Fall 2002 - Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club

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14 Lone Star Sierran Fall 2002 Your Environment Continued from previous page tively conserve habitat on private lands TPWD should advocate for a funded statewide private lands conservation program. One example of such a program is a Purchase of Development Rights (PDR) program. A PDR program, being actively promoted in Texas now by the American Farmland Trust, would buy development rights from willing landowners and compensate them for conserving wildlife, water, and open landscapes rather than selling family lands for development and further fragmentation. Water Resources In regard to water the draft plan recommended that TPWD continue to study the freshwater needs of river basins and bays and estuaries and that TPWD remain actively engaged in the regional water planning process. Though these studies are critical the draft plan falls short in recommending how TPWD would actually protect freshwater needs for fish, wildlife, and recreation. The Lone Star Chapter commented that TPWD should set specific goals for acquiring water rights and support limits on new water diversions so that Texas streams and rivers maintain enough flow to help protect water quality and to support recreational activities and fish and wildlife. Financing Conservation One of the most critical issues – how TPWD will finance the final recommendations of the plan – was left out of the draft plan entirely. Funding options such as lifting the cap on revenue generated from the sales tax on sporting goods and authorizing the issuance of bonds for parkland and wildlife habitat acquisition should have been recommended in the plan. (Currently a portion of the revenue from the sporting goods sales tax is dedicated to spending for state and local parks, but that amount is capped at $32 million per year, far below the estimated total state revenue from that source.) The inclusion of options for funding acquisition of parkland and protected wildlife habitat would help to guide future debate and action on how to finance a state park and land conservation system. The Final Plan The Texas Parks and Wildlife Commission was scheduled to adopt the final plan on August 29. As of August 1, TPWD had already received hundreds of comments on the draft plan, most of them advocating the type of strengthening of the plan envisioned by the Sierra Club. It is hoped that this large volume of constructive criticism results in a plan that truly meets the needs of Texas and Texans in the 21 st century. An update on the outcome of the plan will be included in the Winter Issue of the Lone Star Sierran and will be available earlier on the Lone Star Chapter website at www.texas.sierraclub.org. Conservation in Texas... Continued from Page 12 Looking Ahead As a follow-up to this successful conference and the anticipated adoption of the TPWD Land and Water Plan, the next milestone in the Lone Star Chapter’s Wide Open Spaces Campaign is the publication this fall of a “special places” report that will provide a selective look at areas in Texas that need to be preserved for current and future generations. Check the Lone Star Chapter website (www.texas.sierraclub.org) in October for the latest information on the special places of Texas. Public Meetings to be Held on Designation of Groundwater Management Areas The Texas Water Development Board (TWDB), the state water planning agency, was directed in SB 2, enacted by the Texas Legislature in 2001, to designate groundwater management areas covering all major and minor aquifers of the state. The initial designation is to be completed by September 1, 2003. According to the statute: “Each groundwater management area shall be designated with the objective of providing the most suitable area for the management of the groundwater resources.” Following a stakeholder meeting in May the agency has developed a map of Texas with proposed groundwater management area boundaries and is seeking public input on the proposed designations. The map may be accessed through the TWDB web site at www.twdb.state.tx.us. The agency has scheduled eight public meetings around the state and one public meeting in Austin to take public input on the proposed designations. Complete information on the public meetings may be found on the agency web site. The dates and cities where meetings will be held is as follows (all are scheduled from 6 p.m. to 8:30 p.m.): September 5 Plainview September 9 San Angelo September 10 Alpine September 12 Fredericksburg September 18 Corpus Christi September 19 Wharton September 25 Tyler September 26 Stephenville The official public hearing on the proposal will be held on September 30 (1 to 5 p.m.) in Austin in Room 118 of the Stephen F. Austin Bldg., 1700 N. Congress Avenue.
New Economic Study Places Value of Recreation and Restoration on Texas’ National Forests Above Commercial Logging Report Shows Taxpayer Loss from Federal Logging Program Lone Star Sierran Fall 2002 15 Your Environment A new report released in August by the Ecology and Law Institute (ELI) and the Sierra Club finds that the logging program on Texas’ national forests lost tens of millions of dollars between 1987- 1999, and may in fact have created no new jobs during that time period. The National Forests in Texas: An Economic Case for Restoring Our Natural Treasures, which is based on a recent study by ELI, looks at the damage, both economic and environmental, from the commercial logging program on Texas’ four national forests and debunks the longstanding belief that East Texas economies depend on commercial logging on national forests. Some of the best hiking, hunting, camping and fishing in Texas occurs within our national forests. Houston’s clean water found in Lake Conroe, Lake Houston and Lake Livingston comes from these forests. Yet when logging roads are built and our national forests are spoiled, rain washes topsoil into our waterways. Revaluating Forest Economics For years, the U.S. Forest Service, using an accounting system recently criticized by the General Accounting Office (the investigative arm of Congress) and scrapped, claims that commercial logging on Texas’ national forests was good for the local economy. The new analysis completed by independent economists finds that the Forest Service in Texas keeps many significant costs, like prescribed burning and road removal, off its books. The Forest Service’s inaccurate accounting has inflated the value of building roads and selling timber from our national forests, and has undervalued the contribution recreation and clean water make to local communities, if those values are considered at all. “When logging roads are abandoned on the Sam Houston National Forest after an area is logged they become an erosion problem,,” said Ron Warner of Texas Black Bass Unlimited and owner of April Plaza Marina on Lake Conroe. “National forest land should be preserved, but when torrential rains wash soil from the neglected roads into the lake, the lake becomes contaminated with pesticides and oil, gas, and grease left behind from logging operations. My income is definitely affected when water quality drops and people don’t want to come here to fish, swim or ski.” Re-examining Subsidized Logging The report illustrates how, between 1988-2000, timber production in the state remained virtually constant while logging levels on national forests plummeted during that period. The vast majority of timber production in the region shifted to private lands. “The only reason logging exists on Texas’ national forests is because taxpayers subsidize it,” said Brandt Mannchen, Forestry Chair for the Houston Sierra Club. “Private woodlot owners can meet our timber production needs and shouldn’t have to compete with low-cost lumber propped up by federal subsidies.” The report is designed to help policy makers, community leaders, land managers, and the public identify what money is being wasted logging Texas’ national forests and to understand the fiscal responsibility in conserving recreation opportunities and clean water for future generations of Texans to enjoy. Protecting what intact forests remain on Texas’ national forests and shifting the Forest Service’s emphasis from timber production to restoration and recreation will leave our children a natural legacy of which we can be proud. For More Information To view the full report, go to: http:// www.forestconservation.org/ PublicationsandReports/pubs.htm. For more information, contact John Talberth of Ecology and Law Institute, 505-986-1163, or the Texas-Arkansas Field Office, 512-472-9094.
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Fall 2002 - Lone Star Chapter, Sierra Club

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