Bill Huston's Blog (Binghamton NY)

Deborah Rogers: Economics of Fracking (video)

2012-02-07T00:29:00.000-08:00

Shale Promises? Or Shale Spin?
The Economics Behind Fracking
a talk by Deborah Rogers

Link to this page: http://tinyurl.com/ShalePromisesShaleSpin

This talk was recorded 19 Jan 2012 in Binghamton NY,
and contains late breaking information about the economics of fracking.

Did you know...

* 80% of the wells in every shale play are not profitable? This leads to the "drilling treadmill" effect, where the operators must keep drilling just to make debt service

* The life of a shale gas well is not 30 years, but more like 4 years?

* An SEC rule changed caused most operators to overstate their reserves?

* LNG import terminals are being converted for export?

youtube.com/watch?v=JYaC7L2svoQ

In addition to the Youtube player, these others are also available:

Please share this link with others who believe fracking shale will be good for the economy.

Link to this page: http://tinyurl.com/ShalePromisesShaleSpin

Fwd: [NYRAD] response to Annie Lenihan

2012-01-31T20:52:00.001-08:00

I strongly agree with Annie, SimplyWitness, Kim, and Mary.
(and also Kevin!!)

We hold these truths to be self evident that
ALL PERSONS are created equal
under the law
and were endowed by their Creator
with certain unalienable rights,
such as the Life, Liberty, and
The right to seek Happiness,
the right to clean air and clean water to drink
This applies to ALL PERSONS / ALL BEINGS

What's with this class thing?

"Two types of people,
Some who deserve to be protected,
And some who deserve to be fracked"

I don't think so!

Rape and Murder
cause injury
in every case.

We make these things illegal
under criminal law.

Fracking causes DEATH and INJURY
in every case. Likewise IT should be made
illegal under criminal law.

This whole fracking thing is all about
our fundamental rights of DEMOCRACY.

Do we have a right to govern ourselves?

Reminder: SRBC Feb 16 Harrisburg.

We actually get 2 chances
because they changed the rules,
they are now voting *after* the public hearing....

Call the Governors + Obama:
NY Gov. Cuomo (518) 474-8390
PA: Gov/ Corbett (717) 787-2500
MD: Gov. O'Mally (410) 974-3901
US: Obama: (202) 456-1111

Message: "The Susquehanna River Basin Commission
must CEASE the issuance of all new water withdrawals
for hydrofracking, and RESCIND and CANCEL all existing permits,
until a CUMULATIVE IMPACT STUDY can be done,
on the effect of removing this much water from the basin,
and other toxic effects Hydrofracking will have upon the Basin"

Namaste -- May all beings be happy
and have access to clean water to drink.

WM

On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 7:50 PM, kemichels tds.net <kemichels@tds.net> wrote:

Ryan,

I would like to give you the benefit of the doubt that you are trying to help but please be aware that such a petition and compromised attitude is extremely harmful to a cause that we have been fighting with everything we have. If groups like yours were true to yourselves and those who support you WE WILL HAVE THAT POLITICAL POWER. In your response to Annie, you make it sound as if you think fracking with nitrogen gas is acceptable and by the tone, that those who don't are foolish.
The extraction of natural gas cannot be done safely even if they went down with a drill and nothing else. The radioactive(radium 226,228, Uranium, Thorium etc.) brine and drill cuttings would still come up. The hydrogen sulfide would still come up. The massive clear cutting of trees... the list goes on but you get my point.
You are resigned to the idea that we cannot stop fracking. You have become part of the gas industry propoganda machine possibly without even realizing it. You are buying into the industry propaganda that it can't be stopped. If they convince people that they can't, they won't try. It CAN be stopped if we all stick together.
All I ask is that you and Choose Clean Water Coalition please retract your petition and ask for what you really want - a ban on all drilling in all of NY and beyond. If you truly want Clean Water and I would hope clean air - there is no compromise. Stand up for what you believe in. Stand up for the people who have supported you.
I noticed that your e-mail address is NWF. I certainly hope that their view is pure. I started getting their magazine at 8 years old. Though I stopped a couple of years ago as I didn't have time to read it lately, I have held them in the highest regard since childhood and my husband and I have made donations. I hope that they will not fail me now when I, we, need them most.

Please scrap this petition and create a new one. It was a good idea, it just needs to solidly protect everyone and all the water, not just some of it. It is all connected. There are some situations where there can be no compromise. This is one of them. We really need you on our side.

Sincerely, Kim Michels
On Tue, Jan 31, 2012 at 1:05 PM, Ryan Ewing <EwingR@nwf.org> wrote:
Dear Annie,

I have just now seen your email back to the full NYRAD group wherein you shared your vehement opposition to the White House petition approach. Again, I am sorry you feel that way, and also sorry that you afforded me no opportunity to respond to your concerns first before emailing the full group. So not to extend this into further disagreement, we would welcome anyone to sign that petition or not, but I suppose the rest of the group should now be privileged to see my personal response to you, which is included below.

I understand that some will still not agree, but hope that you will find common cause with this effort as we are seeking to achieve the same results through different means.

In case you need further validation of our common cause, I was a key organizer behind the moratorium approach in Maryland where I live, in my Coalition role we generated over 50,000 comments supporting a ban on drilling in the George Washington National Forest in Virginia, and have helped facilitate the interaction between groups that will allow both Maryland and Virginia to benefit from the baseline water quality monitoring protocols established by Pennsylvania partners in case fracking ever does come to these states, so that we will have the scientific data to hold industry accountable for their actions.

If anyone has further questions, feel free to contact me directly, I subscribe to the list as a digest reader and so do cannot offer an immediate email reply.

Again, the White House petition is available at http://wh.gov/kCA

Sincerely,

Ryan Ewing
Communications and Outreach Coordinator
Choose Clean Water Coalition
706 Giddings Avenue, Suite 2C
Annapolis, MD 21401
443.927.8047 w
443.927.8050 f

www.choosecleanwater.org

From: Ryan Ewing
Sent: Monday, January 30, 2012 5:19 PM
To: 'Annie Lenihan'
Subject: RE: A license to drill. (kill)

Hi Annie,

While I appreciate your feedback, I think you misunderstand. Or at least you misdirect your frustration. As a staffer of a Coalition with a wide range of groups and divergent viewpoints, this was the result of the consensus that emerged.

To address your points specifically:

I think many would say that if the SDWA protections were in place, the practice of fracking could not have taken hold due to federal oversight of the many concerns it raises – especially the ones you describe. Putting the protections back into place would help stop the practice as it exists today for everyone, not just those under the direct jurisdiction of SDWA.

In the editing, sensitive lands was initially "federal lands", then "sensitive federal lands", and then I broadened the language to get people to agree that we are not just concerned about federal property and that many private farm and forest sites should be included. But others argued that we really couldn't defend no further drilling on areas in the West that were already subject to other oil and gas development. But you can't really fit that in 800 characters – so please don't read too much into it.

Since natural gas was pitched as a bridge fuel for energy independence, it seems that exporting gas through LNG terminals to other countries was pretty hypocritical, hence that language. But there are also some types of shale that can be fractured with just nitrogen gas, such as in Tennessee. So do folks have a problem with that? I don't know – but can we be categorically against export of all types of shale drilling? Again, can't fit that into 800 characters.

Finally, I would say that I am in personal agreement with you, but unless there is enough of a political force to demand an outright ban on drilling against a powerful oil & gas lobby, then I live with myself by finding enough common cause with others who care about this issue to find creative ways to get at the problem apart from the full frontal attack.

Thanks,

Ryan

From: Annie Lenihan [mailto:alenihan@frontiernet.net]
Sent: Wednesday, February 29, 2012 4:25 PM
To: Ryan Ewing
Subject: A license to drill. (kill)

To Ryan and the rest of this facade of an environmental group,

The safe drinking water act is in case you didn't know:
SDWA was originally passed by Congress in 1974 to protect public health by regulating the nation's public drinking water supply. The law was amended in 1986 and 1996 and requires many actions to protect drinking water and its sources: rivers, lakes, reservoirs, springs, and ground water wells. (SDWA does not regulate private wells which serve fewer than 25 individuals.)

Where do you think the drilling is going to happen? It's going to happen in areas that are agricultural, poor and where there are only wells and springs that are the source of drinking water for all of the people in the area. Who do you work for? What's a highly sensitive land? I think my land is. I saw a pair
of red tails yesterday. Are they sensitive enough for you? A bear and a fisher passed through my yard last year. Is that sensitive enough for you. I
had my spring tested. Cleanest and largest spring in the county. That sensitive enough for you?

How dare you call yourself a protector of anything.
Tightly restrict the export of shale gas? License to kill. Don't you know that people are dying from this process? Regulation does not make this process safe. It is a flawed process. If it was a bad drug, it would be off the shelves and outlawed in days. Where have been? How can you live with yourself?

Annie

we petition the obama administration to:
Protect communities from the negative impacts of hydraulic fracturing (fracking) and natural gas drilling.

Rapid development of fracking has overwhelmed communities with negative impacts: drinking water contamination, intense industrialization of farm and forest lands (with loss of habitat), polluted streams, heavy truck traffic and accidents on rural roads, even earthquakes from deep well injection of wastewater.

Hailed as an abundant bridge energy supply, shale gas drilling was exempted from provisions of major environmental laws, while we now know the supply is much less than previously thought.
We ask the Administration to protect our drinking water by restoring the protections of the Safe Drinking Water Act to natural gas drilling, to eliminate all other exemptions fracking enjoys, to prohibit drilling in national parks and highly sensitive lands and tightly restrict export of shale gas.

Created: Jan 25, 2012
Issues: Energy, Environment

Learn about Petition Thresholds
Signatures needed by February 29, 2012 to reach goal of 25,000

24,995
Total signatures on this petition
5
-- 
Outrage Management: 
The Goal:To engage the objectors and protect
the majority from becoming outraged.
 
Sign the Petition to Ban Drilling in New York State
http://www.thepetitionsite.com/1/NY-Statewide-Ban-On-Natural-Gas-Drilling/
 
 
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Northrup Response to "The Empire State Divide"

2012-01-24T08:29:00.001-08:00

Response to "The Empire State Divide"

Fracking Mockumentary

produced by the fake charity
Foundation for Land and Liberty
commentary by Chip Northrup

Introduction by Karen Moreau

Karen Moreau is a gas lobbyist. She is the Executive Director of the NYS Petroleum Council. So her intro is much-ado about mushrooms, but little about what she actually does for a living – shill for gas companies.

http://www.api.org/Newsroom/nspc-new-director.cfm

Hudson River Valley Cement Plants ?

Hudson River been notoriously polluted for decades by various industries. Premise here is that it should be polluted again – by fracking – because the cement plants are gone ?

Farming unprofitable ?

If a farm is unprofitable, fracking won’t change that. Most New York state farmers will not benefit from fracking. Grossly misleading to imply otherwise.

Local job opportunities ?

Rig work is not local – the rigs move. So if someone gets a job on a rig, they will leave the farm, if not the region.

Class warfare ?

On the one side, you have Cabot, Range Resources, Anschutz and Chesapeake. On the other, you have the majority of the residents of many Upstate New York towns and cities. That’s class warfare.

Pennsylvania Farmers

The gas boom is already over in most of Pennsylvania. A gas boom does not change the economics of farming. Confabulating farming and fracking is simply misleading. Anyone that gets a job on a rig will leave the farm and follow the rig.

Fracking Jobs for New York State ?

Fracking shale is uneconomic in New York State

http://tinyurl.com/fracking-economics

And fracking can be ruinous to the NY environment

Including Upstate villages and roads

http://tinyurl.com/frackingroads

Time to address the issue via responsible regulations

http://tinyurl.com/frackingregulations

Local land use controls

http://www.scribd.com/doc/63141534/Gas-Well-Zoning

And local road ordinances

http://www.scribd.com/doc/76437212/Frack-Truck-Impacts-on-Towns

Not fracking mockumentaries from gas lobbyists

http://www.scribd.com/doc/77780905/Gas-Lobby-in-NY

And their shills

http://tinyurl.com/shaleshills

Pat McElligott letter from Tom Libous

2012-01-23T02:00:00.000-08:00

WBNG Pro-gas show tomorrow night (Important == please read)

2012-01-22T13:50:00.001-08:00

WBNG Pro-gas Propaganda
& The Media Access Problem

The short of it:

PLEASE carefully watch the WBNG show tomorrow night.
(...if you can bear it...) Record it if you can.
Start 5m prior and include 5m after.

Note any inaccuracies (lies) or bias that you find
Watch for any sponsorship identification
(starting 5m before the show to 5 min. after it ends)

If they DO NOT mention a sponsor, there is a big problem.
If they DO mention a sponsor, note who it is.
Watch for anything which you would say works against the public interest.

I will send instructions for making a complaint with the FCC later.

This really major, folks.
License renewals are coming up in a couple of years,
and WBNG is already in the hotseat:

Background: http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2010/09/revised-script-complain-to-wbng-12-and.html
Also: http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/search?q=wbng

Libous' office: NO MEETING w/Patrick McElligott

2012-01-17T12:47:00.001-08:00

Senator Libous: 607-773-8771, 877-854-2687 (Binghamton), 518-455-2677 (Albany)

I just called Sen. Libous' office.

I am SHOCKED by this, but his office is saying
1) Sen. Libous meets with his constituents every day
2) Sen. Libous sits on an advisory board loaded with environmentalists
3) Sen. Libous hears both sides
4) NO MEETING w/Patrick McElligott
5) the Sen. will not change his mind on this issue.

I asked:
Don't you think it's strange that a representative WILL NOT meet with a constituent?

(repeats 1-5 above)

I replied: but Patrick has stated he does not want to change the Senator's mind.

(repeats 1-5 above)

then I'm sorry... I've answered you... hangs up.

PLEASE CALL TO HELP PATRICK:

Sen. Libous: Please have a meeting with Patrick McElligott
Here are his numbers:

Senator Libous: 607-773-8771, 877-854-2687 (Binghamton),
518-455-2677 (Albany)

He's in Albany, so may want to try there first.
But call both offices.
Call often.

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BH Comments on PSB article: "Last-minute surge of hydrofracking comments leaves DEC with hands full"

2012-01-14T05:21:00.000-08:00

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20120113/NEWS01/201130352/Last-minute-surge-hydrofracking-comments-leaves-DEC-hands-full

Last-minute surge of hydrofracking comments leaves DEC with hands full

6:10 PM, Jan. 13, 2012

Written by Jon Campbell

ALBANY -- Three days was all it took to double the state Department of Environmental Conservation's workload when it comes to hydraulic fracturing.

Comments on the agency's proposed hydrofracking rules skyrocketed from 20,800 on Jan. 9 to an estimated 40,000 by the time a response period closed at midnight Wednesday.

Now the DEC will have the onerous task of responding to the unprecedented number of comments. It's a process that will take months and could serve as one of the final hurdles before the drilling process is allowed in New York.

The state's 1,500-page report on high-volume hydrofracking is 3 1/2 years in the making. DEC Commissioner Joseph Martens said the completion of the report is months -- but not years -- from being finalized.

First, the DEC has to document each comment and respond to ones that provide a substantive critique.

"We're looking to see how (the comments) line up with any conclusions that we have drawn(*1) about any aspect of either the technical side of hydraulic fracturing or the socioeconomic side," Martens said in an interview Thursday with Gannett's Albany Bureau.

(*1: Conclusions? WRONG ANSWER Commissioner.
Set your conclusions aside and listen to what the people have to say.

Here's what we'd like to hear him say:
Commissioner Martens, in our dreams:

"We are grateful to the public for providing us all of this remarkable data
and for pointing out our legitimate oversights.

