Thread: AZ - Environmental groups call on Border Patrol to reduce off-road damage

These so-called environmental groups never complain about the thousands of pounds of trash left along our borders do they?
~~~

Monday, March 25, 2013
By Gerald Bourguet
Cronkite News
The areas:

Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument

• Contains 26 species of cactus and the namesake organ pipe cactus, which is rare in the U.S.

• Became a national monument in 1937

Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge

• Home to the Sonoran pronghorn, an endangered species that is the fastest land mammal in North America.

• Home to as many as 420 plant species and 300 kinds of wildlife.

TUCSON – Border Patrol off-road vehicles used to catch illegal immigrants and drug smugglers are damaging the landscapes of two ecologically sensitive areas of southern Arizona, environmental groups contend.

The Sierra Club and Tucson-based Center for Biological Diversity released a short video showing damage from ATVs at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument and Cabeza Prieta National Wildlife Refuge and calling for better training of officers who ride them.

One of the groups’ concerns is damage to cryptobiotic soil, a crust containing tiny organisms that is crucial to cactuses and native grasses. When field agents drive off the road and crush the cryptobiotic soil into dust, they create tracks that will last for hundreds of years.

On existing roads, officers who drive too fast create a silty dust that no one wants to drive through, which leads to more off-roading.

According to a 2011 report from the Department of the Interior, there are approximately 8,000 miles of undocumented tracks at Cabeza Prieta alone.

“These places aren’t just important to our environmental groups,” said Dan Millis, the borderlands campaign organizer for the Grand Canyon chapter of the Sierra Club. “They’re important to America and we hope they’ll continue to be appreciated and loved for years to come.”

The Organ Pipe cactus, after which the national monument is named, is one kind of vegetation threatened by the destruction of cryptobiotic soil, the groups said.

According to Cyndi Tuell, a conservation advocate for the Center for Biological Diversity, the tracks also harm vegetation and wildlife by altering the flow of water.

“There’s a dust problem when they drive off-road, so water doesn’t infiltrate the soil the way it should,” she said. “Water used to flow across the landscape in a different way, and areas where animals relied on water no longer have it because it’s flowing into the road like a river, which doesn’t allow for vegetation.”

The groups said the endangered Sonoran pronghorn in Organ Pipe is harmed by loss of vegetation and is easily scared off by the sound of ATVs and trucks.

Shelton McKenzie, the congressional affairs and border community liaison for the communications division of the Tucson sector of the Border Patrol, defended Customs and Border Protection in an email response.

“The preservation of our valuable natural and cultural resources is of great importance to CBP, and we are fully engaged in efforts that consider environmental impact as we work to secure our nation’s borders,” he wrote. “The Border Patrol complies with all established laws and reporting procedures in place at national parks and protected wilderness areas.

“We are committed to responsible environmental stewardship and look forward to working with interested parties and border residents to accomplish our mission while preserving the environment.”

Millis, with the Sierra Club, criticized the Border Patrol’s practice of dragging tires across a major dirt road through both areas to smooth dirt, making it easier to spot fresh tracks. He said the so-called tire drags have widened historic El Camino del Diablo, which was once little more than a jeep trail.

“None of these things are earthshaking disasters, but cumulatively over time they will change these areas we’ve set aside as protected so our children can enjoy them,” he said.

The groups offered to help the U.S. Department of Homeland Security update the Border Patrol’s online training program on protecting the environment to make it more site-specific.

“A lot of the new agents coming in aren’t from a desert landscape and they see it as a barren wasteland,” said Tuell with the Center for Biological Diversity. “They don’t see the species that are being affected there, so we’d like their training to be much more targeted so they understand why off-roading every day needs to stop.”

Tuell said the groups aren’t trying to hinder Border Patrol operations.

“All we’re asking them to do is to stop off-roading on a daily basis when they’re not in hot pursuit,” she said.

Millis said the fragile desert ecosystem would greatly benefit if the Border Patrol simply moved away from the bases at Organ Pipe and Cabeza Prieta.

“They should move their operations closer to the border and serve as an actual deterrent instead of their strategy right now, which is sitting back 16 miles from the border, waiting for people to cross and trying to set up an ambush,” he said. “They’re using our national treasures as a net to catch people and that’s totally unacceptable.”

