And now:Ish <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Source: <A HREF="http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/1999/0115.html#anchor596744"> http://www.tri-cityherald.com/news/1999/0115.html#anchor596744 ======================================================== Concerns about limits voiced at ALE meeting By John Stang Herald staff writer Access and elk. Both need some sort of limits. And both were the two top concerns of about 140 people who attended a meeting Thursday evening to find out what the public wants addressed in a future plan to manage the Fitzner-Eberhardt Arid Land Ecology reserve. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service held the Richland meeting to find out what issues it should address as it maps out a plan for managing the reserve - a 120-square-mile parcel of western Hanford dominated by Rattlesnake Ridge. The wildlife service manages the reserve, or ALE, for the Department of Energy, which keeps it as a buffer zone for the radioactive wastes stored in central Hanford. The wildlife service is in the early stages of creating a long-term management plan. A draft plan is due by September with a final version by December. The top two concerns mentioned Thursday were: -- Somehow limiting the ALE's fast-growing elk population. The wildlife service estimates the ALE's elk numbers at 750 to 800. Some people thought that number is higher, especially when wandering elk on neighboring lands are included. The elk spark complaints because they eat crops on neighboring lands. "They've got to get the elk under control," said Joe Williams of Prosser. -- Limiting public access to the ALE to preserve its mostly pristine natural habitat. Access concerns ranged from potential trampling to people carrying noxious weeds into the ALE that will crowd out the native vegetation. "The less access you have, the less problems you have," said Neal Ice, who lives next to Rattlesnake Ridge. The third most-voiced concern was managing the ALE to preserve its unique nature. The ALE is considered one of the best remaining desert shrub steppe habitats in the Northwest and is home to numerous ecologically sensitive plants and animals. Other concerns that fostered support included fighting noxious weeds, supervising scientific research on the site that plays host to biological projects projects and local astronomers using the old observatory on top of the ridge. Other oft-voiced concerns included protecting tribal cultural rights, policies that deal with range fires and encouraging school groups to use other shrub steppe areas for educational purposes. The wildlife service supervises the ALE as a restricted biological sciences reserve under a 1993 management plan created by Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The ALE is a complicated site to manage. There are the old observatory and several radio towers on top of southern Rattlesnake Ridge with an old Nike missile site at the bottom. The northern part of the reserve includes a vast mix of flat lands and large rolling hills and valleys. Much of it is hidden from Highway 240. ========================================================= ------------------------------------------------------------------------ To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ DOEWatch List --- Subscribe online: http://www.onelist.com/subscribe.cgi/doewatch Quote from Truman's diary July 25, 1945: "We have discovered the most terrible bomb in the history of the world. It may be the fire destruction prophesized in the Euphrates Valley Era, after Noah and his fabulous Ark. Anyway we think we have found the way to cause the disintegration of the atom." "The Doctor of the future will give No Medicine, but will interest his patients in the care of the human frame, in diet, and in the cause and prevention of disease." -Attributed to Thomas Alva Edison <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER=-=-=>>>> If you think you are too small to make a difference; try sleeping in a closed room with a mosquito.... African Proverb <<<<=-=http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/ =-=>>>> IF it says: "PASS THIS TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW...." Please Check it before you send it at: http://urbanlegends.miningco.com/library/blhoax.htm