We hope to identify additional risks in these comments
not previously addressed in the rdSGEIS,
and propose new mitigations and prohibitions.

We are cognizant of the large number of local municipalities,
91 at last count, which have either passed bans or moratoria,
or are moving towards such.

We at the DEC and Governor Cuomo
have heard you about the hasty decision to proceed with
fracking at the scoping stage.

So we are reconsidering that, including the
NO ACTION ALTERNATIVE, which would amount to a ban.")

"If they raise questions about our work, we'll explore that and see if we agree or disagree."(*2)

(*2: OK, this is bad. Martens is taking this personally. This is an ego response.

Commissioner Martens, it's not about YOU. You seem like a really nice person.
This is about FRACKING. We don't want it here.)

Agency staffers are in the process of scanning thousands of last-minute, hard-copy submissions into the DEC's computer system. The responses will then be categorized and sent to the appropriate DEC division for a reply. And with written comments only having to be postmarked by Jan. 11, more were still trickling in recent days.

In the end, all the issues raised in the comments will be summarized and addressed with the final report, according to state law.

Many of the submissions -- including at least 7,000 copies of a pro-drilling form letter submitted by the Joint Landowners Coalition -- will require a single response.

Others that simply profess support or opposition to hydrofracking and do not offer specific comments on the DEC's proposals would not require a response.(*3)

(*3: Again, WRONG ANSWER Commissioner. if out of the unprecidented 40,000 comments, 36,000 are are against fracking, you had better respond to that! Let us remind you, that the authority for your job is given by we the people!).

But some are highly technical, including 500 pages from the Natural Resources Defense Council, which criticize the proposals as being too weak. Close to 150 pages came in from the Independent Oil & Gas Association, which called the DEC's plan "onerous" and "arbitrary."

High-volume hydrofracking -- the use of a high-pressure mix of water, sand and chemicals to unlock gas from tight shale formations -- has been on hold in New York since 2008.

"(Gov. Andrew Cuomo) should heed these concerns and order officials to revise the plan accordingly," said Bridget Lee, an attorney for environmental law firm Earthjustice, which has warned about the safety of hydrofracking.

"He has a duty both to help the state withstand legal scrutiny, and more importantly to protect the health of his constituents."

While Martens stressed that all technical comments will be considered and analyzed, he expressed confidence that the draft report addressed all the major issues surrounding hydrofracking.(*4)

(*4: WTF!? Sorry, this is astounding. I've been announcing "victory!", saying that they HAVE been hearing us in Albany.
Now I'm not so sure!

First there were 17 reasons identified, (TinyURL.com/2011SGEISFlaws) all show-stoppers on the SGEIS Flaws Wiki, including: * no cumulative impacts * no wastewater plan * no health impacts * and many more. Then there were 41 Reasons to Reject the Draft (TinyURL.com/41Reasons) produced by Adrian Kuzminski & Sustainable Otsego (now the list is up to 53). Then there was 101 Reasons to Ban Fracking, (TinyURL.com/101ReasonsToBanFracking) by Gerri Wiley of NYRAD. Gerri points out for each of the 101 reasons, any one of which would be sufficent to ban fracking. )

Still, the industry and landowners have taken issue particularly with a variety of setbacks and prohibitions included in the DEC's recommendations.

One is a ban on hydrofracking within 4,000 feet of the New York City and Syracuse watersheds. Landowners suggest those bans amount to an illegal "taking" of private property under the Fifth Amendment.(*5)

(*5: The Fifth Amendment says that "No person shall ... be a) deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor b) shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation". Let's break this down. This does not apply, because we are not talking about the government taking property. We are talking about preventing someone from doing activities on their land which will very likely have toxic side-effects downstream. There is no right under law to pollute your neighbor's well for profit.)

"We didn't look at this from the prospective of: Should every landowner be able to have fracking on their property?" said Martens, who said he doesn't believe the watershed bans violate the Constitution. "We look at it from the perspective of: What are the natural resources that need to be protected, and how do we go about protecting them?"(*6)

(*6: This is good... why is the document so weak, then? Is it due to the DEC's dual and schizophrenic purpose to both a) protect the environment, and b) license and permit industry to extract wealth and to pollute?)

The gas industry contends the DEC's proposed rules take as much as 50 percent of the "desirable parcels" off the table in the Marcellus Shale. If the regulations stand, gas companies would have little if any interest of moving into New York, warned Tom West, an Albany-based attorney and lobbyist for several major gas companies.

"This has to do with whether or not any (companies) are going to come back and lease land in New York state going forward," West said. "This has to do with whether or not industry is going to invest in New York state given the very non-competitive standards that have been proposed(*7) and the uncertainty of the process."

(*7: ...which Chip Northrup calls the worst in the nation: http://tinyurl.com/worstregs ).

While the DEC would have the authority to issue permits after it completes its review, there is still plenty of uncertainty surrounding the future of hydrofracking in New York. That includes the possibility of a legal challenge, which groups on both sides of the issue have long hinted as a foregone conclusion.

The DEC's hydrofracking advisory panel, a group of 18 outside stakeholders who have been tasked with coming up with an appropriate fee structure for gas drillers(*8), has yet to begin drawing up any proposals of its own. A meeting that had been scheduled for Thursday was postponed at the last minute, marking the third time a panel meeting has been pushed back in three months.

(*8: In other words, Cuomo has instructed the panel to *assume* that fracking in NY is inevitable, which it is not!)

Martens said the DEC is still pulling together information for the panel to review.

"We owe (the panel) information about the resource needs of the other state agencies," Martens said. "They need that information because that goes really to what is the magnitude of expenses that we need revenue to cover. We owe them information that will allow them to complete the work."

Even after the panel's recommendations are complete, new taxes and fees imposed on drillers would likely have to be passed by the state Legislature, which is bitterly divided on the merits of hydrofracking.

But the biggest remaining hurdle for drilling supporters still rests with the DEC reviewing comments and finalizing its rule proposals.

Martens said he's pleased with the draft report, but the comments could prove helpful.

"I feel like our work was well done," Martens said. "Was it perfect? Not necessarily, and that's what the comment period is all about. I'm sure that there are things we're going to learn from the comments."

Campbell is a staff writer for the Gannett Albany Bureau.

Questions about number of PA wells / completions

2012-01-09T21:38:00.001-08:00

I'm still trying to get an accurate count of PA wells:

How many HVHF permitted?
How many drilled?
How many completed / fracked?

So, I'm sharing my latest findings with you,
and hoping if you have more accurate data,
that you will send them along :)

You may have seen the recent article in the PSB.
Report: Pa. data missing nearly 500 gas wells
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20120109/NEWS01/120109021/1112/

Which referenced this article from the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:
DEP's Marcellus Shale drilling numbers do not add up
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12008/1202172-503.stm

Interesting question. I've been trying to get accurate data for PA for some time.

First, the PSB article doesn't have all the data.
You really gave to go to the original story to get all the numbers:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12008/1202172-503.stm

Part of the confusion has to do with the number of wells drilled vs. completed:

Even the newspaper reporter from the PPG seems confused by the difference:

QUOTE:

"As of December, DCNR had only received 1,222 well completion reports since 2007, compared to about 4,700 wells that apparently have been drilled. "

ENDQUOTE

Drilled means drilled. Completed means fracked.

What I've been hearing is that a lot of gas companies drill a well just to keep the lease active, but they don't complete it for a variety of reasons, like they don't have the pipeline infrastructure yet to deal with all the gas. This is one reaons the completion numbers are so much lower than total wells drilled.

There is also a question of well-pads vs wells-drilled (sometimes 8 or more per pad).

These data are complex. Hopefully we can get some accurate numbers soon.
Here are some data I've collected, along with the source.

PERMITTED:

8,958 wells have been permitted in PA:
Source: http://www.bradfordcountypa.org/Images/Gas-Map-Pdfs/marcellus_wells_labels.pdf

DRILLED:

4,700 wells that apparently have been drilled.
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12008/1202172-503.stm
2,350 wells drilled in PA
Source: (PSU) http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas/news/2011/08/august-25-webinar-to-examine-effect-of-marcellus-gas-activity-on-wildlife-habitat

COMPLETED:

1,608 producing HVHF wells in PA.
Source: http://stateimpact.npr.org/pennsylvania/tag/marcellus-locations-app/
1,222 number of well completion reports DCNR has received since 2007
Source: http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/12008/1202172-503.stm

I recently heard that PA is 2.5% developed.
(can't find the source for this, but it may have been Carol French/Carolyn Knapp)

So we can take these numbers above and multiply by 40x to get the cumulative impacts.

One reason I've been trying to track these numbers down is to get a warm-fuzzy about the numbers quoted by the SRBC:

At the Dec 2011 meeting in Wilkes Barre, James Richenderfer is the Director of Technical Programs for the SRBC claimed that in the Susquehanna River Basin (SRB), that there has been total consumptive use of 5.6B gal used for hydrofracking since 2008.

Assuming 5M gal / frack, * 1 frack. 5.6B gal would mean there has been enough water taken
from the SRB for 1,100 fracks.

Let's assume that of ALL PA wells, 2/3rds are in the SRB.

(This is a rough guess, after studying maps of the SRB vs. where the fracking
is going on in PA. It seems it is mostly in the SRB. e.g., see:
http://www.bradfordcountypa.org/Images/Gas-Map-Pdfs/marcellus_wells_labels.pdf )

So we should be able to multiply 1,100 * 1.5 (inverse of 2/3rds) to get the total number
of completed wells in PA => we get 1,650. .... seems to be in the ballpark, but there
are still discrepencies against the two numbers for completed wells above.

So assuming the SRBC data is correct, we do seem to find wells completed
by not reported...

1,650 - 1,608 = 42 missing well completions.
1,650 - 1,222 (number of well completion reports) = 428 missing completed wells.

So I hope this is valuable.
Just brainstorming with the numbers.

If you have insights or better data, please send it to me.

Thanks!
WM

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Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Binghamton Univ. deer kill canceled for January

2012-01-06T15:43:00.001-08:00

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: William Huston <williamahuston@gmail.com>
Date: Fri, Jan 6, 2012 at 6:42 PM
Subject: Binghamton Univ. deer kill canceled for January
To: williamahuston@gmail.com

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20120106/NEWS01/120106020/Binghamton-Univ-deer-kill-canceled-January?odyssey=tab|topnews|text|FRONTPAGE

Binghamton Univ. deer kill canceled for January

3:40 PM, Jan. 6, 2012 |

VESTAL -- Binghamton University will not be killing a portion of its deer population this month, a university spokeswoman confirmed Friday.

The university had planned to hire a company to cull the deer population during the winter break period while most students are off campus. That break ends at the end of January.

At the end of December, state Supreme Court Justice Molly Fitzgerald ruled that the university must undertake the State Environmental Quality Review Act process before beginning the killing.

Administrators will work with the Committee of the University Environment to comply with the SEQR process, said Gail Glover, director of media relations. But that won't begin until the faculty returns at the end of the month.

That means the culling will not take place as planned, she said.

Re: BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?

2012-01-03T15:49:00.001-08:00

Oh yes, "reasonable" excuses for slaughter?
I don't think there is such a thing.

Although the Nazis had a bunch of scientists involved in
relocation, sterilization, and extermination
of sentient creatures too.

Perhaps you practice a modern form of Eugenics at Binghamton University?
Where we've expanded the Master Race to include all humans?
Or at least the academics who get to decide which species lives and which species dies?

It amazes me how many progressives can justify slaughter of sentient creatures.
And call opposition "hysteria".

We disagree.

Here is what I need from my friends Julian and Dick:

1: First of all, please provide me with your definition of Overpopulation.
2: Apply this standard to all species.
3: IF "overpopulation" demands relocation, sterilization, or extermination,
demonstrate that you are treating all species subject to #1 the same.
i.e., that your standard is not either speciest or specious.

That is the general case. Now for specifics:

4: Demonstrate that overpopulation exists in the BU Nature Preserve.

Over the last 10 days, I have spent ~20 hours in the Nature Preserve.
I have been surveying the deer population, with a local hunter and
deer expert. He shows me what to look for, antler scrapes, droppings,
etc. NOTHING to indicate overpopulation.

There is PLENTY of underbrush and saplings.

We were just out there today, 4 hours. My friend the hunter says,
"Where are all the deer?"

We saw 8 the first time we went out.
Surveyed 75% of the Preserve. Today, we did another 4 hours,
surveyed 60% of the Preserve. We didn't see ANY deer in the higher
elevations, only down in the vicinity of Connector Road. Today we
saw a group of 3 does, and another group of about 5 does. No bucks.

Not 80-90. More like 8-9.

THERE IS NO DEER OVERPOPULATION PROBLEM IN THE PRESERVE.
That's bullshit. It's bad science.

If you assert this, then SHOW ME THE PROOF.

Here are my assertions:

A: A Nature Preserve is BY DEFINITION a NO KILL ZONE.
It is a SANCTUARY FOR ALL LIFE.

B: It is the FUNCTION of a STEWARD of such
to PREVENT hunting and slaughter in the Sanctuary,
NOT ORDER THE SLAUGHTER!

C: There is NO DEFINITION of "overpopulation" which can be based on science.
which can be distinguished from HUMAN PREFERENCE.

"Overpopulation" is not an attribute of the deer. It may seem that way.
But it is really a HUMAN JUDGMENT which exists in MIND ONLY.
It is NOT extant reality.

If you can justify the SLAUGHTER of 90 LARGE, WILD, SENTIENT BEINGS
to suit your preferences, then you can justify ANYTHING. War, violence towards
humans, slavery, genocide, child molestation, etc.

What's the difference between slaughtering 90 deer to suit your preferences
and raping 90 little boys because that suits your preference?

You folks need to find a way to reverse this BAD DECISION
and save face. I know I hold no judgments or resentment.

I believe all beings are deserving of compassion.
Including deer, and those who take life needlessly,
out of arrogance, hubris, and vanity.

If you do not reverse your untenable position,
I suspect this publicity is going
to become a personal embarrassment and for the University,
should you dig in to your untenable position.

This BU Deer Slaughter has already made national news.
Is this how you all want to be remembered?

Please reconsider this,
HOLD SOME PUBLIC HEARINGS
and most of all, right now:

STOP THE SLAUGHTER at BINGHAMTON UNIVERSITY!

Thank you.
Namaste - Peace - Nya:Weh
WM

On Tue, Jan 3, 2012 at 3:35 PM, Christine Niskanen <chris6nisk5@yahoo.com> wrote:

Thanks for your answers to the questions from Bill Huston. They appeared reasonable to me, & I hope that they can defuse some of

the hysteria around the deer killing issue.
Christine Niskanen

From: Richard Andrus <randrus@binghamton.edu>
To: Julian Shepherd <jshepher@binghamton.edu>
Cc: broomecountynygreens@yahoogroups.com; stpc@lists.riseup.net; nypamediaaction@lists.riseup.net; bcveggie@lists.riseup.net; GreenST <greenst@yahoogroups.com>; Peacenet <peacenet@listserv.binghamton.edu>; stnylightworkers@lists.riseup.net; James Van Voorst <vanvoors@binghamton.edu>; Dylan Horvath <dhorvath@binghamton.edu>; president@binghamton.edu; Victor S. Lamoureux <vlamoureux@stny.rr.com>; Gail C Glover <gglover@binghamton.edu>
Sent: Monday, January 2, 2012 10:36 AM
Subject: [STPC] Re: BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?

1. The "mystery mounds" are now and have been for thousands of years, mounds formed by a species of ant known as the Allegheny Mound builder. It is a red ant in the genus Formica and makes mounds that are wonderfully engineered to take maximum advantage of solar radiation. They are typically made so that they face SSW on their long face, which maximizes solar heat gain in cooler parts of the year. They are exceedingly common around here and can be quite exciting to be near at certain times of the year as the ants bite ferociously. Sometimes bears may tear them open but generally they are left alone because of their bite. This time of year they are well underground.

