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Friends,
These past few weeks have been slow, what with
the holidays and all.
However, on Friday the Highlands Coalition, meeting in New York
City, voted
to send a letter to the DEC asking them to review their proposal
for their
proposed model forest.
Another win for the forests.
Yesterday (Saturday), in 2 degree weather, I took a hike to the
Mount
Nimham MUA with Daniel Karpen, an expert in old growth trees,
and guess
what we found.... many black birch and chestnut oaks in the 100-200
year
old range as well as forests in different states of maturity with
patches
of genuine older growth characteristics. Mr. Karpen, brought in
as a
consultant, will prepare a report to be sent to Commissioner Crotty
and
I'll post that here as soon as it's done. To paraphrase Mr. Karpen,
'we
already have a model forest, it's a model of what a maturing forest
should
look like.'
While we also found sections of forest in very poor health, he
felt it
important that land owners be able to see these areas - undisturbed
by
logging - as examples of what a poor forest looks like and then
allow it to
mature on its own to see what happens and monitor it's recovery.
Using the political down-time of the holidays to get some work
done,
PlanPutnam has produced several new campaign documents for distribution:
One is a new "background paper" produced as a two sided
flyer. Another is a
tear off letter to DEC Commissioner Erin Crotty that will be distributed
to
shopping centers and community meetings asking people to sign
and date the
letter which we will then collect and send to the Commissioner.
The person
then keeps the other half of the sheet, a flyer explaining the
campaign. We
also have a new flyer/poster for posting in store windows around
the area
to keep the issue in the public eye and a reprint of our famous
"Save Mt.
Nimham" signs that have become a local fixture. I'd like
to thank
Brady-Palmer printing and Chris Morris for helping us print and
produce
these documents.
We are still looking for interns (no special skills required other
than a
love for the land and reliable transportation!) and would like
to keep the
cash flow going and your donations will be gratefully accepted.
We've spent
about $1400 since early Fall on this project, mostly for printing,
long
distance phone calls and the display ads we've been running in
the
Carmel/Kent/Patterson Pennysaver.
Lastly, I cannot begin to thank the organizations and individuals
who've
said to us "how can we help?" and hold out hope that
those who have not yet
responded will do so. Only as a united community can we succeed
and sadly,
there are still some very real schisms that weaken the position
and the
message. Our hand is out and the door is open...
If we stay focused and true we will win this!
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