lasting impressions - sierra club · 2015. 12. 14. · environmentally sound approaches to solving...

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Charles County’s plan to build a new four-lane high-way poses an immediate threat to the health of theMattawoman Creek, the Potomac River and the Chesa-peake Bay. The proposed highway would be parallel toRt. 228 and connect Rt. 301 to Bryans Road. Like allnew highways in a lightly populated area, it would leadto enormous and inappropriate growth—sprawl. Theimpact would be especially severe for the Mattawomanand downstream waterways. Other predictable resultsinclude increased traffic, overcrowding in local schools,and added strain on our already stressed ground-watersupply of drinking water, particularly in western CharlesCounty. And the environmental threat is not just localand regional. The leveling of forests and their replace-ment with congested highways causes an increase incarbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas associated with globalwarming. Our quality of life is being compromised.

Why is Mattawoman Creek important?A 1992 Maryland Department of Natural Resources(DNR) study reported that Mattawoman Creek is theChesapeake Bay area’s most productive spawning andnursery ground for migratory fish. Its concentration ofjuvenile anadromous fish, that is, those which live inthe sea, but spawn in fresh water, is more than fortytimes that of other estuaries that the DNR has studied.Among these, it’s the healthiest fish food web of theChesapeake Bay. On the eastern seaboard, anadromousfish number only a small percentage of their historicallevels, making the health of the Mattawoman of na-tional concern. Charles County also looks to the Creekas one of its greatest tourist draws, especially because ofthe numerous bass fishing tournaments held atSmallwood State Park. These attract fishermen from allover the mid-Atlantic region.

Plan for Charles County Highway ImperilsMattawoman CreekWe Need Your Help to Keep Mattawoman Creek, the Potomac River and theChesapeake Bay Healthy and Productive

By Betsy Reeder—They say you never forget your firstlove. I fell in love for the first time when I was seven-teen, on a spring-break trip to West Virginia.

Having persuaded a few parents to serve as chap-erones, a group of us—graduating seniors—set out forour vacation spot: Canaan Valley. It was mid-April, withthe first greens appearing on tulip trees along the routefrom central to western Maryland. Late-day light soonsuccumbed to darkness; my carpool friends and Icouldn’t see the mountains rising above us as we ap-proached the Allegheny Front. After several miles ofswitchbacks, our headlights alternately shining on jaggedrock faces and empty black space, we reached the WestVirginia Highlands.

We woke the next morning in a state-park cabinto the sound of wind. Snowflakes somersaulted out of aheavy sky. Perfect weather for exploration!

After a hurried breakfast of oatmeal, Boyfriend Billand I set our sights on the nearest mountain. The as-cent was rugged and steep enough to warm us; we werewinded and red-cheeked by the time we reached therocky top. What we saw were more mountains, woodedand stark beyond a veil of light snow. Although rhodo-dendrons, hemlocks, and spruce wore their valley greens,the upland hardwoods showed not a suggestion of springcolor—they slept in winter grays.

From the snow-frosted summit, Bill and I plungeddown the mountain by a different route, our descentaccompanied by screams of delight as we grabbed slen-der trunks with mitten-clad hands and swung around

Lasting Impressions

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Contents

Contents

Letter from the Chair

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Letter from the ChairPotential Legislative Actionin AnnapolisElection 2006 All Over But the GlowMaryland Chapter Excom ElectionExcom Candidates’ StatementsGroup News RoundupHighway Threatens MattawomanCreekReducing Power Consumption,Reducing Pollution300,000,000 and CountingJon’s Antarctic ExpeditionAn Omnivore Asks, “What’s forDinner?” —A Review of MichaelPollan’s The Omnivore’s DilemmaMetro D.C. Sierrans Plan RestaurantTourCelebrate the Holidays with Earth-Friendly FeastsChoosing Food for a Healthy Familyand a Healthy PlanetInvasive Species Removal and HabitatRestoration OutingsChapter LeadersWintertimeOutings Now ‘til SpringBICO OutingsCatoctin Group Excom Candidates’StatementsCatoctin Group Excom BallotMaryland Chapter Excom Ballot

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I’m having trouble with re-en-try into the real world after aheady week of great electionnews. Day after day, the news got

better and better. First we had huge wins in Marylandat the federal, state, and local levels. Of the candidateswe endorsed, 82 percent won their seats! The headlineson Wednesday morning, 8 November 2006, told us thatthe Democrats had taken control of the House of Rep-resentatives.

Later that morning, I learned that Richard Pombo,the anti-environmental Chair of the House ResourcesCommittee from southern California, was defeated—thanks in part to the massive campaign against him thatenvironmental groups and others had conducted. (Seearticle on page 3.)

Wednesday afternoon brought Rumsfeld’s resigna-tion—long overdue—and Thursday brought Virginiasenator George Allen’s concession and the news that theDemocrats had taken the Senate. The dominoes wereall falling in the right direction. Election nirvana!

My thanks go out to all the Sierra Club memberswho volunteered their time campaigning for our candi-dates, and who donated money to candidates whoneeded grassroots support. All of this helped immensely.Our strength is in the dedication of individuals willingto spend time and money to support our values of cleanair, clean water, and a healthy ecosystem. We did greatin this election. Kudos to everyone who participated—and especially who voted.

Now our challenge is to use these results to get

some traction on issues that have been languishing be-cause of certain elected officials’ intractability. Oppor-tunities abound at all levels of government to promoteenvironmentally sound approaches to solving our ad-diction to oil and transportation challenges. We needto save ecosystems not just for ourselves, but for thehealth of the planet and all its creatures. To start, thereare some bills that will be introduced in the state legis-lature. Please give these bills your support. They are listedbelow.

This is my last column as your Chair. I will bestepping down as of 20 January 2007. The new Chairwill be selected at our Executive Committee meetingon that date. I have been in this position for three years.During that time, we have seen global warming becomea much more urgent issue. I am happy that we have athriving Cool Cities campaign in Maryland that hasvolunteers on the ground working with local munici-palities to help them reduce their global warming emis-sions. I plan to do more work on that issue after I turnover control of the Chapter to the new Chair.

But first I will just enjoy nature for a while. AsJohn Muir once said: “Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken,over-civilized people are beginning to find out that go-ing to the mountain is going home; that wildness is ne-cessity; that mountain parks and reservations are usefulnot only as fountains of timber and irrigating rivers,but as fountains of life.”

We all need to drink from those fountains on aregular basis. ■

Chapter Chair to Leave ona High Note!

There is not much information on possible legisla-tion for the upcoming General Assembly session, butthe following are likely to be introduced and, if so,will be priorities for the Club.

Clean Cars Bill – will specify that a certain percent-age of sales for each car manufacturer must be ad-vanced technology vehicles (hybrids) in order toaddress emissions contributing to global warmingand air pollution.

Energy Efficiency Legislation – will address theefficiency standards of primarily commercial prod-ucts, but also residential gas furnaces and boilers.

Watch our website for more information on legisla-tive priorities: maryland.sierraclub.org.Sign up for action alerts on the web site by clickingon “Take Action” on the right-hand menu. ■

Potential Legislative Action in Annapolis

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Betsy Johnson, Chair


The following is from an election account by former Sierra Club President LarryFahn. For those who are unfamiliar with Richard Pombo, Chair of the HouseResources Committee, he is a property rights proponent who believes that noland should be owned by the public. His list of public lands to sell fordevelopment included our own Theodore Roosevelt Island! Pombo was from amajority Republican district,and no one thought he could be defeated. This isan inspiring David and Goliath story – enjoy!

—Betsy Johnson

Wow! We helped ease some of the biggest knuckle drag-gers in DC into early retirement. How sweet it is!

To name just a few:· Rick Santorum in Pennsylvania.· Chainsaw Charley Taylor in North Caro-

lina.· Senator Jim Tallent in Missouri.· Conrad Burns in Montana.· Clay Shaw in Florida.· Chris Chocola in Indiana.· And George Allen in Virginia

Unfortunately, some of our few moderate Republicanfriends like Jim Leach and Nancy Johnson and LincolnChafee also bit the dust.

The sweetest victory of all was wiping the smirkoff the face of soon-to-be Ex- Chair of the House Re-sources Committee, Richard Pombo, and retiring himback to his ranch in Tracy, California. It was a nail-biter as we waited until late in the night for returns fromPombo’s strongholds in San Joaquin, Stockton, and TracyCounties to come in. When they did come in, Pombowas toast. He lost most of the precincts in his homecounty too, and, to add insult to injury, thePombo ”victory party” was at a restaurant named TheWaterloo. He reportedly slipped out the back aroundmidnight without conceding or addressing his supporters.

I was one of the few in Sierra Club leadership whothought we might actually take out Pombo in California’sDistrict 11 (CD11). When we began discussing pos-sible targets early last spring, I went out on a limb withthe wild idea that if we focused on getting the word outhow badly out of touch this guy was, we might have achance at the impossible. After Pete McClosky soft-ened him up in the primary by taking nearly a third ofthe Republican vote, it was “full speed ahead” on votereducation in CD 11.

I became more cautiously optimistic about the race

over the past month, having been walking precincts thelast three weekends, and running into fewer and fewerdiehard Pombo supporters. Even many of the Repub-licans I talked to were doubtful about him as their rep-resentative, especially when told about his recordson endangered species and offshore oil drilling, his planto sell off 15 national parks units, and his promotion ofdog fighting, snowmobiling in pristine parts ofYellowstone, and commercial whaling! Last Saturdaywas a great collaboration of staff and volunteers fromthe Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife, and the HumaneSociety of the US. We had almost 400 extremely well-coordinated volunteers going out walking, with up-to-date voter-ID’ed precinct lists, maps, clipboards, tallysheets and door hangers. We even had a few dozen pre-cinct captains with rented vans to get folks out to theirassigned “turf ”. Other groups such as Clean WaterAction and MoveOn, plus our own Loma Prieta Chap-ter politicos, had canvassers in other parts of the dis-trict, and were making phone calls to voters into thedistrict.

Pombo had George Bush, then Dick Cheney, thenLaura Bush, and finally Duncan Hunter (a far right wingCongressman from Southern California, who is thus farthe only announced Republican candidate for Presidentfor ’08) come through stumping on his behalf. Ourguy, wind energy consultant Jerry McNerny, respondedwith Bill Clinton, Carl Pope and actress Jennifer Gar-ner, each of whom made appearances at volunteers’ ral-lies during the last week. To pull off this huge upset insuch a Republican-drawn district was nothing short ofmiraculous. Major thanks to everyone who participated.We had people from all parts of the Bay and even as faraway as LA coming to help.

Now that we’ve started the process of taking ourcountry back, its time for all of us to begin workingcooperatively with the environmental friends we’vehelped to elect. We must help them present a progres-sive agenda to the country which will begin weaning usoff our addiction to foreign oil, curbing our greenhousegas emissions, making strides on reducing toxics emis-sions, protecting our forests and wetlands, improvingfuel efficiency, cleaning up the water and our electoralprocess and promoting environmental justice. Onward! ■

Election 2006: It’s All Over But the Glow of Satisfaction

Politics and Politicians

This issue of Chesapeake includes the ballot for electingmembers of the executive committee of the MarylandChapter of the Sierra Club.

The Sierra Club is a grassroots environmental or-ganization that elects its own leadership. Every memberis entitled to vote and to run for leadership positions inthe club. The executive committee (excom) runs theChapter and determines the Chapter’s policies and re-sponses to the many environmental challenges we facein Maryland. In addition to working our legislativeagenda, setting priorities for conservation campaigns,and facilitating communication between the Chapterand the groups, the excom faces the challenge of achiev-ing fiscal stability despite rising operational costs and areduction in funds from the national club.

The excom comprises six at-large members electedby the Maryland membership, and one delegate fromeach of our nine groups. At-large members are electedfor two-year terms. Three of the six at-large positionsare up for election each year. The executive committeeelects the Chapter chair and other officers from its ownranks.

Maryland Sierra Club members are encouragedto read the candidates’ statements, fill out the ballotand mail it to the Chapter office at this address:Elections CommitteeMaryland Chapter/Sierra ClubSuite 101A7338 Baltimore Ave.College Park, Maryland 20740-3211.

The excom meets six times a year on the third Sat-urday of every odd month. Those elected will take theirposition at the January 20, 2007 meeting. Ballots aredue in the office by January 12, 2007. Please read thecandidates’ statements carefully and vote in this elec-tion for members-at-large for the Executive Committeeof your Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club. ■

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Chapter Elections

See Candidates’ Statements

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Chapter Elections

Bonnie Bick has been active in and con-cerned about politics in many ways formore than 15 years. Since 1990 she hasbeen a visible environmental activist inMaryland, and played a major role in get-ting the state of Maryland to acquireChapman Forest—2300 acres of old-growth forest along the Potomac Riverin southern Maryland.

Over the last seven years she has beendeeply involved in the Campaign to Re-invest in the Heart of Oxon Hill—anenvironmental, economic ,and social jus-tice campaign focused on affecting theevolution of the largest commercial de-velopment project in Maryland’s historyin a way that will benefit the public. Sheis a resourceful on-the-ground activist,experienced in making decisions and pro-viding support. She is asking for yourvote to become an at-large member of theSierra Club, Maryland Chapter.

Bonnie BickCandidates for At-Large Delegate to Chapter Excom

I am running for the Maryland ChapterExecutive Committee because I believethere is still value in being the voice thatpoints out the inconvenient truth: thatall of our efforts to protect the environ-ment will fail if we do not stop growth.If we do the arithmetic we can see that ifthe population doubles, people must cuttheir use of resources in half for the im-pact to be the same as if there were half asmany: half as much space for living, halfas much energy use, half as much food.With the U.S. population growing at alittle over 1% per year, we will reach thatdoubling point in less than 70 years.Today, the U.S. is already the third mostpopulous nation in the world, after Chinaand India!

As the late Garrett Hardin pointedout, there are potholes all around theworld, but we do not speak of a globalpothole problem. The same is true for

population growth. The impact is great-est at the location where the growth oc-curs: clearing increasing tracts of land forhousing and infrastructure further andfurther away from jobs, clearing forestsfor crops, mining minerals for ever morecommodities, and so on.

I have been active in the Sierra Clubsince the 1980’s, serving as chair of thePrince George’s Group for many years andas chair of the Maryland Chapter for 3years. Over the years, I have seen lesswillingness in the Club to deal with thedifficult question of growth, and a pref-erence for dealing with the symptoms,such as fighting a highway here or a sub-division there. Efforts are made to allevi-ate symptoms of growth by trying to getmore people to live in high-density ur-ban areas with insufficient thought for theeffect on the residents already living there.

I believe my science background, aPhD in Systematics & Ecology, and yearsof leadership in environmental activismgive me a valuable, if not always popular,perspective on our environmental chal-lenges. If you agree, I ask for your vote.As I write this (October 25th,) I am on aplane to Antarctica to serve as a volun-teer photographer for a Smithsonian-sponsored scientific project. (GoogleSmithsonian and “Antarctic expedition”to find out more—so you see, I do goout occasionally and have fun.)

Jon Robinson

For 30 years I have worked in a variety ofcapacities for the Sierra Club, includingas field staff for 10 years organizing thegrass roots on forest and clean air issues.I currently serve as Maryland ChapterConservation Chair, Anne ArundelGroup Excom member and Secretary. I’mco-founder of the Anne Arundel Groupand Past Maryland Chapter Chair. I’m aSierra Club Life Member and member

since 1970. I have a Bachelor of Sciencefrom Cornell University and SUNY.