2. I have no idea what this is but I hope its more accurate than the report of the mystery mound bait stations!

3. The large tree stand is on private property. Its been there for many years. Not sure if its even being used any more. There are numerous old tree stands around that were never taken down by the users. The Friends of the Nature Preserve has taken down several on BU land.

4. The Fuller Hollow Gun Club is what our neighbor to the east calls his property. I'm sure hunting is legal here. If they are baiting deer that's their problem. Many people feed deer in contravention of state law. I personally have removed a number of salt licks that a Murray Hill Rd. neighbor of the university put at a site on university property where he fed the deer apples. He also cut down a tree on university property to get a better view of the deer!

People interested in this question should understand its full dimensions. Deer are large herbivores that are normally limited by either predation or periodic starvation. We have eliminated the large predators ( except motor vehicles!), leaving starvation as the main control. The state originally created deer hunting regulations to do two things:
1. Keep deer populations from getting too high so that many starve in bad winters
2. Keep too many deer from being shot by hunters so that there are still some around next year.

(This has always been a tricky thing and deer biologists can count on always being wrong by some of the deer hunting public.)
The regulations worked for a while but with changes in the landscape and people's hunting habits (fewer hunters), deer have become serious economic problems. Some farmers can lose a lot of production to deer herbivory and so the state created nuisance permits allowing farmers to kill as many deer as they can on their own land to protect their crops. This sort of works but even then its hard to keep the numbers down for some farmers.

The other relatively new problem is the urban-suburban deer. Deer in this area have learned that developed areas are safety zones with often abundant food from shrubs, flowers and vegetable gardens. In my part of the City of Binghamton one must build an impenetrable barrier 10 feet tall to grow anything deer eat, and that seems to include any vegetables except the onion family! Deer sleep, reproduce and die in my backyard. The state has yet to figure out any way to deal with this as hunting is impossible in this context.

One big fear from this huge uncontrolled population is some sort of disease like chronic wasting disease. Biology teaches us that its common when any animal population reached high densities that disease can and often does step in. This has already happened in some parts of the US.

Since deer are large herbivores they need a lot of food and so at high densities they eat a lot. Unfortunately, just like that other sentient being Homo sapiens, they don't have any ability to tell them that they are eating their future and so lacking any control they will destroy their environment and food supply. There are several spectacular examples of this in the ecological literature, especially the Kaibab Plateau. What happens is that they will not only eat everything edible they can find but also destroy their habitat. When the population inevitably crashes the habitat has been irreversibly damaged so that even when the deer are reduced, the carrying capacity has been radically reduced.

Its not just deer that can do this but invasive pigs, rabbits, goats and even horses. But deer seem to be the prime problems in temperate zone ecosystems all over the world, e.g., The British Isles, New Zealand, & Japan. Deer can and do completely destroy a forest over time by eating virtually every plant that attempts to grow. Eventually the only things left are what deer don't eat and unfortunately in our case that does not include any native trees! So our campus forests are simply not reproducing. This has been going on for probably 50 years and now as older or diseased trees die off there is no replacement. Gaps are getting larger each year.

Many, many places are facing this problem of forest decline and are trying various means to control deer and save their forests. Wildlife ecologists have studied this problem carefully and have determined that deer densities need to be around 15 deer per square mile to prevent overgrazing. In more extensive and less populated areas controlled hunting sometimes works but this has to be done regularly to be effective. Where deer populations are very high and populations densities people are high, the only proven technique that can get the populations down to a level that allows the forest to reproduce again is expert sharpshooting. Hunting will not get enough and contraception, even if it did work, would still leave the current high densities around for the 10 years or so it will take for the current deer to die of old age. That's too long.
Fencing the entire campus with a 10 foot high chain link fence would cost a small fortune even if the logistic problems could be worked out. Our natural areas would then look like a prison! And then you'd have the problem of 1) would we drive all the current deer out first and have a place with no deer or 2) leave them all in to starve to death. And the fence wold keep some other mammals in or out as well.

Our intent is to reduce the numbers to carrying capacity . Initially the goal is to go a bit lower than 15/square mile to allow the severely damaged forest to recover.
If we do nothing it is clear that unless we are saved by an epidemic of chronic wasting disease, our native forest will die out and be replaced by some indeterminate plant community whose main characteristic will be inedibility to deer. You can make your own prediction here. Mine is Tree od Heaven as the only trees, shrubs of invasive honeysuckle and barberry and herbaceous cover of ferns and garlic mustard. Some of this is happening now. Nearly all of the native forest birds and mammals will also go, including deer as they gradually starve.

So the deer culling is actually not a murderous rampage by blood thirsty lunatics but the best we can figure out to do to save as much as we can under difficult circumstances., based upon the best science available.

Dick Andrus

On Jan 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM, William Huston wrote:

NEWS MEDIA, Please follow up on the following questions:

Note: these photos are hosted on Facebook. If you can't see the images,
please let me know. --- WM

1: What are the Mystery Mounds all through the Nature Preserve? Is this baiting the deer?
    i.e., is Binghamton University causing their own problem?!
    http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/binghamton-university-has-been-baiting.html

2: WHO was erecting mechanical nets inside the Nature Preserve at 4pm 1-1-2012? and WHY?
    (audio and video evidence will be posted soon... the sound was IDENTICAL to the ratcheting heard
     at the beginning of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxe8Qn7lToM )

    I called BU Police and they told me they had no knowledge of Dinicola being on campus,
    but they insisted there was NO hunting, or trapping occuring on campus. BIG PROBLEM.

3: Investigate the Large Tree Stand located near the border of the Nature Preserve indicated below.
    We need to DEC out here with a GPS to determine if this is ON-CAMPUS or not.

4: Who owns the Fuller Hollow Gun Club, which is adjacent to the Nature Preserve? Is it Larry and Ruth Bleier? Is this legal for Residential Zoning? Have they been baiting deer? (unsubstantiated report)

From recon reports 1-1-2012.
Map, showing arial photo, + property boundaries.

Large tree stand found at X1. May be on private land owned by "Thayne, LLC" 3401 Fuller Hollow Road, ID 175.09-1-2

Mechanical nets heard being erected at X2 around 4:00pm.
X3 is posted "Fuller Hollow Gun Club". Property ID is 175.10-1-17, 3909 Fuller Hollow Road, owned by Larry P and Ruth L Bleier. Zoned Residential 242.

1: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

2: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

3: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

4: No Bows, Guns, or Trapping!!!

5: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map.

6: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

7: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

8 Found the tire, now look up...

9: Found the tire, now look up... what's that?.....

10: HOLY SHIT!

Needless to say, I got out of there quick.

PLEASE help by calling the DEC out to investigate the location of this stand.
WHO owns the property? Is this stand on the Nature Preserve?
It is very close to the border, and is NOT posted.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Re: [bcveggie] Re: BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?

2012-01-02T11:13:00.001-08:00

Hi Victor,

Would you mind telling me who you are and how you fit in all this?

What is your data to show the deer *in the Preserve* are overpopulated?
What is your definition of "over populated"?

Citing problems in the surrounding neighborhood is a completely different
matter, but may yield some insight as to the true reasons for this
senseless slaughter.

My assertion:

There is NO SCIENCE or REASON
which can be used to justify
the slaughter of 100 large wild animal
which can be scientifically and objectively distinguished
from HUMAN PREFERENCE.

These are SENTIENT BEINGS with complex emotions,
use language, feel pleasure/pain, have memories, etc.

If you can use this blood-logic to justify the mass-murder of Deer,
it is only a tiny step away from the mass murder of Jews,
or Africans, or Homosexuals, the rape of children.. ANY IMMORAL ACT.

If you can justify the slaughter of deer to suit your preferences,
you can justify ANYTHING.

If you go through with this, I will stand in your way.

Namaste - Peace - Nya:Weh
WM

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 2:00 PM, Victor S. Lamoureux <vlamoureux@stny.rr.com> wrote:

Bill,

Thanks for CC'ing me on this matter. I believe Dick is pretty much 100% right on this issue. The deer are over the carrying capacity for the Nature Preserve and their mere existence does not signify a contradiction. Their numbers are artificially high because they move into the neighborhoods to feed and then back into the Preserve where they have pretty much destroyed the native vegetation. I can show you numerous areas in the neighborhoods with deer browse lines. At my own home (adjacent to the Preserve), I have put almost a thousand dollars and many hours of labor into installing a deer fence to keep them from destroying all my landscaping. If the food is so available in the Preserve, why do deer chance the people, cars, and dogs of the neighborhoods? We stand to lose much of our native wildlife to deer at this point. I have said this before and I think it is entirely true.... deer will have a greater impact on the region's biodiversity than hydrofracking.

In that vein, on a more concerning note to me, is our mutual interest in stopping hydrofracking. Your touting of conspiracy theories, bogus science, and "scientific" absurdities is making you look ridiculous to anyone with common sense and a scientific background. In the fight against hydrofracking it will be hard for anyone to take your position seriously knowing how off base you are with the deer culling issue. Anyone with basic naturalist abilities and a knowledge of northeastern natural history knows about the Allegheny Mound Building ants. I would challenge you to take your pants off and sit on one of these mounds in the summer and tell me they are not ant mounds! FACTS like these are obvious and creating anything else from them looks extremely ignorant and makes people think that you will twist any angle to support your cause. Credibility therefore becomes extremely lacking. Please reconsider your deer campaign... at least until you get REAL facts and information.

And as you likely well know, or should know, Dick Andrus and Julian Shepherd have done more for the environment and local natural areas than just about anyone I know. This decision was not taken in a cavalier fashion or out of lack of respect for deer. It comes from the inevitable conclusion one reaches as you slowly watch the forest die over the last 20 years.

Victor

From: William Huston

Sent: Monday, January 02, 2012 11:41 AM

To: Richard Andrus ; Julian Shepherd

Cc: broomecountynygreens@yahoogroups.com ; stpc@lists.riseup.net ; nypamediaaction@lists.riseup.net ; bcveggie@lists.riseup.net ; GreenST ; Peacenet ; stnylightworkers@lists.riseup.net ; James Van Voorst ; Dylan Horvath ; president@binghamton.edu ; Victor S. Lamoureux ; Gail C Glover

Subject: Re: [bcveggie] Re: BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?

Hi Dick,

First: Was Anthony Dinicola, White Buffalo, or any other agency
present in the Nature Preserve yesterday? What were they doing?
Who is doing the survey, which the news stated BU was performing?

Next, thanks for the thoughtful and detailed reply.

Would you be interested in reading this on camera?
I would play it unedited on public access TV and also on youtube.

Also, if you would be up for it,
in addition to your reading this statement,
I'm wondering if you'd be interested in having a dialog about this on camera.
We can set up ground rules which you'd feel comfortable with.

Perhaps we can do this in a public forum, polemics and/or debate.
I think a lot of people would attend.

Because there really should be some public hearings on this matter.
With an honest effort to hear what the public has to say.
Would you agree?

This has not happened yet.

I am particularly interested in providing counterpoint to your
assertion that humans can objectively, scientifically decide what the
carrying capacity of another species is, and, that we
have the moral right to enforce it with slaughter.

I assert such an argument is both speciest (related to "racist")
and also is specious (a bad argument).

Carrying capacity is determined by one thing: NATURE.
When individuals in a group are starving, whoops. Must have hit carrying capacity.

As you point out,
STARVING IS NORMAL IN NATURE
and does not need to be remedied
by thoughtful, compassionate humans via slaughter.

When individuals in a group are flourishing,
then we haven't hit carrying capacity yet, by definition.

You are looking at flourishing deer and saying:
they are over carrying capacity
which is a contradiction.

Those deer have an inherent right to live,
just like you and I.

Did you know that Anthony Dinicola wants to slaughter the LAST of the Axis Deer?
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?cat=5
http://www.fotwd.org/axis-deer-point-reyes-killings.shtml

Look how beautiful they are:

If one is going to make the argument
that a species is "overpopulated"
by an objective definition,

and that "culling" (slaughter) is the price one must pay,

THEN, one had better be intellectually honest enough
to make ALL species subject to this same criterion,
including one's own.

Thanks,
Namaste - Peace - Nya:Weh
WM

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 10:36 AM, Richard Andrus <randrus@binghamton.edu> wrote:

1. The "mystery mounds" are now and have been for thousands of years, mounds formed by a species of ant known as the Allegheny Mound builder. It is a red ant in the genus Formica and makes mounds that are wonderfully engineered to take maximum advantage of solar radiation. They are typically made so that they face SSW on their long face, which maximizes solar heat gain in cooler parts of the year. They are exceedingly common around here and can be quite exciting to be near at certain times of the year as the ants bite ferociously. Sometimes bears may tear them open but generally they are left alone because of their bite. This time of year they are well underground.

2. I have no idea what this is but I hope its more accurate than the report of the mystery mound bait stations!

3. The large tree stand is on private property. Its been there for many years. Not sure if its even being used any more. There are numerous old tree stands around that were never taken down by the users. The Friends of the Nature Preserve has taken down several on BU land.

4. The Fuller Hollow Gun Club is what our neighbor to the east calls his property. I'm sure hunting is legal here. If they are baiting deer that's their problem. Many people feed deer in contravention of state law. I personally have removed a number of salt licks that a Murray Hill Rd. neighbor of the university put at a site on university property where he fed the deer apples. He also cut down a tree on university property to get a better view of the deer!

People interested in this question should understand its full dimensions. Deer are large herbivores that are normally limited by either predation or periodic starvation. We have eliminated the large predators ( except motor vehicles!), leaving starvation as the main control. The state originally created deer hunting regulations to do two things:

       1. Keep deer populations from getting too high so that many starve in bad winters

        2. Keep too many deer from being shot by hunters so that there are still some around next year.

(This has always been a tricky thing and deer biologists can count on always being wrong by some of the deer hunting public.)

The regulations worked for a while but with changes in the landscape and people's hunting habits (fewer hunters), deer have become serious economic problems. Some farmers can lose a lot of production to deer herbivory and so the state created nuisance permits allowing farmers to kill as many deer as they can on their own land to protect their crops. This sort of works but even then its hard to keep the numbers down for some farmers.

The other relatively new problem is the urban-suburban deer. Deer in this area have learned that developed areas are safety zones with often abundant food from shrubs, flowers and vegetable gardens. In my part of the City of Binghamton one must build an impenetrable barrier 10 feet tall to grow anything deer eat, and that seems to include any vegetables except the onion family! Deer sleep, reproduce and die in my backyard. The state has yet to figure out any way to deal with this as hunting is impossible in this context.

One big fear from this huge uncontrolled population is some sort of disease like chronic wasting disease. Biology teaches us that its common when any animal population reached high densities that disease can and often does step in. This has already happened in some parts of the US.

Since deer are large herbivores they need a lot of food and so at high densities they eat a lot. Unfortunately, just like that other sentient being Homo sapiens, they don't have any ability to tell them that they are eating their future and so lacking any control they will destroy their environment and food supply. There are several spectacular examples of this in the ecological literature, especially the Kaibab Plateau. What happens is that they will not only eat everything edible they can find but also destroy their habitat. When the population inevitably crashes the habitat has been irreversibly damaged so that even when the deer are reduced, the carrying capacity has been radically reduced.

Its not just deer that can do this but invasive pigs, rabbits, goats and even horses. But deer seem to be the prime problems in temperate zone ecosystems all over the world, e.g., The British Isles, New Zealand, & Japan. Deer can and do completely destroy a forest over time by eating virtually every plant that attempts to grow. Eventually the only things left are what deer don't eat and unfortunately in our case that does not include any native trees! So our campus forests are simply not reproducing. This has been going on for probably 50 years and now as older or diseased trees die off there is no replacement. Gaps are getting larger each year.

