine
Laws. Local environmentalists worked with County planners to get
environmental concessions, but overwhelmingly the facts add up to the
western, rural area being the wrong place. Viable alternatives
popped up everywhere when there weren’t suppose to be any. The
chink in the armor of the MECCA site came when people put the numbers
together and realized it is a billion dollar boondoggle. The last
straw for us is seeing the rest of the large agriculture properties
will follow MECCA and Vavrus to development. All pretense of County
comprehensive planning will be down the drain as we go Westward Ho!
The local newspapers have given intense coverage of the whole scenario.
I know you have been following. The Letters to the Editor have been
heart warming. It is obvious that citizens of the county understand
what is happening and are reacting. Keep up and intensify your
objections, we may just be able to nudge this project to a reasonable
conclusion.
Remember the big political picture by voting. I encourage you
to make your concerns for the environment known to your political party
and vote accordingly. The Lox Group’s “Smokestacks,
Impacts, & Talkbacks” event is coming together. See
the announcement on page 1. If there is another member who would like
to host one of these events, please call or email, (561) 742-9219, johnkay@mindspring.com.
Opportunities abound to be involved in our local, grassroots Sierra
Club. Please get in touch to find your place in our group. Looking
forward to meeting and talking with you all at the Annual Summer Picnic
on Sunday, August 29th at Carlin Park in Jupiter. See the flyer
for details. Back to top
General
Meetings
- John Gates Program Chair
No general meeting for August. See
you at our August 29th picnic at Carlin Park. See picnic flyer for details.
General meeting on September 21st will be a panel discussion on the
Scripps Biotechnology Research Park location. Leading environmental
activists, Palm Beach County Commission Staff, and others will
address this important development. This should be a very exciting
and informative presentation.
Our meetings are held at the Boynton Beach Fire Station corner of Miner
Rd. & Congress Ave. (see map below). Meet at 7:00 PM for socializing;
the meeting opens at 7:20 PM. We look forward to seeing you.
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Outings
Please visit Events.
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Letters
to the Editor Workshop
Our Loxahatchee Group is planning to
hold another letters-to-the-editor writing workshop in early fall. It
is one way we can hone our skills and have an impact on public opinion.
If you're interested, please call Louise at 626-3346, or sign up at
the Carlin Park picnic. Back
to top
EXCOM
meetings will be at 7:00 p.m. on
August 9 at the Gates' home ; and on September
13 at Maryvonne's home. Call John & Kay for directions
if you plan to attend. Back
to top
ICO
Needs You
By Mike
Baird, ICO Chair
The West Palm Beach Inner City Outings program has youth groups waiting
for leaders. At least two area youth groups have approached ICO leaders
and asked to be included in our program of taking inner city youth on
trips into our natural environment. In the meantime, job transfers and
family changes have cut the certified leader roster down to just four
people.
Anyone interested in sharing their love of the natural environment with
area young people contact me, Mike Baird, at either 561-965-7237 or
GSDad@ bellsouth.net.
I will be attending National Sierra Club Training Academy’s new
Training For Trainers program near San Francisco. This program is designed
to improve ICO Leader training on the local level.
Local ICO Leader training will take place on Sept.11, 2004 and National
Outings Leader training will be sponsored by our ICO in March or April
of 2005. Chapter Outings Chairman Rudy Scheffer has offered his assistance
as has the Miami ICO program. According to Sascha Paris, Outdoor Trainings
Manager, this is the first time an ICO has sponsored an OATP training.
The best way to ensure our environmental programs are carried in the
next generation is to work with the youth of today, taking them on trips
to natural areas. Back
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THE
BUSH ADMINISTRATION MISSES THE TRAIN
By Eric C. Olson
The Bush administration's transit policies
are missing the train, and American workers are paying the price.
That's the conclusion of a new Sierra Club report, which details how
local economic pressures feed a growing demand for rail and other public
transit projects and how the administration's bias against transit is
out of touch with America's communities and commuters.
