Citizen,
Missouri Governor, Matt Blunt is offering us poisoned parks for the New Year. Blunt not only would like to see CAFOs at several state parks such as Roaring River and Arrow Rock, he's also sending tax money to ATV trails at St. Joe State Park and on trails around Doe Run's Viburnum tailings ponds. These areas are poisoned with lead and other heavy metals and should be declared off limits to children and women of child-bearing age. For Matt Blunt to offer state and federal tax support of these activities in these places and suggesting these last three provide an opportunity "healthy" recreation borders on criminal behavior.

KEN MIDKIFF DECEMBER 21, 2007

Cold and in the dark

In the year 2057:

“Daddy?”

“Yeah, I’m right here.”

”I’m hot and I can’t see you in the dark.”

“It is a bit warm.”

“No, it’s hot and it’s dark and I can’t sleep.”

“We can’t turn on the AC, because there’s no electricity. Same thing with the lights.”

“Why ain’t there no electricity?”

What is Wilderness?

Setting aside the many cultural meanings of the term “wilderness,” the term “Wilderness”here refers to a particular designation of public lands set forth in the Wilderness Act of 1964, and augmented by the Eastern Wilderness Act of 1975. The Wilderness Act describes wilderness as a place of certain scale where “in contrast with those areas where man and his own works dominate the landscape... the earth and it’s community of life are untrammeled by man.”

Deal with Ameren UE sells out protection of Church Mountain

As Reynolds County citizens and as leaders of the East Ozarks Audubon
Society, the area's largest environmental organization, we are dismayed
by the settlement terms between the state of Missouri and AmerenUE over
Ameren's failed Taum Sauk reservoir.

The USFS is coordinating with several electric utility providers to allow the spraying of approximately 900 miles of powerline right of ways across National Forests in Arkansas and Missouri with herbicides. The Utility Right of Way (ROW) Herbicide project raises many concerns, especially for those who live near, within, or, adjacent to our National Forests. This project is also of great concern to the general public who use and enjoy our National Forests for recreation, hunting, and, for gathering edible and medicinal plants and herbs.

Published on Monday, December 17, 2007 by The New York Times
Our Decrepit Food Factories
by Michael Pollan