• Forest Service Debuts Strategy to Fight Invasive Species
  
• Navajo Nation First Tribe to Receive Air Permit Authority
  
• Boat Owners Agree to Protect Coral Reefs, Seabed Grasses
  
• Degussa Facing $1.55 Million Air Pollution Fine
  
• Plan to Helicopter Pre-Fabs Into Olympic Park Draws Lawsuit
  
• Surfrider to Sue Feds Over Injection Well Pollution
  
• Historic Tree Seeds Lost to Hurricane Frances
  
• Washington State Funds Water Piping to Conserve Fish
  

Forest Service Debuts Strategy to Fight Invasive Species

“Millions of acres of public and private lands are at risk from non-native species. Each year the United States loses 1.7 million acres to the spread of these invasives, in addition to spending billions of dollars on control measures,” said Mark Rey, agriculture under secretary for natural resources and environment.

Rey was speaking last week at the site of the Forest Service’s new threat assessment center, which will develop user-friendly technology and research on invasive species when it opens early in the new year. “This national strategy will help to prevent, find and contain the spread while working to rehabilitate and restore ecosystems,” he said.

An invasive species is defined as a species that is non-native to the ecosystem under consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to human health.

These species take advantage of their new surroundings to crowd out or kill off native species, destroying habitat for native wildlife. They can also cause tree mortality creating an increased risk of wildfire.

Currently, the Forest Service is fighting organisms such as white pine blister rust, caused by a nonnative invasive pathogen, Cronartium ribicola, introduced to North America from Europe almost a century ago. The impact of the rust, combined with lack of regeneration opportunities, threatens to eliminate white pines.

Salt cedar, a native of North Africa and the Middle East, spreads rapidly and forms dense thickets along waterways in the southwestern United States.

The Asian longhorn beetle, the emerald ash borer, the hemlock woolly adelgid are only three of the invasive insects that are destroying American forests.

Miconia, a tree native to Central America, reaching a height of 50 feet, with leaves up to three feet long and thousands of tiny seeds, is public enemy number one in Hawaii, invading the islands of Hawaii, Maui, Oahu, and Kauai. Miconia forms dense thickets that block the sunlight, which prevents most other plants beneath it from surviving, and depriving native animals of the plants they need to survive. As miconia’s thick shade kills ground cover, its shallow roots cannot hold the soil, leaving it susceptible to erosion.

The National Strategy and Implementation Plan for Invasive Species Management to fight these exotics focuses on four key elements: preventing invasive species before they arrive; finding new infestations before they spread and become established; containing and reducing existing infestations; and rehabilitating and restoring native habitats and ecosystems.

The plan will use an early warning system to help land managers detect new invasives. Title VI of the 2004 Healthy Forests Restoration Act directs the Forest Service to develop such a system to improve its detection and response abilities to ecological disturbances across the nation.

The strategy contains four themes common to all program elements. First, partnerships and collaboration. Then, research to ensure that the scientific basis is correct, and setting priorities based on risk assessment results.

Third, public outreach through communication and education. And finally, organization for success - improving capacity, procedural streamlining, and funding flexibility with long-term commitment.

The Forest Service is establishing two environmental threat assessment centers to cover the eastern and the western United States; the western center is located in Prineville; the site of the eastern center has not yet been identified.

To learn more about the Forest Service’s National Strategy and Implementation Plan for Invasive Species Management, read the new strategy at: http://www.fs.fed.us/foresthealth/publications/Invasive_Species.pdf.

For more general information on federal efforts tp combat invasive species, visit: www.invasivespecies.gov

Navajo Nation First Tribe to Receive Air Permit Authority

The Navajo Nation's Environmental Protection Agency (NNEPA) will work with their federal counterparts on a government-to-government basis to administer the Title V program, where permits are issued for major sources of air pollution, generally with the potential to emit pollutants over 100 tons per year.

The delegation, which was signed by both the EPA and the tribe, covers new and existing major sources located on the formal Navajo Nation reservation and all tribal trust lands outside the formal reservation boundaries.