At the national level I am Vice Presi-dent for Training and a member of theConflict Resolution Committee.

Past positions I’ve held includeSevern River Commissioner, Chair ofLower Western Shore Tributary StrategyTeam and member of the national SierraClub Political Committee.

I’ve worked for clean air, clean en-ergy, Program Open Space and for Chesa-peake Bay restoration and protection formore than 20 years. I worked with thelocal conservation committee to facilitatethe purchase of Quiet Waters Park, 375acres that were slated for intense housingdevelopment. I’ve been active with thelocal and state Political Committeesworking for the elections of good envi-ronmentalists and holding them account-able through legislative action.

As a member of the Maryland Chap-ter Executive Committee, I will work dili-gently for the mission and goals of theClub.

You may contact me at 410-267-0716 days or evenings or by e-mail [email protected].

Joan Seward Willey

Your Club.

Your Leaders.

Your Vote.

Find your ballot

inside the back

cover.


Group News RoundupGroups Encourage Conservation, Fight Sprawl and Global WarmingEdited by Mary C. Corddry—Followingis a roundup of activities and issues ofthe nine Sierra Club Groups in Maryland:Anne Arundel County, Catoctin, EasternShore, Greater Baltimore, HowardCounty, Montgomery County, PrinceGeorge’s County, Southern Maryland,and Western Maryland. There is a link toeach Group’s website on the MarylandChapter’s home page atwww.maryland.sierraclub.org. If you haveinformation to contribute to future“Roundups” for the Chesapeake newslet-ter, please contact Mary Corddry [email protected] or at 410-248-0423.

All Groups during the summer andfall of 2006 were extremely active withreviewing, surveying, and interviewingcandidates for county and state offices.The endorsees welcomed the Sierra Club’ssupport, and experienced success in theprimary and general elections.

Anne Arundel GroupChair: Ann Wolfe, 410-867-0900

The Group is seeking entries for a juriedphoto exhibit it is sponsoring at ArundelCenter for April 2007. Entries are opento members and non-members. The cat-egories are: Landscape, Water, MarylandFlora, Maryland Native Animals, Pat-terns, and Nature with People. For moreinformation, contact Deede Miller at410-268-2845.

In October, the Group sponsored a“Cool Cities” workshop on how to fightglobal warming in Annapolis.

After two heated public meetingsattended by hundreds, the City of An-napolis dropped further work on its pro-posed Mixed Use Study of proposed in-tensive development near the Hillsmerecommunity.

Mary Lou Pontius, a 50-year SierraClub member, was selected by the Capi-tal newspaper as its Volunteer of the Week

for its July 5th edition. She led the cleanupand restoration of Hawkins Cove.

Over 80 people participated in theJune 2006 Patuxent Sojourn, co-spon-sored by the Anne Arundel CountyGroup, making it the most successful yet.Participants paddled all or part of the wayfrom Kings Landing to JeffersonPatterson Park.

Last spring, the Group co-sponsoredwith the Coalition of Anne Arundel LandTrusts a series of hikes to areas of signifi-cant natural resource value that are pro-tected by conservation easements.

Catoctin Group (Carroll,Frederick, and WashingtonCounties)Chair: Kim Stenley, 410-756-6402,[email protected]

By Kim Stenley, Chair—Catoctin Groupbegan to build an outings program in2006. We have offered hikes nearly everymonth, ranging from an easy walk alongthe C&O canal designed to be family andsenior friendly, to more challenging hikesalong the Appalachian Trail and othertrails. We had several joint hikes withMaryland Native Plant Association andone with the Frederick Ski Club. Turn-out has continued to increase. We hadour first afternoon hike followed by din-ner in early November. Also, we have in-stituted “Second Tuesday” social hours onthe second Tuesday of every month at adowntown Frederick Brewpub.

Cool Cities WestminsterThe Cool Cities (CC) Westminster

campaign kicked off September 2006with 17 Carroll Countians in attendance.Dan Andrews, Kim Stenley, and GregorBecker introduced themselves and offeredan overview explaining the Cool Citiescampaign. The short version of “KilowattOurs” was shown and two handouts werereviewed—one concerning the problems

and effects of global warming and theother, a simplified abstract of the U.S.Mayors Climate Protection Agreement.Initial goals were announced such as:-get towns and cities to make construc-tive environmental changes and-develop an active organization where vol-unteers engage other people and formpartnerships to spread global warmingawareness.

Several groups were formed to dis-cuss: Why they were there? What are theywilling to do to help this effort? Whomcould they invite to the next meeting tohelp aid in this effort? Several people re-ported their findings. Generally, those inattendance seemed excited to be a part ofthe campaign.

At the October meeting, the group(12 people attending) democratically de-cided that the local CC campaign shouldfocus on the City of Westminster due toits population density and political influ-ence. Then, three reasons to participatein the Cool Cities campaign were an-nounced:

1) Personal - To learn for themselvesand their families ways to help stem theproblem known as global warming, cli-mate change, and/or the greenhouse ef-fect. These include: energy efficient tech-niques, lifestyle changes, green buildingtechnologies, fuel efficient vehicles, re-newable energy (solar, wind, ground-source heat, green tags, and others), andother ways to live durably.

2) Activism - To work actively toconvince your local governments to adoptthe U.S. Mayors Climate ProtectionAgreement.

3) Community – To become partof a group in which the whole is greaterthan the sum of its individual parts.

Individuals were asked to stand andtell the group why they attended themeeting. Local global warming statisticswere discussed, to stress the importanceof dealing with global warming at a local

level. Solar photovoltaics and thermal so-lar collection modules were displayed.The State of Maryland’s monetary grantsand the federal tax credits related to solarenergy were discussed. The members thenbroke into groups based on who wouldlike to:1) reach out and invite participation ofcommunity partners2) research current energy policies andactions, or influence the Mayor and towncouncil.

Each group reconvened and an-nounced their goals and intentions.Again, the members seemed to enjoy theparticipation and seemed willing to de-velop strategies to engage the City whenthe time is right. The November meetingis scheduled for Nov. 28th in Westminster.

Cool Cities Frederick Update( 11/11/06)After a brief break for the mid-term elec-tions, the Cool Cities Frederick Cam-paign (CCFC) is back on track. TheCCFC teamed up with the local FrederickFilm Festival in October in support of theshowing of An Inconvenient Truth at thefestival. Members of the coalition talkedabout what is being done locally to ad-dress the issue of global warming andanswered audience questions about whatthey can do in their own homes. At ourtable in the theatre lobby, CCFC teammembers distributed literature and peoplesigned up to join the campaign. As a re-sult of our participation in the film festi-val, the Frederick News Post picked up thestory and published a very informativearticle on the Cool Cities initiative. Wewere also interviewed by the local AMradio station (WFMD) about our effortsin Frederick City. A great deal of interesthas been generated by all the publicity.As a result, our next meeting will takeplace late November. We will contactother local organizations and other po-

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tential coalition partners, and we plan tomake a presentation to the mayor andBoard of Aldermen by the beginning ofthe new year. All in all a very successfulmonth! People can join the CCFC e-maillist by sending a blank e-mail to:c o o l c i t i e s f r e d e r i c k [email protected] or contactus at: [email protected] or by phone:(310) 696-5933.

Fort DetrickThe Frederick membership of theCatoctin Group has been working with agroup of local citizens concerned aboutthe proposed expansion of the FortDetrick bio-warfare facility. The group isinitiating a legal challenge to the woefullyinadequate and misleading Environmen-tal Impact Study (EIS) presented by themilitary. The group has obtained the as-sistance of a local public interest attor-ney who has volunteered to research theissue and make recommendations to thegroup pro bono. The as yet unnamedgroup is looking into applying for tax-exempt status, and will begin fund rais-ing efforts in order to assist with the costsof setting up a web site and upcominglegal expenses. Read more at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wpdyn/content/ar-ticle/2006/02/26/AR2006022601423.html.

To get more information about theeffort, contact the group’s organizer, Rob-ert Kozak, at [email protected].

Eastern Shore (Cecil County andEastern Shore counties)Chair: Howard Bedlin, 410-643-3283,[email protected]

The major issue has been the proposedmega-development of 3,200 new houses,shops, and golf courses near BlackwaterNational Refuge in Dorchester County.

The Group is also concerned aboutsaving Unicorn Lake in Queen Anne’s

County from environmental devastation,due to plans for a 58-acre landfill next tothe lake. In July, the Group had a picnicat the Lake, which attracted a large crowdand a number of elected officials and can-didates.

Greater Baltimore (Baltimore Cityand County, Harford County)Chair: Ron Henry, 410-838-9119,[email protected]

As part of the Sierra Club’s “Cool Cities”Campaign, the Greater Baltimore Grouphas been encouraging Baltimore City andBaltimore County to take measures toreduce global warming. Baltimore Citysigned the U.S. Mayors’ Climate Protec-tion Agreement, and Baltimore Countyis considering signing. The Group co-sponsored a showing of Kilowatt Ours,about simple ways that homeowners andlocal government can work together toreduce energy costs, carbon dioxide emis-sions, and dependence on fossil fuels.

The Group’s Chair Ron Henry hasbeen attending meetings about a proposalfor a Liquefied Natural Gas off-loadingterminal and storage tanks at SparrowsPoint and a pipeline running into Penn-sylvania. A letter detailing concerns withthe proposal was sent to the Federal En-ergy Regulatory Commission.

Patrick McMahon participated inregional and Statewide meetings of Real-ity Check Plus, conducted by the Na-tional Center for Smart Growth Research& Education, the Urban Land Institute,and 1,000 Friends of Maryland. Inviteeswere asked to envision and brainstormabout how and where the developmentshould occur from population and jobgrowth, especially what will result fromthe Base Realignment and Closure(BRAC) to impact Aberdeen ProvingGround and Fort Meade. Patrick tracksvarious transportation-related planningactivities, such as for another Chesapeake

Bay bridge crossing, Baltimore City BikePlan, and mass transit in the Baltimorearea.

Howard CountyChair: Ken Clark, 301-725-3306,[email protected]

In November, the Group had a presenta-tion by the National Coalition for Ma-rine Conservation about their striped bassand menhaden conservation efforts.

On December 4th, there will be agift-swap-and-recycle event. Attendeeswill buy, sell, or trade their unwanted giftsand lightly used items.

Upcoming programs include Legis-lative Issues in February and an Environ-mental Film Night in March. Check theGroup’s website for details and updatesat http://maryland.sierraclub.org/hc/ orcontact Kim Birnbaum at 410-379-1075.

Montgomery CountyChair: Anne Ambler, 301-946-5599,[email protected]

By Anne Ambler, Chair—The Mont-gomery County (MC) Group joinedforces with about 20 other civic and en-vironmental organizations to push for astronger State storm water permit, onewith measurable goals. Since MC’s per-mit is the first in the renewal cycle, it ishoped that permits for other counties willfollow suit. We have been successful ininundating the Maryland Department ofthe Environment’s Secretary Philbrickwith letters of support for our demands,including several from legislators.

Led by ExCom member PamLindstrom, the Group continues to ad-vocate for city design and transportationappropriate for the impending global cli-mate crisis. Pam helped our PlanningBoard design a series of three publicroundtables about redeveloping transit-served commercial centers and redesign-

ing a strip-mall lined major arterial. A team led by ExCom member Tom

Ralph is organizing a local Cool CitiesCampaign. Already the two largest citiesin the county and two small towns(Kensington, Chevy Chase, Gaithersburg,and Rockville) have taken Seattle MayorNickels’ pledge and signed the MayorsClimate Protection Agreement to reduceemissions to 7% below 1990 levels by2012. Recognizing that governmentsalone cannot meet the goals, we expectthe campaign to extend to changing citi-zens’ energy use habits as well.

ExCom member Bob Goldbergserves on a county task force whose goalis to resolve the thorny problem of howto preserve our vaunted Agricultural Re-serve without devaluing the land for thecurrent owners. Recommendations areexpected in December.

Caren Madsen, Ginny Barnes, andAnne Ambler serve on a county task forceaimed at improving implementation ofthe Forest Conservation Law. This law hasnot been working well in conserving for-est and does nothing for urban trees. Af-ter the task force concludes, we intend todevelop a tree ordinance for urban trees.

The ICC remains a big issue withus, undercutting transit-oriented devel-opment and sapping funds for neededtransit. We continue our participation inefforts to educate the public and to re-duce public and political support for thishighly destructive project.

Many MC Group members workedwith candidates to improve the politicalclimate in the county and State. Our rela-tive success inspires hope that the envi-ronmental agenda will move up in prior-ity at both levels and that we will have agood working relationship with the in-coming Council and County Executive,who has invited the MC Group Chair toserve on his Transition Team.

Groups Promote Cool Cities and Transportation Solutions(continued from page 5)


Group News Roundup


Prince George’s CountyChair: Chip Reilly, 301-218-3920,[email protected]

Southern Maryland (Calvert andSt. Mary’s Counties)Chair: Bob Boxwell, 410-394-6153,[email protected]

Western Maryland (Allegany andGarrett Counties)Chair: Sam White, 301-264-4162,[email protected]

The Western Maryland Group is hold-ing ExCom elections. Anyone interestedin serving on the ExCom should contactthe Chair, Sam White.

In August, the Western MarylandGroup helped to sponsor a showing ofAl Gore’s documentary An InconvenientTruth. The Group had a table at the movietheatre, with materials about globalwarming and the Sierra Club’s Cool Cit-ies Campaign. ■

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Groups Take Action

Group News

The Mattawoman is home toMaryland’s largest breeding wood duckpopulation. The watershed is also an im-portant black duck wintering ground andhas a strong presence of nesting baldeagles. It is one of only three Marylandsites with a wild population of the beau-tiful and rare native lotus.

Taxpayers would pay, in real dollarsand in loss of valuable environmental ser-vices.

We face a crucial window of oppor-tunity to defend the Mattawoman water-shed from the loss of forests, with theirnatural water filtration systems, and theinstallation of paved surfaces imperviousto rainwater. Once destroyed, the forestedwatershed cannot be recreated.

The proposed cross-county connec-tor would extend a four-lane highwaythrough a lightly populated area to BryansRoad. It would parallel Rt. 228. Does ourarea need two connectors? Of course not.It is a developers’ highway. And it would

be funded 100% by Charles County tax-payers.

Keep Mattawoman Creek a positivecontributor to the health of the Bay.

Before the impervious surfaces havegone over the limit that the watershed isable to sustain, we must make clear thechoice between maintaining the health ofan invaluable natural resource that servesthe entire Bay area, and succumbing tothe lure of short-term economic gains tobe shared by few. It is our job to keepMattawoman Creek a positive contribu-tor to the Bay’s health. We cannot losethe Mattawoman and still claim that weare working to save the Bay. Future gen-erations will have no trouble weighing therelative merits of the two consider-ations—long-term public interest vs.short-term private gain—correctly. Hear-ings will be held in January. Please signup for updates or to volunteer to help atwww.mattawomanwatershedsociety.org.■

Bonnie Bick, Laurel Imlay, and BetsyJohnson contributed to this article.

EEEEExplorxplorxplorxplorxploreeeee,,,,, enjo enjo enjo enjo enjoy and pry and pry and pry and pry and protototototececececect the planett the planett the planett the planett the planet

Planning now may makeyour gift more meaningfuland reduce taxes on yourestate. We have many giftoptions available. We caneven help you plan a gift foryour local Chapter. For moreinformation and confidentialassistance, contact:

John CalawayDirector, Gift Planning85 Second Street, 2nd FloorSan Francisco, CA 94105415-977-5639 or [email protected]

Create anEnvironmentalLegacy

equests haveplayed a key rolein theSierra Club’senvironmentalsuccesses overthe years.

