advocating for endangered species
drafting environmental legislation
preserving wildlife habitat
New National Parks & Monuments
One of the central goals of Green Ballot is to create additional protected areas for wildlife. This can be in the form of National Parks, National Forests, Wilderness Areas, National Monuments, Wildlife Passage Corridors, Bird Sanctuaries, Marine Mammal Preserves, etc…
Green Ballot is developing legislation to create a new designation of wildlife preserve (TESHA) that bypasses the deep compromises and the decades of bitter debate prior to passage, that have undermined some of the above designations.
Maine Woods National Park
There are hundreds of wildlife habitat areas that need better protection in this country, whether they come in the form of TESHA or one of the other designations. In Maine, for example, there is a push underway to develop the Maine Woods National Park. Creation of the Maine Woods National Park as a way of promoting sustainable recreation, and to further protect endangered Canada lynx habitat. Over the last century, the Canada lynx population in Maine has fallen as a result of accidental trapping deaths and habitat loss from selective logging in the North Woods. This could be remedied through the national park designation. Advocates of the park also believe that the park can help the local economy through sustainable tourism. Although the Canada Lynx is rarely sighted, it is now increasing in number, and it has begun to expand its core range from northern Maine to eastern and western Maine. Maine is now home to the largest breeding population of Canada Lynx in the contiguous United States.
According to environmentalists Thomas and Lee Ann Szelog, the 3.2 million acre proposed Maine Woods National Park is situated in the 10-million acre heart of Maine's Great North Woods that still survives as the greatest undeveloped and unprotected region east of the Rockies and once stretched continuously from Maine to Minnesota. The park would encompass an area larger than Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks combined.
The Endangered Species Coalition also advocates creation of this park, saying that “Time is running out to save this remarkable and fragile North Woods ecosystem, which could potentially be thought of as “the Yellowstone of the East.” In order for a location to be considered for designation as a national park it must possess unique natural, cultural, or recreational resources. The proposed Maine Woods National Park exceeds this criterion easily, given the following characteristics:
The largest unprotected wilderness in the eastern United States.
Wildlife habitat for moose, black bear, brook trout, and a number of endangered species such as the Canada lynx, Atlantic Salmon, wood turtle, Bicknell’s thrush, yellow lampmussel, and Tomah mayfly.
The greatest concentration of remote ponds in the Northeast.
Expanses of northern hardwood and evergreen forest.
Home to the headwaters of five significant rivers: The Allagash, Aroostook, St. John, Kennebec, and Penobscot.
The largest inland water, Moosehead Lake, within one state in the East.
The Appalachian Trail’s Hundred Mile Wilderness section.
Important cultural features, including ancient Native American sites and early logging era sites.
The wildest unprotected lands in the Northern Forest, which the federal-state Northern Forest Lands Study found to be a region of national significance.
Other proposed national parks, national forests, national monuments, & wilderness areas gaining support include:
Atchafalaya Basin National Park
The Atchafalaya Basin National Park is located in south central Louisiana, and it is a combination of wetlands and river delta where the Atchafalaya River and the Gulf of Mexico converge. The proposed park and wilderness area is about 931 square miles (somewhat smaller than the state of Rhode Island). Trees in this wetland are now being cut down aggressively for wood pellets which are being exported to Europe and elsewhere to be burned as biomass!. This Basin has been recommended for preservation status by Zack Frank of Undiscovered America as well as by other environmental organizations such as the Acadian Group of the Sierra Club.
Hundreds of privately owned acres of forestry and swampland surrounding the Atchafalaya basin have been destroyed to plant sugar cane and rice in their place. One area of the basin, 150 square miles spanning St. Martin, Iberia, and St. Mary parishes, has gone virtually undisturbed. The park would preserve one of the last pockets of the basin that has remained in its natural state. Louisiana has already granted the Sierra Club permission to bring its proposal before Congress, which is in charge of designating areas as National Parks by passing legislation. Since then, the club had been in talks with former Sen. Mary Landrieu’s office, but Harold Schoeffler, the chairman of the Acadian Group of the Sierra Club, said he doesn’t think congressional action will be taken until the public pushes harder for the proposal.
The Atchafalaya is unique among Louisiana basins because it has a growing delta system with nearly stable wetlands. The basin contains about 70% forest habitat and about 30% marsh and open water. It contains the largest contiguous block of forested wetlands remaining in the lower Mississippi River valley and the largest block of floodplain forest in the United States. Best known for its iconic cypress-tupelo swamps, at 260,000 acres, this block of forest represents the largest remaining contiguous tract of coastal cypress in the US.