Environmental groups call on Border Patrol to reduce off-road damage – Cronkite News

"These so-called environmental groups never complain about the thousands of pounds of trash left along our borders do they?"

The Sierra Club is "in the bag" with the Open Borders groups and short on doing anything other than making political noise. This article by Tom Deweese from 2004 explains the Sierra Club's motivations on immigration.

The current attack sounds like another well coordinated to support Obama's latest political campaign for amnesty and new Democrat voters. Perhaps the Sierra Club should be concerned with Obama's "carbon footprint" as he jets around the country. The Sierra Club is another spoke in the Socialist Wheel of Obama's base. The group has turned into nothing more than a political shill for the left and Labor Unions rather than an organization that has real concern for the environment or they consider the eco system of the Southwest's damage by illegals entering this country as collateral damage for the bigger agenda of the Green(Socialist) takeover of this country. JMO

The current line up of the Sierra club is also below.

THE SIERRA CLUB'S IMMIGRATION WARS

By Tom DeWeese
March 4, 2004
NewsWithViews.com

My recent commentary, "What part of ‘illegal’ don’t Americans understand?", generated a lot of flack. Several responses called me a bigot. Others called me a Nazi. Most of the negative comments parroted the pro-amnesty party line that says illegal aliens are really just hard working, honest folks looking for a better life, simply taking jobs that Americans just won’t do.

One comment accused me of knowing nothing about the issue since I’ve never had to employ or deal with the issue. This writer was way off the mark because I recently owned a company that employed more than 40 Hispanic immigrants and I learned first hand about their honesty and work ethic.

All of my detractors missed the point. It is illegal to sneak across our borders and there are laws that say so. Let me share two excerpts from just a few of the letters I received from Hispanic-Americans on the issue. These are people who live daily on the front lines with the illegal alien invasion.

"This is one of the best articles on the Issue I have ever read. Thank you for enlightening my eyes to this great reality. I am originally from Brazil and have gone through arduous but fructiferous path in my legalization. By God's grace I married a beautiful American who has made my process easier, but no less expensive. I have paid over $1,000 and so far I am still 7 months from receiving my green card and 3 years from becoming a citizen. But Tom, I tell you it is all worth it! To become a citizen of this great nation I would do anything within legal boundaries."

"To allow millions of 'illegal immigrants' to enter this country is to spit on my face and tell me that all I have gone through in these last 4 years is a worthless waste of time. I will continue to proclaim the sovereignty of this great nation in which, by God's grace, I intend to be a part of."

The Bush Administration has proposed its "guest worker" amnesty program in order to court the Hispanic vote. The effort will backfire because illegals will never come to the Republican Party. It is the legal Hispanic immigrants like those who wrote to me who would naturally vote for President Bush but they too will turn away, outraged by the Republican disregard for their plight.

Laws make a nation by securing property and our way of life. Ignoring those laws for the price of a few votes creates an outlaw state. Those that have come here legally understand that fact, why doesn't President Bush?

Immigration issues are generating an internal war within the famed Sierra Club. With the election of its Board of Directors coming in April, the Sierra Club is fighting a two-front war from within as activists from its right wing and left wing seek to take control. It’s developing into a war for the very soul of the nation’s largest environmental activist group.

From the right, activists seek to change the organization's direction on immigration policy. Currently, the Sierra Club supports open borders to allow the flood of illegals into the United States. The group’s rational is that aliens from poor countries would do less damage to the environment here because the US can better cope with pollution. Therefore, says official Sierra Club policy, let them come. Never mind the cost to taxpayers.

Meanwhile, the Green “Sustainable Development” policy is enforcing "Smart Growth"; regulations on American cities, stopping development, controlling water use, and forcing Americans out of their cars in the name of a population explosion that exists only because of an open border policy! Now, some members of the Sierra Club have reasoned that support for such an immigration policy should end in order to protect the US environment.

Those members opposing the current Sierra Club leadership have now been labeled "extremists" that advocate the "greening of hate." Thus, according to current Sierra Club leaders, you are a hate monger and a racist if you support national sovereignty or protected borders designed to keep out law-breakers!