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Highway Threatens Mattawoman Creek(continued from page 1)

Interested in producing native seedon your farm?

Farmers Needed

We are looking for nine Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) eligiblefarmers to participate in a three-year trial producing locally native seeds asalternative crops.

USDA will provide a small payment to compensate for use of about 1/4 acre.

Please respond to Dr. Sara Tangren (301) 580-6237, [email protected].

The Bay Watershed


them to keep from accelerating into a fall.We emerged from the woods and

crossed an old orchard and a gravel road,lured by another peak. We once againbecame overheated and breathless as weclimbed and climbed through steep-facedpastures. There was no one in sight, onlywe two and the wind, the snow intensi-fying as each murky cloud swam by. Oc-casional breaks let light pour down ingolden fingers that spotlighted an indi-vidual maple or a swath of distant for-est.

We reached the new summit, whichoffered a magnificent view of woodedmountain ridges, and began to talk inwhispers, feeling awed by the sight andsheepish about trespassing. With pangsof reluctance, we headed back.

That night I lay awake reliving thecold, the wind, the snow-dusted slopes.I could picture Canaan Valley, stretchedaround me like a vast welcoming ham-mock between wooded mountain ridges.Even in its seeming slumber, the land-scape hummed with life, as if chargedwith electricity and waiting for Springto pull the switch.

Over the years, I’ve returned toWest Virginia—for adventure, comfort,inspiration, and renewal—more timesthan I can count. The only cloud that hasdarkened my time there is persistent anxi-ety about strip mining, a practice that haslargely replaced the more dangerous andlabor-intensive method of sending min-ers underground for coal. I’ve never hadmore than glimpses, however; miningcompanies are careful to keep the worstof the devastation away from roads andtrails.

Then, a few years ago, I read aboutsomething even worse than strip mining,something called mountaintop removal,or MTR. The coal industry had startedtaking entire mountaintops off to get atthe coal below. Not only are oaks and

maples and rhododendron thickets andmossy springs wiped off the face of theearth, but entire water-chiseled, 400-mil-lion-year-old mountaintops are blastedaway and dumped into neighboring val-leys, thereby destroying valley ecosystems,with their inevitable streams, to boot.

I couldn’t believe such a thing couldbe legal. Don’t we have laws that protectour waters? And who owns the moun-tains—aren’t they a national treasure for

all of us, and generations yet unborn?Someone gets to remove them??

Mountaintop removal has beencalled “strip mining on steroids.” It’s beencalled “mountain range removal.” It’s beencalled ecocide because it destroys entireecosystems. And these ecosystems aresome of the most biologically diverse tobe found in the U.S. West Virginia aloneboasts thirty-four species of salamander.Its forests also serve as breeding groundsfor many species of neo-tropical song-birds, which make a journey thousandsof miles long to return to forests—notmutilated mounds of rock—each spring.Many of these migrant species are in de-cline. Because they don’t breed in their

southern wintering grounds, the Appala-chian forests in which they nest may beeven more critical to their ultimate sur-vival than the tropical forests to whichthey migrate.

And, these forests are beautiful be-yond description. They are verdant mo-saics of hardwoods and evergreens, yield-ing to fern- and blueberry-clad “balds”at higher elevations. An understory ofrhododendron and laurel bewitches when

it blooms. And on a clear night—oh, thestars. “Almost heaven” is a line that ringstrue not only for West Virginia but forall of Appalachia—save those cursed partsdevastated by mining.

Besides their aesthetic appeal, themountains of Appalachia offer renownedrecreational opportunities—to camp,rock climb, hunt, fish, hike, backpack,bird watch, mountain bike, horsebackride, photograph, ski, canoe, kayak, andwhite-water raft in the wilds of the East.Coal companies’ profits represent the ir-replaceable loss of tourist dollars, not tomention immeasurable quantities of sheerhuman enjoyment.

Coal mining has an even darker un-

derbelly. I read about a boulder, freedfrom a Virginia mountain’s grip by min-ing activities, that rolled downslope in themiddle of the night to crush a boy as heslept in his bed. I also read a publishedletter in which the writer described a visitto Blair, West Virginia:

I was in Blair yesterday. . .. They havemoved in and they are taking it! Thehouses in the community have burntone after another. . .. One house hasa sign next to it that says, ‘keep outwe still live here’ because of lootersstealing from other houses….Wheneveryone got what they wanted thecoal company came in with backhoesand a dumpster and hauled awaywhat was left…. They are offeringrock bottom price for the people’shomes. They only pay for the squarefootage of the homes and say that theproperty is part of the deal.

The historic road signs in Blair dis-appeared overnight. They aregone…there is not one left.”

I wondered how many other towns havealready disappeared. And how manyacres have been lost.

An answer came from John G.Mitchell in the March 2006 issue of Na-tional Geographic: “So fast has the prac-tice spread that there’s no accurate ac-counting of the area affected, but surfacemining in general has impacted morethan 400,000 acres (160,000 hectares) inthis four-state Appalachian region, in-cluding more than 1,200 miles (1,900 ki-lometers) of streambeds. If the practicecontinues until 2012, it will havesquashed a piece of the American earthlarger than the state of Rhode Island.”

That was it; I had to take action,however small, to stop this unspeakablecrime against the Earth and its inhabit-ants.

First, I needed to know how my lo-

Mountains and Mining

Lasting Impressions(continued from page 1)


Mountains in southeast West Virginia are being reduced to sterile plateaus in quest for coal. Photo by Darla Tewell.


cal utility company generates electricityand what, if any, other options I have asan energy consumer. After some search-ing on the web, I had my answer. Myutility company relied on fossil fuels, andfifty percent of its electricity came fromburning the dirtiest of them all, coal.

I was aghast. Every time I turned ona light, I was supporting the leveling ofmountains in West Virginia? That real-ization didn’t sit well, to say the least.

I thought about all the ways I couldsave electricity. I bought energy-savingfluorescent bulbs. I adjusted the thermo-stat. I bought a “blanket” for my hot-water heater. I tracked down the mostenergy-efficient refrigerator I could affordwhen the old one died. And thanked mylucky stars that I have double-pane glassin my windows, a reasonable cushion ofinsulation wrapping my house, and a pel-let stove that lets my aging heat pumpwork less hard. I even began to doubleup when I bake: if a casserole is in theoven, so are brownies.

Still, I wasn’t satisfied. How couldthe changes I made in my little townhousepossibly send a message to the coal in-dustry, especially when “McMansions”are sprouting all around me, to the de-light of everyone who makes money offenergy and material resources?

I did more research. I soon foundanother utility-company option, one thatoffers “green electricity” made from burn-ing biomass. When compared with fossilfuels, biomass is cleaner burning; it gen-erates less global-warming carbon diox-ide; and it doesn’t require that mountainsbe blasted into valleys. And power gen-erators fueled by biomass such as switch-grass can, like coal, deliver power to thegrid in a timely response to demand, sotheir production could be fully appliedto reducing the need for new coal-firedplants. Green electricity, as it turns out,costs more than the fossil-fuel type, but I

couldn’t sign up fast enough, temper-ing my smug satisfaction with a re-minder that energy conservation is stillonly a partially-achieved goal in myhome and habits.

Maybe my actions haven’t stoppedmountaintop removal, but they could.Suppose that from a grassroots levelAmerica rises up and says this hideousmeans of mining coal—mountaintop re-moval—must stop. We will no longersupport or tolerate it. We will conserveenergy, boycott coal-burning utilities, anddemand that our leaders support renew-able energy resources, now.

This is my plea and my prayer, thatwe will make King Coal stop destroyingwhat we owe our children: a landscapegraced with mountains—lovely, fertile,and intact. ■

For energy-saving tips, see “Sierrans Step Upto the Energy Conservation Challenge” inthe June 2006 edition of Chesapeake. Seealso Gerald Winegrad’s article at right.

For information about Maryland’s EnergyStar program and products, see http://www.energy.state.md.us/energystar/html/consumers.html.

For information about tradable renewablecredits, which allow customers to purchasegreen electricity from out-of-state providers,see http://www.green-e.org/your_e_choices/otherstates_home.html.

For information about Pepco’s green elec-tricity (available in Maryland, Washington,D.C., Pennsylvania, and Virginia), seew w w . p e p c o e n e r g y . c o m /NaturalGasElectricity/default.aspx.

Betsy Reeder is an educator and environ-mentalist living in Harford County.

Mountains and Mining


Lasting Impressions

By Gerald W. Winegrad—The recentutility rate increases give an added impe-tus for consumers to cut back on electri-cal energy use. The oft-quoted figure of a72% average increase for BGE’s 1.2 mil-lion residential customers is a 94% in-crease in the pure cost of each kilowatt-hour (kWh) of electricity for summer use,and an astounding increase of 157% forwinter usage. For Sierra Club membersand all concerned with the environment,energy conservation is the most criticalway to better protect the environment.

While speaking with MarylandChapter Chair Betsy Johnson on a hotsummer day in Annapolis, we discussedelectrical consumption and home energyuse. A heat wave in August brought recordelectrical consumption in the region, tax-ing the power system. These peak peri-ods cause the most polluting and ineffi-cient power plants to operate, producingeven more pollution per kWh. I men-tioned how little electricity my wife andI use in our home, and Betsy asked me towrite this article.

$571 Powers 1,730 Square FeetOur 1988 two-story home in Annapolisis 1,730 sq. ft. It is an all-electric home,heated and cooled by a heat pump. Wefrequently have family and friends over,some spending the night. Our total elec-tricity cost for this past year was $571,plus $82 deferred under the higher BGErates, for a total of 7,099 kWh. The U.S.average cost for home energy use is about$1,900 a year. Using an Energy Star cal-culator, our energy use is more efficientthan 97.5% of comparable households.How do we do it without the installationof solar panels or a wood stove?

The Power HogsFirst, the greatest use of electrical energyin the home is for heating and cooling,

accounting for 50% or more. When ourold heat pump was dying, we replaced itwith a high SEER-rated Energy Star heatpump. We have it maintained and regu-larly change furnace filters. I insulated thepipes from the heat pump going into thehouse and under the house in the crawlspace. We don’t run the heat pump un-less absolutely necessary. We keep the heatand a/c off from about Labor Day to mid-November, and from mid-April until July.In cold weather, we wear sweaters andkeep the drapes and shades open duringthe day to allow the sun in, closing themat night. In warmer weather, we close thedrapes and shades during the day, leaveall windows open, and use fans where wecook, eat, and sleep, turned on only whenwe are present in that room. We use plas-tic register covers to direct air flow awayfrom the drapes and into the room.

Our heat is always set at 60-62, andat 64 when guests arrive. Our a/c is neverset lower than 80. We have replaced en-ergy inefficient windows and sliding doorswith high energy efficient windows andsliders. If we are out of the house for eighthours or more on very cold or hot days,we keep the thermostat at lower or higherlevels than normal. When away for threedays or more, we turn off all lights, thehot water heater, all clocks, DVD play-ers, etc., and never leave the a/c on. Ifnecessary, we keep the heat at 50 to pre-vent freezing.

Energy Saver SwitchesWe are among the 225,000 of BGE’s 1.2million customers who participate in aprogram in which energy saver switchesare connected to central air conditionersand water heaters. During periods of highdemand for electricity, a radio signal ac-tivates the energy saver switch to cycle thecompressor or water heater on and off in

Air and Energy

Reducing Power Consumption, ReducingPollution



15-minute intervals. Cycling of the switchcan be activated any time throughout theyear, but typically occurs in the summermonths between 10 a.m. and 8 p.m. Ihave never noticed this occurring and itsaves us $15 a month, typically $60 an-nually, and prevents the most pollutingpower plants from having to crank outjuice. It costs nothing to hook-up.

Every house needs to be properlyinsulated and to have cracks sealed. Goodattic insulation, good windows, stormdoors, and electrical socket insulators areall important and these all are in place inour home. We rarely turn on the kitchenor bathroom air ventilators as they cansuck out a lot of heat or a/c. I close thefireplace flue damper in winter and openit in summer. We rarely use the fireplace.

Choosing and Using MajorApplicancesThe hot water heater is the next majoruser of energy. I have a thermal blanketon the water heater, insulation around thepipes, and set the water temperature at120 degrees F. I installed flow restrictorson all faucets and water conservationshower heads. We have an Energy Starhigh efficiency refrigerator and alwayskeep the lowest temperature settings nec-essary for the freezer and refrigerator. Wetry not to leave the door open very longand keep the coils clean from dust accu-mulation. We also replaced the old dish-washer with an Energy Star high effi-ciency model, although I prefer to washdishes by hand. My wife uses it sparinglyand with full loads. We also replaced adryer with a more efficient model and useit only with full loads, cleaning the lintfilter with each use. We use only coldwater in the washing machine.

We have replaced nearly all lightingwith compact fluorescent bulbs (about$1.50 each at discount houses) and neverleave lights on when we are not in a room.

Home computers now use 9%-10% ofall energy in a home and many peopleleave them on 24/7. I always turn mycomputer off when not in use and alsoturn off the power bar to which it is con-nected.

We recycle more than 75% of house-hold waste, including yard waste. I aver-age only 6,000 miles a year in my usedfuel-efficient vehicle, and carpool and usepublic transit.

Saving and StewardshipWhy do we conserve? Of course, nearlyall of the measures we have taken savemoney, but ethically, as good stewards ofthe Earth, we need to drastically reducethe use of fossil fuels.

As Sierra Club members we all needto set an example in energy conservationand efficiency in our own living habitsand conserve energy.

Plugging into CoalRemember, 57% of the electrical supplywe are using comes from the most dan-

gerous and dirty fuel on Earth–coal. An-other 34% comes from nuclear energy,while 1.5% comes from oil. Only 1.8%comes from renewables, mostly from hy-dro (dams) and burning solid waste. I ama strong supporter of wind energy and aselectrical demand grows, the importanceand necessity of energy conservation andshifting from fossil-fueled electrical gen-eration to renewable energy becomesparamount. But at least 94 large, newcoal-fired electric power plants with thecapacity to power 62 million Americanhomes, are now planned across 36 states.These new plants would add another 20%to the U.S.’s current coal-generating ca-pacity.

Pollution Generating PlantsElectrical generating power plants pro-duced 36% of the carbon dioxide (globalwarming), 68% of the sulfur dioxide,38% of the nitrogen oxide, and 23% oftoxic heavy metals in the U.S. Nearly 48tons of mercury are emitted each year bycoal burning power plants, more than


Energy Conservation Reduces Use of Fossil Fuels

Compact fluorescents use at least 2/3 lessenergy than standard incandescent bulbs toprovide the same amount of light.And, they lastup to 10 times longer.

They save $30 each or more in energy costsover each bulb’s lifetime and generate 70% lessheat, so they’re safer to operate and can cutenergy costs associated with home cooling.

40% of all human-released mercury. Oneof ten women of childbearing age havemercury levels high enough to damagetheir babies’ brains. Mercury has contami-nated our state fish, the rockfish, andhuman consumption advisories exist forthis fish throughout the Bay.