Many, many places are facing this problem of forest decline and are trying various means to control deer and save their forests. Wildlife ecologists have studied this problem carefully and have determined that deer densities need to be around 15 deer per square mile to prevent overgrazing. In more extensive and less populated areas controlled hunting sometimes works but this has to be done regularly to be effective. Where deer populations are very high and populations densities people are high, the only proven technique that can get the populations down to a level that allows the forest to reproduce again is expert sharpshooting. Hunting will not get enough and contraception, even if it did work, would still leave the current high densities around for the 10 years or so it will take for the current deer to die of old age. That's too long.

Fencing the entire campus with a 10 foot high chain link fence would cost a small fortune even if the logistic problems could be worked out. Our natural areas would then look like a prison! And then you'd have the problem of 1) would we drive all the current deer out first and have a place with no deer or 2) leave them all in to starve to death. And the fence wold keep some other mammals in or out as well.

Our intent is to reduce the numbers to carrying capacity . Initially the goal is to go a bit lower than 15/square mile to allow the severely damaged forest to recover.

If we do nothing it is clear that unless we are saved by an epidemic of chronic wasting disease, our native forest will die out and be replaced by some indeterminate plant community whose main characteristic will be inedibility to deer. You can make your own prediction here. Mine is Tree od Heaven as the only trees, shrubs of invasive honeysuckle and barberry and herbaceous cover of ferns and garlic mustard. Some of this is happening now. Nearly all of the native forest birds and mammals will also go, including deer as they gradually starve.

So the deer culling is actually not a murderous rampage by blood thirsty lunatics but the best we can figure out to do to save as much as we can under difficult circumstances., based upon the best science available.

Dick Andrus

On Jan 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM, William Huston wrote:

NEWS MEDIA, Please follow up on the following questions:

Note: these photos are hosted on Facebook. If you can't see the images,
please let me know. --- WM

1: What are the Mystery Mounds all through the Nature Preserve? Is this baiting the deer?
    i.e., is Binghamton University causing their own problem?!
    http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/binghamton-university-has-been-baiting.html

2: WHO was erecting mechanical nets inside the Nature Preserve at 4pm 1-1-2012? and WHY?
    (audio and video evidence will be posted soon... the sound was IDENTICAL to the ratcheting heard
     at the beginning of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxe8Qn7lToM )

    I called BU Police and they told me they had no knowledge of Dinicola being on campus,
    but they insisted there was NO hunting, or trapping occuring on campus. BIG PROBLEM.

3: Investigate the Large Tree Stand located near the border of the Nature Preserve indicated below.
    We need to DEC out here with a GPS to determine if this is ON-CAMPUS or not.

4: Who owns the Fuller Hollow Gun Club, which is adjacent to the Nature Preserve? Is it Larry and Ruth Bleier? Is this legal for Residential Zoning? Have they been baiting deer? (unsubstantiated report)

From recon reports 1-1-2012.
Map, showing arial photo, + property boundaries.

Large tree stand found at X1. May be on private land owned by "Thayne, LLC" 3401 Fuller Hollow Road, ID 175.09-1-2

Mechanical nets heard being erected at X2 around 4:00pm.
X3 is posted "Fuller Hollow Gun Club". Property ID is 175.10-1-17, 3909 Fuller Hollow Road, owned by Larry P and Ruth L Bleier. Zoned Residential 242.

1: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

2: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

3: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

4: No Bows, Guns, or Trapping!!!

5: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map.

6: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

7: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

8 Found the tire, now look up...

9: Found the tire, now look up... what's that?.....

10: HOLY SHIT!

Needless to say, I got out of there quick.

PLEASE help by calling the DEC out to investigate the location of this stand.
WHO owns the property? Is this stand on the Nature Preserve?
It is very close to the border, and is NOT posted.

--
William Huston            WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY             Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos:    http://youtube.com/billhuston         http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html     http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

--
William Huston            WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY             Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos:    http://youtube.com/billhuston         http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html     http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Re: [bcveggie] Re: BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?

2012-01-02T08:41:00.001-08:00

Hi Dick,

First: Was Anthony Dinicola, White Buffalo, or any other agency
present in the Nature Preserve yesterday? What were they doing?
Who is doing the survey, which the news stated BU was performing?

Next, thanks for the thoughtful and detailed reply.

Would you be interested in reading this on camera?
I would play it unedited on public access TV and also on youtube.

Also, if you would be up for it,
in addition to your reading this statement,
I'm wondering if you'd be interested in having a dialog about this on camera.
We can set up ground rules which you'd feel comfortable with.

Perhaps we can do this in a public forum, polemics and/or debate.
I think a lot of people would attend.

Because there really should be some public hearings on this matter.
With an honest effort to hear what the public has to say.
Would you agree?

This has not happened yet.

I am particularly interested in providing counterpoint to your
assertion that humans can objectively, scientifically decide what the
carrying capacity of another species is, and, that we
have the moral right to enforce it with slaughter.

I assert such an argument is both speciest (related to "racist")
and also is specious (a bad argument).

Carrying capacity is determined by one thing: NATURE.
When individuals in a group are starving, whoops. Must have hit carrying capacity.

As you point out,
STARVING IS NORMAL IN NATURE
and does not need to be remedied
by thoughtful, compassionate humans via slaughter.

When individuals in a group are flourishing,
then we haven't hit carrying capacity yet, by definition.

You are looking at flourishing deer and saying:
they are over carrying capacity
which is a contradiction.

Those deer have an inherent right to live,
just like you and I.

Did you know that Anthony Dinicola wants to slaughter the LAST of the Axis Deer?
http://www.solaswebdesign.net/wordpress/?cat=5
http://www.fotwd.org/axis-deer-point-reyes-killings.shtml

Look how beautiful they are:

If one is going to make the argument
that a species is "overpopulated"
by an objective definition,

and that "culling" (slaughter) is the price one must pay,

THEN, one had better be intellectually honest enough
to make ALL species subject to this same criterion,
including one's own.

Thanks,
Namaste - Peace - Nya:Weh
WM

On Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 10:36 AM, Richard Andrus <randrus@binghamton.edu> wrote:

1. The "mystery mounds" are now and have been for thousands of years, mounds formed by a species of ant known as the Allegheny Mound builder. It is a red ant in the genus Formica and makes mounds that are wonderfully engineered to take maximum advantage of solar radiation. They are typically made so that they face SSW on their long face, which maximizes solar heat gain in cooler parts of the year. They are exceedingly common around here and can be quite exciting to be near at certain times of the year as the ants bite ferociously. Sometimes bears may tear them open but generally they are left alone because of their bite. This time of year they are well underground.

2. I have no idea what this is but I hope its more accurate than the report of the mystery mound bait stations!

3. The large tree stand is on private property. Its been there for many years. Not sure if its even being used any more. There are numerous old tree stands around that were never taken down by the users. The Friends of the Nature Preserve has taken down several on BU land.

4. The Fuller Hollow Gun Club is what our neighbor to the east calls his property. I'm sure hunting is legal here. If they are baiting deer that's their problem. Many people feed deer in contravention of state law. I personally have removed a number of salt licks that a Murray Hill Rd. neighbor of the university put at a site on university property where he fed the deer apples. He also cut down a tree on university property to get a better view of the deer!

People interested in this question should understand its full dimensions. Deer are large herbivores that are normally limited by either predation or periodic starvation. We have eliminated the large predators ( except motor vehicles!), leaving starvation as the main control. The state originally created deer hunting regulations to do two things:

1. Keep deer populations from getting too high so that many starve in bad winters
2. Keep too many deer from being shot by hunters so that there are still some around next year.
(This has always been a tricky thing and deer biologists can count on always being wrong by some of the deer hunting public.)

The regulations worked for a while but with changes in the landscape and people's hunting habits (fewer hunters), deer have become serious economic problems. Some farmers can lose a lot of production to deer herbivory and so the state created nuisance permits allowing farmers to kill as many deer as they can on their own land to protect their crops. This sort of works but even then its hard to keep the numbers down for some farmers.

The other relatively new problem is the urban-suburban deer. Deer in this area have learned that developed areas are safety zones with often abundant food from shrubs, flowers and vegetable gardens. In my part of the City of Binghamton one must build an impenetrable barrier 10 feet tall to grow anything deer eat, and that seems to include any vegetables except the onion family! Deer sleep, reproduce and die in my backyard. The state has yet to figure out any way to deal with this as hunting is impossible in this context.

One big fear from this huge uncontrolled population is some sort of disease like chronic wasting disease. Biology teaches us that its common when any animal population reached high densities that disease can and often does step in. This has already happened in some parts of the US.

Since deer are large herbivores they need a lot of food and so at high densities they eat a lot. Unfortunately, just like that other sentient being Homo sapiens, they don't have any ability to tell them that they are eating their future and so lacking any control they will destroy their environment and food supply. There are several spectacular examples of this in the ecological literature, especially the Kaibab Plateau. What happens is that they will not only eat everything edible they can find but also destroy their habitat. When the population inevitably crashes the habitat has been irreversibly damaged so that even when the deer are reduced, the carrying capacity has been radically reduced.

Its not just deer that can do this but invasive pigs, rabbits, goats and even horses. But deer seem to be the prime problems in temperate zone ecosystems all over the world, e.g., The British Isles, New Zealand, & Japan. Deer can and do completely destroy a forest over time by eating virtually every plant that attempts to grow. Eventually the only things left are what deer don't eat and unfortunately in our case that does not include any native trees! So our campus forests are simply not reproducing. This has been going on for probably 50 years and now as older or diseased trees die off there is no replacement. Gaps are getting larger each year.

Many, many places are facing this problem of forest decline and are trying various means to control deer and save their forests. Wildlife ecologists have studied this problem carefully and have determined that deer densities need to be around 15 deer per square mile to prevent overgrazing. In more extensive and less populated areas controlled hunting sometimes works but this has to be done regularly to be effective. Where deer populations are very high and populations densities people are high, the only proven technique that can get the populations down to a level that allows the forest to reproduce again is expert sharpshooting. Hunting will not get enough and contraception, even if it did work, would still leave the current high densities around for the 10 years or so it will take for the current deer to die of old age. That's too long.

Fencing the entire campus with a 10 foot high chain link fence would cost a small fortune even if the logistic problems could be worked out. Our natural areas would then look like a prison! And then you'd have the problem of 1) would we drive all the current deer out first and have a place with no deer or 2) leave them all in to starve to death. And the fence wold keep some other mammals in or out as well.

Our intent is to reduce the numbers to carrying capacity . Initially the goal is to go a bit lower than 15/square mile to allow the severely damaged forest to recover.
If we do nothing it is clear that unless we are saved by an epidemic of chronic wasting disease, our native forest will die out and be replaced by some indeterminate plant community whose main characteristic will be inedibility to deer. You can make your own prediction here. Mine is Tree od Heaven as the only trees, shrubs of invasive honeysuckle and barberry and herbaceous cover of ferns and garlic mustard. Some of this is happening now. Nearly all of the native forest birds and mammals will also go, including deer as they gradually starve.

So the deer culling is actually not a murderous rampage by blood thirsty lunatics but the best we can figure out to do to save as much as we can under difficult circumstances., based upon the best science available.

Dick Andrus

On Jan 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM, William Huston wrote:

NEWS MEDIA, Please follow up on the following questions:

Note: these photos are hosted on Facebook. If you can't see the images,
please let me know. --- WM

1: What are the Mystery Mounds all through the Nature Preserve? Is this baiting the deer?
    i.e., is Binghamton University causing their own problem?!
    http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/binghamton-university-has-been-baiting.html

2: WHO was erecting mechanical nets inside the Nature Preserve at 4pm 1-1-2012? and WHY?
    (audio and video evidence will be posted soon... the sound was IDENTICAL to the ratcheting heard
     at the beginning of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxe8Qn7lToM )

    I called BU Police and they told me they had no knowledge of Dinicola being on campus,
    but they insisted there was NO hunting, or trapping occuring on campus. BIG PROBLEM.

3: Investigate the Large Tree Stand located near the border of the Nature Preserve indicated below.
    We need to DEC out here with a GPS to determine if this is ON-CAMPUS or not.

4: Who owns the Fuller Hollow Gun Club, which is adjacent to the Nature Preserve? Is it Larry and Ruth Bleier? Is this legal for Residential Zoning? Have they been baiting deer? (unsubstantiated report)

From recon reports 1-1-2012.
Map, showing arial photo, + property boundaries.

Large tree stand found at X1. May be on private land owned by "Thayne, LLC" 3401 Fuller Hollow Road, ID 175.09-1-2

Mechanical nets heard being erected at X2 around 4:00pm.
X3 is posted "Fuller Hollow Gun Club". Property ID is 175.10-1-17, 3909 Fuller Hollow Road, owned by Larry P and Ruth L Bleier. Zoned Residential 242.

1: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

2: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

3: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

4: No Bows, Guns, or Trapping!!!

5: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map.

6: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

7: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

8 Found the tire, now look up...

9: Found the tire, now look up... what's that?.....

10: HOLY SHIT!

Needless to say, I got out of there quick.

PLEASE help by calling the DEC out to investigate the location of this stand.
WHO owns the property? Is this stand on the Nature Preserve?
It is very close to the border, and is NOT posted.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Fwd: [bcveggie] Re: BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?

2012-01-02T08:06:00.001-08:00

Dick Andrus replies:

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Richard Andrus <randrus@binghamton.edu>
Date: Mon, Jan 2, 2012 at 10:36 AM
Subject: [bcveggie] Re: BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?
To: Julian Shepherd <jshepher@binghamton.edu>
Cc: broomecountynygreens@yahoogroups.com, stpc@lists.riseup.net, nypamediaaction@lists.riseup.net, bcveggie@lists.riseup.net, GreenST <greenst@yahoogroups.com>, Peacenet <peacenet@listserv.binghamton.edu>, stnylightworkers@lists.riseup.net, James Van Voorst <vanvoors@binghamton.edu>, Dylan Horvath <dhorvath@binghamton.edu>, president@binghamton.edu, "Victor S. Lamoureux" <vlamoureux@stny.rr.com>, Gail C Glover <gglover@binghamton.edu>

1. The "mystery mounds" are now and have been for thousands of years, mounds formed by a species of ant known as the Allegheny Mound builder. It is a red ant in the genus Formica and makes mounds that are wonderfully engineered to take maximum advantage of solar radiation. They are typically made so that they face SSW on their long face, which maximizes solar heat gain in cooler parts of the year. They are exceedingly common around here and can be quite exciting to be near at certain times of the year as the ants bite ferociously. Sometimes bears may tear them open but generally they are left alone because of their bite. This time of year they are well underground.

2. I have no idea what this is but I hope its more accurate than the report of the mystery mound bait stations!

3. The large tree stand is on private property. Its been there for many years. Not sure if its even being used any more. There are numerous old tree stands around that were never taken down by the users. The Friends of the Nature Preserve has taken down several on BU land.

4. The Fuller Hollow Gun Club is what our neighbor to the east calls his property. I'm sure hunting is legal here. If they are baiting deer that's their problem. Many people feed deer in contravention of state law. I personally have removed a number of salt licks that a Murray Hill Rd. neighbor of the university put at a site on university property where he fed the deer apples. He also cut down a tree on university property to get a better view of the deer!

