1) President Bush To Highlight Environment During Bama Visit
2) Sierra Club Plans Protest Of Bush Visit
3) Montgomery Escapes Superfund Listing
4) Rare Mussels To Be Re-Introduced Into The Tennessee River
5) First Federal Conservation Bank For The Gopher Tortoise Created
6) BEN Notes: Land Steward Job Opening, Restoring the American Chestnut Tree, New Public Health/Drinking Water Website

1. President Bush To Highlight Environment During Bama Visit - On Thursday, June 21st, President George W. Bush will visit Oak Mountain State Park to highlight his plan to fully fund the Land Water and Conservation Fund (LWCF), a 37 year old federal program that has been responsible for the creation of more than 37,000 parks nationwide and over 500 parks in Alabama.

Funding for LWCF comes from federal offshore oil and gas drilling revenue. President Bush is asking Congress to appropriate $900 million toward the fund, which is considered "full funding" of the program. "He is the first president in more than 20 years to propose fully funding the program," according to Tom St. Hilaire of Americans For Our Heritage and Recreation (AHR), an environmental advocacy group that supports LWCF.

In Alabama, programs in need of LWCF funding include the Cahaba River National Wildlife Refuge and the Bon Secour National Wildlife Refuge. LWCF will also enhance Alabama's Forever Wild program, Alabama's state park system and local park and recreation programs. Bush's LWCF funding proposal has been criticized by some conservation groups because it may shift money away from other federal programs. For more information about LWCF, visit the AHR website at: http://www.ahrinfo.org

2. Sierra Club Plans Protest Of Bush Visit - After President Bush's Oak Mountain State Park visit, he will attend a $1000 -a -plate fundraiser for Senator Jeff Sessions re-election campaign at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex in downtown Birmingham. The Alabama Chapter of the Sierra Club is planning a rally at nearby Linn Park (pending Secret Service approval) to protest President Bush's energy policies.

"We want to tell him (President Bush) we want a clean environment, and we want safer and cleaner technologies used in this energy crisis," stated Peggie Griffin, conservation organizer for the Alabama Sierra Club to the Birmingham News. "His budget actually cuts research into renewable energy and development programs by 37 percent. We want to tell him we want more fuel economy standards for cars and trucks rather than drilling the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and drilling off the coast of Alabama." The rally is scheduled to begin at 4:15 and last to about 6:00. For information about the event contact the Sierra Club at 205-933-9111.

3. Montgomery Escapes Superfund Listing - It appears Montgomery's "Capital City Plume" won't make the EPA's Superfund list, according to a Montgomery Advertiser report.

The "Capital City Plume," which has been found in the downtown district of Montgomery, has been identified as a mixture of tetrachloroethylene (PCE) and benzene, toluene, ethylbenzene and xylene (BTEX). PCE is often related to solvents used in the operation of dry cleaning, printing and auto repairs businesses. The chemicals pose no threat to the city's drinking water supply
since all city wells in the area have been closed since 1992. However, the presence of the chemicals could hamper re-development of the downtown area and the riverfront.

The city of Montgomery and the EPA are expected to sign within a month an agreement to help remediate and monitor the contamination. Last year, faced with the potential listing of the area as a Superfund site, Montgomery Mayor Bobby Bright set up a task force to work with EPA and resolve the pollution problem. The resolution of the Capital City Plume problem will help
Montgomery begin an ambitious downtown and riverfront renewal program.

4. Rare Mussels To Be Re-Introduced Into the Tennessee River - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will be re-introducing 16 mussel species and one aquatic snail on Pickwick Lake, along the Tennessee River in Northwest Alabama.

Last week, the Fish and Wildlife Service designated the rare mussels that will be released into Pickwick Lake as a nonessential experimental population. This means, that although the mussels will still be protected by federal endangered species laws, the nonessential species designation will decriminalize accidental and incidental killing or injuring the reintroduced mollusks.

Currently, 44 mussel species and several snail species live in the Tennessee River in the vicinity of Wilson Dam. Since the dams were built, 34 species have disappeared in the waterway near the Muscle Shoals. The re-introduction program will hopefully establish the "winged mapleleafs," "purple catspaw," "shiny pigtoes" and "yellow blossoms" mussels and several others - back into the river. To learn more about the Fish and Wildlife Service's re-introduction plans please visit their website at: http://endangered.fws.gov/frpubs/s010614a.htm

5. First Federal Conservation Bank For The Gopher Tortoise Created - Next week on June 25th, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Environmental Defense, Mobile Area Water and Sewer System, Southeastern Natural Resources and Senator Jeff = Sessions will be announcing the creation of a 222 acre conservation bank and habitat conservation plan to protect the threatened gopher tortoise and restore its diminished habitat, the longleaf pine ecosystem. The Federal conservation bank will the first of its kind for the gopher tortoise in Alabama and the United States.

The gopher tortoise is considered a keystone species for longleaf pine habitat. Among the 362 species using gopher tortoise burrows or longleaf pine ecosystems are the black pine snake, the eastern indigo snake, and the gopher frog. For more information about this exciting new program visit the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service website at : http://www.southeast.fws.gov/daphne or contact Mary Mullins at the Bellwether Group at 334-433-3993.

6. BEN Notes: Land Steward Job Opening, Restoring the American Chestnut Tree, New Public Health/Drinking Water Website

Land Steward Job Opening - The Alabama Forest Resource Center (AFRC) is seeking a director of Land Conservation and Stewardship. The AFRC, which has just recently established a Land Trust is seeking an individual who will provide leadership on statewide/conservation matters and administer the Forest Legacy Program in Alabama. The position will be responsible for negotiating land conservation transactions, purchasing and drafting conservation easements, managing easement stewardship monitoring program, managing GIS, and developing creative solutions for a large river corridor project in Anniston, Alabama. Qualifications: Expertise in transactions, land conservation, real estate law, LTA Standards and Practices, GIS, ArcView
Software, finance, management and forest and water issues; excellent written, verbal, and leadership and management skills; able to and enjoys working in team situations. Compensation is $35k to$50K plus benefits depending on experience. Will report to Executive Director. EOE. Please send letter, resume and three references to: Dan Dumont, Executive Director, Alabama Forest Resource Center, 9 Dauphin St. Mobile, Al. 36602. For further info, please call or fax 334-433-2372 or email afrc@prodigy.net

Restoring the American Chestnut Tree - The Treasure Forest Association of Lauderdale County has created an American Chestnut Steering Committee. The group hopes to give birth to an Alabama Chapter of the American Chestnut Foundation. Wild Alabama has joined the committee to encourage the U.S. Forest Service to support restoration efforts on public lands.

At this time it appears that cross breeding of the American Chestnut and the Chinese Chestnut will produce a 95% pure blight resistant strain of American Chestnut that can be reintroduced back into the eastern forest in the next decade. To learn more about this exciting new program attend a meeting on June 21st in Florence, Alabama, 6:00 to 9:00 pm at the Florence Board of Education Center at 541 Riverview Drive. For more info call Judy Tricoli at 256-764-4382.

New Public Health/Drinking Water Website - The National Environmental Education and Training Foundation has announced the creation of a new consumer and health professional's website that will educate people how to obtain detailed consumer tap water information for their community and explain to people in plain terms how the presence of different levels of chemicals, minerals, metals and biological pollutants may or may not affect individuals and their families. Please view this website at : http://www.Waterqualityreports.org

Please share BEN with friends and fellow conservationists. If you have any questions or comments about this publication, contact Pat Byington, the author and publisher of BEN at 205-226-7739 or pkbyington@aol.com To receive back issues of BEN, please go to our website at: http://www.BamaNews.com