During the period of 1960-1980 oil and gas exploration and development increased dramatically. Numerous large access canals and pipeline canals were dredged through deep swamp areas, across bayous, and across the river. In some areas of the Basin there are 2 km or more of access canals to every 1 km of natural bayou. These large channels (30–50 m wide by 2–3 m deep) have fundamentally changed the hydrology of the swamps. A 2013 search in Google Earth could find no imagery of any swamp anywhere in the world with as much oil and gas access canal construction as in the Atchafalaya River Basin.
The Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge is already has already been created in a portion of what would be the Atchafalaya Basin National Park and Wildlife Area, but it only occupies 60 square miles – a small portion of what the larger designation will occupy. The area of the proposed park is west of Baton Rouge, Louisiana. The existing Wildlife Refuge encompasses the Sherburne Wildlife Management Area, the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge, and the Bayou Des Ourses (Bayou of the Bears). It includes dense bottomland hardwoods, Bald Cypress-Tupelo swamps, overflow lakes, and meandering bayous that provide a tremendous diversity of habitat for over 200 species of migratory birds. The area has been recognized as an internationally important Bird Area.
The basin's wooded wetlands provide vital nesting habitat for wood duck, and support the nation's largest concentration of American woodcock. Bald eagles, ospreys, swallow-tailed kites, and Mississippi kites can be seen in the skies overhead. Wild turkeys, white tailed deer, eastern gray squirrels, fox squirrels, eastern cottontail rabbit, swamp rabbit, grey fox, red fox, coyote, striped skunk, and Virginia opossum inhabit the refuge, as do a small remnant population of Louisiana black bears. Raccoon, mink, bobcat, nutria, muskrat, North American river otter, and American beaver all live in these swamps.
The lifeblood of the fishery is the basin's annual flooding and dewatering cycle. Overflows occur during the winter and spring rains, with many areas gradually becoming dewatered during the summer and fall. Sport fishing for largemouth bass, white crappie, black crappie, warmouth, bluegill, red ear sunfish, and channel catfish is popular throughout the basin. More than 85 species of fish inhabit in the basin. Red swamp crayfish and white river crayfish are also important for both a sport and commercial harvest. Dominant tree species in the area include cottonwood, sycamore, oak, red-gum, hackberry, ash, black willow, bald cypress, pumpkin ash, overcup oak, and water hickory.
Other Proposed Parks:
Despite the common enthusiasm for “America’s best idea,” the National Park System is far from complete. In recent years the growth of the system has slowed, with fewer sites and far fewer acres being protected than in previous generations. But many awe-inspiring, park-quality lands still remain to be preserved. And if we don’t preserve these areas from development, most of the other species on this planet will disappear. Undiscovered America, a parks advocacy organization, promotes additional parks, forests, monuments, and wilderness areas including:
The Driftless Rivers Paleozoic Plateau in Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, and Illinois
Glen Canyon National Park in southern Utah (in the area that is currently designated as the Glen Canyon National Recreation Area)
High Allegheny National Park in West Virginia, and
Mount Hood National Park in Oregon
Driftless Rivers National Park (Wisconsin, Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois)
The Driftless Area, also known as the Paleozoic Plateau, is a region in the Upper Midwest that escaped the crushing and scouring effects of glaciation during the last glacial period. Unlike the surrounding, glaciated regions that were plowed by mile-thick glaciers that dumped deep layers of sand, gravel and rocks on the terrain, the Driftless Area landscape has had its rivers and streams left to carve deep valleys over the past 1.6 million years. The result is a scenic landscape of steep bluffs with limestone and sandstone cliffs and valleys that form treelike patterns. Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas recommended designating this area as a National Park back in the 1960’s and the Driftless Rivers National Park Foundation is taking the lead on this proposal today. A Driftless Rivers National Park would serve to protect the core area of the Driftless Region while also making it accessible for outdoor recreation and nature appreciation.
The Driftless Area, also known as the Paleozoic Plateau, is a region in the Upper Midwest that escaped the crushing and scouring effects of glaciation during the last glacial period. Its size is variously calculated between 16,000 and 29,000 square miles. The Great River Road Scenic Byway in Wisconsin runs along this area and was recently called the “prettiest drive in the nation,” by the Huffington Post.
Because of this undisturbed status, some geologists believe that the Kickapoo River may be the oldest active river in the world. The area repeatedly has served as a refuge for animals and plants during the glacial assaults to surrounding areas. As a result of this refuge status, coupled in some instances with a geological formation known as an algific talus slope, arctic-type species continue to thrive in the Driftless Region but not in surrounding areas.
The land’s diverse topography harbors many globally-imperiled natural communities with amazing contrast, spanning the gamut of hot-dry sites with prickly pear cactus to Ice Age holdovers like Pleistocene snails and beautiful northern monkshood wildflowers sustained by air chilled and vented from subterranean ice caves and rock fissures. In addition to the high biodiversity and number of rare species, the area is unique in its conservation role-model status. The Driftless is “the Lambeau Field of conservation” —an almost-mythical place with a storied history of leadership. Our nation’s first soil conservation project of the 1930s was launched in the Coon Creek Watershed around Coon Valley, Wis. with the leadership of Aldo Leopold, the “father” of wildlife conservation.
