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Reports and Articles
Goal:
To increase listeners' awareness of their regional environment, to inform them about issues concerning the local environment, and to fill gap in local environmental information left by national programs, such as "Living on Earth."
The Environmental Almanac is broadcast twice every Thursday at 4:45 pm
and 6:45 pm on WILL AM. It features the writing of a member of the
UIUC Department of English, Rob Kanter, using material he gathers with
the assistance of local environmentalists. A modest stipend for his work
has been provided from donations collected by several organizations,
including the Prairie Group. His latest presentation can always be seen
and heard using the following Web page, which includes links to an
archive of his previous talks.
Did you know Illinois gets about 50 percent of its electricity from nuclear power and the rest from coal? [Ed note: A recent blurb from Illinois Power indicates that they using 66% coal and 31% nuclear.] Natural gas is growing and burns much cleaner than solid coal or even liquid oil. Studies on wind power in Illinois show a cost effective potential to provide about 10 percent of our power. Unfortunately, solar is not yet cost effective, but prices keep falling and perhaps oil and gas prices will skyrocket. Fuel cells and a hydrogen powered economy have tremendous long-term potential. Meanwhile, Yucca mountain in Nevada is planning to open for nuclear waste in ten years; many nuclear plants are getting long-term operating permits reauthorized; and Congress approved a taxpayer subsidy of catastrophic insurance. Nuclear power doesn’t seem to be going away, in fact there’s reportedly talk of expanding Clinton nuclear power plant. On the coal front, Illinois politicians keep talking about “clean coal” so we can stop importing western coal, reduce emissions, and create Illinois jobs. Far cheaper and more effective would be a comprehensive energy efficiency program, including combined heat and power, geothermal heat pumps (Illinois has great soils for this), more efficient appliances, cost incentives to save, etc. On a national level (extremely unlikely) such a plan could reduce our power consumption nearly 40 percent, closing old, inefficient and dirty power plants.
The Prairie Group embraced a new challenge during the recent elections. We interviewed all political candidates running for Illinois State House and Senate and the U.S. Congress to determine their positions on environmental issues. In order to effectively make endorsements, we sponsored a Political Forum featuring the following candi - dates: Carl Estabrook and Josh Hartke (Tim Johnson was in session and unable to attend) for the 15th Congressional District; Tom Berns and Naomi Jakobsson for the Illinois House 104th District; and Dan McCollum and Rick Winkle for the Illinois Senate 52nd District.
Approximately 50 people attended the Oct. 9, 2002 event at the Champaign Public Library. For about two hours, there was a spirited Q&A period, moderated by Kirstin Replogle. Each candidate was asked to make an introductory statement, followed by questions addressed to all or certain individuals, as appropriate. Enviro-topics ran the gamut starting with a question addressed to the U.S. Congressional seat on Free Trade. State offices got questions on Open Space, Real Estate Transfer tax funding, and Sprawl. A question was posed about HB 2576 on the protection of isolated wetlands. Both Berns and Winkle voted against the Sierra- Club-sponsored bill this past spring. All candidates supported the concept of protecting isolated wetlands, but Berns and Winkle felt the bill as presented was inadequately considered and written, and pushed through the state legislature in haste. They thought more public input was necessary. We'll definitely pay attention to what Jakobsson and Winkle do when a better, stronger bill is reintroduced into the legislature.
The audience was invited to submit written questions to the candidates, and the session ended with a discussion of how each candidate would push for renewable energy in Illinois. Several mentioned encouraging alternative forms of energy, such as wind and solar. Each agreed that energy conservation (less fossil fuel usage, more bike paths and sidewalks) must be built into future legislation.
Sierra Club endorsed Naomi Jakobsson for State Rep.; we're certain she'll do a good job in supporting environmental concerns. Though we didn't make endorsements for the State Senate seat, we're encouraged that Sen. Winkle is a good listener and wants to do right by his district and the environment. U.S. Rep Tim Johnson was endorsed based on his support on several pro-environment bills in Congress; e.g., he voted NO on drilling for oil in the Alaska National Wilderness Reserve. This was the first time many in the Prairie Group participated in grass-roots politics. If nothing else, it made us more aware of how our government works. Environmental preservation is in the hands of politicians — and we elect them. They need to hear from us on issues that matter. The program was videotaped and is available to interested members. In addition to Kirstin's contributions, Dick Bishop served as timekeeper, Jim Beauchamp ran audiovisuals, and George Gore, Jack Paxton, Alice Englebretsen, and Jen Hensley provided their time and support.
