NYCkayaker Pralls island deforestation--letter from richard lynch

[rob buchanan]

Some of you may already have seen this, but for those who haven¹t, here is
Richard Lynch¹s summation of the case against the clear-cutting of native
trees on Pralls Island. There is a mention of litigation, but I don¹t know
how far that effort has progressed.

Rob


------ Forwarded Message
From: richard lynch <rtlynch at verizon.net>
Date: Mon, 2 Apr 2007 15:36:09 -0700 (PDT)
To: rob buchanan <robbuc at aol.com>
Subject: Fw: REQUEST FOR HELP/SUPPORT IN DEFENDING PRALL'S ISLAND AND OLD
PLACE CREEK

----- Forwarded Message ----
From: richard lynch <rtlynch at verizon.net>

Sent: Monday, April 2, 2007 10:58:16 AM
Subject: REQUEST FOR HELP/SUPPORT IN DEFENDING PRALL'S ISLAND AND OLD PLACE
CREEK

Hello to All,
 
The clear-cutting of native trees (primarily Eastern Gray Birch and Red
Maple) on Prall's Island continues unabated. A total of only 41 trees have
been found to be infected with Asian Long-horn Beetle (ALB) out of
approximately 3000 trees that are giving up their lives to pay for our own
human avarice. Given the clear-cutting and massive soil disturbance related
to this project, the remaining tree species (such as invasives like
Ailanthus and Glossy Buckthorn) will most likely quickly take over any
barren ground as they do in other parts of the City. Our willingness to
trade one invasive species for another should bring pause to those most
reflective on this topic.
 
Now that ALB has been found in a maple standing within the freshwater
marshes of Old Place Creek proper (the site owned by International Speedway
Corp and the one they wanted to put a NASCAR stadium on top of), the
clear-cutting will continue onto the mainland of Staten Island. The
potential loss of native trees in Old Place alone ranges from 5,000-8,000
trees, so the initial horrible loss of 3,000 at Prall's will only be
magnified as the deforestation moves on-shore. Also, the Magnolia Swamp (aka
the SI Corporate Park), Willow Brook Park, and the William T. Davis Wildlife
Refuge (part of the SI Greenbelt) are also in the (ultimate) path of this
APHIS policy and the wood-chippers. APHIS does understand that they would
not be allowed (are not currently being allowed) to use such draconian
measures in Brooklyn, Queens, or Manhattan, that the current protocol will
come to an end eventually (they say, sadly, for purely "political" reasons).
Their opinion is that having the review and consent of Staten Islanders in
this process is only a drag on their activities, so we shouldn't be
surprised at what we're seeing today.
 
The fact is, we have numerous very good and credible arguments to make
regarding the new protocol for removing all host trees, whether or not they
are infected with ALB. Some of these are:
 
1. No community notification/review: The discovery of ALB on Prall's Island
occurred on March 12Th, 2006.  Without ANY notification of the public (and
legal review under the City Environmental Quality Review, CEQR, procedures),
the eradication program began 10 days later.
 
2. Communications meant to mislead the public and environmental groups: When
APHIS finally did release a statement to the media, it clearly stated that
the "infested" trees were going to be removed (not the un-affected host
trees). An e-mail from DEC stated that 50% of the trees on Prall's were
already infested and this is why they had to be removed. In fact, well under
1% of trees were infected (though 100X that number were removed).
 
3. The policy is inconsistent with existing NYC protocols: There are already
three quarantine areas for ALB in New York City (in parts of Brooklyn,
Queens, and eastern Manhattan). The protocol being used in these areas is to
remove infected trees and to selectively administer the system insecticide
Imidacloprid to host trees within the quarantine (one can only imagine if
APHIS tried to come-in to clear-cut the tree canopy at Central Park!) The
City, state, and federal government should be made to create a single policy
for the eradication of ALB, not to just be able to use Staten Island as a
"guinea pig" for untested policies because they believe use to be the
"forgotten" borough.
 
4. The exclusion of other regulatory authorities: The core group of
regulators calling the shots here are APHIS/NYS DEC/ NYC DPR. Even though
numerous species of federally-listed endangered species have been known to
inhabit the area in and around Prall's, US Fish and Wildlife is not
participating. The Army Corp has not been asked to produce a consistency
review under the Clean Water Act (which would most likely find the many
small freshwater wetlands on Prall's that DEC failed to map under state
wetland protections. NOAA should have been asked for a review under Coastal
Zone management review policies. All other City agencies (such as NYC DEP)
were left out completely.
 
5. Failure to provide FOIA-requested documents in a timely manner: Knowing
that this issue resulted from an "emergency" response to ALB on Prall's,
APHIS has refused to release documents related to the clear-cutting of
native host trees on Prall's (siting lack of funding to provide these
resources). It appears that APHIS would rather wait until these documents
are sought under the discovery phase of our litigation.
 
6. No good science for current protocol: Though APHIS claims authority to do
whatever it wants under internal regulations promulgated from federal
legislation (the Plant Quarantine Act, Organic Act of 1944, and the Federal
Plant Pest Act), they have not published an Environmental Assessment (EA) to
their web-site research page since 2000 and none of the research we are told
they have produced recently is available to review. The clear-cutting of
un-infected host species has not been reviewed by anyone.
 
The only thing that the environmental community has asked of this group is
to wait for the community to review the project and LISTEN to what our
concerns are regarding environmental protections for sensitive species and
wetlands. APHIS biologists announced at a (very) belated meeting (that the
Sweetbay Magnolia Conservancy was not invited to, but did "crash") that the
out-break on Prall's is likely four years old, which accordingly begs the
questions as to why the "emergency" response (and the layers of "security"
meant to keep the public away from the island was necessary, (other than
knowing that the public would be horrified by the images, so who exactly are
we protecting Prall's Island from?)
 
The Sweetbay Magnolia Conservancy (SMC) is willing to bring the case for an
injunction into federal court. We do not have either the financial or
personnel (in the form of an attorney) resources to accomplish this
important goal without YOUR help. This is the "clarion" call (as I'm want to
say) for all good men and women to come to the aid of the watershed. To this
end, we are establishing an ARTHUR KILL DEFENSE FUND to help administer the
legal action against APHIS/DEC/DPR. Aside from the obvious financial stress
this creates, we welcome any and all participation from anyone and any other
environmental groups who appreciate the Arthur Kill, its islands, fauna and
flora. United we stand and all that.....This attack on Prall's might just be
the beginning of (and justification for) an "eradication" tsunami that will
wash away our natural areas in order to "save" them.
 
Please help if you can. Thanks. Richard. (please see photo of coastal forest
at Old Place, to be destroyed imminently).RTL.
 
Richard T. Lynch, Botanist
Sweetbay Magnolia Conservancy
17 Monroe Avenue
Staten Island, New York 10301
718.273.374 or 347.526.5507
 
If you received additional copies of this note, I am sorry. I'm still
learning how to put lists together. If you feel you'd rather not receive
information on this topic, let me know and I'll try to remove you from the
list. Richard.