People interested in this question should understand its full dimensions. Deer are large herbivores that are normally limited by either predation or periodic starvation. We have eliminated the large predators ( except motor vehicles!), leaving starvation as the main control. The state originally created deer hunting regulations to do two things:

1. Keep deer populations from getting too high so that many starve in bad winters

2. Keep too many deer from being shot by hunters so that there are still some around next year.

(This has always been a tricky thing and deer biologists can count on always being wrong by some of the deer hunting public.)

The regulations worked for a while but with changes in the landscape and people's hunting habits (fewer hunters), deer have become serious economic problems. Some farmers can lose a lot of production to deer herbivory and so the state created nuisance permits allowing farmers to kill as many deer as they can on their own land to protect their crops. This sort of works but even then its hard to keep the numbers down for some farmers.

The other relatively new problem is the urban-suburban deer. Deer in this area have learned that developed areas are safety zones with often abundant food from shrubs, flowers and vegetable gardens. In my part of the City of Binghamton one must build an impenetrable barrier 10 feet tall to grow anything deer eat, and that seems to include any vegetables except the onion family! Deer sleep, reproduce and die in my backyard. The state has yet to figure out any way to deal with this as hunting is impossible in this context.

One big fear from this huge uncontrolled population is some sort of disease like chronic wasting disease. Biology teaches us that its common when any animal population reached high densities that disease can and often does step in. This has already happened in some parts of the US.

Since deer are large herbivores they need a lot of food and so at high densities they eat a lot. Unfortunately, just like that other sentient being Homo sapiens, they don't have any ability to tell them that they are eating their future and so lacking any control they will destroy their environment and food supply. There are several spectacular examples of this in the ecological literature, especially the Kaibab Plateau. What happens is that they will not only eat everything edible they can find but also destroy their habitat. When the population inevitably crashes the habitat has been irreversibly damaged so that even when the deer are reduced, the carrying capacity has been radically reduced.

Its not just deer that can do this but invasive pigs, rabbits, goats and even horses. But deer seem to be the prime problems in temperate zone ecosystems all over the world, e.g., The British Isles, New Zealand, & Japan. Deer can and do completely destroy a forest over time by eating virtually every plant that attempts to grow. Eventually the only things left are what deer don't eat and unfortunately in our case that does not include any native trees! So our campus forests are simply not reproducing. This has been going on for probably 50 years and now as older or diseased trees die off there is no replacement. Gaps are getting larger each year.

Many, many places are facing this problem of forest decline and are trying various means to control deer and save their forests. Wildlife ecologists have studied this problem carefully and have determined that deer densities need to be around 15 deer per square mile to prevent overgrazing. In more extensive and less populated areas controlled hunting sometimes works but this has to be done regularly to be effective. Where deer populations are very high and populations densities people are high, the only proven technique that can get the populations down to a level that allows the forest to reproduce again is expert sharpshooting. Hunting will not get enough and contraception, even if it did work, would still leave the current high densities around for the 10 years or so it will take for the current deer to die of old age. That's too long.

Fencing the entire campus with a 10 foot high chain link fence would cost a small fortune even if the logistic problems could be worked out. Our natural areas would then look like a prison! And then you'd have the problem of 1) would we drive all the current deer out first and have a place with no deer or 2) leave them all in to starve to death. And the fence wold keep some other mammals in or out as well.

Our intent is to reduce the numbers to carrying capacity . Initially the goal is to go a bit lower than 15/square mile to allow the severely damaged forest to recover.

If we do nothing it is clear that unless we are saved by an epidemic of chronic wasting disease, our native forest will die out and be replaced by some indeterminate plant community whose main characteristic will be inedibility to deer. You can make your own prediction here. Mine is Tree od Heaven as the only trees, shrubs of invasive honeysuckle and barberry and herbaceous cover of ferns and garlic mustard. Some of this is happening now. Nearly all of the native forest birds and mammals will also go, including deer as they gradually starve.

So the deer culling is actually not a murderous rampage by blood thirsty lunatics but the best we can figure out to do to save as much as we can under difficult circumstances., based upon the best science available.

Dick Andrus

On Jan 2, 2012, at 9:00 AM, William Huston wrote:

NEWS MEDIA, Please follow up on the following questions:

Note: these photos are hosted on Facebook. If you can't see the images,
please let me know. --- WM

1: What are the Mystery Mounds all through the Nature Preserve? Is this baiting the deer?
    i.e., is Binghamton University causing their own problem?!
    http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/binghamton-university-has-been-baiting.html

2: WHO was erecting mechanical nets inside the Nature Preserve at 4pm 1-1-2012? and WHY?
    (audio and video evidence will be posted soon... the sound was IDENTICAL to the ratcheting heard
     at the beginning of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxe8Qn7lToM )

    I called BU Police and they told me they had no knowledge of Dinicola being on campus,
    but they insisted there was NO hunting, or trapping occuring on campus. BIG PROBLEM.

3: Investigate the Large Tree Stand located near the border of the Nature Preserve indicated below.
    We need to DEC out here with a GPS to determine if this is ON-CAMPUS or not.

4: Who owns the Fuller Hollow Gun Club, which is adjacent to the Nature Preserve? Is it Larry and Ruth Bleier? Is this legal for Residential Zoning? Have they been baiting deer? (unsubstantiated report)

From recon reports 1-1-2012.
Map, showing arial photo, + property boundaries.

Large tree stand found at X1. May be on private land owned by "Thayne, LLC" 3401 Fuller Hollow Road, ID 175.09-1-2

Mechanical nets heard being erected at X2 around 4:00pm.
X3 is posted "Fuller Hollow Gun Club". Property ID is 175.10-1-17, 3909 Fuller Hollow Road, owned by Larry P and Ruth L Bleier. Zoned Residential 242.

1: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

2: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

3: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

4: No Bows, Guns, or Trapping!!!

5: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map.

6: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

7: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

8 Found the tire, now look up...

9: Found the tire, now look up... what's that?.....

10: HOLY SHIT!

Needless to say, I got out of there quick.

PLEASE help by calling the DEC out to investigate the location of this stand.
WHO owns the property? Is this stand on the Nature Preserve?
It is very close to the border, and is NOT posted.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

BU Deer Slaughter updates: Has Dinicola/White Buffalo already begun?

2012-01-02T06:00:00.001-08:00

NEWS MEDIA, Please follow up on the following questions:

Note: these photos are hosted on Facebook. If you can't see the images,
please let me know. --- WM

1: What are the Mystery Mounds all through the Nature Preserve? Is this baiting the deer?
    i.e., is Binghamton University causing their own problem?!
    http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/binghamton-university-has-been-baiting.html

2: WHO was erecting mechanical nets inside the Nature Preserve at 4pm 1-1-2012? and WHY?
    (audio and video evidence will be posted soon... the sound was IDENTICAL to the ratcheting heard
     at the beginning of this video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxe8Qn7lToM )

    I called BU Police and they told me they had no knowledge of Dinicola being on campus,
    but they insisted there was NO hunting, or trapping occuring on campus. BIG PROBLEM.

3: Investigate the Large Tree Stand located near the border of the Nature Preserve indicated below.
    We need to DEC out here with a GPS to determine if this is ON-CAMPUS or not.

4: Who owns the Fuller Hollow Gun Club, which is adjacent to the Nature Preserve? Is it Larry and Ruth Bleier? Is this legal for Residential Zoning? Have they been baiting deer? (unsubstantiated report)

From recon reports 1-1-2012.
Map, showing arial photo, + property boundaries.

Large tree stand found at X1. May be on private land owned by "Thayne, LLC" 3401 Fuller Hollow Road, ID 175.09-1-2
Mechanical nets heard being erected at X2 around 4:00pm.
X3 is posted "Fuller Hollow Gun Club". Property ID is 175.10-1-17, 3909 Fuller Hollow Road, owned by Larry P and Ruth L Bleier. Zoned Residential 242.

1: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

2: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

3: This is at the southern most part of the Nature Preserve, a high plateau,
where Saddle Trail turns west and becomes Field Trail.
To the east from here is posted signs "Fuller Hollow Gun Club. Danger Keep Out"

4: No Bows, Guns, or Trapping!!!

5: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map.

6: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

7: Heading North, down the muddy Field Trail, just past "Shrub Land" on the trail map, I spot a trail to the left, with a tire at the end. Let's check it out.

8 Found the tire, now look up...

9: Found the tire, now look up... what's that?.....

10: HOLY SHIT!

Needless to say, I got out of there quick.

PLEASE help by calling the DEC out to investigate the location of this stand.
WHO owns the property? Is this stand on the Nature Preserve?
It is very close to the border, and is NOT posted.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

New TV show on the Binghamton University Deer Slaughter now playing Time Warner Cable ch 4

2011-12-31T14:52:00.001-08:00

Fridays 10pm-midnight
Saturdays 6pm-8pm.
Time Warner Cable channel 4 (near Binghamton NY)

This is a compilation of local news reports,
plus original footage and interviews.

...including David Currie of the Binghamton Regional Sustainable Coalition
who discusses carrying capacity and population overshoot,
Dr. Stephen Cleghorn, a PA farmer who discusses Nonviolent Direct Action,

We get a guided tour of the Nature Preserve with local deer hunter Steve Tompkins
showing that Julian Shepard's assertion of "no new growth in years" seems to be
"at variance with the facts" (saying it nicely). Also -- what are those Mystery Mounds,
hundreds of them scattered throughout the preserve, which is apparently acting as bait?

Features archival footage of Derrick Jensen and Marshall Rosenberg.
Footage of Anthony Dinicola / White Buffalo (professional deer slaughterers) at work.

Also a strange bit at the end, shot at the City of Binghamton "fracking ban" hearing,
where I approached Julian Shepard and Dick Andrus (BU faculty who ordered
the death of 90 wild animals / sentient beings), with Vic Furman (whom the local
Fractivists know well) doing "OMs" in the background.... *

This is an early rough cut:

(In the final version, I cut the Devo song, I added Cleghorn in its place.
I also expanded on the assertion "there is no Deer Problem".
I want to go further into the metaphysics of language. Added more appropriate
Dinicola rifle slaughtering [BLECH! How did I get stuck doing this work!?]
This is an evolving work and story. I will be posting updates soon)

(* This final sequence is a montage. It basically is what really happened. The audio of Vic doing OMs and the shot of Julian and Dick is authentic, as it really happened. The pullout due to Julian's movement was digital, done in post. My camera was locked down, so the shot couldn't change. Camera was 30' from the action, so it couldn't pick up what Dick Andrus said to me, or my question. I slowed it down by 30%. The cutaway to me and to Vic was added in post. Basically authentic. Although I didn't hold or mention the petition to them in actuality. The photo was just a convenient photo I had available. I approached them with low-key energy, respectfully. The montage is because I added an audio layer, audio of me being interviewed by Jim Rotundo(?) of WBNG News. Notice Julian gets happy when he sees me return to my camera. )

Don't miss this one folks!
Time Warner Cable, channel 4 Saturday at 6pm.... THAT's RIGHT NOW!!

New updates will be reflected next week... got some amazing things to tell you...
stay tuned!!!

Thanks to all of the producers are Newschannel 34, Fox 40, YNN, and WBNG for the great work on this story.
(If your piece was included, please send me your names so I can credit you in the final piece-- thanks!!)

Vic doing OMs may be partially explained by this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ccT42R1nhek

Namaste -- Peace -- Nya:Weh
WM

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

101 Reasons to Ban Hydrofracking

2011-12-29T18:19:00.001-08:00

Really excellent!!!
Thanks Gerri!!!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Gerri Wiley <gerriwiley@yahoo.com>
Date: Thu, Dec 29, 2011 at 8:16 PM
Subject: [NYRAD] 101 Reasons to Ban Hydrofracking
To: Gerri Wiley <gerriwiley@yahoo.com>

101 Reasons that High-Volume Hydraulic Fracturing (HVHF) Needs to be Banned in New York State

EACH OF THE FOLLOWING 101 REASONS, IF TAKEN ALONE, IS SUFFICIENT TO BAN HVHF.

TOGETHER THEY INDICATE UNBRIDLED GREED AND APATHY TOWARD LIFE …

GOVERNMENT-APPROVED CORPORATE HOMOCIDE.

WHO IS STANDING ON THE SIDE OF LIFE, TAKING THE ROLE OF PROTECTING AND PROMOTING THE PUBLIC HEALTH AND WELFARE?

1. If risk to our aquifers were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

2. If risk to our food quality and supply were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

3. If risk to our air quality were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

4. If risk to runaway climate change were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

5. If HVHF's externalized costs were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

6. If the lack of disposal solutions for produced water and drill cuttings were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

7. If roadways clogged with heavy trucks, moving through established communities were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

8. If increased crime were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

9. If increased traffic accidents were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

10. If jeopardizing the lives of emergency response teams were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

11. If road damage were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

12. If deforestation, erosion and sedimentation were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

13. If increased seismic activity were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

14. If HVHF issues clogging court calendars were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

15. If HVHF's dominating town business were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

16. If "midnight dumping" were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

17. If the explosion hazard created by methane migration through fissures and abandoned wells were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

18. If harmful HVHF chemicals' posing a threat to life now and in the future were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

19. If lowered property values were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

20. If violating the terms of mortgage contracts were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

21. If risking the loss of home and title insurance were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

22. If responsibility to our neighbors were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

23. If increased incidence and severity of asthma and exacerbation of respiratory illnesses were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

24. If risk to water quality for swimming and fishing were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

25. If risking our air, water and land while exporting liquid natural gas to other countries were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

26. If promotion of safe jobs for local citizens were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

27. If local businesses losing employees due to higher paying HVHF truck-driving jobs were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

28. If true energy security were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

29. If increasing economic disparity were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

30. If relentless noise were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

31. If toxic odors were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

32. If visual beauty, physical and spiritual recreation were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

33. If oil and gas industry's privatization of profits and socialization of costs were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

34. If the oil and gas industry's poor record of accountability were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

35. If the oil and gas industry's purchase of politicians' votes were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

36. If replacing beautiful productive land with massive industrialization were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

37. If displacing families from their homes due to industry workers paying higher rents were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

38. If habitat fragmentation were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

39. If increased severe weather events, such as flooding were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

40. If distraction from energy efficiency and renewable energy initiatives were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

41. If drastically altering community character were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

42. If the cost of health and environmental damage were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

43. If contributing to the demise of democracy were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

44. If the oil and gas industry's propaganda campaign to deny climate change and promote "clean natural gas" were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

45. If the industry's purchase and takeover of our communities were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

46. If destroying tourism were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

47. If destroying farmland were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

48. If forcing university students and professors to leave New York State were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

49. If forcing families to leave New York State for "greener pastures" were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

50. If the health and welfare of future generations were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

51. If distraction from sustainability initiatives were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

52. If morality of perpetuating extreme fossil fuel extraction were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

53. If being in alignment with carbon reduction goals were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

54. If the ability of energy efficiency and renewable energy to fully meet our energy needs were the only reasons HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

55. If reducing the number of dangerous jobs were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

56. If HVHF's effects on vulnerable populations…children, elderly, disabled were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient. were the only reason HVHF need to be banned, it would be sufficient.