About 40 people joined the Prairie Group for its September 4, 2002 forum on Urban Sprawl. We presented a video, “Save Our Land, Save Our Towns,“ and five panelists commented on the video and answered questions from the audience. I served as emcee for the program; panelists taking part included: Frank DiNovo, Director of Champaign County Planning Commission; Cynthia Hoyle, Traffic Calming Specialist; Robert Kowalski, Urbana City Planner; Donald Fournier, Research Specialist, Illinois Building Research Council; and Bruce Knight, Champaign City Planner. After panelists gave their opening statements, I played segments from the video, then the various panelists made remarks related to the video about the situation in their respective areas. There were also a number of questions from the audience. Unfortunately, we did not record the panelists' remarks so, as a follow-up, I asked each panelist to give his/her answer to a single question (supplied by Cynthia Hoyle). At this time, I've received replies from Cynthia, Robert Kowalski and Donald Fournier.
Question: How do you see our cities managing future growth so that we are able to retain our current statistic of 25%* of workers arriving at work by non-auto means?
Answers:
Cynthia Hoyle: "According to the U.S. Census since
1990 Champaign-Urbana has experienced a drop in the
percentage of residents who walk, bike, use mass transit
or other non-auto modes of transportation to get to work.
In the 2000 Census approximately 27% of workers got to
work without driving. This is a high percentage for a midwestern
city of our size and is one of the primary reasons
why we have a short trip to work (approx. 15 mins.) and
less congestion than many other communities.
"To maintain our relatively low congestion levels we
have to design future developments so that residents can
easily walk or bike to other locations and easily access
mass transit. This means that we must make our new
developments pedestrian and bike friendly with interconnected
sidewalks, trails and crosswalks. Pedestrians
and bicyclists need well-lighted streets, sidewalks, trails
and crosswalks to encourage use and create a sense of
safety, and we should maintain our sidewalks and trails
to the same standards that we maintain our streets. We
must also update our municipal codes so that more
mixed-use is allowed, particularly along arterial streets.
New mixed-use developments must have design standards
that blend new uses into neighborhoods without
creating nuisances for residential properties.
"We also need to revisit our current street standards and
incorporate traffic calming into our street designs.
Programs providing for retrofitting of existing streets to
calm traffic are also needed.
"We have to rethink how we are currently planning and
make sure we design our communities for multiple
modes of transportation, not just autos. If we design our
communities properly we can increase our non-auto
usage while still providing for vehicular transportation. If
we, however, allow our communities to be designed primarily
for the automobile, congestion and length of trip
to work will inevitably increase and workers walking,
biking and riding mass transit will continue to decline."
Robert Kowalski : “Simply to continue to Grow Smart.
First and foremost, infill development and increased
density in appropriate locations within the built environ -
ment needs to be encouraged. Why do so many developers
choose to build on the fringe of town? Simply
because in most cases it is easier and cheaper. Infill
development presents challenges of high land costs,
assembly of property and sometimes environmental
clean-ups. However, infill development will typically
offer the most benefits for the community as a whole. In
most cases the infrastructure and services are already in
place to serve the development resulting in no new services
required of the municipality. Development on the
fringe will typically require new roads, new utilities, and
the extension of basic services such as fire and police
protection. Champaign and Urbana are currently wit -
nessing an increased interest in living downtown closer
to services and campus. There is also a segment of the
population that is demanding housing opportunities that
offer an alternative to either the student apartment on
campus or single-family home far off campus. At the
same time, the Mass Transit District is studying the fea -
sibility of a streetcar system that could link both downtowns
with the University. Such a system could have a
dramatic effect on the redevelopment of the downtowns
and would increase density, thus reducing the number
of trips made by the auto.
“That being said, requests for new development at the
city limits needs to be compact and contiguous and
always continue a connected system of streets and sidewalks.
A connected street and sidewalk system encour -
age walking and bicycling and makes it much easier for
transit to serve new development. Also, new commer -
cial areas need to be appropriately designed to accommodate
walkers, bicyclists, transit and cars.