On June 16, the Navajo Nation EPA submitted a request to the U.S. EPA to be treated in the same manner as a state and requested on July 17 to have authority over the operating permits. The EPA reviewed both applications and determined that the Navajo Nation met the eligibility criteria.

The delegation of the program means that the Navajo Nation will now administer the Title V program for nine natural gas compressor stations, the Conoco Phillips Wingate Fractionating Plant, Peabody Western Coal Black Mesa Complex, Chevron-Texaco Aneth Gas Plant, and the Exxon-Mobil McElmo Creek Unit.

"Today marks a great achievement for the Navajo Nation and is an important first step toward the tribe's development of an air quality control program," said Laura Yoshii, the EPA's deputy regional administrator for the Pacific Southwest region. "We will continue to work with the tribe to increase its environmental program capacity and to promote local environmental stewardship."

"This major accomplishment caps years of coordinated and combined efforts by the U.S. EPA, the NNEPA, the Navajo Nation Council and the Navajo Department of Justice," said Navajo Nation President Joe Shirley, Jr. "I extend my appreciation to everyone for all their dedication and hard work."

The agreement covers all new and existing sources within the tribe's jurisdiction, except the Navajo Generating Station and the Four Corners Power Plant, where the EPA's Pacific Southwest Office in San Francisco will continue to oversee those permits. The Navajo Nation EPA is working with the two power plants to develop a voluntary compliance agreement.

The permit program requires these sources to get a five year operating permit that includes emissions limits and compliance measures, such as monitoring, recordkeeping, reporting and testing to assure compliance with those limits. The EPA's San Francisco office has already issued most of the initial five-year permits for these facilities that the tribe will now oversee.

Boat Owners Agree to Protect Coral Reefs, Seabed Grasses

Degussa Facing $1.55 Million Air Pollution Fine

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Region 5 has filed an administrative complaint against Degussa Engineered Carbons LP for clean air violations and for failing to report excessive emissions.

"We're alleging that Degussa used a raw material with a higher sulfur content than was permitted, and emitted more sulfur dioxide than was permitted," said Acting Regional Administrator Bharat Mathur.

Degussa has filed an answer to the complaint and requested a hearing. It may request an informal conference with EPA officials at any time to discuss how to resolve the allegations.

Exposure to sulfur dioxide can impair breathing, aggravate existing respiratory diseases like bronchitis and reduce the ability of the lungs to clear foreign particles. Sulfur dioxide can also cause acid rain and contribute to fine particle pollution. Children, the elderly and people with existing heart and lung conditions are most sensitive to sulfur dioxide.

The world’s second-largest producer, Degussa manufactures its carbon blacks at plants located throughout the world. In North America, its 50/50 joint venture, Degussa Engineered Carbons, LP, operates five plants that produce a full range of furnace and thermal blacks for the tire, rubber, plastics, ink, coatings and specialty markets.

Degussa carbon blacks are sold under the brand names CORAX®, PRINTEX®, NIPex®, AROSPERSE®, SABLE®, PANTHER®, ARO® and Hi-Black®.

Plan to Helicopter Pre-Fabs Into Olympic Park Draws Lawsuit

The suit, filed October 29, names as defendents National Park Service Director Fran Mainella and Jonathan Jarvis Regional director for the Pacific West Region, and William Laitner, Superintendent of Olympic National Park.

In September, the National Park Service announced plans to transport two trail shelters by helicopter into the park’s remote backcountry. The new pre-fabricated buildings would replace old forest shelters that collapsed several years ago under heavy snows.

Park officials say that the pre-fabs are historic resources that will enhance wilderness character and are necessary for visitor safety. The conservation groups dispute both claims.

“Flying new buildings with heavy-lift helicopters is a misguided means of managing one of the world’s premier wilderness parks,” said Donna Osseward, president of Olympic Park Associates, a group that focuses on the park. “The Wilderness Act is clear on this; new structures simply aren’t allowed in wilderness.”