57. If disease-creating frac sand (crystalline silica) were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

58. If high-risk truck-driving from worker fatigue and speeding were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

59. If forcing landowners to sign non-disclosure agreements when their water becomes undrinkable were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

60. If bullying landowners – one by one - to sign vague contracts to sacrifice their land were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

61. If the industry's use of shell companies to hide their identity and scam the public were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

62. If compulsory integration were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

63. If the lack of meaningful penalties for environmental damage were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

64. If the vulnerability of milk to contamination were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

65. If the vulnerability of meat, vegetables, fruit, and grains to contamination were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

66. If the industry's use of predatory tactics and strategies were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

67. If pitting neighbor against neighbor were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

68. If radioactive waste were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

69. If DEC's conflicting goals to protect the environment and develop mineral resources were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

70. If DEC's inadequate regulatory staffing were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

71. If over 5 million gallons of water per frac being permanently removed from the hydrologic cycle were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

72. If the fact that approximately 12 per cent of wells leak initially and a higher percentage of wells leak eventually were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

73. If the oil and gas Industry's exemption from the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

74. If the oil and gas industry's exemption from the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

75. If the oil and gas industry's exemption from the Safe Drinking Water Act were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

76. If the oil and gas industry's exemption from the Clean Water Act were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

77. If the oil and gas industry's exemption from the Clean Air Act were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

78. If the oil and gas industry's exemption from the National Environmental Policy Act were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

79. If the oil and gas industry's exemption from the Toxic Relase Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

80. If the push to treat produced water at sewage treatment facilities before releasing it into rivers and streams were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

81. If the evidence of HVHF's negative impact throughout the world were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

82. If this issue's ability to polarize the public were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

83. If HVHF's ability to create reality-based public fear and a feeling of powerlessness were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

84. If trumping creative earth-friendly economic initiatives were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

85. If the impact of the massive web of pipelines, compressor stations, metering stations, distillation units, storage facilities, access roads and number of wells and well-pads per mile were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

86. If HVHF's short and long-term cumulative effects were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

87. If the diversion of activists from meaningful, life-enriching activities were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

88. If alignment with Governor Cuomo's statement that "All watersheds are sacrosanct" were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

89. If alignment with Governor Cuomo's promise that the decision on whether or not we do HVHF rests on science were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

90. If alignment with Governor Cuomo's statement, "New York State must ensure that, if and when the Shale's natural gas is obtained, it does not come at the expense of human health or have adverse environmental impacts." were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

91. If alignment with President Barack Obama's statement that, "our continued use of fossil fuels is pushing us to a point of no return. And unless we free ourselves from a dependence on these fossil fuels and chart a new course on energy in this country, we are condemning future generations to global catastrophe." were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

92. If the disparity in the number of oil and gas industry lobbyists versus energy efficiency and renewable energy lobbyists were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

93. If the unlevel playing field that favors heavy industry, created by IDA funding, tax breaks, and incentives were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

94. If the oil and gas industry's challenges to Home Rule were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

95. If adhering to the "triple-bottom-line" of the environment, society, and economy were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

96. If the Occupy Movement's existence and demands were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

97. If self-preservation were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

98. If love of our families and friends were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

99. If advocacy for human rights were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

100. If our right to local self-government were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

101. If DEC's mission "To conserve, improve and protect New York's natural resources and environment and to prevent, abate and control water, land and air pollution, in order to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state and their overall economic and social well-being" were the only reason HVHF needs to be banned, it would be sufficient.

Gerri Wiley
Owego, NY
607-342-3159(cell)
gerriwiley@yahoo.com

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Nature Protection Org. issues 3 news releases today re: BU DEER SLAUGHTER

2011-12-27T14:36:00.001-08:00

Dec 27 2011

Friends of Nature and Animals
issued 3 Press Releases today
relating to the planned slaughter of 90% of the Deer
at Binghamton University's Nature Preserve:

1: Physical Evidence contradicts BU's assertion of damage caused by "deer overpopulation".
http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/physical-evidence-contradicts-bus-claim.html

2: Local Hunter: Binghamton University has been Baiting Deer for Years!
http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/binghamton-university-has-been-baiting.html

3: Binghamton University must REMOVE Yellow Signs and COMPLY WITH THE LAW.
http://williamahuston.blogspot.com/2011/12/binghamton-university-remove-yellow.html

There will be an upcoming presentation on Public Access TV
this Friday @ 10pm-midnight and Saturday at 6pm-8pm.
on Time Warner Cable channel 4.

Media Contact:
William Huston
607-321-7846
WilliamAHuston@gmail.com

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Physical Evidence Contradicts BU's claim of Damage Caused by Deer

2011-12-27T13:43:00.001-08:00

Physical Evidence Contradicts BU's claim of Damage Caused by Deer

"There haven't been for many years any new saplings coming up,
because [the deer] chew them as soon as they come up"

-- Julian Shepard, member, BU Committee on the University Environment, YNN, 12/20/2011
http://binghamton.ynn.com/content/top_stories/567755/bu-deer-culling-case-to-be-heard-thursday/

Friends of Nature and Animals took a 4 hour tour of the Nature Preserve
with local deer hunter Steve Tompkins. "I don't see any signs of
overpopulation," said Tompkins, who is against the planned slaughter of
90% of the herd. "They might never recover".

We were able to easily locate many young saplings, shrubs,
and other forest undergrowth which Shepard claims do not exist.
"This appears to be a healthy forest," said Tompkins.

PHOTO: A grove of new saplings observed recently in the
Binghamton University Nature Preserve.

PHOTO: closup of saplings, bushes, and underbrush.

Friends of Nature and Animals is calling on Julian Shepard to provide
physical evidence and objective proof to back up the assertions of

a) the alleged overpopulation of deer in the BU Nature Preserve, and
b) proof of the damage they are allegedly doing to the environment.
c) non-lethal, non-violent solutions have been explored

NOTE: Friends of Nature and Animals considers the slaughter, sterilization, or removal
of any animals in the Nature Preserve to be acts of violence. These acts are
ALL illegal, immoral, irrational, and unnecessary.

"If there is no evidence supporting the claim
of deer overpopulation, then why is Binghamton University
wanting to go through with this senseless slaughter?",
asked William Huston, of Friends of Nature of Animals.

"Someone needs to answer some questions", said Huston,

Friends of Nature and Animals
Media Contact: William Huston
607-321-7846

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Adam Flint: Please remove moderation of my posts to the STPC list.

2011-12-27T12:47:00.001-08:00

Hi Adam,

I notice my posts to STPC are now moderated.

Unless you can cite how my posts to STPC are abusive,
or off topic, or otherwise in violation of posted rules,
please remove the moderation from my posts.

Thanks,
WM

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

"Binghamton University has been BAITING the DEER for YEARS"

2011-12-27T12:38:00.001-08:00

"Binghamton University has been
BAITING the DEER for YEARS"

PHOTO: Local hunter Steve Tompkins stands in a field of strange mounds
of "organic matter" at the BU Nature Preserve, which he claims is
baiting the deer.

(Vestal NY) -- "Binghamton University has been baiting deer for years."
So says Steve Tompkins, a local deer hunter who is opposed to the
proposed slaughter of 90% of the herd which live in the Nature Preserve.

"It's illegal if I bait the deer", said Tompkins. "Why should BU be able
to do it? It's like they think they are above the law."

PHOTO: Another Field of Mounds in the Nature Preserve

Anyone who has ever hiked in the BU Nature Preserve will have seen
huge mounds. There are dozens of them all throughout the Preserve,
perhaps 100-120 or more.

As a hiker, I thought they were just giant anthills. One of the trails
is even named, "Anthill Trail". There's just one problem with that.

"Those are not natural", said Tompkins. "I've hunted all over this
area, even down into PA. There's nothing like this anywhere else
but here.".

PHOTO: Some of the dozens of giant 3ft tall "anthills"
in the BU Nature Preserve.

So, if they aren't anthills, what are they?

"This is a combination of food waste from the cafeterias and organic matter
from the plant nursaries", Tompkins told Friends of Nature and Animals.

"I can't reveal my source, but they use a machine called a 'Goat'"
to turn food waste into mulch, then dump it up here.

Detail: Strange Mounds of Organic Matter in the BU Nature Preserve

The deer eat this, it's like bait to them", he continued.
He showed evidence where the deer and perhaps other
animals had eaten away at the top of several of the mounds.

"If the deer are overpopulated, it's BU's own fault".

Friends of Nature and Animals Media Contact
William Huston 607-321-7846
WilliamAHuston@gmail.com

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Binghamton University: REMOVE THE YELLOW SIGNS!

2011-12-27T11:21:00.001-08:00

Binghamton University:
Yellow Signs must be REMOVED!

As you may have heard, the Binghamton Press and Sun Bulletin has reported
that Judge Molly Reynolds Fitzgerald has issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO)
against Binghamton University (BU) from carrying out a planned Deer Slaughter until
it can be shown that BU has complied with SEQR environmental law.
http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20111227/NEWS01/111227014/Judge-blocks-deer-culling-plan-Binghamton-U-

Friends of Nature and Animals applauds the Judge's decision. We believe
that a full SEQR-Type I process be required, including a full Environmental
Impact Statement, site specific review, and public hearings.

However, signs remain posted all over campus stating that
ALL natural areas on campus are off limits between Dec 23 and Jan 31,
with violators subject to arrest for trespass:

I contacted Officer Parker at Campus Police, and he says he has orders
that the signs are to remain up and to enforce evictions and arrest
from the Preserve.

Friends of Nature and Animals is in strong opposition to the deer slaughter,
which is clearly presently illegal, by both NY State Law, and also
by Court Order.

Therefore, these signs are themselves in violation of law,
and any actions by Binghamton University employee
to allow or further the killing or baiting of animals,
or evictions or arrests from the Preserve in furtherance
of this illegal slaughter to be illegal actions.

Calls placed to both the office of the President, and Vice President
Van Voorst indicate that the campus is closed for winter break
and no staff will be available until next year.

Friends of Nature and Animals requests and demands that Binghamton
University must remove these yellow signs and uphold the Judges order.

Furthermore, Friends of Nature and Animals
reminds Campus Police of the following:

Killing, or removal of animals from the Nature Preserve is prohibited by NY State Law.
Possessing firearms on campus is prohibited by NY State law.
Killing animals with long rifles in Broome County is prohibited by law.
Baiting animals is prohibited by NY State Law.

We ask and demand that the BU Campus Police uphold ALL of the laws
of the State of NY and the Judge Fitzgeralds orders.

Media Contact:
Bill Huston, 607-321-7846
WilliamAHuston@gmail.com

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

BU DEER SLAUGHTER may be HAPPENING NOW

2011-12-23T18:24:00.000-08:00

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

(Vestal NY) -- "Nicht geschrieben", said David Bernheim by telephone call tonight,
when asked if people should be celebrating a court victory. "It is not written".

Bernheim, attorney for the plaintiff, Dr. Charles Carperter of Vestal,
was not notified if State Supreme Court Justice Molly Fitzgerald
made a decision Friday.

"We must assume the worst case, that the planned deer slaughter is
happening on schedule", said William Huston, a local animal-rights
advocate.

"This is a RED ALERT",
Huston continued.

"We are calling on all friends of animals to get into the
Binghamton University Nature Preserve this Christmas weekend.

Be on the watch for baiting locations, hunting platforms in trees,
and suspicious activity or vehicles in the Preserve. Contact me
at 607-321-7846 and report what you see. "

"If you feel so inclined, move the bait, Make noise.
Bring lights in after dark."

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Update on BU deer slaughter

2011-12-22T19:13:00.001-08:00

Even though the TRO expired yesterday,
the slaughter is on-hold until the judge makes her decision.

I think the judge is leaning towards demanding a full
Type-1 SEQR, which means a full environment impact review,
which is a long process...

I remain hopeful that she will issue an injunction
until an EIS is performed.

BH

Press coverage:

Humane Society of the United States Condemns Binghamton University Deer Slaughter

2011-12-21T21:20:00.001-08:00

Dec 20, 20112

C. Peter Magrath
Office of the President

Binghamton University
P.O. Box 6000
Binghamton, NY 13902-6000

SENT VIA EMAIL

Dear President Magrath,

On behalf of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and our more than 800,000 New York members and supporters, I am writing to voice our firm opposition to the proposed plan to cull deer at the Nature Preserve.

While The HSUS is in agreement that there is a need to mitigate conflicts with deer and find ways to enhance native biodiversity -- we do not agree that the decision to cull or hunt deer at the Nature Preserve is justified nor will it achieve the University's goals.

Deer culls can be expensive and futile. If you look at places where large culls were done, such as Solon, Ohio or Greenwich, Connecticut, you'll find that despite the high proportion of deer taken out by sharp-shooters several years prior, deer numbers and complaints rose in successive years. For example, Solon spent almost a million dollars over a 4 year period to kill 1500 deer, to no avail. As stated in The Solon Patch, "While ending the program saved the city money, the deer herd rebounded."

Unless the University is willing to take unprecedented measures to drastically reduce deer habitat, the deer population will quickly recover from any hunting. The University is surrounded by forested habitat and deer---thus any voids created by hunting will soon be re-filled by other deer wandering into the same area.

The problem context:

The ability of deer to adapt to suburbanized landscapes and co-exist with people has created new challenges and conflicts, as are currently being experienced in upstate New York and elsewhere.

Yet Binghamton's forests, like much of the northeastern forested landscape, are subject to any number of direct and indirect influences that together have created the conditions that we see today. These influences run the gamut from acid rain, insect damage, disease, development, pollution, loss of soil fertility, herbivory, invasive and other competing plant species, parasitic organisms, and landscape fragmentation, among other factors. New research is even showing the potentially huge but largely invisible impact of introduced, non-native earthworms as significant influences on forest ecology.

It is vital in addressing the issue of deer-human conflicts that we not use deer as scapegoats for larger and more systemic problems.

Are deer responsible for lack of regeneration and biodiversity loss?

While it is easy to point the finger at deer and blame them for our forest regeneration woes, the reality is that our ecosystem issues are fraught with complexity, and also subject to human aesthetic preferences which may or may not be grounded in any sort of biological reality. For example, we may want to see more biodiversity in certain areas because we are used to having seen it there in the past. Yet nature is not static. A condition in which a forest floor was carpeted with wild flowers can rapidly transition into another state as a result of forest succession. Certain plant species are shaded out as trees mature and the forest canopy closes. Later successional stages are, by their very nature, less diverse.

While we may want to see a certain flower grow somewhere doesnï't mean it "should" be there. Take the case of certain trillium, which are often used as an indicator of high deer abundance. Some research shows that soil acidity is a much stronger determinant of where purple trillium and many important timber species (red oak, sugar maple, quaking aspen, etc) will grow, rather than deer density levels. (Penn State College of Agricultural Sciences News Release, May 17 2002).

The impact of deer on exotic and invasive species is another complex issue. Deer appear to control the spread of certain invasive plant species while helping to proliferate others. The lack of an understory in eastern hemlock forests is often attributed to deer, yet it is simply a characteristic of older hemlock stands that they be relatively depopulate of understory. The less visible yet catastrophic impact of the wooly adelgid is killing entire stands of hemlock and dramatically changing ecological conditions in the riparian areas these trees favor. How ecological processes are affected by deer browsing is not as simple as meets the eye.

We are not denying that deer can have a significant impact on our northeastern forests. Deer impacts can be very visible and deer browsing can unquestionably alter forest structure. However, the bottom line is that single species management has never been a viable way to manage a complex, multi-faceted problem. By intensively managing one component of a forest, the result may be unforeseen impacts on other components, such as the spread of certain invasive, non-native plant species.

There simply has not been
enough time since the return of deer and forests both to greater abundance and health than in the past for us to understand (and properly plan for how to influence if necessary) the complex ecological associations involved.

The confounding effect of hunting

One of the main problems with trying to manage deer through any kind of hunting -- as repeatedly cited during a Smithsonian Institute conference on Deer Overabundance (McShea et. al 1997) -- is that deer are highly prolific, and their high reproductive rate can quickly compensate for declines in their population. Deer exhibit higher productivity (i.e. more twins and triplets are born, higher survival rates and earlier onset of sexual maturity) when there are fewer deer and more food is available. In other words, they "bounce back." This is why removal can have an oscillating effect, as demonstrated on Angel Island, where biannual removals over a 5 year period of 215 to 25 deer resulted in high rebound to about 250 deer (McCullough, in McShea 1997).