Roughly 700 premature deaths,30,000 asthma attacks, and 400 pediat-ric emergency room visits per year arelinked to fine particulate pollution fromsix of the seven power plants covered bythe Healthy Air Act enacted in Marylandin 2006 (Dr. Jonathan Levy, HarvardSchool of Public Health).

Power plant combustion is also amajor contributor of one of the key pol-lutants affecting the Bay, the nutrient ni-trogen. Together with vehicle exhausts,power plants and other air emissions con-tribute as much as 33% of the total ni-trogen to the bay system, creating deadzones.

Each time you turn on your heat ora/c or leave a light on, think global warm-ing, acid rain, mercury contamination,nitrogen pollution of the Bay, massiveforest and stream destruction, and humansickness and deaths. ■

Gerald W. Winegrad is a long-time SierraClub member and served in the State Leg-islature from 1978-1995, the latter 12 yearsas a Senator where he championed environ-mental causes.

Air and Energy

The Maryland Chapterhas an urgent need fora Conservation Chair.

If you’re interested,please callBetsy Johnson,301-656-4948.


By Kim Stenley—In the United States, ababy is born every seven seconds; some-one dies every 13 seconds; and one inter-national migrant enters the country ev-ery 31seconds, for a net gain of one per-son every 11 seconds.

Last month, the U.S. populationreached 300 million.

According to Lester Brown of theWorldwatch Institute, “With births ex-ceeding deaths by nearly two to one, theU.S. population grows by almost 1.8million each year, or 0.6 percent. Addingnearly 1 million immigrants per yearbrings the annual growth rate up to 0.9percent, raising the total ad-dition to 2.7 million. Asthings now stand, we areheaded for 400 millionAmericans by 2043.”

When we talk aboutgrowth, pollution and glo-bal warming, it’s typically interms of the economy andservices or inanimate ob-jects, such as vehicles,houses or wells. We talk asif the number of peopleweren’t a problem. But it is.

Each new person re-quires food, clothing andshelter and will likely become a workerwho will need a job, a driver who willneed transportation, a renter or home-owner, a consumer, who by his or hermere existence demands a share of avail-able resources—resources that are dryingup.

U.S. rivers and lakes are disappear-ing, and more farmers are selling theirwater rights to cities. The city of Frederickis planning to draw water from thePotomac, thus diverting water away fromcommunities downstream.

Water is also a growing concern inCarroll County, as the incidences ofdrought and contamination continue torise.

According to the nonprofit Popula-tion Connection, “Only 0.3 percent ofthe planet’s water is available for humanuse. Due to mismanagement, over 40percent of the groundwater in the U.S.in contaminated by industrial, agricul-tural and household pollution, making itextremely difficult and costly to purify.”

And we’re burning fossil fuels fasterthan we’re moving to renewable energy.More people require more appliances,electronics, lighting, heating and coolingand vehicles, thus more coal and oil, bothfinite resources that will run out.

Brown asserts, “The United States,

richly endowed with oil, has largely de-pleted its petroleum reserves within twogenerations. The use of oil has exceedednew discoveries in the United States forsome 25 years. As reserves shrink, U.S.production falls and imports climb, help-ing to drive up world oil prices. And aspopulation increases, so do the emissionsof the Earth-warming gas carbon diox-ide.”

More people require more food. Morebeef, chicken, pork and dairy productstake more energy and water to produce.It takes 23 times more water to produce1 ton of beef than it does to produce 1ton of grain. And the land we depend onto grow crops is threatened by develop-ment while fish species in our coastal

waters are threatened by overfishing.A growing population also affects

quality of life. Habitable places becometoo crowded as more roads or develop-ments are added. One can’t traverseCarroll County without encounteringtraffic congestion somewhere along theway. Brown claims “Traffic congestion inthe United States in 2003 caused 3.7 bil-lion hours of travel delay and wasted 2.3billion gallons of fuel.”

All of this stress affects personal well-being and family life. And it’s gettingharder to get away for a little while aspublic spaces and vacation spots are in-

creasingly crowded.In his book, In

Growth We Trust, avail-able at the library, EdwinStennett, founder ofGrowth EducationMovement Inc., assertsthat “failing to addressU.S. population growthwill increasingly dimin-ish the quality of life ofour children and grand-children; our mushroom-ing population is neitherinevitable nor economi-cally necessary; and U.S.

population stabilization can be achievedby voluntary means supported by the vastmajority of Americans.”

Brown and the nonprofit NegativePopulation Growth Inc., among others,advocate for a “national population policythat would lead to population stabiliza-tion sooner rather than later.”

I hope we can start talking honestlyabout population, as I’m concerned aboutthe world my son, an only child by choice,and his peers are inheriting.

The more we can do for them now,the better off they and the world will be. ■Kim Stenley is Chair of the Catoctin Group.Column reprinted with permission of TheCarroll County Times.

Population300 Million and Counting

Laurel ImlayMaryland Chapter/Sierra ClubRoom 101A7338 Baltimore Ave.

College Park, MD 20740

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By Jon Robinson—Hello from Antarctica. I arrived atMcMurdo Station, Antarctica on October 31, to serveas the volunteer photographer for a seal study, fundedby the National Science Foundation, and staffed by theSmithsonian. It is springtime in Antarctica, but it isstill cold. In preparation for the flight from ChristChurch, New Zealand to McMurdo Station, we had towear our “extreme weather clothing” in case the plane,an Air Force C17, crashed, although the crew cheerilypointed out that the ocean was so cold, that, should wehave to make a waterlanding, we wouldn’tneed our underseatflotation devices forvery long. Most ofthe airplane was filledwith cargo, with onlyone “pallet” of seatsinstalled. My even-tual destination was afield camp at HuttonCliffs, about 12 milesas the skua* flies fromMcMurdo Station.

However, beforebeing allowed to goon the ice, I had totake two courses:Snow Craft I (a.k.a.Happy Camper School) and Ice Safety. For Snow CraftI, we listened to a short lecture and then piled into abus with large balloon wheels to our camp site. There,we set up a camp that consisted of two Scott tents, threemountain tents, a quanzee (a pile of snow that is packeddown and then hollowed out like an igloo), and severaltrenches about 3 feet deep with a 4 or 5 foot cold well atone end. The warmth of the trenches is typically in-creased by cutting snow blocks and sliding them overthe opening after you have laid your sleeping bag on thebottom. We were lucky that the temperature of -17 C(1.4 F) was much warmer than it had been earlier in theyear. I slept in one of the Scott tents, which is supposedto be warmer than the mountain tents and not as claus-trophobic as the quanzee or the snow trench. I was alittle cold that night and, just about the time I had got-ten warm, I had to make a visit to the ultra air-condi-tioned outhouse. I never got warm again that night. Inthe morning, the walls of the tent were lined with frost,

and my water bottle, which had been outside my sleep-ing bag by my head, was frozen solid.

The ice training was less stressful. It involved go-ing out in a Hagglund snow vehicle to cracks in the icesheet, and drilling down to the water at various placesalong a transect that went from one ice sheet to the next,through the refrozen water that filled up the crack. Fi-nally, on Tuesday, November 7, I was able to take a snow-mobile ride out to our camp.

The first two days were quite warm by Antarctics t andards ,and, with nowind, werequite enjoy-able. I sleptthe first twonights in aScott tent. Ihad learnedmy lesson atH a p p yC a m p e rSchool andlayered upbefore crawl-ing into mysleeping bag.I was quitew a r m

enough at night, but getting up and dressed in the morn-ing would have been more pleasant if it had been a littlewarmer. Since then I have moved into a heated bunkcabin made from an ice fishing hut, and sleeping anddressing in the morning have been much more com-fortable. The wind has picked up significantly, creatinga situation where any exposed skin can be frostbitten in3 minutes. Also, exposed skin must be covered withheavy duty sun screen, since the ozone hole means thereis no protection from the sun’s ultraviolet radiation.

Our camp is powered by a solar panel with a hutfull of batteries, propane for cooking and heating in twoof the huts (sleeping and cooking), diesel fuel for heat-ing the lab hut, and two-cycle oil-gas mixture for thesnowmobiles. The camp had a small wind turbine be-fore I arrived, but it was taken down because it made alot of noise. The noise disrupted people’s sleep, and itcould be heard all the way to the seal colony. Also, theturbine didn’t generate much electricity, as the winds

are typically stronger than those for which it was de-signed. This time of year, the solar cells and batterypack work well because the sun never sets.

I’ve taken many hundreds of photographs since ar-riving in Antarctica, some of which should be showingup on the Smithsonian’s website by the time you readthis. http://nationalzoo.si.edu/ConservationAndScience/AquaticEcosystems/Antarctica/Science/. The websitealso explains the science experiments being carried out.■

* The skua is a large, seagull-type bird that needs to scavenge dead meat before the meatfreezes, which means that frequently the skua’s food is not quite dead before the skua startspecking away at it. This behavior has not made the skua a popular animal with those wholike to see nature as peaceful and idyllic.

Jon Robinson is Wildlife Chair for the Maryland Chapter.

Jon’s Antarctic Expedition

Explorations

Starting from the right, the solar panel, the battery hut, the lab hut; behind the first Scott tent, thecooking hut;and behind the second and third Scott tents is the sleeping hut. The little darkbuilding with the sloping walls is the outhouse. Hutton Cliffs is in the background. Photo by JonRobinson.


A RA RA RA RA Reeeeevievievievieview of w of w of w of w of TTTTThe Ohe Ohe Ohe Ohe Omnivmnivmnivmnivmnivorororororeeeee’’’’’s Ds Ds Ds Ds Dilemma:ilemma:ilemma:ilemma:ilemma:A NA NA NA NA Naturaturaturaturatural Histal Histal Histal Histal Histororororory of Fy of Fy of Fy of Fy of Four Mealsour Mealsour Mealsour Mealsour MealsMichael Pollan, The Penguin Press (2006), 411 pages

By Betty Brody—When we start a nice meal in a res-taurant, the last thing we want to think about is whereour food came from, especially our animal food. Wedon’t like to consider ourselves mammals, with animalneeds for clean air and water, and for safe and nutri-tious food.

Michael Pollan, an award-winning journalist, seewww.michaelpollan.com, tells how he investigated foodproduction in this country and explains, in an easy-to-read style, scientific facts about that production. He asks,“What should we have for dinner? When you can eatjust about anything nature has to offer, deciding whatyou should eat will inevitably stir anxiety, especially whensome of the potential foods on offer are liable to sickenor kill you.”

Our dilemma is selecting which food will be goodfor us (nutritious, tasty, ethically proper) and which foodwill poison us, either immediately (rancid food or poi-sonous mushrooms) or slowly (food high in saturatedfats or heavy metals or pesticides or hormones, or foodproduced and transported in a way that harmed theenvironment necessary to our survival). Four-fifths ofthe energy used to feed Americans is spent processingfood and moving it around. Pollan discusses, with manyinteresting details: 1. “fast food” and supermarket food(food from corn); 2. organic food (food from grass);and 3. food hunted and gathered (food from the for-est).

1. Corn feeds American cattle, sheep, pigs, poul-try and farmed fish; becomes cooking oil; and appearsin many guises as a sweetener. Our supermarkets sellabout 45,000 items which seem to be different, but morethan 25% of them contain corn. Our corn is grown as amonoculture. Devoting so many acres to one crop andsimplifying crop production is contrary to nature, whichis complex and diverse.

Though agribusiness produces huge quantities andfeeds masses (without it, would there again be hungerin America?), it relies heavily on fossil fuels to createfertilizers, pesticides, and food packaging, and to trans-port the food. These fertilizers and pesticides end up inour water supply and, with a slew of other pollutants,travel down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico,creating there a dead zone the size of New Jersey.

An Omnivore Asks “What’s for Dinner?”Bison once thrived on the arid Great Plains, but

Europeans preferred to graze cattle on that land. Later,when American corn, government-subsidized and grownefficiently with artificial fertilizer, became cheap, Ameri-cans started fattening cattle with corn in huge feedlots.Cattle, ruminants, only graze on grasses, and their stom-achs are neutral. Eating corn makes their stomachsacidic, causing them medical problems, which requiretreatment with antibiotics.

2. Consumer Reports recently endorsed organic

foods (big and little organic farmers are battling overthe legal definition of “organic”), and, as more Ameri-cans wanted organic products, Wal-Mart and supermar-kets started selling them. But a lot of products in WholeFoods Market are not organic. Many are highly pro-cessed (such as organic frozen dinners), and some justclaim to be “natural,” whatever that means. Many or-ganic products are grown on huge monoculture farmsand are prohibitively expensive. Organic milk must beultrapasteurized to insure its safety, since the cows fromwhich it comes have not received antibiotics or othermedications.

A few farmers do not grow organic food industri-

Natural Selection

ally; they do not try to dominate nature, just to mimicit.Joel Salatin farms this way on Polyface Farm inSwoope, VA. His cattle, chickens, turkeys, pigs, and rab-bits eat grass, and the fowl and pigs eat insects in andunder the grass. All those animals are raised with noneed for medications.

3. Author Pollan hunted and gathered a meal. Heshot a feral pig, gathered wild mushrooms, captured yeastfrom the air, and picked fava beans and lettuce from hisgarden and cherries from a neighbor’s tree. His valiantattempt to harvest abalone from the sea came to naught.From a gargantuan effort, Pollan served an unusual mealto his friends, mostly proving how impractical it is forAmericans to “live off the land.”

Still, we might help the environment and improveour health by eating little or no meat (a lot of corn andenergy go into its production), and eating the least pro-cessed, least packaged, organic food from local farms.And, odds are, this food will taste better! ■

The Virginia and D.C. Chapters of the Sierra Clubinvite you to learn about the true cost of the food we eatby participating in our local area restaurant diningevents. To learn more about the National True Cost ofFood Campaign, visit: www.truecostoffood.org

If you’d like to attend any of these True Cost ofFood Campaign monthly restaurant outings, pleaseRSVP to Susan Prolman at [email protected] orDiana Artemis at: [email protected].

2007 Scheduled EventsThursday, January 25, 2007 6:30 pmIndia Curry House3181 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA(across street from Clarendon Metro/Orange Line)

Thursday, February 22, 2007 6:30 pmThe Vegetable Garden11618 Rockville Pike, Rockville, MD(across street from White Flint Metro/Red Line)Organic & Macrobiotic Cuisine

D.C. Metro Area SierransPlan Monthly RestaurantOutings


True Cost of Food


Thursday, March 22, 2007 6:30 pmSingh Thai2311 Wilson Blvd, Arlington, VA(across street from Court House Metro/Orange Line)

Thursday, April 26, 2007 6:30 pmNirvana1810 K St., NW; Washington, DCIndian/Vegetarian

Thursday, May 24, 2007 6:30 pmLebanese Taverna at Pentagon Row1101 S. Joyce St., Arlington, VA(Located near the Pentagon City Metro station)

Thursday, June 28, 2007 6:30 pmVegetate1414 9th Street, NW, Washington, DC(two blocks east from Mount Vernon Square Metro)Local & Organic Cuisine

Thursday, July 26, 2006 6:30 pmSunflower2531 Chain Bridge Rd., Vienna, VAAll-Vegan Chinese Cuisine

There will be a special weekend outing to a local farmor farmer’s market in August

Thursday, September 27, 2007 6:30 pmJava Green1020 19th. Street N.W.; Washington D.C.(Two blocks from Farragut West Metro)Vegan/Vegetarian

Thursday, October 25, 2007 6:30 pmMyanmar Restaurant7810 Lee Highway, Falls Church, VA(A 20-minute walk from the Dunn Loring Metro/Orange Line)Burmese Vegetarian

TTTTTrrrrrue Cue Cue Cue Cue Cost of Fost of Fost of Fost of Fost of Fooooooooood Md Md Md Md Metretretretretro Do Do Do Do D.C..C..C..C..C. R R R R RestaurestaurestaurestaurestaurananananantttttOutingsOutingsOutingsOutingsOutings


By Diana Artemis—It’s the holiday season once again.In the over-stressed times we live in can we pause anddo more to put thanks and love back into our holidaycelebrations? The Sustainable Consumption Commit-tee (SCC)’s True Cost of Food Campaign makes it clearthat our choice of food, now more than ever during theholiday season, affects our earth, our health, and whatwe leave as a legacy to our children and our children’schildren. Let’s pause and think about where the foodwe eat came from, and at what cost to the environment.

