BUSCH CONSERVATION AREA:  If any of you have driven down Road B recently, you have noticed dozens of healthy, mature trees lying in dead piles along the edge of the road. These piles are the result of a new project to cut down trees as part of an "early successional management" effort. "Early successional" means, if you cut down the trees that are there now, something else will grow up in their place. The purpose is to provide habitat for quail and rabbits. Nothing will be planted in these locations. This project is part of $1,500,000 habitat "enhancement" fund that the Mo. Dept. of Conservation unfortunately received. How many trees could have been planted with this money instead? If you are unhappy about the senseless tree cutting going on at Busch these days, please contact Mike Schroer at 636-441-4554, ext.226, or schrom@mail.conservation.state.mo.us. Ask him to stop the project immediately, especially because spring migration is just around the corner. Only 20% of the trees have been cut down so far, so we do have time to try and stop further destruction. PLEASE ACT NOW.

HOLNAM CEMENT PLANT:  The Holnam matter has taken many interesting twists and turns in the last month. First, you might have noticed more publicity (at last) about this massive project. On Jan. 24, the day of the public workshop, the Post Dispatch ran a page one story about the proposed project and mentioned environmental concerns. The Post also published an editorial on Feb. 4 urging that the project be put on hold. This was preceded on Feb. 1 with an editorial cartoon showing a cement truck dumping cement on EPA, represented by an arm sticking out of the cement pile holding "Clean Air Rules." This was in reference to the lawsuit that the Coalition for the Environment and Sierra Club, represented by Lew Green, won when a federal judge ordered EPA to make a finding by March 15 whether St. Louis should remain in the "moderate" category of nonattainment for ozone, or whether St. Louis should be bumped up into "serious". Then, Ray Hartmann ran a stinging editorial against Holnam in the Feb. 7 edition of the Riverfront Times. The Ste. Genevieve Herald ran an article about Holnam in its Feb. 7 issue, which started out "Score two for the environmentalists" and went on to mention the lawsuit victory and the outcome of the Jan. 25 meeting of the Land Reclamation Commission. At the end, a Holnam spokesman was quoted as saying that permitting activities were going to keep them busy for some time. This was quite a contrast to his quote in the Ste. Genevieve Herald a week before the public workshop when the same spokesman indicated Holnam would have all its permits in place by early April.

The workshop in Ste. Genevieve was well attended by environmental groups, local residents, the Corps of Engineers, some agency representatives, and Holnam. Sue Gustafson, Dianne Benjamin and Jim Ziebol created a display board highlighting the environmental importance of the property as a natural area. The display board drew people's attention to the environmental table throughout the workshop. Present on behalf of WGNSS were: Sue Gustafson, Dianne Benjamin, David Rabenau, Jim Ziebol, Pat McCormick, Wilma Kennell, Anne Craver, and the Environmental Law Clinic. Other groups represented were the Coalition for the Environment (also represented by the Clinic), American Bottom Conservancy, Sierra Club, Endangered Species Coalition, and St. Louis Herpetological Society. Considering that the workshop was on a weekday in Ste. Genevieve, the turnout was even more impressive.

The following day, several of us appeared before the Land Reclamation Commission (DNR) in Jefferson City to discuss Holnam's application to expand mining operations from 64 acres (permit granted last fall) to 35 new acres. Maxine Lipeles convinced the Commission that it was premature for them to consider Holnam's application and the Commission returned the application to staff for further processing. As a result of our letters in late December, DNR sent an inspector to the Holnam property who wrote up a Notice of Violation, claiming that Holnam had strayed outside the 64 acres into the 35 acres before the permit for the 35 acres had been granted. At the time of writing this report, both the 35 acre application and the Notice of Violation are still pending before DNR.

Then, on Feb. 6, Holnam filed an application for a permit to begin carrying out its mining plan for the entire 1400+ acre, 100-year limestone quarry (even though the cement plant has not received any agency's approval). This application was filed with the Land Reclamation Commission of DNR. When the public notice is published, we will alert you to send in public comment letters (as many of you did in late December). Holnam is piecemealing the project by trying to go ahead with the quarry before the Corps and other agencies have decided whether they can build their cement plant and harbor.

The Corps of Engineers' public comment period closed on Feb. 5. The Corps is deciding whether to prepare an Environmental Impact Statement, as so many individuals and federal and state agencies have requested. The EPA, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and Mo. Dept. of Conservation are against the project.

The next meeting of environmental groups is Wed. Feb. 21 at 7 p.m. at the Coalition. The Conservation Committee will not have a separate meeting in February. For more information, email me (note new email address) at: yhomeyer@primary.net.

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