It is noteworthy that despite widespread use of controlled hunting as a management tool, the method has proven to be inadequate at preventing deer from overpopulating broad areas (Cote et al. 2004).

Any lethal control program must not only significantly reduce the deer herd but also sustain enough pressure to keep the population at a low level and prevent this bounce-back, AND prevent deer from the surrounding area from wandering in, all of which usually poses an insurmountable challenge. A one-tme cull will not be your answer.

We encourage the University to not focus so much on the absolute number of deer desired, but rather, think in terms of what specific problem needs to be resolved and to set achievable and measurable goals to that end. Trying to keep deer at a certain number can be a futile, resource-draining battle, and diverts attention from more practical, cost-effective and long-lasting solutions.

Immunocontraception

To reduce deer numbers, surgical sterilization and immunocontraception options have proven to be viable options for some communities, and provide long lasting solutions by drastically lowering the number of fawns born in a given year. Population-level reduction has been seen in a short amount of time already, according to some studies. There is one contraceptive vaccine FDA-registered for use in deer currently (Gonacon) with another vaccine (PZP) available under an experimental basis.

Sterilization has been used successfully in some suburban communities like Highland Park, Illinois, and a full report is available from that municipality. The Univeristy would be well-advised to research some of these non-lethal options which may be considered expensive but serve to lower the overall population and remain highly effective for a long time (see attached fact sheet on Immunocontraception).

Problem mitigation

One of the most important tasks in designing a wildlife conflict mitigation plan is to:

a) collect and compile data to indicate the magnitude and scope of the problem(s);
b) clearly define what the problems are;
c) set clear, achievable and measurable goals and a way to achieve them; and,
d) create an ongoing monitoring program to assess the programï's progress and level of goal achievement.

We argue that your institution has not fulfilled these goals. Without substantiating the need for a hunt using solid data, and without baseline data to provide a starting point, how can university officials even know that a hunt is necessary or what it will achieve?
In closing, the unforeseen consequences of allowing a deer cull or hunting can include many undesirable outcomes, such as public controversy plus a large outlay of taxpayer dollars likely to yield disappointing results.

The HSUS would be happy to consult with you on a more humane and effective plan for mitigating any real deer issues at Binghamton University . But at this point, we strongly urge you to cancel plans for a deer cull until such time that the need for any population reduction is substantiated by site-specific data and non-lethal alternatives have been objectively reviewed and considered.

Thank you for your consideration of our viewpoint.

Sincerely,

Laura Simon Field Director Urban Wildlife Program
M.E.S. Degree, Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies
Ph: 203-393-1050

RESOURCES

Cote, S.D.; T.P. Rooney, J.P. Temblay, C. Dussault, and D.M. Walter. 2004. Ecological impacts of deer overabundance. Annual Review of Ecology, Evolution, and Systematics 35:113-147.

McShea, W.J. H.B. Underwood, and J.H. Rappole,1997. The science of overabundance: Deer ecology and population management. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian Institution Press.

Millburn Township, Deer Management Task Force, Report of August 2006.

Pedersen, M.A. S.M Berry, and J.C. Bossart, 1980. Wounding rates of white-tailed deer using modern archery equipment. Proc. Annu. Conf. Southeast. Assoc. Fish and Wildl. Agencies 62:31ï'34

Rutberg, A.and R.Naugle, 2008. Population-level effects of immunocontraception in white-tailed deer. Wildlife Research 35, p 494-501.

Please help SUPPORT LIFE in the Susquehanna River Basin

2011-12-21T05:31:00.001-08:00

HELP!

Susan Obleski ( SObleski@srbc.net // 717-238-0423 ext. 316 )
Director of Communications for the SRBC is claiming in an email
to me and others,

"the Commission did officially complete all its scheduled
actions as reported in the press release."
http://www.srbc.net/newsroom/NewsRelease.aspx?NewsReleaseID=78

This video clearly shows THE MEETING WAS ADJOURNED.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oCzvtgIcxOA

They cannot continue to do business after that.
The vote was OUT OF ORDER.

What can we do about this people?

Can someone contact Ian Urbana @ NYT or
Abrahm Lustgarten @ ProPublica?

"Governments derive their just powers from the Consent of the Governed"
-- Declaration of Independence.

However, the SRBC is not acting with the will of the people.
They are thus NOT a democratic body,
and thus have NO JUST POWERS.

The SRBC is an illegitimate body,
which MUST CHANGE ITS COURSE NOW.

There is wide opposition to these massive water withdrawals,
amounting to Tens of Millions of Gallons PER DAY
and perhaps tens of Billions of Gallons PER YEAR,
Hundreds of Billions of Gallons over the duration of the "shale play",
and Tens of Trillions Gallons Worldwide as a result of fracking.

There have been NO Cumulative impact studies done
about how the permanent removal of this MASSIVE amount of potable
water from the hydrological cycle will impact life in the basin.

Reasonable science dictates that the consequences
may be grave and catastrophic.
This could be a DOOMSDAY Scenario.

This could lead to genocide and sickness for
millions of people, birds, animals, fish, trees,

The Precautionary Principle must be applied here.
We must stop this.

Please help us focus on the SRBC
and halting these massive water withdrawals
from the Susquehanna River Basin.

Ideas, creative actions, disruptions, ruckuses etc.
NVDA is encouraged.

PLEASE do not resort to violence or hatred.

Let us do this work with COMPASSION FOR ALL BEINGS,
including those performing these
CRIMES AGAINST NATURE.

Please help.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Please Correct the Record. There was NO VOTE 12/15 as meeting was adjourned.

2011-12-20T08:32:00.001-08:00

TO: Susan Obleski, SRBC Communications Director
From: William Huston

Hi Susan.,

I see the following notice on this page:
http://www.srbc.net/newsroom/NewsRelease.aspx?NewsReleaseID=78
that "SRBC concluded all scheduled actions including voting on water
withdrawal and consumptive use applications".

This is in error. The meeting was adjourned prior to the vote
and thus the vote was out of order.

Here is evidence:
youtube.com/watch?v=oCzvtgIcxOA

I would be grateful if you would please correct the record. Thank you.

Best Regards,
William Huston

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

(video) Breaking: SRBC meeting was ADJOURNED before the vote!

2011-12-20T03:40:00.001-08:00

"This meeting stands adjourned"
youtube.com/watch?v=oCzvtgIcxOA

As you may have heard in the "OM video",
I (and many others) prayed for a miracle to occur.

It looks like a miracle was granted,
yet no one seemed to notice it at the time...

This is an excerpt from a contentious meeting
of the Susquehanna River Basin Commission.

There was a disruption which occurred during the meeting,
during which the chair adjourned the meeting.

The commissioners then came back in the room
and moved to approved the docket of ~24 new water
withdrawals for hydrofracking.

Many people left the meeting depressed,
as the disruption failed to stop the vote.

However, it does not appear this vote was in order.

The audio portion of this recording was from a Tascam DR-07
sitting on top of a speaker cabinet which was about 10 feet
from the table where the commissioners were seated.

youtube.com/watch?v=oCzvtgIcxOA

PLEASE forward this to ALL media outlets within the Susquehanna River Basin,
and to contacts at NYT, ProPublica, etc.

This should become "NEWS" to help this stick.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

VIDEO: Please help the Susquehanna River (and the people who live here)

2011-12-19T06:25:00.001-08:00

Please watch and share this.
Please help the people who live in the
Susquehanna River Basin.

OM: We Honor the River
YouTube.com/watch?v=ccT42R1nhek

The mighty Susquehanna River
is one of the world's most ancient rivers.
It is older than this continent.

These waters have been flowing unimpeded
for more than 200 million years.

Now it is one of the Earth's Most Endangered Rivers.

This water is the source of all life here.
Without this water:
there can be NO LIFE.

Now, tens of millions of gallons PER DAY
are being removed from the river basin
for a completely unnecessary use:
hydrofracking for shale gas.

URGENT CALL TO ACTION:

Please call the Governors of MD - NY - PA
and the US President and say:

"WE THE PEOPLE DEMAND
an IMMEDIATE HALT to the removal
of massive amounts of fresh water

TENS OF TRILLIONS OF GALLONS
PER YEAR

from the Susquehanna River Basin
for use in HYDROFRACKING.

There have been NO cumulative impact studies
on what affect this could have on life in the basin.

This could bring about a
catastrophic loss of life here.

We need this water for LIFE"

Here are the numbers to call:

State	Governor	Phone
PA	Tom Corbett	717-787-2500
NY	Andrew Cuomo	518-474-8390
MD	Martin O'Malley	410-974-3901
US	Barak Obama	202-456-1111

CALL TODAY.

Help protect this water for SEVEN GENERATIONS.
Thank you.

OM: We Honor the River
YouTube.com/watch?v=ccT42R1nhek

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

I retract the "P" charge // back to a practice of compassion

2011-12-14T19:17:00.001-08:00

Jim Houghton, Cecile Lawrence and others
have suggested that, while I only stated this as a question
("this looks to me like..., what do you think?")
an actual charge of perjury would come from a court.

Thanks for elucidating
a rationale for the continuous practice of restraint.
Always a good idea.

A Buddhist monk would never levy an accusation of wrongdoing
against anyone. => irrelevant towards meeting the goal of happiness.

Also, I am reminded by my friend Kim
that we need to encourage the people
working in these bureaucracies and corporations
to resign or defect or whistle-blow
on the killing machines they work for.

We need to be always practicing compassion.
Offering an olive branch of peace.
This is the way towards healing.
Not by accusations and judgments and charges.

I know this.

These accusations of "Liar! Liar!"
this kind of thing breaks compassion.

I withdraw even the suggestion of perjury.
I am sending your note to all the places I first sent this.
I hope everyone reads what you wrote.

It may not be perjury,
but it sure discredits him IMO as a witness...

My friend Cecile, (who holds a J.D.) writes this:

Not perjury, IMHO, but a classic example of the kind of flip-flop in which certain politicians have engaged. Useful for re his morality and sincerity, etc. in a court room and if he ever runs for office, but does not meet the multi-part test for perjury. See below. Not legal advice.

Dictionary.com definition:
the willful giving of false testimony under oath or affirmation, before a competent tribunal, upon a point material to a legal inquiry.

Cecile

Jim's note below:

On Wed, Dec 14, 2011 at 8:34 PM, Jim Houghton <jwhoughton@frontiernet.net> wrote:

What Chip found is of note and of use, but while I'm no lawyer, my interpretation is that this would not qualify as perjury in several ways. Arguing different interpretations of a law at different times can illustrate inconsistency and contradiction, and pointing this out can undermine a witness's testimony. But it's not perjury, and it's not really a "lie" per se.

I would be very cautious using the "p" word. It is quite possible that someone in the gas industry will be caught perjuring themselves in one of the civil suits that are starting to proliferate over damage to land and persons, but even then, I believe that determination is to be made by a judge; it's not a charge to be levied by activists.

Jim Houghton
Not a lawyer, not legal advice

On Dec 14, 2011, at 9:43 AM, William Huston wrote:

> I think Chip Northrup has found something really crucial here.
>
> Chip is being nice by not using the "P" word, but
> lying under oath is called perjury,
> and I believe this is what we may have here.
>
> Look at the evidence, then decide for yourself.
>
> Greg Sovas is a key industry witness in both the Middlefield and Dryden lawsuits.
> For 18 years, he was head of the Division of Mineral Resources at NY DEC.
>
> Compare these two statements:
>
> QUOTE #1:
>
> Local Zoning and DEC Processing of Permits
>
> The 1991 Amendments clarified local government's authority to enact zoning laws and enhanced
> the ability to participate both formally and informally in the review of mining applications.
> Furthermore, local governments may enact special use permit authority and enforce conditions
> from the state permit. It is important to recognize that DEC is not a land use agency, and that the
> authority remains at the local government level. It has always been our position that localities
> need to determine appropriate land uses and that DEC, even if we believe that a site may not be
> zoned properly, will not interfere in those decisions. We do not want conflicts with the localities.
> We want and need local governments to plan for mineral resources as natural resources just like
> they would do for any other land use, consistent with the MLRL
>
> -- Gregory H. Sovas, (at the time) Director, Division of Mineral Resources, NY Department of Environmental Conservation, "Sustainable Development and Mining", Perspectives on New York's Mined Land Reclamation Law, Albany Law School. April 17, 1998
>
> Source: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/albanyla.pdf
>
>
> Compare that to this:
>
> QUOTE #2:
>
> (7) I was the primary author of the Amendments to the New York's Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law in 1981, and was responsible for implementation of those amendments. (8) Because of my public service, I am personally familiar with the legislative intent and purpose of the oil and gas program, how New York's Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law was implemented, and how the Department interprets and enforces the provisions of the law. ... (17) There was no question about legislative intent that the supersedure clause eliminated the right of municipalities to regulate any aspect of the oil and gas development including the right to zone oil and gas wells, (21) The Zoning Law is clearly preempted under the plain languages of ECL §23-0303(2).... (22) The Zoning Law also directly conflicts with Article 23 of the ECL and further frustrates the law's purpose by purporting to use zoning principles to prohibit oil and gas drilling within the municipal boundaries of the Town,.. (27) It would also run counter to the Department's long-standing interpretation of §23-0303(2). (28) For over thirty years, the Department interpreted ECL §23-0303(2) to completely preempt local municipalities from regulating the oil and gas industry, whether through zoning or other local laws and ordinances putatively based on public health, safety and welfare.
>
> Source: Greg Sovas affidavit, Middlefield lawsuit.
>
> This document is not online, but is nearly identical (even the paragraph numbers) to an affidavit filed under the Dryden lawsuit, copy here: http://drydensec.org/sites/default/files/AnschutzAffidavit.pdf
>
>
>
> These statements, made 13 years apart, appear to contradict each other.
> The first statement was made while Mr. Sovas was a Public Servant.
> The second statement was made while Mr. Sovas was a paid consultant by the O+G industry.
>
> So, which statement is the truth, Greg Sovas?

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Did Greg Sovas commit perjury in the Middlefield and Dryden lawsuits?

2011-12-14T06:43:00.001-08:00

Share this: http://tinyurl.com/DidSovasCommitPerjury

I think Chip Northrup has found something really crucial here.

Chip is being nice by not using the "P" word, but
lying under oath is called perjury,
and I believe this is what we may have here.

Look at the evidence, then decide for yourself.

Greg Sovas is a key industry witness in both the Middlefield and Dryden lawsuits.
For 18 years, he was head of the Division of Mineral Resources at NY DEC.

Compare these two statements:

QUOTE #1:

Local Zoning and DEC Processing of Permits

The 1991 Amendments clarified local government's authority to enact zoning laws and enhanced the ability to participate both formally and informally in the review of mining applications. Furthermore, local governments may enact special use permit authority and enforce conditions from the state permit. It is important to recognize that DEC is not a land use agency, and that the authority remains at the local government level. It has always been our position that localities need to determine appropriate land uses and that DEC, even if we believe that a site may not be zoned properly, will not interfere in those decisions. We do not want conflicts with the localities. We want and need local governments to plan for mineral resources as natural resources just like they would do for any other land use, consistent with the MLRL

-- Gregory H. Sovas, (at the time) Director, Division of Mineral Resources, NY Department of Environmental Conservation, "Sustainable Development and Mining", Perspectives on New York's Mined Land Reclamation Law, Albany Law School. April 17, 1998

Source: http://www.dec.ny.gov/docs/materials_minerals_pdf/albanyla.pdf

Compare that to this:

QUOTE #2:

(7) I was the primary author of the Amendments to the New York's Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law in 1981, and was responsible for implementation of those amendments. (8) Because of my public service, I am personally familiar with the legislative intent and purpose of the oil and gas program, how New York's Oil, Gas and Solution Mining Law was implemented, and how the Department interprets and enforces the provisions of the law. ... (17) There was no question about legislative intent that the supersedure clause eliminated the right of municipalities to regulate any aspect of the oil and gas development including the right to zone oil and gas wells,... (21) The Zoning Law is clearly preempted under the plain languages of ECL §23-0303(2).... (22) The Zoning Law also directly conflicts with Article 23 of the ECL and further frustrates the law's purpose by purporting to use zoning principles to prohibit oil and gas drilling within the municipal boundaries of the Town,... (27) It would also run counter to the Department's long-standing interpretation of §23-0303(2). (28) For over thirty years, the Department interpreted ECL §23-0303(2) to completely preempt local municipalities from regulating the oil and gas industry, whether through zoning or other local laws and ordinances putatively based on public health, safety and welfare.... etc.