What is Eco-Cuisine?In his book, Eco-Cuisine: An Ecological Approach to Gour-met Vegetarian Cooking, Ron Picarski writes, “Ecologyis an awareness of the interrelationships between livingorganisms and their environment. Eco-Cuisine is aboutthe human diet and its relationship to our personal healthand the natural environment. We must begin to look atfood as a route back to nature and a way to understandour connections with natural cycles. We need to live inharmony with nature and within our biological bound-aries that are part of that natural system.”

During this holiday season, let’s think about ourhealth, our children’s health and the health of our planet.

A delicious cooked meal, especially if it’s sharedwith friends and family, provides nourishment for thespirit as well as the body. Food that is locally grown byorganic farmers is healthy for our communities and lo-cal economy. Respecting the earth and its animals whenproducing and eating food creates the harmony that weseek in relating to each other and our planet, and allowsus truly to celebrate in a way that honors our earth andeach other. Historically, food was a celebration of life:growing, preparing and eating the fruits of the field wereonce one of the strongest ties to community spirit.

As Sierra Club members, let’s lead the way. Thisyear, invite your friends, neighbors, and family mem-bers to a low-impact, cruelty-free holiday meal that ismindful of its origins and the connections that bind usall to a sustainable planet. ■

Diana Artemis is Co-Chair, Sierra Club National Sus-tainable Consumption Committee and the National TrueCost of Food (TCOF) Campaign. To learn more about theTCOF Campaign, visit: www.truecostoffood.org.

Celebrating the Holidayswith Earth-Friendly Feasts

By Bonnie Lane Weber—Sustainable consumption isthe use of goods and services that satisfy basic needsand improve quality of life while minimizing the usageof irreplaceable natural resources. We all need to con-sciously think about our food choices in terms ofsustainability and appreciate the effect these choices haveon the environment. Here are some ideas and sugges-tions to consider implementing in your personal foodchoices to help minimize our impact on the environ-ment through the food we eat:

◆Eat lower on the food chain. Raising grain and veg-etables for human consumption is more efficient thanfeeding it to animals, which are then in turn eaten byhumans. ◆Make food choices without regard to advertising, andteach your children to think independently about thefood they eat. Large food companies spend as muchmoney to influence our food choices as is spent to in-fluence tobacco sales – their goals are not the same asyours. ◆Eat the greatest variety of the least processed food. ◆Buy locally grown food and/or organically grown food.The further food is shipped to arrive at its consumer,the more pollution it creates through fossil fuel-basedmeans of transportation. Some food grown overseas isdoused with chemicals that are not allowed to be usedhere in the U.S. Purchasing organic and locally grownfood cuts down on the amount of chemicals going intothe soil and water (and into our food), and pollutiongoing into the air. ◆Shop at farmers’ markets. Find farmers markets onwww.localharvest.com. Eat at local restaurants that uselocal farmers’ products. Ask in restaurants and storeswhere the food is from. Encourage them to buy locally.Compliment them on the delicious local items that theydo carry. ◆Ask food store managers to stock locally-grown itemswhen they are available and in-season. Many food storemanagers say that if they get two requests for a product,they will stock it. Our voices and dollars do count! ■

Reprinted from 3000 Miles, the newsletter of the SierraClub Sustainable Consumption Committee, Spring 2004.

Choosing Food for a Healthy Familyand a Healthy Planet

True Cost of Food


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BBBBBaltimoraltimoraltimoraltimoraltimoreeeeeBecome an Urban Weed Warrior!Baltimore City Recreation and Parks hasstarted its own Urban Weed Warriors pro-gram. Weed warriors can come to any ofthe sessions listed below to learn aboutthe non-native invasive problem in Bal-timore City parks. Training will includeweed ID, removal techniques and nativealternatives to exotic flora. The trainingwill lead to certification as a weed war-rior, whereby volunteers can work on theirown to help control non-native invasivesin Baltimore City parks. There will alsobe information about organized weed-pull activities throughout the spring andsummer. Please contact Kimberley Mead,Weed Warrior Coordinator, [email protected] or410-396-0359, for directions, RSVP orwith questions.

BBBBBaltimoraltimoraltimoraltimoraltimore Ce Ce Ce Ce CounounounounountttttyyyyyJones Falls Restoration Project, TowsonDecember 9th: Meadowood Park is a spe-cial place in the Jones Falls Watershed—the Jones Falls and two of its importanttributaries, Deep Run and Dipping PondRun, flow through the park. Join us aswe continue to battle the alien invasionalong the park’s forested creek buffers.We’ll pull Japanese honeysuckle, Englishivy, porcelain berry and other invasivespecies that are crowding out Marylandnatives and smothering trees.No experience is necessary! Tools andgloves will be provided. Time, 9:30 a.m.til noon; location, Meadowood Park,10650 Falls Road, Lutherville-Timonium, Maryland 21093.

For questions or to register, pleasecontact Suzanne Greene at the Jones FallsWatershed Association, 3000 ChestnutAvenue, Suite 100, at 410-366-3036 [email protected]. Thanks for yourhelp!

CCCCCalvalvalvalvalvererererert Ct Ct Ct Ct CounounounounountttttyyyyyHellen Creek PreserveDirections; From Washington, take Rt.4 south to Calvert County. Turn right atthe second light in Lusby, which is Coster/Mill Bridge Road. Take Coster. After pass-ing two rights (Bassford) look for threeblack mailboxes on the right and turn atthe third. Follow Clifton Drive to the firstleft. Follow to Cove Point Natural Heri-tage Trust sign. For more info, or to re-ceive updates about workdays email orcall Bob Boxwell, Executive Director,Cove Point Natural Heritage Trust, P.O.Box 336, Lusby, MD 20657, 410-394-1300, or [email protected].

CCCCCarararararoline Coline Coline Coline Coline CounounounounountttttyyyyyAdkins ArboretumAdkins Arboretum on Maryland’s East-ern Shore is seeking volunteers to assistthe staff in the removal of invasive non-natives on the Arboretum’s 400-acre site.Volunteers will be trained by the Arbore-tum staff. Workdays are Wednesday from1p.m. to 3 p.m. For more information,contact Sylvan Kaufman at 410 634-2847, ext. 24.

CCCCCharharharharharles Cles Cles Cles Cles CounounounounountttttyyyyyChapman Forest and Ruth Swann Park

Dates: First Sundays and followingSaturday, monthly. Time: 10 a.m. – 4p.m.

Remove invasive non-natives fromthe 200-acre Swann Park and 800-acreportion of Chapman Forest designatedChapman State Park. There will be timefor plant identification and a beautifulbeach lunch. Participating organizationsinclude Maryland Native Plant Society,Sierra Club and Chapman Forest Foun-dation.

There are general methods and spe-cies-specific methods, such as best seasonfor species, wet soil condition for pull-ing, handouts, extent of area of nativesseen rescued, delayed gratification, tar-geted use of herbicides, and matchingfunds for staff to do what volunteers find

hard to do. Non-native invasive plant removal

will reach maintenance phase followinga major work effort at each site in theMid-Atlantic region and around theworld for about three to five years to re-move the massive populations of species.Regular stewardship projects are con-ducted in all seasons including winter,early spring, late spring, summer, and latesummer. This high-intensity program isfollowed by a low-intensity annual main-tenance program for plants we havemissed, plants emerging from the seedbank, and occasional plants migrating infrom neighboring areas.

Casual clothing, long sleeves andpants, sturdy comfortable walking boots/shoes, gloves are encouraged for theseevents.

For information about the area andmap, see www.chapmanforest.org.

Contact: Marc Imlay, 301-699-6204 or 301-283-0808. I can be reachedat 301-442-5657 on my cell phone onthese dates.

DIRECTIONS: First Sunday, meetat main gate of Chapman Forest.Directions to Chapman Forest, ChapmanState Park, Mount Aventine and theGlendening Natural Environment Area.Take the Washington Capital Beltway toIndian Head Highway (MD 210) southtoward Indian Head (from VA Exit 2;from MD Exit 3A). At 14 miles, continuethrough on MD 210 through the trafficlight at MD 227 (This crossroads is thecenter of the community known asBryans Road). At about 1.1 miles past thelight, veer to the right onto ChapmansLanding Road. Follow for 1.6 miles tothe gated entrance of Mount Aventineand Chapman State Park.

CARPOOL Info: Meet at SierraClub Md. Chapter office at 9 a.m.; re-turn 5 p.m. Call Laurel Imlay at 301-277-7111

DIRECTIONS: Following Satur-day, meet at Ruth B. Swann Park-Potomac Branch Library parking lot, 20

miles south of Washington Beltway (I-495) on Rt. 210 (Indian Head Hwy),about a mile and a half south from thetraffic light on Rt. 2l0 in BryansRoad.Give yourself 30 to 40 minutesfrom the Beltway. CARPOOL Info:Meet at Sierra Club Md. Chapter officeat 9 a.m.; return 5 p.m. Call Laurel Imlayat 301-277-7111.

GGGGGarararararrrrrrett Cett Cett Cett Cett CounounounounountttttyyyyySavage River State Forest

Battling Botanical Bullies in BearPen Wildland, Garrett County Leader/s:Ron Boyer & Liz McDowell.

Exotic Removal Workday descrip-tion: Volunteers are needed to continuecontrol efforts of Japanese spiraea in theBear Pen Run area of Savage River StateForest. Bear Pen is designated as a Type 1Wildland and like other natural areasaround the state, it is threatened by a va-riety of exotic invasive species. In 2005,Ed Thompson, Maryland Heritage &Wildlife Service ecologist, identified theremoval of Spiraea japonica from BearPen as a high priority project. For moredetails or to register, contact Ron [email protected] (“Sharingunique nature experiences in every sea-son.”) or at 301-895-3686.

HHHHHooooowwwwwararararard Cd Cd Cd Cd CounounounounountttttyyyyyPatapsco State ParkFor regular monthly events resuming inthe Spring sponsored by PatapscoRiverkeeper for about ten species of non-native plants contact Lee WalkerOxenham, Patapsco Riverkeeper, Inc410-313-8826. Our endeavors will take place at PatapscoValley State Park - right off Rte 1 inElkridge. Light refreshments will be pro-vided. Bring any pruning and digginggear you have, especially gauntlets.The area is suffering from invasive every-thing—especially kudzu and ivy andgrape vines, but we also have tree ofheaven and mile-a-minute. It’s a depress-

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Habitat Restoration and Invasive Species Removal Outings



ing sight seeing all the vines taking overand literally pulling the trees down. Can’twait til we drag them down and FREETHE TREES!

HHHHHooooowwwwwararararard / Ad / Ad / Ad / Ad / Anne Anne Anne Anne Anne Arrrrrundel /undel /undel /undel /undel /PPPPPrrrrrincincincincince Ge Ge Ge Ge Georeoreoreoreorgegegegege’’’’’s Cs Cs Cs Cs CounounounounountttttyyyyyFort Meade Help remove Japanese stilt grass, Englishivy, garlic mustard, tree of heaven, multi-flora rose, crown vetch, Japanese honey-suckle, common privet, phragmites, Asi-atic tearthumb, etc. Prior to removing theweeds, there will be a short training ses-sion on identification, and control tech-niques of non-native invasive plants.People of all ages, backgrounds and in-terests are invited to spend a few hoursoutdoors, hand-pulling some non-nativeplants while learning about the differencesbetween native and non-native invasiveplants and how these invasives adverselyimpact our natural ecosystem.

Where and When:Fort Meade Army InstallationSecond Saturday of every month at 10a.m.

Directions: Take Route 175 Eastfrom the 295 Baltimore WashingtonParkway. Take Mapes Road Entrance ontothe installation.

Bring hand tools, gloves, lunch andwater. Long sleeves and pants recom-mended. At lease one day prior to theevent, contact Don Marquardt, Installa-tion forester, by e-mail [email protected] or byphone at 301-677-9185.

Middle Patuxent Environmental Area,ClarksvilleConservation Stewardship Project at theMiddle Patuxent Environmental Area(MPEA) will be meeting November 28thfrom 9 a .m . - 11:30 a.m.. Each trip willhave both an educational component anda work component. For information, di-rections or to register, contact Aylene

Gard, 410-992-9889, or Carol Filipczak,[email protected] . The Conserva-tion Stewardship project is sponsored byHoward County Recreation and Parksand the Howard County Master Garden-ers.

Patuxent Research RefugeIn partnership between the Departmentof the Army (Fort Meade), the MarylandNative Plant Society, the Maryland Chap-ter of the Sierra Club and Patuxent Re-search Refuge and volunteers.Non-native invasive plants are threaten-ing our wildlife habitat. We need YOUto help stop them. Come out for one ofour “Weed WarriorsDays” and help ustreat garlic mustard,m i l e - a - m i n u t e ,Japanese stiltgrassand other non-na-tive plant infesta-tions on the refuge.All ages and abilitiesare welcome. Doyour part to protectPatuxent from alieninvaders, and be-come a Weed War-rior! You will receivea short educational briefing explaining theeffects of invasive plants on wildlife andwildlife habitats and how to identify andcontrol these plants. Wear long sleevesand pants and bring gloves. Please regis-ter for this event by calling 301-497-5887.

Directions to the North Tract VisitorContact Station:From I-295, take the exit for MD-Route198 towards Fort Meade. Go approxi-mately 1.5 miles until you see Glory DaysAuto Salvage on your near right cornerand baseball fields on your far right. Turnright between the two onto Bald EagleDrive. Proceed through the gate and con-tinue about 1/2 mile to the Visitor Con-tact Station.

Directions to the National Wildlife Visi-tor Center: The National Wildlife Visi-tor Center is located off of Powder MillRoad between MD Route 197 and theBaltimore/Washington Parkway, south ofLaurel.

For additional information, call 301-497-5763 or visit http://patuxent.fws.gov.Christopher Wicker,Wildlife BiologistPatuxent Research Refuge, 12100 BeechForest Road, Suite 138, Laurel, MD20708. Phone 301-497-5949 orC h r i s t o p h e r _ W i c k e r @ f w s . g o v Riverfront Park, Laurel

Wishing for weedersin LaurelWholesome riverwith lots of curvesseeks outgoingnaturalists for inva-sive species removaland native plantpropagation, possi-bly leading to com-plete restoration ofthe wild.

Where: RiverfrontPark - Laurel, MD

When: Second Sunday of every month,1 p.m. - 4 p.m.November 12, 2006December 10, 2006January 14, 2007

Directions:From I 95 north or south: take MD Route216-Laurel exit. At the second traffic light(Main Street) turn right. Go to the endof the next block, turn right at 9th Streetand park at the swimming pool.Contact: Brigitte [email protected] or 240-506-8976.

