Bernalillo County NM gets urban wildlife refuge
Multnomah County OR restricts BPA
New Mexico
county site approved for urban national wildlife refuge
By
Charles Taylor
SENIOR STAFF WRITER
New Mexico is on track to host the first urban national wildlife refuge in the U.S. Southwest, thanks in large part to Bernalillo County’s persistent efforts.
U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) joined county officials late last month to announce federal approval of a 570-acre former dairy farm in the county as a refuge.
Bernalillo County, N.M., where Albuquerque is located, has pledged $5 million towards the estimated $18 million to $20 million it will cost the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) to acquire the Price’s Dairy property.
The
county’s annual operating budget is about $200 million, according to
Commissioner Art De La Cruz, a leading proponent of the project.
Greg Hiner is the Trust for Public Lands’ project manager for the proposed refuge; he said the county’s role has been essential.
“Here the county stepped in early; the county stepped in big, and the county stepped in unequivocally and said we believe that this is important — and we believe that this is so important that we’re going to put in $5 million,” he said.
“Without having that, I’m not quite sure we could have made that announcement here a few weeks ago.”
Salazar said the county and its partners’ plans fit perfectly in the context of President Obama’s America’s
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Photo by Kim Kurian/The Trust for Public Land |
Great Outdoors initiative, announced last year. “I applaud the vision of the landowner, the Fish and Wildlife Service and Bernalillo County, and all other partners, for recognizing that this special place can, and should, be protected for future generations,” he said.
Only a handful — fewer than 5 percent — of the more than 550 national wildlife refuges in the country are in urban areas. And the more commonly known refuges are far larger, some as big as 100,000 acres. The refuge in Bernalillo would be five miles from downtown Albuquerque, and more than 110,000 elementary school children live within a half-hour of the site, according to Jose Viramontes, who is shepherding the project for FWS.
The Great Outdoors initiative seeks to address the “nature-deficit disorder” in highly developed areas where children and families have little access to wildlife and vast open spaces, he said, calling Bernalillo County’s role in the local project “monumental.”
“The America’s Great Outdoors initiative fully recognized the value of these urban landscapes in contributing towards our sort of conservation portfolio throughout the country,” Viramontes added. “We were looking more and more at properties like this, and the land was still available.”
There’s another value associated with urban refuges, call them accounts receivable. According to a FWS study of recreation on America’s refuges, estimates of annual sales for local communities, job creation, employment income and tax revenue all show that for every dollar invested by the federal government in the refuge system there is an average $4 return to the local communities.
Additionally, the county stands to reap more from the land in federal hands than in its current privately owned status. Similar to payments in lieu of taxes, jurisdictions with refuges receive refuge revenue-sharing payments.
“In this particular project we anticipate that we’ll be paying as much or greater than what the county currently receives from the landowner in taxes,” Viramontes said. That’s because as agricultural land, it is eligible for a county tax exemption. “From a tax base perspective there’s no net loss.”
The county, FWS and the Trust for Public Lands (TPL) have for years been exploring the possibility of establishing a refuge at the site. Earlier efforts fell through, but timing was on the county’s side when FWS began to focus on smaller properties near big cities.
The working title for the project is the Middle Rio Grand National Wildlife Refuge, but Viramontes said a naming competition could eventually be held involving the local community and school children
.De La Cruz, in whose district the property lies, has been interested in the parcel since before taking office in 2009. Previously, he was the county’s parks and recreation director for 14 years, so his open-space interest comes naturally.
“I wanted to try to secure the Price’s Dairy because the district I represent has a significant amount of historical agrarian property, and unfortunately, like many communities, much of it is disappearing,” De La Cruz said.
He worked to build coalitions of stakeholders who also had an interest in preserving the property, including TPL, FWS, the state and Albuquerque.
“By the time it came to a vote on the local level, we already had those people behind us,” he said. The commissioners' vote to approve a $5 million set-aside for the property was a unanimous 5–0 in favor. The allocation sunsets late in 2012, so the partners have their work cut out for them. Viramontes said additional funders are being identified and are coming forward to help.
“Right now, we have an acquisition boundary; we have a willing seller. We just need to match up the money with the seller, and we’ll have a refuge,” he said. One potential source is the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Congress established the fund in 1964 to use revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling to support the conservation of America’s lands and waters.
FWS intends to work with its partners to establish environmental education programs at the refuge and provide demonstration areas for sustainable agriculture. Once fully restored, visitors to the refuge will likely be able to see waterfowl, small mammals, and neotropical migrant birds, such as the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher.
De La Cruz grew up in the district he now represents and recalls that as a “poor kid,” visits to Price’s Dairy were a treat on school field trips.
