PRN Masthead

Welcome to Prairie Rivers Network's e-Newz. We're excited to keep communities informed about volunteer opportunities, clean water issues, and river conservation news within our state.

- January 2008-

1. Calling Frogs for Wetland Health

2. Press Release - Indeck Energy Dumps Coal Plant: Global Warming and Public Health Concerns Prevail

3. Press Release - IDNR Seeks Proposals for State Wildlife Conservation Grants

4. Become a Member of Prairie Rivers Network

Calling Frogs for Wetland Health

February 2nd is World Wetlands Day, which marks the anniversary of the Ramsar Convention on Wetlands. This international treaty, adopted on February 2, 1971 seeks to promote education, appreciation, and conservation of wetlands throughout the world. In the United States, many of us are familiar with the role wetlands play in water purification and flood control; in other parts of the world, healthy wetlands are integral to maintaining and protecting coastal areas relied upon for fish, and the cultivation of rice, seaweed and other food products.

This year’s World Wetlands Day theme is "Healthy Wetlands, Healthy People.” Raising awareness of the relationship between healthy functioning wetland ecosystems and human health is the first step towards achieving management strategies that protect these resources.

Wetlands support an abundance of organisms from insects to amphibians to birds, and as with any complex ecosystem, the loss of one species can impact the health and potentially the ability of another species to survive. Research on wetland frogs, for example, can provide information on the presence and impact of water toxins not only harmful to frogs, but to plants and other wildlife; it can also provide an indication of the overall health of the wetland ecosystem.

In Illinois, 37 of the 41 species of amphibians, which includes frogs, tree frogs and toads, rely on wetlands during at least one of their life stages. Volunteering for frog monitoring projects and surveys is one way that you can become involved in protecting our diminishing wetland areas and the species they support. Opportunities include:

Chicago Wilderness Spring 2008 Frog Calling Survey – has trainings in several counties. Contact Karen Glennemeier 847.965.1150, kglennemeier@audubon.org.
Champaign County Forest Preserve District – training classes begin February 7. Contact Dan Olson, 217.586.6852, dolson@ccfpd.org.
Cache River Wetland Center - has volunteer opportunities which include wildlife monitoring (618.634.2231, cypresscreek@fws.gov).

For more information on World Wetlands Day, visit the Ramsar website at
http://www.ramsar.org/wwd/wwd_index.htm .

For more information on Illinois frog and toad species, go to http://www.chicagoherp.org/herps/turtle/Amutica.htm
http://dnr.state.il.us/lands/education/frog

Indeck Energy Dumps Coal Plant:
Global Warming and Public Health Concerns Prevail

January 1, 2008 - Release from the Sierra Club, Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago

After encountering a buzz saw of local opposition and growing public concerns about global warming pollution Indeck Energy became the latest US energy company to abandons plans for a new coal plant. For four years Indeck had been trying to build a large coal-fired power plant in the Village of Elwood, Illinois, 50 miles south of the Chicago Loop, but had been stymied repeatedly by lawsuits and public concerns about air pollution. In the past week Indeck Energy failed to renew its lease for the proposed site, effectively drawing the curtain on the protracted four-year controversy. Indeck’s decision to abandon its coal plant plans is the latest showing of a major shift in public opinion on energy choices. Across the country citizens, local governments and states are saying no to coal and yes to clean energy. In 2007 plans for fifty-five new coal fired plants have been defeated or abandoned in the US - four in the past three weeks alone.

“Since there are cleaner sources of energy available, and Indeck’s outdated proposal would have worsened both conventional air pollution and accelerated global warming.” says Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs, Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago. “It should have no place in Illinois’ energy future.”

After Indeck received an air permit in 2003, the project has been plagued with controversy and state politics have continued to move away from more coal development and toward clean energy alternatives. The project had been opposed by a broad coalition of public health and environmental organizations, as well as the downwind City of Chicago. In 2007 the Illinois legislature adopted a clean energy standard that will require 25% of Illinois’ electricity come from renewable sources by the year 2025 and Governor Blagojevich announced a global warming task force that is finalizing recommendations for Illinois to slash global warming emissions statewide. According to the Blue Green Alliance, by moving away from coal and into modern and cleaner electricity options Illinois could gain as 50,000 new jobs in solar and wind development.

“The writing is on the wall – the dirty and outdated technologies that increase global warming pollution are no longer acceptable sources of energy,” says Verena Owen of the Sierra Club, “Indeck’s decision to abandon coal comes at the same time that other companies are embracing wind and solar energy here in Illinois, and we are creating family-supporting clean energy jobs that don’t jeopardize our children’s future and don’t accelerate global warming. Over the past four years as we have helped to defeat more than a dozen dirty and expensive coal plant proposals, the state has seen a boom in clean wind energy development, including the construction of one of the Nation’s largest wind farms north of Bloomington.”

