WildrLog

Bryan May 14th, 2007

Brown co-founded the Tennessee Trails Association and was part of a
group that inspired and helped develop the Cumberland Trail that is
more than half built, crossing from the Tennessee River Gorge near
Chattanooga to the Kentucky-Virginia border.

He served on the
boards of the Tennessee Parks and Greenways Foundation, the Tennessee
Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and the Metro Greenways Commission.

One
forte was his ability to deal respectfully and with good humor with
those who owned lands that he believed needed to be protected from
development.

“Bob Brown has been to Tennessee what John Muir was
to Yosemite,” said Commissioner Paul Sloan, of the Tennessee Department
of Environment and Conservation.

“He was always first a gentleman and always an informed champion of conservation of Tennessee’s great places.”

Mr. Brown, I never knew you.  Thank you for your vision.  Rest in peace.

HT: Tennessean.com.

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Bryan May 11th, 2007

A mountain climber from Fairview, Tenn., was killed in a fall on a New Zealand glacier, police said Tuesday. Another American was seriously injured.

Austin Hanchey of Fairview was killed when he and two companions fell. He was an environmental conservation student from Idaho State University on a semester abroad. Police have not named the two survivors.

Hanchey’s mother, Faith, told The Associated Press on Tuesday night that her son loved the outdoors and wanted to educate others about the importance of the environment.

He decided to study in New Zealand, in part, for its outdoor opportunities. She recently visited him there for 12 days.

"He loved it, he absolutely loved it," she said of the country. "He was in a place that he enjoyed, and he was doing what he enjoyed, and that thought kind of has to carry you through."

But two others survived the 1600 foot fall… read on

All three climbers in the fall were 20-year-old Americans, students at Lincoln University in Christchurch. They fell about 1,600 feet Monday night while descending a glacier in Mount Aspiring National Park on New Zealand’s South Island, said Wanaka police Constable Mike Johnston.

The three men were roped together when one slipped, and all three fell, Johnston said.

The injured man had a broken pelvis and leg and head injuries, but was in surprisingly good condition. The third man took care of his injured friend before climbing down to a mountain hut to seek help.

Searchers found the surviving pair Tuesday, Johnston said.

"The only reason he’s really alive is because his mate managed to get down to that hut and raise the alarm" after a perilous nighttime descent, he said.

Wanaka search and rescue expert Gary Dickson said it was surprising the duo even survived the "huge fall."

"People who survive that have definitely used up one of their nine lives," he told National Radio.

HT: Fall from glacier kills Fairview man at Tennessean.com.

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Bryan March 24th, 2007

Two years ago, Mike Osmond, a Bradenton, FL restaurant owner had a heart attack. Oh, and they found out then he was also a diabetic. And today, March 24, 2007, he embarks on his thru hike on the Appalachian Trial.

The journey tops a long list of accomplishments Mike Osmond dreams of doing before he dies. So in December, on his 50th birthday Mike made a commitment to step up his training, climbing up and down the stairs of a five story parking garage in downtown Bradenton fifty times a day while wearing his forty pound backpack. The items he carries inside are essential to his survival, including a very special package of pills.

Mike, we’re pulling for you! Check out the news story and video. You’ll also want to track Mike’s progress on his trail journal.

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Bryan March 17th, 2007

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Bryan March 17th, 2007

Casey over at ModernHiker has a post this morning on mountaintop removal in Southern Appalachia and a link to a website of articles, videos, pictures, and Google Earth files of the devastation in East Tennessee, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

“Mountaintop Removal” is the surprisingly accurate name for a popular type of mining in Appalachia. Basically, to get at coal veins, the top of a mountain is deforested and exploded, with the debris pushed into neighboring valleys. The coal is processed, leaving huge lakes of toxic slurry behind, and then the mine operators plant some non-native vegetation and move on to the next mountain.

Obviously, this causes some problems. Deforestation increases the risk of landslides, and several slurry ponds have burst through their dams or through old mine shafts, wreaking havoc on the communities below them. The 2000 Martin County Sludge Spill contaminated the drinking water of 27,000 people and was 30 times larger than the Exxon Valez spill.

As the push for “clean” coal escalates in the coming years, mountaintop removal is likely to increase … unless more people know about it.

The website is called ilovemountains.org, a memorial to the mountains destroyed by mountaintop removal.  The Cumberland Mountains and Plateau are already home to natural gas wells and coal mining.  Now, they have added pressure from oil wells (see Tennessean).

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Bryan February 16th, 2007

Last December, the new TVA Board of Directors got it right. They approved a new policy effectively banning the sale of TVA’s 293,000 acres of wilderness lake front property to residential or commercial developers. The property is a portion of the land purchased (read “taken” under threat or use of eminent domain) from our fellow citizens starting about 75 years ago for public purposes. These citizens, and likely legislators and courts, were told these lands would be flooded or otherwise unusable.

Today the property is dry. It is gold to developers, who want to buy it on the cheap and develop exclusive lake front resorts, communities, and shopping centers. They’ve been doing it for years and now needless to say, they are not exactly thrilled.

But they’re not the only ones. City halls and courthouses around the valley are up in arms over the “loss of economic development opportunity.” You can substitute “loss of tax revenue.” You see, as long that property remains in TVA hands, it is not taxable by local entities. In addition, the swank improvements made by developers would exponentially increase that revenue.

And some in Congress aren’t exactly comfortable with it either (see Dectaur Daily News).

But for all the politicians and big money set against it, 92% of the 5,000 comments received by TVA supported the ban (see The Chattanoogan).

I’ve supported the ban for this reason: Developers are ruining the quality of life in Tennessee. I said it. Tennessee’s lakes and wilderness areas are special places supporting diverse wildlife. And at least for this writer, they melt away the stress of traffic jams and long lines. Both are products of developers. But all they see are dollar signs.

Today, some of our most scenic views are threatened by developers. Areas like Millken’s Overlook at Fall Creek Falls State Park, Stone Door Natural Area at South Cumberland State Recreation Area, and all around Radnor Lake could look very different in 2007.

But for now, it won’t happen on TVA land.

If you support the ban on the sale of public property for private development and you are in the Tennessee Valley, let the TVA Board of Directors and Executive Leadership know they made the right decision. Be sure to back them up with a call to your congressmen who are members of the TVA Caucus. And when you do, post a comment and encourage others to do likewise!

And to my computer programming brethren, this applies to real-estate developers, not all you software developers out there.

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