From the Sierra Club's left---if such a thing is possible---comes another takeover effort by a real extremist named Paul Watson. He was a co-founder of Greenpeace who was later kicked out for endorsing increasingly violent tactics. Watson founded the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, an eco-terror group that sails the seas armed with AK-47's in search of fishing boats to ram and sink. He has openly claimed credit for sinking ten fishing ships.

Only a few years ago, reportedly Watson attempted to obtain a submarine that could lurk undetected under the water ready to sink unsuspecting whalers and fishing ships. Watson claims to have invented tree spiking as a tactic to stop the cutting of trees in the nation's forests. Says Watson "there's nothing wrong with being a terrorist, as long as you win."

Watson has declared his intention to take over the Sierra Club and transform it into an animal rights organization that takes a strong stance against hunting and fishing. It's interesting to note that the Sierra Club leadership has not reacted with nearly the alarm to the possible takeover by a known terror advocate like Watson as they have against those who simply want to keep illegal aliens out of our nation. That fact alone says a lot about the true soul of the Sierra Club, no matter who’s in charge.

Does it matter who runs the Sierra Club? You bet is does! The organization has worked for years to impose strict rules on developing private and public lands in the name of protecting endangered species. Science and reason have had little to do with the outcome. With the power to file lawsuits and intimidate government bodies at every level, the Sierra Club dictates have now largely become government policies. Now they are reaping the fruits of their labor.

Just days after President Bush announced his "guest-worker" program, the number of illegals crossing the border increased dramatically. Apprehension of illegals in the San Diego area alone has since risen threefold. Of course, the Bush Administration argues that there is no connection between the two events.

Meanwhile, in the name of protecting national security, the Department of Homeland Security has initiated efforts to fortify heavy traffic sections of the Mexican border to try to slow the illegals from getting through. Fencing along nine miles of a key section of the border has been completed. The remaining five miles, including filling a half-mile of "Smugglers Gulch" to construct a road, remain in limbo. The new road would be used for border patrols, and maintenance, lights, sensors and cameras. The Border Patrol has already reported the finished section has made a major reduction in illegals getting through the area.

However, those efforts have been stopped by the California Coastal Commission, which says the new defenses would endanger the habitat of several rare birds. The Commission's biological assessment said the project would "harass" one pair of least Bell's vireos and a pair of Southwestern flycatchers. Three gnatcatchers would also be "harassed" along with several maritime chaparral on nearly fifty acres of land. Therefore, the government's efforts to finalize the project to secure a major area of our borders is denied.

There's no report yet on the impact from the flying feet of thousands of illegal immigrants as they race over the gnatcatchers nest. But then, such a report wouldn't be politically correct, would it? The Sierra Club must be proud of the impact its policies are having on the quality of life for all Americans.

http://www.newswithviews.com/DeWeese/tom3.htm

The Sierra Club led by Carl Pope joined with the communist UAW to form the Blue Green alliance whose membership reads like a who who of Unions that support a Socialist agenda. This is the current board of Directors of the Green Blue alliance that fully supports Tom Perez as Labor Secretary to put the focus of US assets to labor to Green jobs exclusively.
BOARD OF DIRECTORS


Co-Chairs
Leo W. Gerard, International President, United Steelworkers, Co-Chair
Michael Brune, Executive Director, Sierra Club, Co-Chair
Board of Directors
Phil Angelides, President, Riverview Capital Investment
Robert Borosage, Director, Campaign for America's Future
Larry Cohen, President, Communications Workers of America
Lawrence J. Hanley, International President, Amalgamated Transit Union
Joseph T. Hansen, International President, United Food and Commercial Workers
William Hite, General President, United Association of Journeymen and Apprentices of the Plumbing and Pipe Fitting Industry
Gerald Hudson, International Executive Vice President, Service Employees International Union
Lorretta Johnson, Secretary-Treasurer, American Federation of Teachers
Bob King, President, United Auto Workers
Kevin Knobloch, President, Union of Concerned Scientists
D. Michael Langford, National President, Utility Workers Union of America
Peter Lehner, Executive Director, Natural Resources Defense Council
Mindy S. Lubber, JD, MBA, President, CERES
Joseph Nigro, General President, International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail and Transportation Workers
Larry Schweiger, President and CEO, National Wildlife Federation
Statement: President’s Labor Secretary Nomination Will Be Key for Smooth Worker Transition

TAGS: WORK, ENVIRONMENT AND PUBLIC HEALTH, WORKERS' RIGHTS



FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
CONTACT:
Erin Bzymek, erinb@bluegreenalliance.org, 202-706-6916
WASHINGTON, DC (March 18, 2013) – Reacting to President Obama’s decision today to nominate Thomas E. Perez to replace Hilda Solis as the next U.S. Secretary of Labor, BlueGreen Alliance Executive Director David Foster released the following statement:
“The President’s nomination of Thomas E. Perez as the next Secretary of Labor means America’s workers will continue to have a strong advocate for safer working conditions, workers’ rights and growing a more competitive workforce.
“As we take on the important priority of climate change, our next Labor Secretary will be an important voice on protecting our working families and communities. Worker training and transition programs will be vitally important for a smooth transition as we ready the country for climate change. As we create more jobs and grow the economy, we look forward to working with Thomas Perez to create the fair and safe job opportunities that all Americans deserve.”

###The BlueGreen Alliance is a national partnership of labor unions and environmental organizations dedicated to expanding the number and quality of jobs in the clean economy. Launched in 2006, the strategic partnership now brings together major U.S. labor unions and America's most influential environmental organizations and unites more than 15 million members and supporters in pursuit of good jobs, a clean environment and a green economy. Visitwww.bluegreenalliance.org.

http://www.bluegreenalliance.org/

Michael Brune

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Michael Brune is the executive director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Brune was appointed to his position as executive director in January, 2010.^[1]
Prior to working for the Sierra Club, Brune was the executive director of the Rainforest Action Network for seven years. He also worked as an organizer for Greenpeace.^[2]
In 1999, while working at Rainforest Action Network, Brune ran a successful campaign to get Home Depot stores to stop purchasing and selling wood from old-growth forests. Timemagazine listed this as its top environmental story of that year.^[3]
Brune is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, a progressive website founded by Arianna Huffington, as well as Daily Kos.
In 2008 he published a book called Coming Clean -- Breaking America's Addiction to Oil and Coal.^[4]


http://http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/.../Michael_Brune

Carl Pope

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia


Carl Pope is the former Executive Director of the Sierra Club, an American environmental organization founded by conservationist John Muir in 1892. Pope was appointed to his position as Executive Director in 1992, and served until January 20, 2010, when he was succeeded by Michael Brune.^[1] Pope then served as chairman of the Sierra Club until stepping down from that position in November 2011.
Pope had worked with the Sierra Club for more than 30 years, and has served as a board member for other organizations, including the National Clean Air Coalition, California Common Cause, and Public Interest Economics Inc. He has served as Political Director for Zero Population Growth. He was a Peace Corps volunteer in India from 1967 to 1969.^[2]
Pope is a regular contributor to the Huffington Post, a progressive website founded by Arianna Huffington.
In 2004 he published a book with Paul Rauber called Strategic Ignorance: Why the Bush Administration Is Recklessly Destroying a Century of Environmental Progress.^[3]
On June 7, 2006, in Washington, D.C., Carl Pope, along with labor leader Leo Gerard, announced the formation of the United Steelworkers' and Sierra Club's Blue/Green Alliance, after five years of negotiations between the two groups.^[4] The alliance focuses on interrelated issues that both organizations feel are important, including: a clean environment, better jobs, and a safer world.^[5]
In July 2008, Pope appeared in a televised interview on the satirical news program The Colbert Report.^[6]
In 2008, Pope expressed support for the Pickens Plan, an effort by T. Boone Pickens to reduce America's dependence on foreign oil. Pickens, a billionaire oil investor, Republican, and financier of conservative causes, took Pope, via his $60 million private plane, to his ranch in west Texas, where Pickens and a group of investors plan to invest $12 billion inwind turbines.^[7]
In January 2009, Pope had announced his intention to step down from the post of Executive Director, effective upon the hiring of a successor.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Po...wiki/Carl_Pope

The curent President Allison Chin.
Today We Take Part in Civil Disobedience for the Climate

Allison Chin is the Sierra Club President.
This morning I will join 50 other people from diverse backgrounds in risking arrest outside the White House. We are demanding serious action on climate disruption from our elected leaders -- especially President Obama.

Our goal today is to both challenge and support President Obama. During last night's State of the Union, we applauded when spoke about the need for action on climate disruption 'before it's too late.' We couldn't agree more that the time to act is now.

It's time for him match his rhetoric with action.

Specifically, President Obama must reject the dangerous Keystone XL tar sands pipeline that would enable extraction of some of the dirtiest oil on the planet. He must double down on clean energy and cut carbon pollution from smokestacks across the country. And he must stand up to fossil fuel companies that would rather drive us over the climate cliff than adapt and evolve.

We're asking the president to use every resource he has at his disposal -- from the bully pulpit to the executive order -- to take climate action now. And we’re telling him that our planet and the American people can’t wait for the political dust to settle, for Congress to wise up, or for another devastating storm to strike before we do something.

This call for climate action is important enough that, for the first time in our 120-year history, we have suspended the Sierra Club's long-standing policy that prohibits civil disobedience. Today is a one-time event to face arrest in order to elevate discussion about a critical issue.

The reason for our decision should come as no surprise. Nothing is more important at this moment in history than for President Obama and all of our elected leaders to take on the threat of climate disruption. Climate-fueled freak weather like record droughts, wildfires and Superstorm Sandy has destroyed communities, economies, and the safety of American families.

Unless we act now, and act with strength, this could become the new normal. We must demand bold climate solutions and clean energy innovation.

The decision to suspend our provision disallowing civil disobedience did not come lightly. In order to justify civil disobedience, the wrong must be so profound that it demands the strongest defensible protest. For Henry David Thoreau it was ending slavery. For Martin Luther King, Jr., it was ending institutionalized racism and securing civil rights for all Americans.

We recognize that civil disobedience is not something that everyone can endorse; that it will be controversial. But we believe the future of our planet demands no less.

We are watching a global crisis unfold before our eyes. To stand aside and let it happen -- even though we know how to stop it-- would be unconscionable. Enough is enough. Today at the White House, I am standing up and doing whatever it takes to fight the climate crisis and stop the Keystone XL pipeline.

Today We Take Part in Civil Disobedience for the Climate - Compass

SIERRA CLUB STATEMENT ON STATE OF THE UNION ADDRESS




Tuesday, February 12, 2013


FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
February 12, 2013

Contact: Maggie Kao, 202-675-2384

Sierra Club Statement on State of the Union

Washington, D.C. -- Tonight President Obama gave his 2013 State of the Union address.

In response, Michael Brune, Sierra Club Executive Director, issued the following statement:

“As the president put it tonight, we must act on the climate crisis ‘before it’s too late.’ We couldn’t agree more. The Sierra Club thanks President Obama for his strong words in his State of the Union address, and we applaud his vow to prioritize innovative climate solutions, including investments in jobs-producing solar and wind energy as well as a focus on energy and fuel efficiency. These are critical steps forward in the fight against climate disruption, but that progress would be rolled back by more destructive oil drilling and gas fracking, and the burning of toxic tar sands.

“Moving the nation off fossil fuels, and confronting the climate disruption caused by the burning of those fuels, is a matter of such importance to the nation and the world that -- for the first time in the Sierra Club’s 120-year history -- we will soon participate in an act of civil disobedience to demonstrate our resolve. The obligation to address climate disruption has become so urgent, and the opportunity to attain clean energy prosperity so real, that we have a moral duty to act.

“The Sierra Club’s 2.1 million members and supporters have and will continue to back President Obama in his efforts to usher in clean energy prosperity and applaud his statement reminding congress that he has the authority to act, without waiting for their approval. We will also continue to push him forward. President Obama has the authority to create a robust clean energy economy and lead the world on climate solutions. He also has the executive power to reject the dirty Keystone XL pipeline, stop natural gas exports, reject trade agreements that put our air and water at risk, put an end to destructive Arctic drilling, and hold polluters accountable for their pollution. He has our full support to wield that power, and we will push him every step of the way to ensure a safer future for Americans.”
http://content.sierraclub.org/press-releases/2013/02/sierra-club-statement-state-union-address