Kentucky Heartwood - Newsletter

Kentucky Heartwood Newsletter

Fall 2006

Kentucky Heartwood to Sue Forest Service Over New Forest Plan

KY Heartwood Old Growth Hike to Blanton Forest

Kentucky Heartwood to Sue Forest Service Over New Forest Plan

   In August KY Heartwood filed a 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue the U.S. Forest Service over violations of the Endangered Species Act in implementing the Morehead Ice Storm Recovery Project and the Forest Plan.
   The Morehead Project calls for 12,000 acres of logging in the area around Cave Run Lake hit by an ice storm four years ago. This ostensible “recovery” project – the largest salvage logging plan in the history of the Daniel Boone National Forest – is “likely to adversely affect” the federally Endangered Indiana Bat, as both the U.S. Forest Service and the U.S. Fish & Wildlife service admit.
   “The Forest Service is mandated to protect and restore endangered species,” said KY Heartwood Executive Director Paul Lovelace. “The Morehead Timber Sale tragically contradicts this important mandate.”
   KY Heartwood calls upon the agency to allow the forest to recover naturally.
   KY Heartwood’s 60-Day Notice of Intent to Sue represents the first legal challenge to the agency’s new land use management plan for the Daniel Boone.
   Two years ago KY Heartwood and other organizations, including the Sierra Club, filed a 240-page administrative appeal outlining the new Forest Plan’s fundamental flaws and its failure to provide the necessary tools required by law to protect water, air, and soil quality.
   This summer the chief of the Forest Service finally ruled on our appeal, dismissing all charges.

Our only option now is to seek justice for the forest and the public through the courts.

Join Us!
KY Heartwood Old Growth Hike
to Blanton Forest
Saturday, October 7, 2006
We will be traveling to the Blanton Forest State Nature Preserve on Pine Mountain in Harlan County. Blanton Forest is the largest old-growth forest known in Kentucky. The “trees that tower 100 feet above the forest floor are the same ones the settlers saw as they came through the Cumberland Gap and moved westward into Kentucky in the 1700’s.” We hope that our membership will take the opportunity to experience first hand what we’re working for.

Directions: We will meet at 8:30 am at Cracker Barrel, exit 110 on I-75 (the first exit after the split going south in Lexington). Transportation for 15 will be provided. Bring a lunch. Call the KY Heartwood office for more information. For more information about the hike and/or carpooling opportunities, call 606-780-1336.