The growing popularity of public transportation underscores an important
realization that is taking hold in communities across the country: that
public transit spurs revitalization and redevelopment and it fights
smog and traffic. It does so without feeding sprawl the way haphazard
roadbuilding does. Regardless of these facts, the Bush administration
is trying to shortchange transit and favor highway building in our communities.
Public Transportation Progress Jeopardized
Among hundreds of public transportation projects that could be significantly
stalled due to the Bush administration's transportation proposal, the
report highlights a dozen public transportation projects. These include:
Florida - Tampa Bay Regional Rail System; Georgia - Atlanta-Athens Commuter
Rail; Indiana - Northeast Indianapolis Corridor Rapid Transit; Louisiana
- Jefferson, Orleans, and St. Charles Parishes light rail; Maryland
- Bethesda to New Carrollton Purple Line; Michigan - Downtown Detroit
to Metro Airport Rail Project; New Hampshire/Massachusetts - Lowell-Nashua
Commuter Rail Extension; Ohio - Cincinnati Interstate 75 Corridor Light
Rail; Oregon - Portland South Corridor Light Rail; Texas - Houston Light
Rail Extension; Virginia - Williamsburg-Newport News-Hampton Light Rail;
Wisconsin - Kenosha-Racine-Milwaukee Metra Extension.
While dozens more projects would likely suffer under the Bush Administration
proposal, the projects listed above are a representative sample.
Delaying or preventing these from getting built would harm commutes,
economic revitalization, better jobs and improving our environment.
Need for Greater Transit Investment
The Sierra Club report documents the benefits of transit and the costs
of the Bush administration policies. The report argues that the
United States deserves a balanced transportation plan that is sensible
for both the environment and the economy.
In recent years, demand for public transportation has increased significantly,
and new transit ridership has greatly exceeded projections. Since the
last time Congress took up a major transportation funding bill in 1998,
public transit ridership has increased 21 percent. New transit
lines are greatly exceeding projected ridership in Houston, Dallas,
Denver; Salt Lake City and elsewhere. New Starts, the federal
program that helps promising transit projects get off the ground, has
a record backlog of over 200 projects, reflecting the fact that more
and more communities are embracing, and clamoring for, public transportation.
The report lays out the economic issues behind this growing support
for public transit in America's communities, looking at employee stress
levels, the challenges of low wage commuters, redevelopment linked to
transit, and jobs directly in the transit sector.
The benefits of transit seem lost on the Bush administration, which
proposed, as part of its six-year transportation plan, a radical change
to the ratio for federal matching transit funds. Currently, the
federal/state funding match for new transportation projects is 80:20,
however, the Bush administration would like to dramatically increase
the state share to 50 percent for all new transit projects. In
doing so, this administration would put hundreds of transit projects
across the country in jeopardy, and with them, the jobs and economic
benefits those projects bring locally.
And it's not just the Sierra Club that is criticizing the Bush Administration
over public transportation. Paul Weyrich, of the conservative
Free Congress Foundation, called the Bush Administration "THE most
anti-rail administration in the history of federal involvement in mass
transit" and notes "the Bush folks are not pro- transit."
We Can Do Better
We can enjoy easier commutes, more sensible development, jobs in better
locations, and a better environment with a stronger commitment to public
transportation. The Bush administration is not promoting a balanced
transportation policy. What's more, communities across the nation
are eager for public transportation, but they will be waiting longer
and paying more for transit under the Bush administration's plan.
Visit: http://whistler.sierraclub.org/action/?alid=280
to send a letter to your Congressman.
Eric C. Olson works for the Sierra Club's national Challenge to Sprawl
Campaign.
Back to top
Lox
Group Newsletter Labeling Party
Turtle Tracks labeling
party will be on October 3. Exact date and time to be announced in the
Forum. Call 561-742-9219 if you would like to be notified by phone.
