1) Enviro Hero David Brower
2) BEN Spotlight: Alabama's Nongame Wildlife Program
3) BEN Special Report: Nongame Wildlife Funding In Decline
4) ADEM Assesses $1.8 Million in Fines for FY 2000
5) BEN Notes - Nature Conservancy Staff Additions, Ruffner Mountain Receives Women's Fund Grant, BEN Fundraising Appeal Update

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1. Enviro Hero David Brower - It was March 1992, the 25th Anniversary of the Alabama Conservancy (now Alabama Environmental Council). David Brower, the "Arch Druid", first director of the Sierra Club, founder of Friends of the Earth and the League of Conservation Voters was the keynote speaker for that glorious day of celebration. He spoke about his life - the challenges and mistakes he had made. He talked about the future of the earth and the environmental movement. His personality was forceful, with elements of passion, knowledge and class. The audience which had gathered in Birmingham was spellbound.

David Brower, one of the giants of the environmental movement peacefully passed away at his home on Sunday, November 5th. In Brower's 88 years of life, he was associated with saving and protecting wild places such as King's Canyon, North Cascades, Redwoods, and the Olympic N.P. He kept dams out of the Grand Canyon and helped establish the National Wilderness Preservation System and the Land Water Conservation Fund. He was the "modern John Muir."

To learn more about David Brower, check out the following books he authored. 'Work in Progress" and "Let the Mountains Talk and Let the Rivers Run."

2. BEN Spotlight: Alabama's Nongame Wildlife Program - Earlier this year the Nature Conservancy released "Precious Heritage" a study on the status of biodiversity in the United States. Alabama ranked 2nd nationally in the number of extinct and missing species, 8th nationally in "rarity by state," percentage of species considered vulnerable, and 6th nationally in the number of plant and animal species by state.

According to the Alabama Nongame Wildlife Program, our state is blessed with over 1000 species of vertebrate animals. A handful of those animals, 70 to 80, are game animals or sportfish. The remainder, over 900, fall into the category of nongame. Alabama's Nongame Wildlife Program is charged with monitoring populations of nongame and threatened and endangered species in Alabama. It is also responsible for helping implement species recovery plans and efforts.

Over the past 20 years, Alabama's Nongame Wildlife Program has helped bring back the bald eagle, peregrine falcon, brown pelican, American alligator, and Alabama's bluebird population.

In the early 1960's the number of nesting bald eagle pairs in Alabama had declined to zero. After releasing 91 eaglets in the state between 1985 to 1991, Alabama today has documented 27 active nests statewide.

Since the mid-80's, the development and implementation of a bluebird nest box program has facilitated the restoration of bluebirds from an estimated 90% population decline.

The Nongame Wildlife Program has helped "delist" from the endangered and threatened species list, the peregrine falcon, brown pelican and American alligator (the alligator is delisted but still regulated because of similar appearance to crocodilian species that are imperiled). The Nongame program has also worked on projects aimed at monitoring and recovering threatened and endangered species including the gray bat, vermilion darter, Alabama beach mouse, Alabama cavefish, Alabama redbelly turtle and numerous mussels and other species.

Alabama's Nongame Wildlife Program, is Alabama's "frontline program" in the battle to protect our natural heritage. To learn more about the program and how you can support it, contact it's coordinator Bob McCollum at 334-242-3465.

3. BEN Special Report: Nongame Wildlife Funding In Decline - You see it every year during "tax season" - the Nongame Wildlife checkoff. Because the Nongame Wildlife checkoff has had to fight for monies among a growing list of worthy charities on Alabama's tax form, contributions through the Nongame Wildlife checkoff has been dramatically declining.

In 1983, Alabama raised $67,000 through the Nongame Wildlife checkoff. In 1989, revenue had dropped to $48,000. The decline continued in 1993, with only $35,000 collected. In 1998, the program's revenue bottomed out at $16,600. This year (1999 tax year), despite a small comeback, the Wildlife checkoff could only muster $19,000.

This past week, The Bama Environmental News (BEN) evaluated the Alabama Nongame Wildlife Program's funding and found that the program is almost entirely funded by hunters and fishermen, and special federal endangered species grants. Without these monies Alabama's Nongame program would have to exist on a paltry $19,000 from the Wildlife checkoff, which this year could not even be used to fully meet the necessary "match" to receive federal funding (the remainder of the match had to come from hunting license revenue). On the whole, Alabama's Department of Conservation does not receive funding from the Alabama General Fund.