MMMMMononononontttttgomergomergomergomergomery Cy Cy Cy Cy CounounounounountttttyyyyyBrookside Gardens

Weed Warriors are needed for the forestedareas surrounding the gardens. You willbe given directions so that you may workindependently, weekends or weekdays, onyour own schedule.

Contact: Stacy Parsons 301-962-1417 or [email protected] .Websites: www.BrooksideGardens.organd/or www.MC-MNCPPC.org/envi-ronment/weed_warriors/intro.shtm

Montgomery County ParksWeed Warriors Wanted!The Maryland-National Capital Park andPlanning Commission’s (M-NCPPC)Forest Ecologist is assembling ateam of volunteers (Weed Warriors) tomonitor and remove non-native invasiveplant species in Montgomery CountyParks, and we need your help! As a WeedWarrior volunteer, you will receive a shorttraining session from the forest ecologistin the identification of, removal and con-trol techniques for non-native invasiveplants. Weed Warriors can then work attheir own pace and choose a schedule thatbest suits them. Many current Weed War-riors live near a M-NCPPC Stream Val-ley Park or Regional Park and do theirvolunteer work while walking their dogsor taking an occasional hike through theirneighborhood park. Whether you chooseto work individually or in a group, yourefforts will contribute to the control ofnon-native vegetation in the 32,500 acresof Montgomery County parkland. Con-tact: Carole Bergmann, M-NCPPC For-est Ecologist, at 301-949-2818 for moreinfo or to sign up.

The Potomac GorgeInvasive Plant Control Workdays in ThePotomac Gorge.

Help protect native plantbiodiversity near DC! The Nature Conservancy, in partnershipwith the National Park Service, will con-tinue all season with invasive plant con-trol workdays in the Potomac Gorge, a

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15-mile stretch of river valley betweenGreat Falls and Georgetown with over200 rare plants and 5 globally rare plantcommunities. Volunteers are welcome tosign up for a variety of workdays, wherewe cut or pull some of the most prob-lematic weeds, often in scenic areas. Wewill hold two more Weed Warrior train-ing sessions, where volunteers learn 13non-native plant species, adopt an areaand work independently in the NationalParks in the Potomac Gorge.For more information or to sign up, goto: www.nature.org/maryland for a list orworkdays, or contact Mary below if youwould like to sign up a school or organi-zational group for a workday, or be addedto our email list: Mary [email protected] or 301-897-8570.

Sligo Creek ParkThe RIP - Removing Invasive PlantsProject

Friends of Sligo Creek is holding oc-casional winter and spring events in dif-ferent parts of the park, and welcomesnewcomers. For a schedule seewww.fosc.org/RIPEventSched.htm.From mid-April to mid-June we will workon removing all garlic mustard. Be sureto check http://www.fosc.org for last-minute weather changes. For a list of sitesbetween New Hampshire and Arcola,contact Lea Bonfiglio,phone 301-807-4697,or email [email protected] Sally Gagne, 301-588-2071.

Woodend Nature Sanctuary, ChevyChaseThe Audubon Naturalist Society needsyour help to remove invasive non-nativeplants from its Woodend Sanctuary inChevy Chase, MD! Join us for monthlygroup work sessions where training willbe provided. Trained volunteers may alsobe authorized to work independently.Contact Liz Jonesby email [email protected] or

301-652-9188 x 30 for more informa-tion or to sign up. Liz Jones, VolunteerCoordinator.

PPPPPrrrrrincincincincince Ge Ge Ge Ge Georeoreoreoreorgegegegege’’’’’s Cs Cs Cs Cs CounounounounountttttyyyyyBelt Woods, Bowie—Ongoing Saturdayinvasive species workgroups, from 9 a.m.- 12:00 p.m. We will focus on the old-growth South Woods section during thefall and winter. It’s very interesting andbeautiful! Join us in removing creepingeuonymous, oriental bittersweet, Japanesehoneysuckle, winged burning bush, mul-tiflora rose, etc. Tools and gloves pro-vided. E-mail Maureen Fine [email protected] or call 301-464-9306.

The Friends of Lower Beaverdam Creek,Cheverly hosts the monthly removal ofnon-native invasive plants fromWoodworth Park. All age groups can helprescue our native flowers, ferns and otherplants from the non-native species whichare covering 30-90 percent of the surfacearea of our parks we have worked so hardto preserve. Tools are provided, but wearwork gloves and sturdy shoes.Contact Cathy and Dan Smith at 301386-0889.Directions: Take 202 East un-der the BW parkway. Go one block andturn right on Cheverly. Go one mile andturn left on Forest Road. Go two blockspassing church on left and turn right onParkway. Go 2 blocks and turn left onWayne for one block. We meet there atthe park by the small playground.Anacostia Watershed Society Assists WeedWarriors.

Greenbelt Homes Inc Housing Coop-erative, GreenbeltThe Greenbelt Homes Inc. (GHI) hous-ing cooperative in Old Greenbelt has 85.6acres of stewardship forest as well as otherwooded parcels. The Woodlands Com-mittee is actively involved with urban for-estry management. Regular work sessionsfor the removal/eradication of non-nativeinvasive plant species and tree plantings

are scheduled throughout the year. Alsoscheduled are bird counts and native land-scaping seminars and guided hikes. Formore information on GHI WoodlandsCommittee activities, contact MattBerres, Landscape Specialist, at 301-474-4161 ext 132, or [email protected].

Greenbelt National Park, GreenbeltInvasive Plant Removal first Saturday ofeach month 11a.m - 3 p.m. Located just12 miles from Washington D.C.,Greenbelt Park is a beloved retreat fromthe city and an important refuge for na-tive plants and animals. Come join us indefending Greenbelt Park from encroach-ment by alien invasive plant growth. Vol-unteers will be hand pulling harmful non-native plants such as Japanese honey-suckle, beefsteak mint, mile-a-minuteweed and garlic mustard. People of allages, backgrounds and interests are in-vited to spend a fun day outdoors whilelearning about the differences betweennative and non-native plants and help-ing to preserve the health and native wild-life of this local natural area. Bring lunch,drink, appropriate clothing for weather.Directions: From the Beltway, takeKenilworth Avenue south about 1/4 mileto Greenbelt Rd, MD 193 (Kenilworthgoes under 193). Stay to the right so youcan take MD 193 East (a left to go overKenilworth) for only a few hundred yardsto the park entrance. Follow the signs tothe Sweetgum picnic area. For any ques-tions and information about upcomingevents, contact Tom Crone [email protected] or 301-864-1959.

Little Paint Branch Park and Cherry HillRoad Community Park, BeltsvilleMarch 9, March 25, and April 3, all 10a.m. to 3 p.m. . Meet at the BeltsvilleCommunity Center parking lot at 10 a.m.There are full indoor toilet facilities anda large seating area for lunch. We willcontinue the wonderful progress accom-plished last year by the Americorps work-ers, General Electric Volunteers, Robert

Goddard French Immersion andMontesori Elementary School, Washing-ton Quaker Work Camps, and WorldBank volunteers at Little Paint BranchCommunity Park.

Our day will include natural his-tory and special features of the park,methods and reasons for the project tocontrol the spread of invasives. Nativeflowers and other plants will be identi-fied as we work to rescue them. There willbe a sign-in and safety orientation withhandouts. Gloves and tools are provided.Our objective is to remove the invasivesto allow natives to grow back.

Directions: Take U.S. 1 north fromthe Beltway. Go about 1 mile, passing theNational Agricultural Research Center,and turn left at the light on Montgom-ery Rd. Go 3 blocks and turn left onSellman Road. Go about 5 blocks andturn right into Little Paint Branch Parkat the bottom of the hill.

Some background information onthe project: Several of the worst invasivespecies in the Mid-Atlantic region, in-cluding English ivy, Asiatic bittersweeet,garlic mustard, bush honeysuckle andporcelain berry, are in the early stages ofinvasion in this park. Japanese stiltgrasscovers about 5% of the park. Researchindicates that Japanese stiltgrass is a ma-jor contributor of nitrogen pollution inthe Chesapeake Bay, and reduces by halfthe ability of any land it dominates tohold water and release it slowly. Non-na-tive invasive plant removal will reachmaintenance phase following a majorwork effort at each site in the Mid-At-lantic region and around the world forabout three to five years to remove themassive populations of species. Regularstewardship projects are conducted in allseasons including winter, early spring, latespring, summer, and late summer.

This high-intensity program is fol-lowed by a low-intensity annual mainte-nance program for plants we have missed,plants emerging from the seed bank, and

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occasional plants migrating in fromneighboring areas.

The project supporters are now re-moving English ivy, wineberry, peri-winkle, ground ivy, Japanese pachysan-dra, bush honeysuckle, and multiflorarose to rescue the incredible diversity ofnative plants and animals at this particu-lar park. Unlike most parks in the area,the 150-acre Little Paint Branch Park isin the early stages of invasion and is es-sentially the native plant nursery for thePaint Branch itself. Please contact, MarcImlay, Ph.D., Conservation Biologist,Anacostia Watershed Society (301-699-6204, 301-283-0808) for more informa-tion.

Magruder Park, HyattsvilleOngoing. Contact Marc Imlay, Ph.D.,Conservation Biologist, Anacostia Water-shed Society (301-699-6204, 301-283-0808) for more information.

SSSSSttttt..... M M M M Marararararyyyyy’’’’’s Cs Cs Cs Cs CounounounounountttttyyyyyMyrtle Point ParkDirections: From Washington, take Rt.4 south, crossing over the Patuxent Riverat Solomons. About two miles past thebridge, make a right onto Patuxent Blvd.Go about two miles to Myrtle Point Park.Meet in the Park lot. For more info, or toreceive updates about workdays email orcall Bob Boxwell, Executive Director,Cove Point Natural Heritage Trust, P.O.Box 336, Lusby, MD 20657, 410-394-1300, or [email protected].

American Chestnut Land Trust, PortRepublicJoin the Holly Arboretum VolunteerCrew as they maintain the historic hollytrees at Warrior’s Rest. Work includesinvasive vine removal, mulching, mow-ing and pruning. Bring work gloves, clip-pers and a smile. American ChestnutLand Trust, Post Office Box 204, PortRepublic, MD 20676. Phone, 410-586-1570; Fax, 410-586-0468. ■

EEEEExxxxxecutivecutivecutivecutivecutive Ce Ce Ce Ce CommitteeommitteeommitteeommitteeommitteeBetsy Johnson, At-Large Del.,[email protected] Martin, At-Large Del.,Vice [email protected] Boone, At-Large Del. [email protected] Pepin, At-Large [email protected] Robinson, At-Large [email protected] Scott, At-Large Del.,[email protected] Bradley, Anne Arundel Del.,ACE [email protected] Hodge, Catoctin [email protected] Bedlin, Eastern Shore [email protected] Henry, Greater Balt. Del. [email protected] Sheedy, Howard [email protected] 410-730-4178Ginny Barnes, Montgomery [email protected] Tutman, Prince George’sDel.301-249-8200 ext [email protected] Bick, Southern MD [email protected] White, Western MD [email protected]

IIIIIssues Cssues Cssues Cssues Cssues Contactsontactsontactsontactsontacts Sam White, Agriculture andCAFO [email protected] Imlay, Biodiversity, InvasiveSpecies, and Habitat StewardshipChair [email protected] Terry, Campaign FinanceReform [email protected] Carney, D.C. Metro RegionChallenge to Sprawl Campaign,Building EnvironmentalCommunities [email protected] Bick, EnvironmentalJustice [email protected] DeGroot, Forests Chair301-340-8348Rich Norling, Groundwater [email protected] Birnbaum, Pesticides [email protected] Terry, Population [email protected] Willey, Public Lands [email protected] Caflisch, TransportationChair301-654-3288steve.caflisch@maryland.sierraclub.orgEd Merrifield, Water [email protected] Robinson, Wildlife [email protected]

OOOOOther Cther Cther Cther Cther Contactsontactsontactsontactsontacts Walter Jones, BICO [email protected] Willey, Fundraising [email protected] Soeder, Outings [email protected] Fay, PAC [email protected] Garlow, Political [email protected] Birkett, [email protected] Dixon, [email protected] Andrews, [email protected] Tewell, Newsletter [email protected]

Chapter SChapter SChapter SChapter SChapter StafftafftafftafftaffLaurel [email protected]

OOOOOffice Addrffice Addrffice Addrffice Addrffice Addressessessessess7338 Baltimore Avenue #1ACollege Park, MD 20740Tel: 301-277-7111Fax: 301-277-6699http://maryland.sierraclub.org

Maryland Chapter Leaders

Don’t forget!

It’s time to vote for at-large

delegates to the Maryland

Chapter Executive Committee.

Ballots are on the inside back

cover of this Chesapeake.

Invasives


Outings

September

Short days, long nights, and a chill in theair. Yes, it’s winter, and the slow time ofthe year for our outings program. Butmany activities are still planned, andthanks to that big body of water to oureast, the Atlantic Ocean, temperaturesaround here tend to stay fairly tolerableuntil at least mid-January.

I grew up in Cleveland, where it’snot unusual to have a foot or more of“lake effect” snow on the ground byThanksgiving. I don’t even bother tryingto get there for a visit at Christmas any-more, because the chance of snow is toogreat. I learned the hard way that it canbe a long, miserable drive in a snowstorm.Yet, since moving to the Baltimore area,I have been delighted several times bybeing able to ride my bicycle down theB&A Trail on New Years Day, wearingshorts! We walk the dogs, hike in thewoods, and even do some mountain bik-ing in winter. About the only outdooractivity I won’t do locally is kayaking,because cold water is a lot more danger-ous than cold air.

Of course, some people actually en-joy snow, and see it as something otherthan a nuisance to be shoveled off thedriveway. There are some activities on thelist below for the skiers, sledders andsnowshoe fanatics among us. Many ofthese are open-ended on the dates, be-cause it is hard to predict snow aroundhere, but if you are interested in partici-pating, contact the leader for the planswhen you see white stuff falling from thesky.

The keys to safe winter outdoor ac-tivities are simple: 1) pay attention to theweather, and 2) dress properly for the con-ditions. If a storm is coming through withrain, snow, wind and cold temperatures,skip the trip. This is an outings program,not Navy SEALS training. We don’t haveto go out in dangerous weather, and weshouldn’t. Going outdoors in bad weathergreatly increases the opportunities for get-

ting lost, being stranded, or worse. Manyhikers have come to grief that could havebeen avoided if someone had simplychecked the weather forecast first.

Dressing properly for the cold meansdressing in layers. Layers allow you to addon or peel off clothing in response tochanging conditions. Winter clothingshould consist of at least three differentlayers. The base layer against the skinought to be something soft and comfort-able that will wick moisture away, keep-ing you dry. Silk long johns are my per-sonal favorite, but there are many syn-thetic “technical” fabrics that work evenbetter. Avoid cotton—it absorbs moistureand keeps the wetness next to your skin,where it will chill you. The next layershould be insulating—a synthetic fleeceor a wool sweater that will trap air andwarmth, but won’t absorb water. Theouter layer should be a wind-and-waterresistant shell, such as a nylon or polyes-ter parka, or wool coat. Cotton is okay asan outer layer if it is treated to repel wa-ter.