“As much as I enjoyed visiting there as a little kid, when the cows and dairy were in full effect,” he said, “I just look forward to it being a location for kids again. I spent a whole career working with family and kids, and I just look forward to seeing some kids out there.”
Reprinted with permission, NACo County News.
Clean Water Update
from Jan Goldman-Carter, National Wildlife Federation
Collectively, you sent over 100 letters to Administration officials urging President Obama to “restore and clarify the Clean Water Act protections, including for so-called ‘isolated wetlands,’ by proposing for public comment and then finalizing a revised definition of ‘waters of the United States’ that restores and clarifies these protections in a manner that is consistent with both the law and the science.”
These letters helped trigger and then support the draft
clean water guidance issued by the
EPA and Army Corps in April 2011. The
agencies received an estimated 300,000 comments on this draft guidance during a
90-day comment period, including 78 letters from county commissioners thanks to
your efforts!
For months now, EPA and the Corps have been diligently working to assess the comments and to prepare a proposed clean water rulemaking. EPA’s website indicates a plan to issue a proposed rule in January 2012 and a final rule in late 2012. Unfortunately, as the political anti-regulatory rhetoric heats up, the White House seems increasingly nervous about taking this necessary action to restore and clarify clean water protections.
Multnomah County Board of Commissioners passes ban on sale of some products with Bisphenol A
Multnomah County has adopted a policy restricting the sale in the county of
all reusable beverage containers used by infants, children and adults that
contain the chemical Bisphenol A.
The Board of Commissioners, acting in its capacity as the Board of Health, on Oct. 27 voted unanimously to pass the policy on Bisphenol A, also known as BPA. The 5-0 vote came after the board both reviewed the county Health Department’s analysis of the chemical and heard entirely supportive testimony from local residents.
“I’m really proud that we can take this action to protect our community and our children from the harmful effects of this chemical,” said Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen. “Restricting the sale of products with BPA puts the health of our residents first and ensures they have access to affordable, safe alternatives.”
Bisphenol A is an industrial chemical used in the manufacture of hard plastic containers like baby bottles, sippy cups and water bottles. The chemical is also used to line metal cans for food and infant formula.
Bisphenol A can leach from these bottles and containers into what we eat and drink. Once consumed, the industrial chemical can disrupt the natural activity of hormones in the body. Scientific studies have linked low-level exposure of the chemical to heart disease, obesity, diabetes, cancer and reproductive issues.
The commissioners heard testimony in favor of the ban from more than 25 people, including City Commissioner Dan Saltzman, state Sen. Jackie Dingfelder and state Reps. Alyssa Keny-Guyer and Jefferson Smith. No one testified in opposition.
The Health Department’s analysis found that babies and young children are more vulnerable to the effects of Bisphenol A. Disruption of an infant’s hormonal system can affect their development, putting them at risk for behavioral problems, breast and prostate cancer and a variety of other issues.
Furthermore, babies’ small size and different metabolism puts them at risk for increased exposure – researchers estimate Bisphenol A levels in the bloodstream of children less than 2 years old are about 11 times higher than those for adults.
BPA exposure also brings up issues of health equity. Because statistics show African-American and low-income mothers breast-feed at lower rates, babies from these backgrounds are more likely to drink formula or drink more often from plastic bottles, increasing their exposure to Bisphenol A.
Multnomah County pursued this policy restricting Bisphenol A after a similar proposal failed in the Oregon Legislature. Several counties in New York have already passed restrictions on Bisphenol A, as have at least 10 states—including Washington and California.
Reprinted with permission, Multnomah County Chair Jeff Cogen.
And we are holding our breath to find out what the Obama Administration intends to do regarding clean water. You will recall that the Environmental Protection Agency issued clean water guidance with a 90 day public comment period early this summer. The last time I checked, public comments were still being tabulated. We’ve heard that the Administration is pleased with the number of supportive comments received and we are cautiously optimistic that it will lead to real protection for America’s waters. We will keep you posted.
The Whole Watershed Restoration Initiative, administered by Ecotrust, is a public-private competitive grant program that funds salmon habitat restoration efforts in targeted areas of high ecological importance to Idaho, Oregon and Washington. The goal for funded restoration activities is to protect major ecological functions by removing risk factors, restoring damaged habitat-forming processes in the watershed across all ownerships, and protecting habitats that are in the best condition. Nonprofit organizations, tribes, local governments, educational institutions, and other non-governmental community groups are eligible to apply for grants ranging from $20,000 to $100,000.
For more information visit the Ecotrust website to review the map of eligible geographic areas and download the Request for Proposals: