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TheHeartland Sierran
The Newsletter of the Thomas Hart Benton Group of the Sierra Clubhttp://missouri.sierraclub.org/thb
Wilderness Act’s 50th Anniversary Photo Exhibit coming to Kansas CityVol. 27 No. 1 February 2014 issue
Explore, Enjoy, and Protect the Planet
By Eileen McManusThe Wilderness Act was signed into law
by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1964.A photo exhibit commemorating
the 50th anniversay is currently touring
Missouri and is scheduled to come to to Kansas City in May. It highlights the Wilderness Areas here in Missouri.
Join us this May and June as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of the
Wilderness Act with a photo exhibit, speakers, and other activities.
Please contact Eileen McManus at (816) 523-7823 for more information as the dates for these activities approach. �
It’s time to take a stand on behalf of the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers!
Please submit your comment on the Ozark National Scenic Riverways Draft Management Plan today. The deadline is February 7.
Find a quick link to the right place to comment at missouri.sierraclub.org or go here: http://tiny.cc/NPS-ONSR
Illegal roads, misuse by ATVs, and excessive horse traffic are all taking their toll on the Ozark National Scenic Riverways (Missouri’s Current and Jacks Fork rivers). There is a public comment time window for you to make your voice heard.
The National Park Service (NPS) recently released their Draft General Management Plan for the future of the Ozark National Scenic Riverways. On missouri.sierraclub.org you can see a link to the NPS’s various alternatives
Help Save the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers—Act Now (Deadline February 7)for riverway management. The NPS has recommended Alternative B (one of three alternatives).
These are suggested points to include in your comment:
Please thank the National Park Service for putting together a well done and thoughtful analysis. Adopting Alternative B, as NPS recommends, would be a big positive step forward from the status quo.
Nevertheless, the Missouri Sierra Club believes Alternative B could be improved. We recommend the adoption of Alternative A, as it provides additional protections for the rivers. Of most importance, Alternative A:• Closes illegal roads and restores natural
conditions to 50 miles of these roads;• Closes 65 miles of undesignated horse
trails and adds no new stream crossings;• Bars all recreational vehicle access to
gravel bars.If possible, cite any personal
experiences and knowledge you have of the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers.
Let’s take advantage of this opportunity. Let’s not break the promise we made to future generations when the Current and Jacks Fork Rivers were designated America’s first National Scenic Riverways in 1964. Again, you can go to missouri.sierraclub.org and find a quick link that will help you get to the proper web page to comment; you can Google “National Park Service planning environment public comment,” or you can type this URL in:
http://tiny.cc/NPS-ONSR
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The exhibit includes images from Paddy Creek Wilderness, Bell Mountain Wilderness, Mingo Wilderness, Devils Backbone Wilderness, Hercules Glade Wilderness, and Piney Creek Wilderness Areas.
May 6: “50 years of Wilderness Through the Lens of Missouri’s Eight Wilderness Areas.” Opening of the photo exhibit at the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center, 4750 Troost Avenue, featuring a speaker, a slideshow, and refreshments. The photo exhibit will be on display at the Discovery Center throughout May and June.
May 20: Program at the Discovery Center on History of the Wilderness Act as part of their Adult Lecture Series, featuring an inspiring slideshow.
June 7: Walk for Wilderness at the Discovery Center with music, booths, and learning stations for kids.
Green Happy HourFeb 13 (Tue) Nature Deficiency DisorderLatest info at meetup.com/KC-Metro-Sierra-Club/ McCoy’s, 4057 Pennsylvania Ave, 5:30 p.m.
Executive Committee meetings are held the last Tuesday of every month at Central United Methodist Church. For information: call Claus, (816) 517-5244.
Upcoming PresentationsMonthly Program Feb 4 and Mar 4 (Tue) To Be Determined, check Meetup for updates, or Claus, (816) 517-5244Apr 1 (Tue) Nature TherapyMay 6 (Tue) 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness ActLatest info at meetup.com/KC-Sierra-Club-Outings/Monthly presentations are held the first Tuesday of the month at the Anita B. Gorman Discovery Center, 4750 Troost unless otherwise indicated. Programs are open to the public and begin at 7 p.m.
Sierra Club OutingsWe are now on Meetup! Sierra Club Outings We now have our most recent outings on our Meetup Sierra Club Outings Group. Please visit us there for the most up-to-date information on any outings: Meetup.com/KC-Sierra-Club-Outings
Heartland Sierra Club Friends We are now listing Sierra Club events and social activities on Meetup. Please join us if you like: Meetup.com/KC-Metro-Sierra-Club
Feb 15 (Sat) Winter Hike on Perry Lake Trail Section 2, Perry, KS. Following up on our hike of Section 2 in January, we’ll hike Section 3 east to Kiowa Rd. as it winds along Little Slough Creek. $3 donation requested. Tim Cross, (785) 330-3655, [email protected]
Mar 8 (Sat) Perry Lake Trail Maintenance, Perry, KS. Join us on a late winter day as we work on another trail
project. Bring lunch, water, snacks, work gloves, and if you have them, a lopper or bow saw. Weather postponement date is Mar. 29. Steve Hassler, (913) 707-3296, [email protected]
Mar 14-16 (Fri-Sun) Paddy Creek Wilderness Area, Roby, MO. This will be a backpack trip going north from Ruby towards Slabtown Rd. This is a lesser-used route with opportunities for off-trail hiking. $10 donation requested. John Haynes, (913) 742-0100, [email protected].
Mar 21-23 (Fri-Sun) Backpacking at Paddy Creek Wilderness, Roby, MO. Celebrate the first day of Spring with a 3-day, 2-night backpacking trip on the inner loop of the Big Piney Trail in the Paddy Creek Wilderness. $10 donation requested. Tim Cross, (785) 330-3655, [email protected].
Apr 12 (Sat) Jerry Smith Park, Kansas City, MO. Let’s see how the winter prairie landscape has transformed on an afternoon in early spring, and explore additional areas of the park that we didn’t see on the winter hike. $5 donation requested. Steve Hassler, (913) 707-3296, [email protected]
Apr 12 (Sat) Corporate Woods to Blue River Parkway Bike Ride, Leawood, KS. This will be a 26-mile round-trip bike ride on a very scenic paved trail. Bring your lunch and plan on a total of approx. 3.5 hrs. $3 donation requested. John Haynes, (913) 742-0100, [email protected].
Apr 18-20 (Fri-Sun) Indian Cave State Park, Shubert, NE. Backpack into the woods of Indian Cave State Park which overlooks the Missouri River and is about 140 miles north of Kansas City. On Sunday we’ll visit the abandoned village of St Deroin, Nebraska. $10 donation requested. Melissa LeSage, (913) 219-6941, [email protected].
Apr 26 (Sat) Konza Prairie Trail Manhattan KS. Following the 6.0-mile Godwin Hill Loop, we’ll hike over ancient limestone ledges and native tallgrass prairie, enjoy views of the Flint Hills and the Kansas River Valley, and stop to explore the Hokanson Homestead. $3 donation requested. Tim Cross, (785) 330-3655 [email protected]
May 18 (Sun) Bike Ride on the Prairie Spirit Trail, Richmond, KS. We’ll meet at the trailhead in Richmond, Kansas, then ride to Ottawa, where we will stop for lunch
before riding back - approximately 30 miles. $3 donation requested. Melissa LeSage (913) 219-6941, [email protected].
May 24-26 (Sat-Mon) Grand River canoe/kayak trip. Depending on our group and conditions, we will start south of Chilllicothe, camp two nights along the river and stop on or near the Missouri. BYOB(oat) or see if someone needs a partner. Kayaks must stay with the group. $1 donation requested. Terry DeFraties (913) 385-7374 [email protected]
Jun 7 (Sat) Walk For Wilderness, Kansas City, MO. Walk this easy 1-2 mile loop to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act. Meet at the Discovery Center, 4750 Troost, 10 AM. Post-walk activities include Leave No Trace Trainers, Federal Wilderness Representative, dulcimer music, Wilderness Rangers for kids and more. Eileen McManus (816) 523-7823, [email protected].
Jun 28 (Sat) Prairie Center, Olathe, KS. Enjoy a 2-mile walk on trail through Tall Grass Prairie and learn to identify numerous wildflowers and
native grasses along the way. $3 donation requested. Mike Miller, (913) 424-8530, [email protected].
Jun 28 (Sat) Bike Ride to Powell Garden, Kingsville, MO. Cycle 25 miles of rolling hills & rural settings from Blue Springs to Powell Gardens. We will lunch at Café Thyme, followed by a hike through the gardens. A trailer for bikes and car rides will be available for our return. $5 donation requested. Paul Gross, (816) 228-6563, [email protected]
Sierra Club Backpack ClassMar 1 (Sat) Beginning Backpack Class Series, Part 1, Kansas City, MO. Learn backpacking basics in this 5–hour information-filled class. We’ll cover gear from head to foot and everything in between. Class size is limited to 25. This is part 1 of 2 classes, followed by a backpack trip. Participation in both classes ensures a place in the beginning backpack trip. Requested donation for series is $50 per person.
Mar 15 (Sat) Beginning Backpack Class Series, Kansas City, MO. This 5-hour class will offer hands-on demonstrations of pack loading, tent pitching, water treatment, cat holes, food, repair basics.
Mar 22 (Sat) Beginning Backpack Class Series, Shake Down Hike, Blue Springs, MO. The goal of this outing is to get you more familiar with your gear, wearing and adjusting your pack, hiking on a rocky trail, and setting up camp. Many participants have found this exercise very helpful in preparation for their upcoming backpack trip.
March 28-30 (Fri-Sun) Beginning Backpack Trip – To Be Determined, one of the wilderness areas in southern MO.
Apply what you learned in the backpacking classes. The trip will focus on applying the knowledge you have acquired. We will be applying map and compass skills.
For all the above Backpacking 101 classes and outings, please contact: Paul Gross, (816) 228-6563, [email protected]
Chair’s ColumnBy David Anderson, THB Chair
The heat is on. We have believed this for a long time. But the latest United Nations report concluded that human-caused global warming has been proven beyond a reasonable doubt.
The Sierra Club was founded by John Muir and others over a hundred years ago to save some of the last wilderness in the west which disappearing at an accelerating rate. Had action not been taken then there would be virtually no old growth forest or wilderness left today. The traditional model for the Sierra Club was to take hikes or backpacking trips into wild areas. After seeing its beauty people would then work for its preservation.
First came the establishment of the National Park system after John Muir took Teddy Roosevelt on a backpacking trip. Then came the creation of the National Forests. This year will be the 50th Anniversary of the Wilderness Act which provided a mechanism for the creation of wilderness areas that were offered a higher level of protection than Forest Service land. Other landmark environmental laws such as the Clean Air and Clean Water Acts and the Endangered Species Act were passed in the late 60’s and 70’s.
The Sierra Club through all these years has been working to defend what was still clean and clean up what had been soiled. In recent years though we have been playing a largely defensive game. From James Watt under the Reagan Administration through the ‘drill baby drill’ chants of the Tea Party the Sierra Club and other groups have been kept busy fending off constant efforts to undo much of the progress that had been
won through such hard efforts in prior decades.
Locally the THB group and Missouri Chapter of the Sierra Club have worked hard to fend of countless bad ideas that are brought up in the Missouri legislature every year and the insistence of Kansas City Power and Light to build a new coal plant long after folly of doing so had become apparent. Our results have been mixed, but we helped defeat many bad laws and were able to at least get KCP&L to mitigate effects of the new coal plant. KCP&L just recently announced that they would increase their wind-power portfolio by 400 MW, essentially doubling their existing levels.
In recent years Sierra Club has become increasingly concerned with climate change as mounting scientific evidence showed it to be a more serious and imminent threat that had been previously known. Everything from the Amazon rainforest to Arctic National Wildlife Refuge was threatened. We still need to traditional protection work but we cannot allow this work to be ‘outflanked’ by climate change.
The most recent UN report boils the threat of climate change down to a specific frame work: if we emit another half trillion tons of CO2 we are at high risk of increasing the temperature of earth by 2 degrees centigrade. If we increase the temperature by 2 degrees centigrade we are at serious risk of catastrophic climate change because we will initiate natural feedback loops that are unstoppable. At current rates we will emit another half ton of CO2 by 2040. That is 25 years to reshape the world - possible but not a lot of time. The Sierra Club has no more time to play defense.
The race is on.
Join Nature Lovers’ Book Club Celebration of Wilderness in FebruaryBy Patty Brown, Education Chair
The Wilderness World of John Muir (2001, Edwin Way Teale, Ed.) is an anthology of some of the best nature writing by one of the most influential conservationists. It is to be read on the 50th anniversary of the Wilderness Act and the 100th year since Muir’s death. This “Patron Saint of the American wilderness” and “Father of the National Parks” journaled through most of our wilderness. He so freely left society and so deeply connected to nature that he inspired our American culture and psyche always to value and protect wild places.
Contact: Patty Brown at (816) 737-2804 or [email protected] to register by the weekend before February 13. Limit 12.
Group meets February 13, 27, and March 13, from 6:30-8:30pm. Suggested $10 donation for meeting space.
Please obtain and read the first 1/3 of the book for our first meeting.
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to catastrophically), the population pyramid becomes top heavy, with a disproportionately older population. In his conclusion, Weisman describes how economies can be designed based upon sustainability rather than growth, allowing a smaller, younger population to humanely age out a proportionally larger, older population.
Resolving such unpleasant details is a continual and necessary process to transition beyond what biologist E. O. Wilson calls “the great bottleneck of the future.” Countdown is worth a read, if for no other reason than the facts it presents and the author’s own hopeful message.
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Countdown, continued from page 4
Sierra ClubThomas Hart Benton Group P.O. Box 32727Kansas City, MO 64171-5727
Non-Profit Org.US Postage PAIDKansas City, MOPermit No. 2514
NEWSPAPERDATED MATERIAL
Visit our websitemissouri.sierraclub.org/thb
Book Review: Countdown by Alan WeismanReviewd by Richard McBroom
In Countdown: Our Last, Best Hope for a Future on Earth? (September 2013), Alan Weisman explains that the ultimate limits to Earth’s population have long been surpassed.
Presently over 7.13 billion and adding 1 million every 4.5 days, world population grows exponentially, Weisman writes. The challenge is to “grow” in the opposite direction: To reach the “optimal level” required to maintain biodiversity in the oceans, in the air and on the lands, while reserving enough arable land, drinking water, and other natural resources, world population needs to decline to around 2 billion people (a 1930’s level).
There are, of course, those who
advocate continued growth, citing the “Green Revolution” to support growth without bounds. But those closest to the reality—particularly farmers—are now expressing doubts in profound ways: For example, over 100,000 once-
proud Punjab (India’s “breadbasket”) farmers, whose role was to support the Green Revolution, have committed suicide when faced with the realities of overwhelming population growth.
Before forces beyond human control catastrophically conspire toward collapse, something
very different from what we are currently doing must occur—soon.
When populations decline in a planned way (gradually as opposed
Take a Hike with us!We now have most of out outings and events on social media. Please look for us there.
Sierra Club / Thomas Hart Benton Groupfacebook.com/THBSierraClubHeartland Sierra Club Friendsmeetup.com/KC-Metro-Sierra-ClubKansas City Area Sierra Club Outingsmeetup.com/KC-Sierra-Club-Outings
Countdown, continued on page 3
This program will feature Sue Westwind on Nature Therapy. This discipline, also known as ecotherapy, asserts that emotional disorders do not exist separate from the crisis experienced by our Earth. Furthermore, evidence abounds that time spent in green space
and on nature-focused activities can significantly lessen depression, anxiety, dementia, and domestic violence. Environmentalists can also benefit from ecopsychology’s critique of
their collective actions. Sue Westwind, MA in Religious Studies from the
University of Kansas and author of Lunacy Lost: A Memoir of Green Mental Health will speak on origins and principles of ecotherapy, share anecdotes from clinical practice, and lead outdoor examples if weather permits. Sue is an ecotherapist and Holistic Mental Health Coach certified by the American Association of Drugless Practitioners.
April 1 Program: Ecotherapy: Healing With Nature in Mind