Why the paranoia over water? Be-cause it chills us. Water absorbs muchmore heat than air at the same tempera-ture. It is also extremely effective at car-rying heat away as it evaporates, which iswhy sweating cools us in the summer, andchills us to the bone in winter. If the bodygets too cold and the core temperaturedrops below 96 degrees F, we enter a statecalled hypothermia. This can be very dan-gerous—hypothermia is the fourth mostcommon cause of death in the outdoors.(The top three are falls, drowning and car-diac arrest—see Backpacker magazine,October, 2006, for details.) A person inthe early stages of hypothermia will shiveruncontrollably, and have difficulty walk-ing, talking and thinking clearly. He orshe needs to get inside and get warm.More advanced hypothermia may resultin a state of extreme mental confusion,lack of muscle coordination and possibleunconsciousness. This is a medical emer-gency; if you encounter someone with

serious symptoms of hypothermia, a callto 9-1-1 is in order.

The other medical problem to worryabout in cold weather is frostbite. Thisoccurs when exposed skin or extremitiesbegin to freeze under cold temperaturesor high wind chill. The best way to avoidfrostbite is to stay dry, wear warm glovesand socks, cover all exposed skin (includ-ing ears, nose and cheekbones), and re-member that cold and windy is more dan-gerous than just cold. People with poorcirculation are especially vulnerable.Soaking in warm water can rewarm coldextremities. A body part that actuallyfreezes requires immediate medical atten-tion.

Speaking of medical issues, I wantto mention that the Howard CountyGroup has scheduled a Wilderness FirstAid Training class for two weekends inJanuary. If you spend a lot of time out-doors, especially in backcountry areaswhere the paramedics may not be close,you should consider taking this class. Itdeals with diagnosing and responding toinjuries and illness when you are 6-8hours from medical aid. It certainly won’tturn you into a physician, but it will al-low you to render some meaningful helpto a victim when the professionals maynot be available for awhile. Please con-tact Ken Clark at 301-725-3306 [email protected] for details.

Despite the need to dress for the coldand be aware of the weather, wintertimecan be wonderful for outdoor activities.The bugs are gone, the trails are virtuallyempty, and with the leaves down, the vis-tas are open and long. The cold air is brac-ing, and a hiking a forest path after a freshsnowfall can be an incredibly magicaljourney. Please check out the outings of-fered below. More information and up-dates are available on the chapter andgroup web pages. So bundle up and gotake a hike! See you outside.

—Dan Soeder, MD Chapter OutingsChair ([email protected])

Wintertime Metropolitan Washington Re-gional Outings Program(MWROP)MWROP is an activity section of the Vir-ginia chapter, with an extensive outingsprogram run by leaders who live in andaround the Washington, D.C. area.Check their website (www.mwrop.org)for a calendar of activities, informationand updates.

Abbreviations UsedMost outings in the Maryland Chapterare run at the group level, with a few chap-ter and inter-chapter events. The grouporiginating the outing is identified in pa-rentheses by the leader’s name. These andother abbreviations used are listed below:

AA: Anne Arundel GroupAMO: Appalachian Mountain ClubAT: Appalachian TrailCG: Catoctin GroupCCA: Canoe Cruisers Association (Washington, D.C.)FFA: Family Friendly Activity (kids/ dogs ok, but check with leader)GB: Greater Baltimore GroupGWNF: George Washington National ForestHC: Howard County GroupMNF: Monongahela National ForestMW: Metropolitan Washington Regional Outings Program (MWROP)P&R: Park and Ride (meeting locations)SNP: Shenandoah National Park


Outings (December, January)

ECEMBER

ANUARY

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, D D D D Dec 2ec 2ec 2ec 2ec 2Glen Ellen - Seminary Trail (ratedmoderate) Hike 7 miles beside LochRaven Reservoir, along streams, andthrough woodlands, walking alongpaths and a fire road. Meet at 11 a.m.on Seminary Ave. to the left off ofDulaney Valley Rd., north of theBaltimore Beltway. Leader: MaryCorddry (GB) 410-248-0423.

Bull Run Mountains Conservancy, VA(rated moderate) 7.4-mile circuit hikevisiting a historic mill, graveyards, andCivil War battle sites, plus a grand viewof Fauquier County. Bring lunch andwater. Depart at 8 a.m. from the “buspatron” (west) lot of the park & ride onBroken Land Parkway at Rt. 32. Leader:Mike Juskelis (HC), 410-439-4964,[email protected].

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, D D D D Dec 9ec 9ec 9ec 9ec 9Caledonia / Michaux Forest, PA (ratedmoderate) 8-mile circuit hike includingthe Dark Hollow and Quarry Gap trails,with a couple of steep climbs. Bringlunch and water. Depart at 8 a.m. fromthe park & ride just north of I-70 on Rt.32. Leader: Mike Juskelis (HC) 410-439-4964, [email protected].

SSSSSundaundaundaundaundayyyyy,,,,, D D D D Dec 10ec 10ec 10ec 10ec 10Gunpowder River Hike (ratedmoderate) Hike 6 to 8 miles belowPrettyboy Dam. Expect some hills anda rocky area. Meet at Mt. Carmel P&R at11a.m. Leader: Jack Wise (GB) 410-256-3963

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, D D D D Dec 16ec 16ec 16ec 16ec 16Pole Steeple, Pine Grove Furnace SP, PA.(rated moderate) 7.5-mile circuit hike,featuring a vista, lakes and prettystreams. Bring lunch and water. Departat 8 a.m. from the park & ride just

north of I-70 on Rt. 32. Leader: MikeJuskelis (HC) 410-439-4964,[email protected].

SSSSSundaundaundaundaundayyyyy,,,,, D D D D Dec 17ec 17ec 17ec 17ec 17Savage Park, Wincopin Trail (ratedmoderate) 7 mile hike along theMiddle and Little Patuxent Rivers, easyexcept for a few hills and rocky parts.Bring lunch and water. Meet at 9:30a.m. at Patuxent Valley Middle School,off Vollmerhausen Road just west ofSavage Guilford Rd. Leader: Ken Clark(HC) 301-725-3306,[email protected].

T RT RT RT RT RAINING:AINING:AINING:AINING:AINING: Outings Leader Training101 (no rating) Classroom training forSierra Club outings leaders in thechapter College Park office from 12noon to 3 p.m. Please contact LaurelImlay ([email protected]) fordirections if needed. Leader/Instructor: Dan Soeder (410-969-9465)[email protected]

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, D D D D Dec 23ec 23ec 23ec 23ec 23Gambrill State Park (rated moderate) 8-mile hike on wooded trails, withseveral scenic overlooks. Bring lunchand water. Meet at the Bagel Bin off Rt.40 in the Enchanted Forest ShoppingCenter, for a 9 a.m. departure. Leader:Tim Ryan (HC) 410-248-2974, before 9p.m., [email protected].

MMMMMondaondaondaondaondayyyyy,,,,, J J J J Jan 1an 1an 1an 1an 1FFA: New Years Day Hike (ratedmoderate) Begin the new year with afresh start by getting up, goingoutside and working on thoseresolutions with this moderate hikearound Oregon Ridge Park. The trail iswell maintained over somewhat hillyterrain with a number of stream.crossings. Distance is about 5 miles. We

will see and learn about the quarry, skislope, amphitheater, sugar bush andremnants of the old mining/loggingsettlements. The area has gonethrough a number of transformationsand is currently resistingencroachment from residential andcommercial development. Kid friendly,dog friendly trip with a high risk ofenjoyment so be prepared forunbridled fun. Meet at 1 p.m. at theNature Center parking lot. Childrenunder 18 must be accompanied by aparent or other responsible adult; dogsmust be sociable and on a leash.Leader: Joyce Fletcher (GB) 410 254-7240.

Bluff Trail/AT, SNP, VA (rated strenuous)13.3-mile circuit hike featuring 2 vistas.Bring lunch and water. Depart at 8 a.m.from the “bus patron” (west) lot of thepark & ride on Broken Land Parkway atRt. 32. Leader: Mike Juskelis (HC) 410-439-4964, [email protected].

AAAAAnnnnnytimeytimeytimeytimeytime,,,,, J J J J Jan 2007an 2007an 2007an 2007an 2007Cross Country Ski Trips (ratedmoderate) Ski locally in the Baltimorearea or in Western Maryland whenthere is enough snow. Contact leaderwhen conditions appear to befavorable. Leader: Jack Wise (GB) 410-256-3963

TTTTThursdahursdahursdahursdahursdayyyyy,,,,, J J J J Jan 4an 4an 4an 4an 4GGGGGrrrrreaeaeaeaeattttter Ber Ber Ber Ber Baltimoraltimoraltimoraltimoraltimore Outingse Outingse Outingse Outingse OutingsCCCCCommittommittommittommittommittee Mee Mee Mee Mee Meeting eeting eeting eeting eeting (no rating)Come plan new outings and meetother outings leaders. New andprospective outings leaders welcome.Pot Luck dinner at 6:30 p.m. Leader:Joyce Fletcher (GB) 410 254-7240.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, J J J J Jan 6an 6an 6an 6an 6FFA: Cromwell Valley Park (ratedmoderate) Children and dogs arewelcome on this 4-mile hike through aBaltimore County park that is aworking farm with woodlands, hilly

meadows, and streams. Learn aboutthe park’s historical and naturalfeatures, including limestone kilns anda brook bubbling out of the ground.Optional brunch afterwards atSander’s Corner Restaurant. Meet at 11a.m. in the parking lot beside thehouse in the park’s Sherwood Farmsection on Cromwell Bridge Road offLoch Raven Boulevard. Children under18 must be accompanied by a parentor other responsible adult; dogs mustbe sociable and on a leash. Leader:Mary Corddry (GB) 410-248-0423.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, J J J J Jan 6an 6an 6an 6an 6Great Falls, VA (rated moderate) Six milehike on dramatic cliffs overlooking thePotomac River, along the historicPatowmack Canal, and past the scenicDifficult Run rapids. Bring lunch andwater. Depart at 9:30 a.m. from the “buspatron” (west) lot of the park & ride onBroken Land Parkway at Rt. 32. Leader:Ken Clark (HC) 301-725-3306,[email protected].

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, J J J J Jan 13 & 20an 13 & 20an 13 & 20an 13 & 20an 13 & 20T RT RT RT RT RAINING:AINING:AINING:AINING:AINING: WWWWWilderilderilderilderilderness Fness Fness Fness Fness First Airst Airst Airst Airst Aididididid (norating) For anybody that spends a lotof time in remote locations,particularly for backpackers and hikeleaders, we highly recommend thisAmerican Red Cross Wilderness FirstAid class. This is an 18-hour class,including CPR, which is taught on twoconsecutive Saturdays. ARC WFAcertification is good for three years,and CPR certification lasts one year.NONONONONOTE:TE:TE:TE:TE: TTTTThis trhis trhis trhis trhis training is not fraining is not fraining is not fraining is not fraining is not freeeeeeeeee..... Thecost is $120 per person, with possiblepartial reimbursement for SC hikeleaders. Held at the Howard CountyConservancy in Woodstock MD. Forinformation/reservations contact: KenClark (HC) 301-725-3306,[email protected].


Outings (January, February, March, April) S S S S Saaaaattttt..... J J J J Jan 20an 20an 20an 20an 20 White Oak Canyon, VA. (ratedstrenuous) 9 mile hike in ShenandoahNational Park, featuring several ice-covered waterfalls. Bring lunch, water,and good hiking shoes. Depart at 7:30a.m. from the “bus patron” (west) lot ofthe park & ride on Broken LandParkway at Rt. 32. Sign up in advance.Leader: Ken Clark (HC) 301-725-3306,[email protected].

EBRUARYSSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, F F F F Feb 3eb 3eb 3eb 3eb 3Great Falls Hike and Dinner (ratedmoderate) History meets nature atGreat Falls section of the C&O Canal inPotomac, MD. We will examine howthe canal and locks were constructedand operated. We will take theboardwalk to the Great Falls overlookon Olmsted Island. Length of hike willbe 4 miles or less depending onweather and condition of trails.EEEEEnnnnntrt rt rt rt rancancancancance fe fe fe fe fee ree ree ree ree requirequirequirequirequirededededed..... There will be adinner stop in Rockville after the hike.Meet at 1 p.m. at the South West Park& Ride Leader: Bill Diggs (GB) 410-574-1453.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadaday ,Fy ,Fy ,Fy ,Fy ,Feb 10eb 10eb 10eb 10eb 10FFA: Urban Trot (rated easy) All arewelcome, but kids and dogs will enjoythis easy walk of about 5 miles aroundLake Montebello and Herring Run Park.We will skirt by the water filtrationplant and learn about the treatmentprocess and the recreationalimprovements being made to the lakearea, descend into the stream valleyand return through a beautifullydesigned and well maintainedneighborhood of posh houses andlush gardens. Good cushioned walkingshoes recommended as we will be onpaved surfaces most of the way.

Optional lunch stop afterwards at alocal pub. Meet at the parking lot onthe corner of Hillen Road, 33rd Streetand Curran Drive at 10 a.m. Childrenunder 18 must be accompanied by aparent or other responsible adult; dogsmust be sociable and on a leash.Leader: Joyce Fletcher (GB) 410 254-7240.

FFFFFrrrrr idaidaidaidaiday-My-My-My-My-Mondaondaondaondaondayyyyy,,,,, F F F F Feb 17-19eb 17-19eb 17-19eb 17-19eb 17-19Cross Country Skiing in WesternMaryland (rated moderate) Crosscountry skiing at New Germany StatePark. If not enough snow, day hikes willbe held. For details, call leader byFebruary 3rd if interested. Leader: JackWise (GB) 410-256-3963.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, F F F F Feb 24eb 24eb 24eb 24eb 24 FFA Gunpowder at Belair Rd. (ratedmoderate) Hike 4 miles along theGunpowder River. Learn how riverhabitat changes in the winter. Dress forthe weather. Meet at 11 a.m. in theparking lot for the trails on Belair Road,on the north side of bridge over theriver. Children under 18 must beaccompanied by a parent or otherresponsible adult; dogs must besociable and on a leash. Leader: MaryCorddry (GB) 410-248-0423.

SSSSSundaundaundaundaundayyyyy,,,,, F F F F Feb 25eb 25eb 25eb 25eb 25Local Cross Country Skiing (ratedmoderate) If not enough snow, a hikewill be held. Meet at Loch Raven HighSchool – Cromwell Bridge Road andCowpens Avenue at 11 a.m. Leader:Jack Wise (GB) 410-256-3963.

ARCHSSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, M M M M Mar 3ar 3ar 3ar 3ar 3Jerusalem Mill (rated easy) Goodbeginner hike: 2.5 miles with optionaladditional mile to a covered bridge.Easy-paced but may be muddy. Bringwater and lunch. Meet at JerusalemMill parking lot on Jerusalem Road at10 a.m. Leader: Betsy Reeder (GB) 410-569-5202.