The river floodplain that bisects the Driftless was declared the Upper Mississippi River National Wildlife and Fish Refuge in 1924. This 240,000-acre refuge, which runs for 261 miles along the river valley, provides habitat for 40% of America’s waterfowl, more than 300 bird species and 260 species of fish. With more than 500 access points and harbors, the river is a recreational resource to more than 3 million people annually (more than Yellowstone), supporting a $6.6 billion annual recreational/tourism economy. The Upper Mississippi River has been designated a RAMSAR wetlands of global significance.
Additional conservation focus comes from the Driftless Area Initiative as well as a coalition of nonprofit land trusts known as the Blufflands Alliance. Trout Unlimited recognized the significance of the world-class trout streams of the area when it launched its restoration effort in 2004. The Driftless Rivers National Park would serve to protect the core area of the Driftless Region while also making it accessible for outdoor recreation and nature appreciation.
The sedimentary rocks of the Driftless Area are from the Paleozoic Era and up to 545 million years old, and even the most recent strata of bedrock are hundreds of millions of years old. Because the glaciers of the last Ice Age, which started over one million years ago and ended roughly 13,000 years ago, did not extend into the Driftless Area, this landscape is unique. The sedimentary rocks of the region contain many fossilized sea creatures, including trilobites and cephalopods. In addition, a nearly complete mastodon skeleton was discovered here.
The Driftless Area is rich with unique archaeological discoveries. Massive earthen effigy mounds, burial mounds constructed in the shapes of animals, are concentrated on the high bluffs overlooking Driftless Area rivers, including the Mississippi and Wisconsin. Such effigy mounds, found predominantly in Wisconsin and Iowa, with a few specimens as far away as Ohio, are unique. Effigy mounds were constructed over a period of about 400 years until they mysteriously stopped around 1050 AD. Native Americans also left behind extensive ancient cave paintings and rock carvings here.
Glen Canyon National Park
Edward Abbey wrote that Glen Canyon was “a portion of earth’s original paradise.” Wallace Stegner judged the Glen to be “potentially a superb National Park.” But, in 1963, the diversion tunnels of Glen Canyon Dam were screwed shut causing the waters of the Colorado River to back up 186 miles through Glen Canyon forming Lake Powell.
Built for political purposes, the dam was originally meant to provide a sustainable water supply to the arid Southwest, but has since undermined that very objective and has caused massive collateral damage across the Colorado River Basin. Before the dam, Glen Canyon was a wonderland of gorges, spires, cliffs, and grottoes; the biological heart of the Colorado River, with more than 79 species of plants, 189 species of birds, and 34 species of mammals; and a cultural treasure, with more than 3,000 ancient ruins.
The Glen Canyon Institute, an environmental advocacy group, whose mission is to restore a free-flowing river through Glen Canyon. The Institute wants to address both the water supply and the environmental crises of this area at the same time. It is no longer viable to maintain two half-empty reservoirs — Lake Powell and Lake Mead. A more practical alternative would be to consolidate most of the water from both reservoirs in Lake Mead, and turn the drained Glen Canyon into a National Park.
Per the Glen Canyon Institute, “the revealed landscape of Glen Canyon should be protected and the continued restoration of Glen Canyon should be facilitated and planned for. Lake Powell is unnecessary and enormously destructive, while Glen Canyon is America’s Lost National Park.”
High Allegheny National Park
In 2011, West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin requested that the National Park Service conduct a Reconnaissance Survey to “determine whether the historic, natural, and recreational resources in the High Allegheny project area are ‘likely’ or ‘unlikely’ to meet congressionally required criteria for the designation of potential units of the National Park System”. Manchin has since dropped his request for the study. The NPS Director observed that some of Manchin’s requests were incompatible with longstanding NPS policy, saying in part that “the continuation of extractive activities such as timber harvesting and oil and gas development would make the establishment of a National Park infeasible!”
Despite Senator Manchin’s recent withdrawal, conservation group Friends of Blackwater Canyon is still intent on establishing the park. Their planned park boundaries would include the northern portions of the Monongahela National Forest including the Spruce Knob-Seneca Rocks National Recreation Area, the Dolly Sods Wilderness, and the Otter Creek Wilderness. Western portions of the George Washington National Forest may also be included. Interconnecting public lands would become Preserve Areas, where hunting would be allowed; and adjacent private working farms and forests would be eligible for voluntary Heritage Area conservation easements.