To highlight the differences between funding for nongame and game species, last year, Alabama received $4,197,296 from the Federal Aid In Wildlife Restoration Fund (Pittman-Robertson). The Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration (Dingell-Johnson) provided more than $2,770,814 to Alabama. These two federal funds, Pittman- Robertson and Dingell-Johnson, are made possible through federal excise taxes collected on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment (Pittman-Robertson) and fishing equipment (Dingell-Johnson). Hunting and Fishing licenses in Alabama also garnered more than $12 million in 1999-2000.

Passage of the Conservation and Reinvestment Act (CARA), which failed in Congress this year, would have provided a steady source of meaningful revenue for Alabama 's Nongame Wildlife Program. Instead, the program continues to be dependent upon federal grants and hunters and fishermen subsidizing the program.

Sportsmen are paying for their programs and Alabama's Nongame Wildlife Program. It is now time for people who care about Alabama's endangered and threatened species and biodiversity to pay their fair share. A good start is contributing to the Nongame Wildlife Program at tax time.

4. ADEM Assesses $1.8 Million in Fines for FY 2000 - The Alabama Department of Environmental Management (ADEM) assessed a near record $1.8 million of penalties for violations of environmental regulations during fiscal year 2000. The agency issued a total of 227 administrative orders in FY 2000, of which 208 included penalties.

The FY 2000 total was a substantial increase from last year's $1.2 million in fines assessed. Administrative fines, minus ADEM's enforcement costs as allowed by the Examiner of Public Accounts, are remitted to the state's general fund. The following is a breakdown of the FY 2000 fines by regulatory program.

Air Program - $598,250
Land Program - $585,800
Water Program - $658,205
Emergency Response - $10,000
Coastal Program - $3,000

ADEM assesses administrative penalties based on the seriousness of the violation, the standard of care shown by the violator, any economic benefit of delayed compliance, preventive efforts, compliance history and the ability to pay a fine.

5. BEN Notes - Nature Conservancy Staff Additions, Ruffner Mountain Receives Women's Fund Grant, BEN Fundraising Appeal Update

Nature Conservancy Staff Additions - The Nature Conservancy of Alabama has recently added three new staff members, including a new Director of Conservation Programs. Kathryn M. Flynn, PhD, from Auburn University's School of Forestry, will be joining the TNC staff on January 8th as the new Conservation Programs Director. Stacy Hopkins has become TNC's new Finance/Office Manager and Jane Minette will be TNC's Coastal Development Officer. Congrats to TNC of Alabama's new additions and their continued growth!

Ruffner Mountain Receives Women's Fund Grant - Here is an example of a creative partnership. Ruffner Mountain has received a $2,000 grant from the Women's Fund, a component fund of The Community Foundation of Greater Birmingham, to produce two outdoor and environment based pilot programs designed for adolescent and young adult women. Some of the activities include orienteering, hiking and team-building.

The Women's Fund is an exciting new fund dedicated to improving the lives of women and girls in the Greater Birmingham region. To learn more about the Women's Fund contact them at 328-8641.

BEN Fundraising Drive Update - Contributions for the BEN Fundraising Appeal has slowed up substantially this past week (maybe its the presidential election mess). Nearly $1000 from 15 contributors has been raised in three weeks. We plan to end the BEN Fundraising Appeal on November 30th. In our most recent survey, 55% of the more than 330 respondents stated that they would contribute to a chosen group in lieu of a BEN subscription. Please show your support of BEN by contributing to one of the following three groups. Contributions have ranged from $5 to $250. Thank you for your readership and support!

Southern Environmental Center at Birmingham Southern College
900 Arkadelphia Road
Birmingham, Alabama 35254
205-226-4934

Camp McDowell Episcopal Church Camp (Pat Byington Scholarship)
105 DeLong Road
Nauvoo, Alabama 35578
205-387-1806

American Lung Association of Alabama
900 18th Street South
Birmingham, Alabama 35205
205-933-8821

Please share BEN with friends and fellow conservationists. If you have any questions or comments about this publication, contact Pat Byington, the author and publisher of BEN at 205-226-7739 or pkbyington@aol.com To receive back issues of BEN, please go to our website at: http://www.BamaNews.com