CORE NOTES

KY Heartwood’s next Council meeting will be on Tuesday, October 17th at 7pm in the community room at the Good Foods Market & Café in Lexington. Council meetings are open to everyone. Call the KY Heartwood office at 606-780-1336 for more information.
In honor of our late friend and environmental hero, KY Heartwood will host the Stu Butler Memorial Dinner on Friday, November 10th at 6:30pm at the Limestone Club on 221 North Limestone St. in Lexington. Invitations will be forthcoming. Call Jane Marie Watts at 859-873-9772 for more information.
KY Heartwood thanks Nick Neises for his service to the organization and welcomes his transition from staff member to council member. Graduate student Andrew Watson is the new resident in the KY Heartwood office. Andrew will be working on redesigning the website. Welcome, Andrew!
KY Heartwood is pleased to welcome its bright and creative interns for the semester: Ashley Rigsby, Tomas Ayala, Ben Darling, and Joshua Johnson.
Thanks for using your Kroger cards! KY Heartwood received a check for $521.78 through July 6th. Keep it up!
Haiku Contest Haikus about the Morehead Timber Sale / Ice Storm Recovery Project should be submitted by October 11th to kyheartwood@alltel.net
Found: green camp chair at Kentucky Heartwood’s Music Festival. Contact Jane Marie if you lost it: 859-873-9772.
The First Annual Kentucky Heartwood Music Festival was a success! Approximately 200 people attended the event and we raised nearly $2,000! Thanks to Jane Marie Watts and Chris Schimmoeller for organizing the event. Cheers to our sponsors, the bands, and the host of volunteers who made it possible.
Paul Lovelace appeared on KET’s program “KY Tonight” on August 14th to discuss the dangers of building the I-66 byway London to Somerset. This program is archived online and anyone who wants to learn more about KY Heartwood’s or The Kick 66 stance should tune in at KET.
Working WITH the Forest Service In August Paul Lovelace met with Forest Service Supervisor Jerry Perez at the Forest Service headquarters in Winchester. During their hour long discussion, Paul explained that KY Heartwood will not accept any Forest Service proposal that includes the use of toxic herbicides as a management tool. Mr. Perez said the agency lacks the budgeting capacity to deal with invasives without the use of toxic chemicals. So, on September 23rd KY Heartwood volunteers traveled to the Red River Gorge to help the Forest Service remove invasive species with hand tools. Public support and pressure on legislative budget-makers are essential in helping curtail the use of herbicides in the forest.
Haunted Forest: What’s Really Scary in Our Forests This Halloween KY Heartwood will host a “Haunted Forest” in the Daniel Boone National Forest in Morehead, KY. We will work with student groups to offer a blood-chilling experience that underscores the terrors facing our forests, such as toxic herbicide spraying, mismanaged burn projects, gas and oil drilling, strip mining, wanton destruction of biodiversity, rancid pork belly projects including needless road construction, and the all too frequent Kentucky Chainsaw Massacre. Proceeds will benefit KY Heartwood and the education will benefit our community. Please bring your fiends, family and the shrillest screams.

Directions to KY Heartwood Haunted Forest: From Lexington, take I-64 East to the Morehead exit, follow Highway 32 into Morehead; turn left onto Highway 60 East to Rodburn; turn left into the Rodburn Hollow Recreational Area and follow signs.

7-10 pm on October 30th and 31st. Admission is $10 for adults; $5 for students with a valid ID.

ACTION ALERT!

Citizen Comments
Needed Now
To Oppose I-66

Comment Deadline on
Draft EIS:
Noon Oct. 9, 2006

I-66 between London and Somerset will leave a path of destruction.
The Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) supposedly provides alternatives, but all routes will blast through caves, karst, farms, communities, high-quality waterways, world-class biodiversity, the Wild & Scenic Rockcastle River, and the Daniel Boone National Forest. Officials have failed to demonstrate that the interstate is needed. The development that will follow the interstate, including a proposed federal bioterrorism lab, threatens the health and well-being of communities in Southern Kentucky.
Please submit your comments on this disastrous project!

Points to consider:

Current and projected traffic volume is low and does not justify the need for an interstate.
The alternatives failed to consider upgrading Highway 80 to a 4-lane state highway rather than an interstate.
The DEIS states that the primary purpose of the project is “economic enhancement,” not transportation! The DEIS is flawed because it fails to consider non-transportation alternatives that could address the economic needs of the region.
The billion-dollar price tag is a waste when existing roads and bridges in the state need repair.
The environmental costs of the project are unacceptable: A) All proposed routes pass over a cave/karst drainage basin that is vulnerable to collapse and flooding. In some places caves exist within 15 feet of the proposed road surface, yet officials failed to explore the caves in documenting potential environmental impacts. B) I-66 will degrade “outstanding state resource waters,” including some of the least-impacted streams in the region. Buck Creek has been named a Biosphere Reserve for its global importance, and the Rockcastle River is Wild and Scenic. C) I-66 will destroy 14-29 acres of wetlands. D) Many rare species in the area were not identified; impacts to them and the Daniel Boone National Forest were not adequately considered. E) Impacts to air quality from toxic emissions from vehicles were not considered.

Submit Comments to:

KY Transportation Cabinet
District 8

Joe Cox
P.O. Box 780
1660 S. US 27
Somerset, KY
42502

Joe.Cox@ky.gov