West Virginia’s scenic Crown Jewel is threatened by logging and development. It is home to four endangered species, a wild river gorge, an historic railroad grade with rare cut-stone archways and coke ovens. It is a mecca for recreation from kayaking and mountain biking to bird watching and botanizing. The High Allegheny needs to be brought into public ownership and protected.
Friends of Blackwater currently protects the endangered species of West Virginia through research, education and litigation. They advocate for the West Virginia northern flying squirrel, the Cheat mountain salamander, the Indiana bat and the Virginia big-eared bat who all dwell in the Blackwater Canyon. They have protected 1,400 acres of Cheat snail habitat in the Cheat River Canyon and are pushing to have the little brown bat added to the endangered species list to prevent its extinction from the deadly White Nose syndrome disease.
The faulty siting of energy projects in the high Allegheny Mountains of West Virginia has degraded the habitat of rare species, contaminated pristine mountain streams, and led to high mortality rates for birds and bats as a result of industrial wind projects. Friends of Blackwater challenges gas drilling and industrial wind projects that have negative impacts on the environment. Seneca State Forest is in the area of the High Allegheny National Park, and it could also be impacted by the new southern route of the Atlantic Coast Natural Gas Pipeline sponsored by Dominion Transmission, Inc. Route maps show it cutting through the Forest across the popular Greenbrier River Trail and eliminating part of West Virginia's long distance Allegheny Trail.
Mount Hood National Park
Mount Hood is a stratovolcano surrounded by forested mountains, lakes and streams extending north to the Columbia River Gorge. Since the 1950s, thousands of miles of logging roads have been cut into the mountains and canyons, tens of thousands of acres of ancient forest have been logged, and hundreds of miles of trails abandoned to make way for industrial forestry. It already rivals major National Parks as a travel destination, ranking with places like Yellowstone and Yosemite in visitation. Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge have been proposed as a National Park before: in the 1890s, 1920s and 1930s. The Columbia Gorge was considered for National Park status as recently as the 1980s, when the lesser protection of a Forest Service scenic area was enacted. Comments from the Mount Hood National Park campaign follow, and they explain key elements in the quest for National Park status:
The Mountain is in trouble. Mount Hood and the Oregon side of the Columbia Gorge are presently administered as part of the Mount Hood National Forest, under the U.S. Department of Agriculture. For more than a century, the failed USDA mission of attempting to simultaneously protect and exploit the mountain's resources has left much of the natural environment in tatters. Since the 1950s, thousands of miles of logging roads have been cut into the mountains and canyons; tens of thousands of acres of ancient forest have been logged; and hundreds of miles of trails have been abandoned to make way for industrial forestry.
Under this failed Forest Service approach, each new proposal to exploit the mountain is settled as a compromise between these conflicting missions, guaranteeing that the natural and cultural legacy is eroded with each management decision. The current proposals to build off-road vehicle playgrounds in pristine forest areas, and clearcut a 50-mile swath for a natural gas pipeline are just the latest in this string of disastrous compromises. The cumulative effect of Forest Service management over the years has been devastating.
Though these management techniques are now generally accepted as destructive and unsustainable, there is no clear mandate for the USDA to restore the lands that they have helped to destroy. Meanwhile, dwindling timber receipts have dropped the bottom out of Forest Service recreation funding, as coping with the enormous backlog of failing logging roads and sickly unhealthy plantations on old clearcuts will consume national forest budgets for decades to come.
National Park Status: It's certainly true that not every National Forest is worthy of National Park status, but Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge are special. These are places of world-class scenic and geological significance, and are of a caliber that is easily comparable to the finest national parks in the country. In fact, they already compete with the major national parks as destinations, ranking with places like Yellowstone and Yosemite in visitation.
In each of these earlier efforts, the forces that continue to seek commercial exploitation of the mountain and gorge were overpowering, even during the early years, when ski resorts and industrial logging were just ideas on the drawing board. The same challenges face us today, but the arguments for National Park protection have never been stronger.
The National Park Service is fundamentally different than the forest service. The Park Service is housed within the U.S. Department of Interior, and has a clear mission in the legislation that created the National Parks: "...to conserve the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wildlife therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations."
The clarity of this mission would help the Park Service repair the damaged landscapes of Mount Hood and the Columbia Gorge, while expanding public access and recreation opportunities.
Additional National Parks
Many additional areas of essential value to threatened, endangered, and declining species are being promoted as potential national parks. These include:
Valles Caldera National Park in northern New Mexico
Needles Highway and Custer State Park in South Dakota
Jewel Cave National Monument in South Dakota
The Crazy Horse Memorial in South Dakota
Canyon deChelly in Arizona
Carrizo Plain – along the San Andreas Fault about 130 miles east of Los Angeles, and
The Great Swamp and Pine Barrens of New Jersey.