“The key to getting this done is thoughtful comprehensive
planning that clearly outlines the development
goals for the community. Comprehensive Plans need to
stay current and accurately illustrate how the communi -
ty wishes to grow. Through this careful planning we can
maintain the high quality of life that residents currently
enjoy in Champaign-Urbana.”
Donald Fournier : “Both Champaign and Urbana are cities
growing at the edges. The predominant form of growth
is low density and auto-centric. In the past 50 years,
C h a m p a i g n ’s population has grown by about 50%, while its
land area has grown by a factor of four. Most of the new
growth is now beyond the bounds for the local mass
transit system, leading to more automobile dependence.
“The cities of Champaign County need to formally adopt
the principles of smart growth and encourage develop -
ers to follow them. See the American Planning Association’s
Growing Smart Program at www.planning.org.
“Emphasis needs to be placed on infill and revitalizing
neighborhoods in decay. They also need a “Green Builders”
program which highlights energy efficient and environmentally
friendly construction techniques (see DOE’s Build
America Program at www.eren.doe.gov and EEBA’s web
page at www.eeba.org. Mixed used development and
affordable housing need to be part of the program.
“The County and the cities need to form a coalition
where they all agree on a common approach to development
and to incentives and educate the development
community to the issues. They need to show how all
can benefit from a more sustainable approach. Mass
transit and alternative transportation all rely on connec -
tivity and density to be viable. These two issues need to
be integrated into the master planning process.”
*Actually, the 25% statistic is an approximation for
Champaign and Urbana combined. According to the
2000 census, for Urbana 33.1% of trips to work were
non-automobile, for Champaign 21.3% of such trips
were non-automobile, and for Savoy 6.8% such trips
were non-auto. A further breakdown shows that in
Urbana, 10.9% used transit, 17% walked and 5.2%
used other means to get to work. In Champaign 6.2%
took transit, 12.3% walked, and 2.8% used other
means. In Savoy 5.4% used transit, 0.3% walked, and
1.1% used other. The mean travel time to work in min -
utes was 14.6 minutes for both Champaign and
Urbana and 17.7 minutes for Savoy .
Jack Kuehn, Prairie Group Outings Chair, put together a great backpack trip in the Shawnee National Forest from just south of La Rue Pine Hills up the Hutchins Creek drainage and back via Observation Point on the Mississippi Palisades. The group met on Thursday evening at the group campground site in the Trail of Tears Forest Service Group Camp on North Forest Road. About 10 p.m. it started to rain so I decided to just sleep in the three-sided shelter there. The others had already pitched their tents, except Stuart and Gary who slept in their panel truck.
Friday morning it was still raining, but we got a weather report saying it would be clear for the afternoon. So we lolled around until noon when we took off for White Pine trail above La Rue Pine Hills campground. We hiked on a pleasant afternoon down a long ridge to Hutchins Creek, which we forded a couple of times on a gravel road with some traffic! Then we took a tough hike up a steep ridge and down a canyon, all the time trying to find a faint trail but mostly working up a big sweat in rain slickers, relying on compass and GPS to find the campsite marked on map. We camped on a dry creek with pools close to an abandoned road and trail and filtered water for meals.
The next day we hiked cross country to Ranbarger Hollow Trail, then to the Godwin River-to-River Trail to Hutchins Creek Trail. The day was overcast but there was no rain. That night we camped near abandoned farm houses on Hutchins Creek at a beautiful bend in the river with a high bank and large blocks of limestone layered with chert. There was a nice ripple sound from Hutchins Creek, a campfire on the beach and a nice dinner followed by bioluminescent bugs on beach and banks.
Sunday morning turned out sunny with beautiful fall color as we hiked back to Pleasant Ridge trail and over to Godwin River-to-River Trail to a site closer to M o n d a y ’s destination and vehicles. We camped on a dry stream again with potholes of opalescent water (from clay) and a cherty rough bed. But it was a beautiful hike up a series of ridges to the Mississippi Palisades overlook. We marked the trail with toilet paper near Trail of Tears so we could find our way back, but it was pretty straightforward.
Sunday night it rained after dinner so I hit the sack for
another long night, but this time the rain stopped
about 7 a.m. We sauntered through breakfast and
packed up and retraced ridges once again to the South
Hill Overlook view point by 11 a.m. While Mark hiked
back to his van, hazy views provided a pleasant ending
to a successful outing. Erica and I left U.S.F.S. station
where we had left the car about noon and were back
in Urbana by 4 p.m.!