The Wilderness Act provides that, “A wilderness, in contrast with those areas where man and his works dominate the landscape, is ... an area where the earth and its community of life are untrammeled by man.”

The complaint states that the interests of Olympic Park Associates and Wilderness Watch "will be harmed if ONP constructs permanent shelters within the wilderness area and will be further harmed by the park's construction activities including the use of helicopters and power tools."

PEER is a national, nonprofit charitable organization of local, state and federal resource professionals. In the complaint, PEER claims that 100 of its members live within half a day's drive of Olympic National Park, so the interests of PEER and its members will be harmed by the construction of permanent shelters and the use of tools and helicopters.

Olympic National Park, a wilderness jewel of the national park system, was created in 1938 to preserve the area’s temperate rainforests and ice-capped peaks, populated with elk and other native wildlife. Congress designated some 95 percent of the park as wilderness in 1988.

"We’ve been waiting for a wilderness plan for Olympic since wilderness was designated by Congress 16 years ago,” said George Nickas, director of Wilderness Watch, based in Missoula, Montana.

Nickas says the suit also charges that the shelter replacement is proceeding without a required wilderness management plan in place. “Olympic’s current leaders seem more interested in erecting edifices than in managing the park’s wilderness responsibly.”

“The park service is rushing ahead with this ill-conceived action without having completed either a wilderness plan or a general management plan,” said Lea Mitchell of PEER. “The agency needs to slow down and reassess its priorities. These projects are costly, unnecessary and illegal. And they degrade the character of a world-class wilderness.”

Surfrider to Sue Feds Over Injection Well Pollution

"We are seeing dramatic increases of such things as red tides and other harmful algal blooms as a direct result of contamination from these injection wells," said local activist Tom Warnke. "Currently over 600 miles of Florida's coastline has been compromised."

Activists from the Surfrider Foundation's Palm Beach County Chapter say the federal government continues to support the use of injection wells, which flush billions of gallons of sewage into underground aquifers.

They cite studies showing that instead of being filtered through the limestone and other sedimentary rock as planned, contamination from the sewage is making its way into coastal waters, where it is killing corals and other marine life, as well as threatening the health and welfare of surfers and other beachgoers.

In response, the Surfrider Foundation has sent a notice of intent to sue to the White House, Attorney General's office, the Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers demanding that they immediately act to rectify the situation or face litigation.

"If the agencies named in this lawsuit think they can simply posture their way through this, they are mistaken," said Surfrider Foundation's Interim Executive Director Michelle Kremer. "These are very serious charges concerning multiple violations of federal law."

Surfrider alleges the injection wells violate the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Water Act, the Endangered Species Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

The Surfrider Foundation is a nonprofit grassroots organization dedicated to the protection and preservation of our world's oceans, waves and beaches.

Founded in 1984 by a handful of surfers, the Surfrider Foundation now maintains over 37,000 members and 60 chapters across the United States and Puerto Rico, with international affiliates in Australia, Europe, Japan and Brazil.

Historic Tree Seeds Lost to Hurricane Frances

Also lost were seeds with connections to a half-dozen American Revolution sites and with ties to Martin Luther King, Amelia Earhart, and Thomas Edison, Thomas Jefferson's Monticello and as far away as Beijing's Forbidden City.

Historic Tree Nursery, a program of the nonprofit American Forests, which gathers and grows seed connected to famous people, places, and events, sustained more than $6 million in damage to its three greenhouses in Jacksonville.

The seeds, which represented 16 years of collecting, had been stored under climate and moisture controlled conditions.

Nurseryman Jeff Meyer, who directs the Historic Tree Nursery, said he and the staff are trying to be optimistic in the face of this disaster. "My goal is that we try to rebuild," he said. "My hope is that once again Historic Tree Nursery will provide trees and seeds to schoolkids and others across the country

The nursery also lost 40,000 trees that were being grown for sale. The trees, ranging in size from tiny seedlings to 20 foot tall landscape trees, have been popular with everyone from homeowners to celebrities, but especially with schools, which use Living Classrooms of trees, lesson plans, and software to help students make the connection between trees and science, history, math, and technology.