Background

The proposed Indeck-Energy coal plant has been mired in controversy for over four years. When Illinois EPA issued the draft permit in 2003, a broad coalition of national and local groups urged the state to consider cleaner, safer options for electricity generation. Local residents testified that the plant threatened the adjacent Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Chicago Mayor Richard Daley weighed in, urging the State to consider cleaner technologies as a way to protect downwind Chicago residents. When the State rejected these concerns and issued the final air permit in October 2003, a coalition of groups including Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago (formerly known as American Lung Association of Metropolitan Chicago. RHAMC ended its affiliation with American Lung Association on July 1, 2007), Clean Air Task Force, Citizens Against Ruining the Environment (CARE), Lake County Conservation Alliance and Sierra Club appealed the permit. In September 2006, the US Environmental Appeals Board remanded the permit, ruling that the State had failed to ensure that the proposed coal plant installed modern pollution controls and protected the adjacent Midewin National Tallgrass Prairie. Over the past four months Indeck had tried to revive its project, but finally pulled the plug and decided last week to not renew its lease on the site of the proposed plant.

At the height of the state’s coal revival program in 2004, as many as 17 coal plants were proposed in Illinois. The majority of these have been defeated or abandoned in the face of public opposition and impending global warming regulation. There is currently only one small coal plant (250MW) under construction in the City of Springfield, and that project only proceeded after the City and the Sierra Club reached a landmark pollution reduction agreement. Two other coal plants are on hold for the foreseeable future because of Sierra Club lawsuits (Enviropower’s Benton plant and Tenaska’s Taylorville plant). A fourth project – Peabody Energy’s massive 1500MW coal plant proposal southeast of St. Louis – is mired in controversy over its water and mining permits. If constructed, the Peabody coal plant proposal would be the largest new source of global warming pollution constructed in the United States in over two decades.

Contact:
Bruce Nilles, Director, Sierra Club National Coal Campaign, (608) 257-4994 or (608) 712-9725

Brian Urbaszewski, Director of Environmental Health Programs, Respiratory Health Association of Metropolitan Chicago, 312-628-0245 or (312) 405-1175

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IDNR Seeks Proposals for State Wildlife Conservation Grants:
Grant program helps protect species in
greatest need of conservation

January 15, 2008 - Press Release from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources

SPRINGFIELD, IL - The Illinois Department of Natural Resources (IDNR) is now accepting pre-proposals for grants to fund projects through the 2008 State Wildlife Grant (SWG) program. The SWG program, funded through the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, provides funds specifically for the protection and management of non-game species in the greatest need of conservation as identified in the Illinois Wildlife Action Plan.

"This grant program is intended to help us put federal dollars to work on the ground in Illinois now to conserve wildlife and vital natural areas for future generations," said IDNR Acting Director Sam Flood.

Those organizations interested in seeking funds for wildlife conservation projects in Illinois are asked to submit their grant proposals online through the IDNR website no later than April 11, 2008.

The Illinois Wildlife Action Plan outlines specific steps - developed by scientists, sportsmen, conservationists and members of the community - to conserve wildlife before species become rarer and more costly to protect. The SWG program provides funding to every state and territory to support cost effective conservation aimed at keeping wildlife from becoming endangered.

In Illinois, the program is administered by the IDNR Office of Resource Conservation.

The Illinois allocation of these federal funds is uncertain at this time as the U.S. Congress has not yet approved funding legislation. Illinois received approximately $2 million for the program in 2007 and funding at a similar level is expected for 2008. Approval of project proposals submitted by the April 11 deadline will be subject to the final allocation of available federal funding.

Annual SWG funds given to each state and territory are disbursed according to population and land area, and are contingent upon annual funding appropriated by Congress.

Under new guidelines released by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service for 2007, the new "Planning" definition allows for a match of 75 percent federal funds to 25 percent state funds within certain parameters. The new"Implementation" definition restricts the match to a maximum reimbursement of 50 percent of total project costs.

Information on the pre-application for the State Wildlife Grant program is available on the IDNR web site at: http://dnr.state.il.us/orc/wildliferesources/theplan/swggrant/login.asp

The Illinois Wildlife Action Plan is available on the IDNR web site for review and/or to download at:http://dnr.state.il.us/orc/Wildliferesources/theplan/

For more information on the State Wildlife Grant program in Illinois, contact the IDNR Watershed Protection Section, One Natural Resources Way, Springfield, IL 62702-1271, phone 217/ 785-5907, e-mail:james.renn@illinois.gov.

The deadline for submitting project pre-proposals for the State Wildlife Grants is April 11, 2008.

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