ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, January 15, 1996 TAG: 9601160007
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
COLUMN: the green scene
SOURCE: CATHRYN MCCUE
Funny thing about the cold - it tends to keep odors to a minimum. Good thing, too, since it's been a week since you last saw your garbageman. But Roanoke Valley governments planned to resume trash collection today, even though it's a holiday - provided we haven't had another major storm over the weekend.
In Roanoke, trash must be brought to curbs because trucks won't be able to get through alleys. Recycling collection will also be back to normal today on "B" routes; however folks on "A" routes shouldn't expect recycling to be picked up until next week.
As for those Christmas trees, city workers will try to get to them next week as well, but their first priorities are trash and recycling. Laura Wasko, recycling coordinator, said the trees will be ground to mulch at the transfer station on Hollins Rd., where residents can reclaim their former trees (in the form of mulch), for free. Last year the city churned out 91 tons of sweet-smelling Christmas tree mulch.
Folks in Roanoke County and Salem can likewise expect their trash collectors to start making regular rounds today.
The Green Scene goes to Richmond
The General Assembly will likely wrestle with a number of environmental issues this session, including changes in an award-winning program that protects Virginia's rare species and natural areas.
The Allen administration is proposing to cut the Natural Heritage Program budget in half, eliminating $600,000, and shift it from the Department of Conservation and Recreation to the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries, where it would be combined with that agency's non-game program.
The move would allow more efficient and cost-effective management of the state's 18 natural areas and the 200 rare plant and animal communities living there, administration officials say.
But critics say it would debilitate the program, or put a financial burden on hunting and fishing programs run by the DGIF.
Established in 1988, Virginia's natural heritage program is one of 50 in the U.S. and 30 worldwide that were originally devised by The Nature Conservancy to find and preserve rare species. The 28 scientists working in the program advise other federal and state agencies on land use decisions, and assist developers on ways to avoid identified natural communities, such as caves, sinkholes, pine barrens and marshes.
Other items in Allen's budget proposal include:
Elimination of funding for the Corporation for Jefferson's Poplar Forest, the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities, Little England Chapel and Old Stone Warehouse.
Transfer of the dam safety and floodplain management program from the DCR to the Department of Emergency Services, with an annual reduction of almost $300,000 in general funds.
A two-year phase-out of funding for the Outdoors Foundation.
Changes in the state park systems, incuding the restructuring of user fees, aimed at saving $614,000 and eliminating positions over the biennium.
Transfer of Chesapeake Bay programs from the Departmentof Environmental Quality to the Chesapeake Bay Local Assistance Department.
Transfer of stormwater management programs from DCR to DEQ.
NOTE: Stay tuned to The Green Scene for the next couple months for periodic updates on environmental issues surfacing in the General Assembly.
Environmentalists blast forest plan
A coalition of environmental groups is asking the Secretary of Agriculture to toss out a management plan for the George Washington National Forest they say favors costly logging over recreation and wilderness preservation.
The plan was recently approved by U.S. Forest Service Chief Jack Ward Thomas, two and a half years after the Southern Environmental Law Center filed an appeal.
David Carr, an attorney with the Charlottesville-based center, said the chief "ignores both key principles of ecosystem management and the public's opposition to wasteful federal spending" in upholding the plan for the million-acre forest. The George Washington recently merged with the Jefferson National Forest, but each forest maintains seperate plans for managing timber, wildlife, wilderness and other resources.
Although the plan reduces the amount of logging from previous levels, the agency estimates it will lose up to $7 million on the timber program because revenue from timber sales will fall short of the agency's cost to run the program.
Environmentalists also criticize the plan for designating roughly 10,000 additional acres of the forest as wilderness area, although 250,000 acres are eligible. About 30,000 acres are currently preserved as wilderness.
Carr said the center, which represented The Wilderness Society, Sierra Club, Virginia Wilderness Committtee, Citizen's Task Force on National Forest Management and other groups in the appeal, might sue the agency if the secretary doesn't overturn Thomas's decision.
LENGTH: Medium: 97 linesby CNB