FFFFFrrrrr idaidaidaidaidayyyyy,,,,, M M M M Mar 9ar 9ar 9ar 9ar 9Social Event - Happy Hour (no rating)Join fellow members (and non-members) for a relaxing evening at BillBateman’s to meet and mingle. Happyhour runs from 5 to 7 p.m. Friday’sofferings are all you can eat fajitas andtacos as well as reduced prices ondrinks. Stop by for a little while or staythe whole night. So come out, bring afriend and get acquainted without theneed for boots, sunscreen or trekkingpoles. No hills to climb or streams tocross, just a complimentary Tex Mexbuffet with indoor plumbing includedat no extra cost. Located at 8810Waltham Woods Road at North PlazaMall off Joppa Road (beltway exit 30).Contact: Joyce Fletcher (GB) 410 254-7240.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, M M M M Mar 24ar 24ar 24ar 24ar 24FFA: Loch Raven (rated moderate) Kidsand dogs are welcome on this 4 milehike through woodlands and alongthe drive at Loch Raven Reservoir.Learn how watershed habitat changesin the winter. Dress for the weather.Meet at 11 a.m. in the parking area onMorgan Mill Road off Loch RavenDrive. Children under 18 must beaccompanied by a parent or otherresponsible adult; dogs must besociable and on a leash. Leader: MaryCorddry (GB) 410-248-0423.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, M M M M Mar 31ar 31ar 31ar 31ar 31North Point State Park: From Carouselsto Conservation (rated moderate)Explore the history of thissoutheastern Baltimore county statepark which was once the site of apopular amusement park. Hikeapproximately five flat miles with astop at the park visitor center to lookat old photographs. Park is located offOld North Point Road in Edgemere.Meet at parking lot near park entrance(entrance fee required) at 10 a.m.Leader: Bill Diggs (GB) 410-574-1453.

PRiLSSSSSundaundaundaundaundayyyyy,,,,, A A A A Apr 1pr 1pr 1pr 1pr 1Gunpowder Falls State Park (ratedmoderate) No foolin’! We will learnabout the history and geology of theGunpowder River and the PantherBranch. Lunch at the Raven Rock Falls.Meet at 11 a.m. at the Mt. Carmel Park& Ride. Leader: Jack Wise (GB) 410-256-3963.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, A A A A Apr 14pr 14pr 14pr 14pr 14Harford Glen (rated moderate)Approximately 7 miles aroundAtkinson Reservoir. Slow-pacedenough to look at wildflowers andspring migrants. Bring binoculars if youlike, also water and lunch. Expect mud.Meet at Harford Glen (first lot on right,by pond) at the west end of WheelRoad at 10 a.m. Leader: Betsy Reeder(GB) 410-569-5202.

SSSSSundaundaundaundaundayyyyy,,,,, A A A A Apr 15pr 15pr 15pr 15pr 15Wildflowers and Limericks (ratedmoderate) If you haven’t filed yourtaxes yet, hide from the IRS in thewoods and enjoy the springwildflowers along the GunpowderRiver. If we are lucky, the timing forblooms will be just right. This is about6 miles of moderate terrain with some


BICO

hills, stream crossings and a lost pond.There is a strong likelihood of mud inthe lowlands and, possibly, two trickycrossings if there has been a lot ofrainfall. We will learn about wildflowers,both native and exotic, and the impactof development along riparian areas.Trail has remains of mills and an oldfort and dam. There will be a cookiebreak at Pot Rocks, an area ofgeological interest and an optionallunch stop afterwards at a local inn.Bring footwear that can handle mudand wet, drinking water, and yourfavorite PG-rated limericks to share.This trip is suitable for families witholder children. Meet at theGunpowder Falls State Park parking lotat the Gunpowder River Bridge onBelair Road (about 10 minutes north ofthe beltway) at 9:30 a.m. Leader: JoyceFletcher (GB) 410 254-7240.

SSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, A A A A Apr 28pr 28pr 28pr 28pr 28Kelly Run & Pinnacle Overlook (ratedmoderate) Hike 7 to 8 miles with greatviews of the Susquehanna River. Goodchance of seeing bald eagles. Meet atK-Mart on Belair Road (Rt.1) just northof Beltway Exit 32 at 10 a.m. Leader:Jack Wise (GB) 410-256-3963.

AYSSSSSaaaaaturturturturturdadadadadayyyyy,,,,, M M M M Maaaaay 5y 5y 5y 5y 5C&O Canal (Sharpsburg toShepardstown) (rated moderate) 7mile hike along the C&O Canal fromSharpsburg to Shepardstown andback. We will examine how the canaland locks were constructed andoperated. Possible dinner stop afterhike. Meet at 9:30 a.m. at SouthwestPark & Ride. Leader: Bill Diggs (GB) 410-574-1453.

Outings (April, May, BICO)

BICBICBICBICBICO O O O O TTTTTeams:eams:eams:eams:eams:CG CC (College Gardens Community Center )DHILL (Dickey Hill)DHH (Digital Harbor High)FYC (Franciscan Youth Center)

For additional information on BICO (Baltimore Inner City Outings), seewww.sierraclub.org/ico/baltimore. Call Walter Jones at 443- 394-8192., orby e-mail at [email protected] for information on rain delays.

Kim StenleyI’ve served as the Catoctin Group chairfor 3 terms (6 years) and haveworked to re-energize the group withregularly scheduled executivecommittee meetings and new programs.With the help of fellow excommembers,we have generated a new webpage, launched active Cool Cities cam-paigns in Frederick and Westminster, andsponsored a range of outings and events.We continue to partner with individualsand groups to host educational programsin our communities. I’m seekingre-election to this committee to help keepthe momentum going. I’d like toorganize an invasive species removal teamand establish Sierra Club StudentCoalitions on college campuses in ourarea. I’m a deep ecologist whobelieves that education and a spiritualconnection to Nature are necessaryfor any real, systemic change to occur.Ours is a noble cause. The more helpwe have the more we can do. Join ourteam. It’s rewarding to work with a dedi-cated group of people who care about thefuture of our planet and humanity. I canassure you: you won’t be asked todo any more than you want or feel cabableof doing. Together, we canchange the world.

Neal SpungenI’ve been an outdoor enthusiast for thepast 30 years. I enjoy hiking, biking,camping, and white water rafting. I servedas a Boy Scout leader and led severalcamping trips. I’ve lived in the Mt. Airyarea for about 15 years. I have my owncompany that focuses on helping high-tech companies develop new business. Iam passionate about protecting the envi-ronment, and see volunteering on theCatoctin executive board as a way to makea difference.

CCCCCaaaaatttttoooooccccctin Gtin Gtin Gtin Gtin Grrrrroup Eoup Eoup Eoup Eoup ExxxxxcccccomomomomomCCCCCandidaandidaandidaandidaandidattttteseseseses’’’’’ S S S S Statatatatatttttemenemenemenemenementststststs

Catoctin

BICO Outings

JJJJJanuaranuaranuaranuaranuary 2007y 2007y 2007y 2007y 200712-15 Overnight trip, Blackburn Cabin DHH13 National Aquarium DHILL20 Scavenger hunt & ice skating at Patterson Park (Backup date: 27) FYCFFFFFebrebrebrebrebruaruaruaruaruary 2007y 2007y 2007y 2007y 20072-4 Overnights at Blackburn Cabin DHILL10 Environmental crafts and snow tubing at Liberty Mountain FYC19 Smithsonian Museums DHHMMMMMa ra ra ra ra rch 2007ch 2007ch 2007ch 2007ch 20072-4 Camping, Elk Neck DHH24 Hiking, Rocks State Park FYC (Backup date: 31)AAAAAprprprprpril 2007il 2007il 2007il 2007il 20076 or 13 Camping, Luray Caverns DHH21 Living Classroom’s shipboard education program FYCMMMMMaaaaay 2007y 2007y 2007y 2007y 200712 Hiking, Billy Goat Trail DHH19-20 Blackburn Cabin overnight FYCJune 2007June 2007June 2007June 2007June 2007TBD Patuxent River Sojourn, hosted by Alliance for Chesapeake Bay DHHJuly 2007July 2007July 2007July 2007July 2007TBD Camping, Pocomoke DHH

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Catoctin Excom Ballot

EEEEExplorxplorxplorxplorxploreeeee,,,,, enjo enjo enjo enjo enjoy and pry and pry and pry and pry and protototototececececect the planett the planett the planett the planett the planet

CCCCCaaaaatttttoooooccccctin Gtin Gtin Gtin Gtin Grrrrroup Eoup Eoup Eoup Eoup Exxxxxcccccom Bom Bom Bom Bom Ballotallotallotallotallot

I am a member of the Catoctin Group. I live inCarroll, Frederick, or Washington County.

VVVVV OOOOOTE FOR UP TE FOR UP TE FOR UP TE FOR UP TE FOR UP TTTTTO 3 (O 3 (O 3 (O 3 (O 3 (THREE) CTHREE) CTHREE) CTHREE) CTHREE) CANDIDAANDIDAANDIDAANDIDAANDIDATES.TES.TES.TES.TES.

Kim Stenley: See Kim’s statement at left on page 22.

Neal Spungen: See Neal’s statement on at left on page 22.

Other: You may write in another member, even yourself!_____________________________________

Maryland Chapter Excom BallotAll Chapter Members

Carroll, Frederick, & Washington Counties ONLY

CCCCCatatatatatoooooccccctin Gtin Gtin Gtin Gtin Grrrrroup oup oup oup oup VVVVVotototototers Oers Oers Oers Oers Onlnlnlnlnlyyyyy ::::: PPPPPlease vlease vlease vlease vlease vototototote fe fe fe fe for bor bor bor bor bothothothothothCCCCCaaaaatttttoooooccccctin Gtin Gtin Gtin Gtin Grrrrroup eoup eoup eoup eoup exxxxxcccccom and Mom and Mom and Mom and Mom and Marararararyland Cyland Cyland Cyland Cyland Chapthapthapthapthaptererererereeeeexxxxxcccccom.om.om.om.om. L L L L Leaeaeaeaeavvvvve ye ye ye ye your Cour Cour Cour Cour Caaaaatttttoooooccccctin Gtin Gtin Gtin Gtin Grrrrroup eoup eoup eoup eoup exxxxxcccccomomomomomballot aballot aballot aballot aballot attached tttached tttached tttached tttached to yo yo yo yo your Mour Mour Mour Mour Marararararyland Cyland Cyland Cyland Cyland Chapthapthapthapthapter eer eer eer eer exxxxxcccccomomomomomballot and send tballot and send tballot and send tballot and send tballot and send to the addro the addro the addro the addro the address shoess shoess shoess shoess shown on thewn on thewn on thewn on thewn on theCCCCChapthapthapthapthapter ballot ber ballot ber ballot ber ballot ber ballot beloeloeloeloelowwwww.....

Vote for no more than three (3) candidates.(Candidates’ statements appear on page 4)

Clip and return to:Election CommitteeMaryland Chapter/Sierra ClubRoom 101A7338 Baltimore AvenueCollege Park, MD 20740

Ballots must be received by January 12, 2007.

Bonnie BickBonnie BickBonnie BickBonnie BickBonnie Bick

JJJJJon Ron Ron Ron Ron Robinsonobinsonobinsonobinsonobinson

JJJJJoan Soan Soan Soan Soan Seeeeewwwwwararararard d d d d WWWWWilleilleilleilleilleyyyyy

Joint MemberOnly

Leaders of the Sierra Club are chosen democratically from candidates who volunteer their time and talent to protect our Earth. Please honor this democratic tradition by voting.

Joint Member Only

Joint Member Only

�

MD Chapter Excom Ballot


The Chesapeake is published quarterly by the Maryland Chap-ter of the Sierra Club. Annual Sierra Club membership dues payfor subscription to this publication. Non-members may sub-scribe for $20.00 per year.

The opinions expressed in this newsletter are in general alignedwith those of the environmental community in Maryland butare strictly those of the authors and not necessarily officialpolicy of local, state or national Sierra Club entities. The SierraClub prides itself on being a grassroots volunteer organization.The concerns and opinions of all its members are welcome inthese pages.

Items for publication are best submitted by email to<[email protected]>or <[email protected]> with “For Chesapeake” andtitle in subject line. Items must include the author’s addressand telephone numbers. Material may be edited for length, con-tent or clarity at the discretion of the editor. Photographs, illus-trations and other works of art are welcome. Materials cannotbe returned unless accompanied by a stamped, self addressedenvelope.

Change of address: send address changes to the Sierra Club, 85Second Street (2nd Floor), San Francisco, California 94705-3441.For fastest service, please include your old and new addressesalong with your 8-digit membership number. For local mem-bership information contact the Maryland Chapter Office 301-277-7111 or write: Maryland Chapter/Sierra Club, 7338 BaltimoreAve (Suite 101A), College Park, MD 20740.

Advertising: For display and classified advertising rates and in-formation, contact:Editor, The ChesapeakeSierra Club Maryland Chapter7338 Baltimore Ave, Suite 101College Park, MD 20740

Credits Your Two Cents

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52

Maryland Chapter of the Sierra Club Winter 2006-2007

The Maryland Chapter wishes to thankthose who contributed to this issue ofChesapeake.

Writers and Contributors: Betsy Reeder,Betsy Johnson, Bonnie Bick, LaurelImlay, Larry Fahn, Mary Corddry, KimStenley, Anne Ambler, Gerald Winegrad,Jon Robinson, Betty Brody, DianaArtemis, Bonnie Lane Weber

Editors: Dan Boone, Betty Brody, MaryCorddry, Donna Engle, Laurel Imlay,Betsy Johnson, Sue Kunkel, Cindy Paré,Annie Rehill, Darla Tewell

Outings Editor: Dan SoederHabitat Restoration Outings Editor:Marc ImlayPhotos: Darla Tewell, Jon RobinsonLayout and Typography: Darla Tewell

WWWWWananananant tt tt tt tt to co co co co commenommenommenommenomment on somethingt on somethingt on somethingt on somethingt on somethingyyyyyououououou’’’’’vvvvve re re re re read in ead in ead in ead in ead in CCCCChesaphesaphesaphesaphesapeakeakeakeakeakeeeee?????

Send your comments by email [email protected] with“For Chesapeake” in subject line. Please include your name,address, and phone number. We’llpost comments on the Chapter website,ww.marylandsierraclub.org.

Material may be edited for length, content or

clarity at the discretion of the editor.

EXEXEXEXEXCCCCCOM ELECTIONS:OM ELECTIONS:OM ELECTIONS:OM ELECTIONS:OM ELECTIONS: VVVVVototototote be be be be by Jy Jy Jy Jy Januaranuaranuaranuaranuary 12!y 12!y 12!y 12!y 12!MMMMMaaaaattattattattattawwwwwoman Coman Coman Coman Coman Crrrrreek Impeek Impeek Impeek Impeek Imperererereriled biled biled biled biled by Highwy Highwy Highwy Highwy Highwaaaaayyyyy“““““ AAAAAlmost Hlmost Hlmost Hlmost Hlmost Heaeaeaeaeavvvvven,en,en,en,en,””””” G G G G Getting Letting Letting Letting Letting LeeeeevvvvvelledelledelledelledelledBBBBBrrrrrighighighighight Ideas ft Ideas ft Ideas ft Ideas ft Ideas for Cor Cor Cor Cor Conseronseronseronseronserving Eving Eving Eving Eving Enernernernernergggggyyyyy300,000, 000 and Counting300,000, 000 and Counting300,000, 000 and Counting300,000, 000 and Counting300,000, 000 and CountingCCCCChapthapthapthapthapter Ger Ger Ger Ger Grrrrroups Boups Boups Boups Boups Busy Busy Busy Busy Busy Being Geing Geing Geing Geing GrrrrreeneeneeneeneenJJJJJon Gon Gon Gon Gon Goooooes tes tes tes tes to Ao Ao Ao Ao AnnnnntartartartartarcccccticticticticticaaaaaFFFFFooooooooood fd fd fd fd for the Hor the Hor the Hor the Hor the HolidaolidaolidaolidaolidayyyyysssssOutingsOutingsOutingsOutingsOutings,,,,, E E E E Evvvvvenenenenentststststs,,,,, and and and and and

much more!

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