Back to top
Other
Happenings
PBC Environmental Coalition Debate
Scripps Site With County Commissioners
on Tues., Aug. 17, 7:00 p.m., Abacoa Country Club, 105 Barbados Drive,
Jupiter . The media has been invited to cover this debate. For more
information call Barry Silver, (561) 483-6900. Back
to top
PBC Environmental Coalition Picnic on Sunday,
August 1, 2004, 3:00 at Lake Lytal Park in WPB. The public is
invited to learn the true facts about Scripps. We will counter
the one-sided view of the issue provided by the County Commission in
public discussion - which only took place after the decision was made
and in which the public was provided minimal opportunity to be heard.
Dress casually, bring the family, a picnic supper and a Frisbee.
Some of Steve Bell's beautiful live plants may be auctioned off or given
for prizes. Musical entertainment will be provided. More information
about the Coalition is available from Co-Chair Steven Bell at (561)
632-7737. Lake Lytal Park is on Gun Club Rd. between Congress Av. and
Kirk Rd. in WPB. Take I 95 to Southern Blvd.,then West to Congress,South
on Congress and a quick right onto Gun Club. The park will be a short
distance on the right (North side). Back
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Audubon Meetings: First
Tues. of the month, 7:30 p.m., Howard Park Community Center, West Palm
Beach (Parker & Okeechobee). Call Claudine Laabs (561) 655-9779
PBC Pack & Paddle Club, Second Monday of the month, 7:00 p.m. at
Okeeheelee Nature Center, WPB.
PBC Environmental Coalition Conferences
Third Monday of the month at Pegasus Restaurant.
301 N. Dixie Hwy., Lake Worth, 7:00 p.m. Contact Steve Bell (561) 632-7737
livingscape@ cs.com. Back
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Pine Jog Environmental Education Center Native
Plant Workshop, 4th Tuesday, 7:00-9:00
p.m. Contact Ann Weinrich (561) 582-2235.
(These activities are not sponsored nor administered
by the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club has no information about the planning
of these activities and makes no representations of warranties about
the quality, safety, supervision or management of such activities.)
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Help
Continue Florida Scrub Jay Study
The friends of Dr. Grace Iverson have
dedicated themselves to completing the work to which Grace devoted her
life, namely, studying the endangered Florida scrub jay.
It is with this intent that we are endeavoring to solicit monies from
the environmental community to assist us in this task. If you
are so inclined, please send your tax-deductible contribution payable
to Audubon Foundation for the Environment, earmarked “Iverson-Gardner
Scrub Jay Fund” to Alan Parmalee, 4765 NW 6th Court, Delray Beach,
FL 33445. Back
to top
Join
Our Email Forum
- Ron Haines
Get on board with
the Loxahatchee Group's very own e-mail forum. This is a
general e-mail discussion and announcement list for members of the Loxahatchee
Group of the Florida Chapter of the Sierra Club. Our forum is
a strong network for communications, announcements, action alerts and
just plain fun for members of the Loxahatchee Group. To
sign onto the list, have your Membership Number handy and fill out the
form on one of the following websites: http://www.sierraclub.org/memberlists
or
http://www.sierraclub.org/memberlists?listname=FL-LOXAHATCHEE-FORUM
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Turtle Tracks is published
bi-monthly by the Sierra Club Loxahatchee Group, P.O. Box 6271, Lake
Worth, FL 33462-6271. Non-profit postage paid at West Palm Beach,
FL. The purpose of this newsletter is to inform members about
environmental issues and events. Members
subscribe through their annual dues; nonmember subscriptions are available
for $12/year. Send address changes to: Sierra Club Member Services,
Box 52968, Boulder, CO 80322
Newsletter submissions are welcome.
The deadline is the third Tuesday of each month. Email articles to Marcia
Karasoff at 
karasoffm@bellsouth.net (phone 561/968-4058),
or deliver Macintosh format 3.5" disc or Zip disc copy to general membership
meeting. (Typed hardcopies are also acceptable, but not preferred).
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