Newspaper logo  
 
 
  Sierra Club Report Releases ''America's Great Outdoors'' Report

CONSERVATION REPORT:

Sierra Club Releases "America's Great Outdoors" Report

Crabtree Creek area in Western Maryland selected for conservation effort.

Source: Sierra Club Metro DC Office

Graphic by Tom Brown
Graphic by Tom Brown
Maryland's Crabtree Creek old-growth forest area is receiving national attention through its inclusion in the Sierra Club's newly released report, "America’s Great Outdoors," which outlines that organization's vision for protecting the natural heritage. Places profiled in the report were chosen by citizen conservationists in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. They were selected for their recreational opportunities, clean water and wildlife habitat.

“We are fast approaching the point where no place is sacred, where no part of America is safe from drilling, logging or development,” said Ellen Pepin, Co-Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club’s Maryland Chapter, in a prepared statement to the press.

Most East Coast old-growth forests were wiped out long ago. Crabtree Creek, part of the Potomac State Forest, is an exception. It is one of the region's few forests that has remained relatively undisturbed by commercial logging.

The Sierra Club's synopsis on the site reads, "This 2,000-acre swath on Backbone Mountain includes a core oldgrowth forest and, at 3,200 feet, is Maryland’s highest point. The area is home to black bear, bobcat and wild turkeys. The forest’s enormous trees often have large cavities perfect for black bear denning. Twenty rare, threatened and endangered plant and animals can be found in Crabtree Creek, such as the Allegheny Woodrat and the Wild Bleeding Heart. With this extraordinary wildlife, mountain vistas and spectacular forests, Crabtree Creek welcomes remote recreationists for superb hunting, hiking and bird watching."

Commercial logging is not currently taking place near the old-growth forest, but the Sierra Club notes that this situation could change at any time, "since no formal protections are in place to prevent this action." The organization also points out that coal mining has occurred on adjoining private lands, and that a limestone quarry has been attempted on a private in-holding of the State Forest that needs protection.

Illegal offroad vehicle (ORV) use is also a threat to the old-growth forest, as it is penetrated by a fire access road and illegal vehicles often go around the gates and use it. "These threats, combined with the potential for industrial wind energy development on the state forest along the ridgecrest of Backbone Mountain, could fragment the surrounding buffer area of habitat and endanger the qualities of this rare Eastern old growth forest," according to the Sierra Club's report synopsis.

The Sierra Club advocates protecting ancient forests by having them denoted as state-protected wild lands—"a Maryland state equivalent of Wilderness Areas"—thus preventing activities that would leave lasting human imprints. The group is also asking the Maryland Department of Natural Resources to prohibit future logging of the state's remaining old-growth forests and their surroundings.


For more information, contact Dan Boone, Co-Conservation Chair of the Sierra Club’s Maryland Chapter, at ddanboone@yahoo.com, or visit their home page.

For the Sierra Club's full report, list of places and a photo slideshow, click here.

The report advocates the following steps for communities seeking to preserve and conserve natural resources:

  • Preserving our natural heritage by designating lands as permanently protected parks, refuges, forests, and wilderness;
  • Restoring forests, riverfronts, wetlands, and community open spaces through the rebuilding and recovery of healthy, natural ecosystems;
  • Improving lands to protect wildlife species and their native habitat;
  • Acquiring additional acreage by purchasing threatened land to protect it for future generations;
  • Encouraging thoughtful design and planning of development projects to protect open space, reduce traffic, save tax dollars, and create more options for Americans to own a home;
  • Protecting water quality by improving sewage and waste disposal practices as well as keeping sensitive places free from such threats as drilling and commercial logging; and
  • Drawing attention to the damage from unmanaged motorized recreation and encouraging federal land management agencies to enforce the laws that allow off-road vehicle use only on designated roads and routes, and to educate riders that wild areas are closed unless posted open for off-road vehicles.



Copyright © 2005 The Baltimore Chronicle. All rights reserved.

Republication or redistribution of Baltimore Chronicle content is expressly prohibited without their prior written consent.

This story was published on June 30, 2005.

 
Bookmark and Share
Local News & Opinion

Ref. : Local Newsbriefs

Travel
Letters

Ref. : Letters to the editor

Open Letters:

03.05 Open Letter to Congressman Bart Stupak

Health & Environment

Video National Health Care Systems In Other Countries

03.12 Slick Barry and the $100-Billion Medicaid/Medicare Fraud Claim

03.09 Kill Bill: Death to Obamacare!

03.09 Obama’s Rhetoric May Be “Fiery,” But His Health Care Reform Is Still Lukewarm

02.24 Obama’s New Plan

02.21 Time to Pass the Health Insurance Industry Antitrust Enforcement Act of 2009

Media Watching

03.12 Cud and Complicity: Burying the Alternatives to Empire's Dominion

03.11 NYT and the ACORN Hoax

03.05 Sorry, Rove, Bush Did Lie About Iraq

03.03 It's Snow News

03.03 The Woeful Washington Post

02.28 The NYT Veers Neocon

02.18 US Media Replays Iraq Fiasco on Iran

Ref. : The Daily Howler

Legal Matters

02.26 America's Supremes: Court Over Constitution

US Politics, Policy & Culture

03.11 Power Rangers: Policing the System With the "Fightin' Progressives"

03.09 Thinking About Countings

03.07 Unnatural Acts: Breaking the Fever of Militarism

02.25 Future Shock: A Better World Beyond the Imperium

02.24 The Last Flight of Joe Stack

02.22 Thinking About Sadie

02.18 All Systems Go: No Dysfunction in Profitable Afghan Enterprise

“High Crimes?”

03.13 Palestinian Dispossession in East Jerusalem

03.12 Israeli Settlement Expansions Continue

03.11 Brutalizing Palestinian Children

03.08 The Russell Tribunal on Palestine: Barcelona Session

03.05 Targeting Israeli Apartheid

03.01 America's Permanent War Agenda

02.25 Global Sweatshop Wage Slavery

02.23 Israeli Unaccountability and Denial: Suppressing the Practice of Torture

02.22 American Genocides: is Haiti Next?

02.18 Israeli Abusive Administrative Detentions

02.16 MK-ULTRA: The CIA's Mind Control Program

Economics & Business Non/Mis/Malfeasance

03.14 The Crisis in America's Telecommunications Network

03.09 The Business of Water: Privatizing An Essential Resource

03.05 Is the Recovery Real?

03.04 IMF-Style Austerity Measures come to America: What “Fiscal Responsibility” Means To You

03.04 Barry C. Lynn's "Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and Economics of Destruction"

03.02 Obama's Budget Revealed: Money for Wars and Weapons, While More Americans Face Joblessness and Hunger

03.01 Thinking About Fees

02.22 Campaigning for State-Owned Banks

02.22 Social Security Will Fall To Obama Before The Taliban Do

02.19 Obama’s Stealth Entitlement Commission

02.19 Selling Out America to Wall Street

International

03.15 Peace Process Hypocrisy: Stillborn from Inception

03.03 Muslim Disunity

03.02 Funding Israeli Militarism, Belligerence and Occupation

02.26 Iran Captures a 'Good' Terrorist

02.24 The Dubai Hit

02.22 Holland Has Had Enough: Killing of Innocent Civilians Goes On Apace in Afghanistan

02.19 The Placeman Cometh: New IAEA Chief Stokes Iran War Fever for the Bush-Obama Regime

We are a non-profit Internet-only newspaper publication founded in 1973. Your donation is essential to our survival.
Google
This site Web

Public Service Ads:
Verifiable Voting in Maryland