Meyer estimated that more than a million historic trees have been planted since the project's inception in 1987. The trees have been featured in plantings with every president since Ronald Reagan, for 9-11 memorials, and at Versailles and Arlington Cemetery.

The idea for a nursery of historic trees was born after Meyer's son picked up an acorn from Jacksonville's historic Treaty Oak while on a family picnic. Meyer and his wife planted the seed in their backyard and the idea grew from there.

The trees have been featured in the PBS documentary Silent Witnesses; in the syndicated "Tree Stories"; and on The Late Show with David Letterman, where Meyer presented the comedian with a David Letterman Tulip Poplar, the offspring of a tree in his Broad Ripple, Indiana, hometown. The Letterman seeds were among the ones lost, Meyer said.

"The loss of these trees is devastating not only to American Forests, but to the country as a whole," said Deborah Gangloff, executive director of American Forests. "Many of these trees were a last living connection to our nation's past. Replacing them will be impossible in some cases; in others we hope to be able to find descendents from which we can collect seed."

A small number of trees - including Alamo Live Oak, Andrew Jackson Magnolias, and Elvis Presley Weeping Willows - have been saved.

Meyer said his staff is trying to salvage some of the seeds, but it will be months before he knows if the attempt was successful.

E-mail info@historictrees.org for information about a specific tree or to be notified when an inventory of surviving trees has been completed.

Washington State Funds Water Piping to Conserve Fish

In 2004, state lawmakers earmarked nearly $2 million in grants that Ecology will make available to pay for water-piping projects across the state. Ecology is working with applicants from other river basins to determine which water piping and conservation projects will receive the remaining $1.7 million.

Buried piping conserves irrigation water by reducing leaks and evaporation, keeping more water in streams for fish, and it improves water quality by reducing silt and erosion that may flow back into the streams.

Closed piping systems help keep juvenile fish out of irrigation canals and ditches, where they become trapped and unable to migrate downstream. In addition, the projects will improve fish habitat by removing dams and other barriers, and by consolidating the number of sites where water is diverted for irrigation.

"These grants will help us meet growing demands for agricultural water while also conserving and restoring water for fish," said Joe Stohr, who manages Ecology's water resources program. "It's important that we use every drop of water wisely and efficiently."

The Yakama Indian Nation, Kittitas County Conservation District, Kittitas County public works department and state Department of Fish and Wildlife have worked with Ecology to identify which water-piping projects would most benefit water users and fish in the Yakima River watershed.

To date, Ecology has approved funds for the following projects in Kittitas and Yakima counties:

• $125,000 to Kittitas County's public works department and Bull Canal Co. to install 800 feet of closed piping that will isolate Bull irrigation canal water from Naneum Creek. The project will improve fish passage by removing a dam at the irrigation-ditch diversion site, increase flows in Naneum Creek by reducing leaks and evaporation and stop the co-mingling of Bull Canal water with Naneum Creek water to avoid a false attraction problem for salmon migrating to the upper Yakima River.

• $110,000 to the Yakama Indian Nation to construct a 1.1 mile long buried pipeline to create a single point of diversion from Simcoe Creek to supply irrigation water for Hubbard and Hoptowit ditches in Yakima County. The project will remove upstream barriers for migrating fish, increase water in streams by reducing leaks and evaporation losses and prevent juvenile fish from being trapped between the two irrigation ditches.

• $76,220 to the Kittitas County Conservation District to install a specialized siphon pipe in the Bull irrigation canal that will route water under Little Naneum Creek. The project, which was proposed and supported by the Yakama Indian Nation, will remove an existing diversion dam, build a series of low-step structures, or weirs, to prevent erosion, provide new fish passage, improve water quality and eliminate the need to install a fish screen where the pipe will be located.