Source: Greg Sovas affidavit, Middlefield lawsuit.

This document is not online, but is nearly identical (even the paragraph numbers) to an affidavit filed under the Dryden lawsuit, copy here: http://drydensec.org/sites/default/files/AnschutzAffidavit.pdf

These statements, made 13 years apart, appear to contradict each other.
The first statement was made while Mr. Sovas was a Public Servant.
The second statement was made while Mr. Sovas was a paid consultant by the O+G industry.

So, which statement is the truth, Greg Sovas?

This video discusses the matter:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQDIDJDTYwE

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Susquehanna River in DANGER -- Urgent Action Needed

2011-12-12T05:36:00.001-08:00

New York Counties: Steuben, Chemung, Tioga, Broome, Cortland, Chenango, Otsego
PA Counties:

The SRBC meets Thursday
-- in just 4 days.

They will be voting on 26 NEW water withdrawal permits
for Hydrofracking totalling millions of gallons per day.

WE Need your urgent help.
This River Needs your help.

1: Get this info on every activist list in three states: PA -- NY -- MD
2: Call the governors of 3 states plus the White House EVERY DAY until Thursday.
3: Get to the meeting on Thursday in Wilkes Barre, PA 8:30 AM.

Here are the numbers to call:

State	Governor	Phone
PA	Tom Corbett	717-787-2500
NY	Andrew Cuomo	518-474-8390
MD	Martin O'Malley	410-974-3901
US	Barak Obama	202-456-1111

SAY / DEMAND:

"We the People
Residents of these several states
who live within the Susquehanna River Basin
rely upon this water for life.

There have been NO cumulative impact studies done
to determining the possible GRAVE DAMAGE
to this sensitive ecosystem
caused by the permanent removal of this water
from the basin and the hydrological cycle.

Governor / Mr. President:
WE the PEOPLE
expect your commissioner
to VOTE NO
on ALL NEW WATER WITHDRAWALS
for HYDROFRACKING
in the SUSQUEHANNA RIVER BASIN
until a cumulative impact study is made."

We have just Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
to perform a miracle.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Anthony DiNicola / White Buffalo Inc. Tax Exempt Deer Slaughter

2011-12-11T19:04:00.000-08:00

Animals are conscious. They are self aware. They are born of a mother and father. All animals have eyes and a brain. Animals use communication. Animals are autonomous, possessing free-will. Animals have spirit (an unseen animating force) and personality. Animals breathe air and drink water. Animals have blood, bones, and a central nervous system. Animals locomote by their own will. Animals perceive their environment, and make decisions and have complex emotions. Animals nurture their young and grieve upon death. Animals have memories and dreams.

All animals (including humans and deer) have all of these characteristics.

Here is the guy who is coming to Binghamton University to
slaughter/murder 70-90 deer at the Nature Preserve.

Anthony Dinicola is a notorious animal murderer and is responsible for killing perhaps tens of thousands of animals throughout his bloody "career".

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CRaynI_IP0I

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxe8Qn7lToM

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Sf2NSLhb4c

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=neOr8F8c6as

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fa8_6iBZkwo

Please LIKE our Facebook page to help us stop the slaughter:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-the-Deer-Slaughter-at-Binghamton-University/260897470631795

Re: [PEACENET] Fwd: Comments on deer culling critiques - Richard Andrus, Envi Studies Program, BU

2011-12-11T13:32:00.001-08:00

"What do suppose
we should do about
the JEW PROBLEM?"

This is a propaganda statement.

No matter how you answer,
you must accept the premise
that there is a "Jew Problem".

If you accept the premise, then yes,
murder, imprisonment, or removal
might seem like a logical course of action.

"Deer Problem" => SAME THING

The trustees and stewards of this NATURE PRESERVE are violating their sacred duty to PROTECT LIFE.
A NATURE PRESERVE
IS A NO-KILL ZONE
BY DEFINITION

I am putting my body
between those bullets
and the deer.

Maybe this will provoke some
additional debate or public hearings
on this matter.

That would be good outcome.

Bill Huston

Please LIKE our Facebook page to help us stop the slaughter:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-the-Deer-Slaughter-at-Binghamton-University/260897470631795

PLEASE STOP the Deer Slaughter

2011-12-11T11:26:00.001-08:00

Please email or call the following people and voice your concerns about
the needless slaughter of nearly 100 large wild animals at the BU Nature Preserve:

Julian Shepherd <jshepher@binghamton.edu>, 607-777-6538
Richard Andrus <randrus@binghamton.edu>, 607-777-2160
James VanVoorst <vanvoors@binghamton.edu> 607-777-2157
C. Peter Magrath <president@binghamton.edu> 607-777-2131
Dylan Hovath <dhorvath@binghamton.edu> 607-777-3326

Please LIKE our Facebook page to help us stop the slaughter:

https://www.facebook.com/pages/Stop-the-Deer-Slaughter-at-Binghamton-University/260897470631795

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: William Huston <williamahuston@gmail.com>
Date: Sun, Dec 11, 2011 at 2:10 PM
Subject: PLEASE STOP the Deer Slaughter
To: Julian Shepherd <jshepher@binghamton.edu>, Richard Andrus <randrus@binghamton.edu>, vanvoors@binghamton.edu, president@binghamton.edu, dhorvath@binghamton.edu

Julian, Dick, James, Peter, Dylan

I appeal to your compassion and your humanity.
There is NO REASON, neither ethical nor scientific
to proceed with the slaughter of nearly 100 large wild animals
in the BU Nature Preserve.

I and a few others plan on doing whatever I can to disrupt this
activity, including direct action. I will place my body between
those guns and the deer.

My blood will be on your hands in addition to the blood
of those innocent creatures.

Please work with me and let's discuss alternatives.

Thanks,
Bill Huston
607-321-7846

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

URGENT: Take Action NOW to help PROTECT LIFE in the Susquehanna River Basin

2011-12-10T21:09:00.000-08:00

Link here: http://tinyurl.com/ProtectSusquehanna

The mighty Susquehanna River
is one of the world's most ancient rivers.
It is older than this continent.

These waters have been flowing unimpeeded
for more than 200 million years.

This water is the source of all life here.
Without this water:
there can be NO LIFE.

Now, tens of millions of gallons PER DAY
are being removed from the river basin
for a completely unnecessary use:
hydrofracking for shale gas.

This water is permanently removed
from the hydrological cycle.

Science can only provide
educated guesses
about what impacts
this could have
upon life in the basin.

The removal of this massive quantity of water
from the basin
could cause massive loss of life
and is therefore NOT in the public interst.

"WHEREAS the signatory parties ... recognize the water ... of the Susquehanna River
Basin as regional assets vested with local, state, and national interest ... declare...
the conservation, ... management, and control of the water ... of the Susquehanna River Basin
...will bring the greatest benefits ... in the public interest."

-- SRBC Compact, preamble

The SRBC meets in just 5 days.
They will be voting on 26 NRE water withdrawal permits
for Hydrofracking totalling millions of gallons per day.

WE Need your urgent help.
This River Needs your help.

1: Get this info on every activist list in three states: PA -- NY -- MD
2: Call the governors of 3 states plus the White House EVERY DAY until Thursday.
3: Get to the meeting on Thursday in Wilkes Barre, PA 8:30 AM.

Here are the numbers to call:

State	Governor	Phone
PA	Tom Corbett	717-787-2500
NY	Andrew Cuomo	518-474-8390
MD	Martin O'Malley	410-974-3901
US	Barak Obama	202-456-1111

SAY / DEMAND:

We have just Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday
to perform a miracle.

I have witnessed several miracles lately!

Please make 4 phone calls EVERY DAY
1: PA 717-787-2500
2: MD 410-974-3901
3: NY 518-474-8390
4: White-House 202-456-1111

Each of these days:
Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

BE THERE:
SRBC
Thursday Dec 15 / 8:30 am
Best Western East Mountain Inn,
2400 East End Boulevard (Route 115)
Wilkes-Barre, PA

The last time they met,
this unelected body unanimously approved
of 22 new water withdrawal permits
totaling millions of gallons of water per day,
despite 2 dozen people speaking against these withdrawals.

Unlike golf courses
(where the water consumed remains in the basin),
This water is permanently removed from the watershed
and from the hydrological cycle.

A forest has trees and water.
A desert has few trees and little water.

Hydrofracking removes water
and kills many trees.

Hydrofracking removes
hundreds of billions of gallons of water
per state per frack.

World wide, it's TENS of TRILLIONS of gallons.
This could be a DOOMSDAY SCENARIO.

Helpful links:

About the SRBC:
http://www.srbc.net/about/index.htm
The SRBC Compact:
http://www.srbc.net/about/srbc_compact.pdf
Meeting notice:
http://srbc.net/about/meetings/MeetingNotices/_C%20Mtg%20Notice%2012-08-11%2012-15-11.pdf

More info:
http://protectingourwaters.wordpress.com/2011/12/09/protect-the-susquehanna-river-watershed/

Counties by state in the Susquehanna River Basin:

NY: Tioga, Broome, Cortland, Chenango, Otsego, Steuben, Chemung.

PA: Tioga, Bradford. Cambria, Tioga, Clearfield, Elk, Camaron, Potter, Clinton, Center, Lycoming, Sullivan, Union, Montour, North Umberland, Bradford, Susquehanna, Wyoming, Luzerne, Lackawana, Columbia, Huntington, Blair, Bedford, Fulton, Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Dauphon, Lebanon, Lancaster, York, Cumberland

MD: Harford, Cecil

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

Hydrofracking is a Suicide Pill for America

2011-12-09T22:18:00.001-08:00

Hydrofracking
is a Suicide Pill
for America

a photo essay in 12 frames

by William Huston
10 Dec 2011

Share this shortened link to this article:
http://tinyurl.com/ASuicidePillForAmerica

Part of the problem
with documenting a time like this
is dealing with
the sheer volume of material.

In November,
I shot 40 hours of video.

We are looking for universities
which will make a permanent archive
of this historic material.

We have 4 editors working
to get this material online ASAP.

But does this have value?
Will anyone watch all 40 hours?

Yes people will find little treasures, and share and remix these.

And there are many, many treasures in this material.

Here, I present such a treasure.

Normally I try to condense 90 mins down to 7 min of finished video.

Here, I have condensed 40 hours into 12 frames of video.

Gov. Cuomo did not go to any of the DEC hearings. Neither did Commissioner Joe Martens.

All of the biggest proponents of Fracking NY were Missing In Action.

NY State Senator Tom "Safe Drilling Now" Libous? Nope. No-show. Absent. Not present.

Do you find this interesting?

In their place they sent their next two highest ranking officials, Deputy Commissioners Steve Russo and Eugene Leff. I saw these two gentlemen at all four hearings.

I actually feel sorry for these men. I have compassion for them.

Each is caught 1/2 way
between Gov. "Drill Baby Drill!" Cuomo,
and We ("No Fracking Way!") the People.

It must be a really tough job.

Cover page photo:
"Lead Agency Contact: Eugene Leff"

Before the DEC hearings in NYC, I was setting up on stage, and happened to run into Deputy Commissioner of the DEC, Eugene Leff. His name is actually on the cover page of the SGEIS document:

So after the amazing testimony at both Binghamton and Dansville, where the people made it very clear...

WE THE PEOPLE OF NEW YORK STATE
DO NOT WANT HYDROFRACKING.

...So, I was wondering, what could Cuomo, Martens, etc.
be thinking or feeling now?

So I approached him for an interview.
He seems like a very nice and gentle man.

I was polite and courteous.
I do not judge any man (or woman).
I have compassion for all beings.

He asked what I wanted to know.
I replied, what's the mood inside DEC now?
A lot has been said at these hearings.
What are you personally feeling about what you have heard?

He referred me to his Press Secretary, Emily DeSantis,
who basically ran interference for the Deputy Commissioner.
She directed me to the technical aspects of the process.

I did not then, nor do I now
wish harm or humiliation or shame
upon the Governor or anyone at DEC.

But I did want to look deeply into his eyes
and try to get a reading.
The eyes are the window into the Soul.
I wanted to touch Eugene's Soul
just for a moment.
I wanted his heart and my heart to connect.

He looked away.
He didn't want me to see what he was feeling.

Later in the evening, I got my wish.
I got to look deeply into Eugene Leff's Soul.

I was a little embarrassed.
I felt like a voyeur.

Eugene and I attended every meeting.
Very few people have done that.
Perhaps a dozen.

I looked over at Eugene Leff
sitting in the audience
during David Publow's amazing speech.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuE90RpDbM

The following are individual frames,
with the text of Dave's words
superimposed.

One of my favorite bits about this sequence, which you can hear if you listen to the video, is hearing the young woman off in the audience saying this line with passion.

(@ 1 min, 5 sec. in the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuE90RpDbM#t=1m5s )

I wonder of Mr. Leff has daughters? Perhaps he heard the voice of his own daughter in the young woman's clear and powerful voice. Hearing that woman's voice, and seeing my camera looking his way seemed to send waves of anguish through his body.

This is the point where Mr. Leff looked over at me.

@ between 1 min. 14 sec. and 16 sec.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuE90RpDbM#t=1m14s

What are his eyes saying?

My reading is something like:
"Oh shit."

I could see it in his face.
He wanted to disappear.
He wanted to hide,
perhaps from shame and guilt?

This is Satyagragha at work.
Gandhi called it "Truth Force"

Now he knows he is being watched.
He looked away, be he knew I was there... looking... looking to touch his Soul.

He could sense my camera lens getting closer,
...closer....

He knew I was watching him.
He knew this was on the record.

He immediately started squirming in his chair.
His head was rocking side to side.

The muscles in his face seemed to start convulsing.

Dave Publow saying:
"Hydrofracking enriches gas companies..."

Just then, Eugene bit his own tongue.

Then, his face squeezed tight
which looked to me like a
grimace in pain.

He looked extremely distressed,
anguished, uncomfortable. perhaps even physically ill.

You could see he wanted to disappear....
to crawl away and hide...

He dove for a bottle of water

Isn't this all about water?

And the greatest irony is
these plastic water bottles
are made of methane.

The Corporate Shale-Gas Frackers
destroy our water,
to get methane
to make plastic bottles
in order to sell us water.

This is to profit
from both the creation of the disease
and the provision of the cure.

In capitalism, this is called a "Double Play".

Just then, Mr. Leff took a big drink
as Dave read these lines:

"Hydrofracking is a
SUICIDE PILL for AMERICA".

Just then, Mr. Leff took a big gulp.

... and what's up with this guy???

Most of us probably view Mr. Eugene Leff
has being a successful man, a powerful man.
A man of great influence.

Yet, in this moment, he seemed terrified,
sick, weak, trapped,
desperately wanting to find a way out.

Mr. Leff, I wish that you
find your way out.
A peaceful way out.

Mr. Leff, I wish that you
and all beings
find happiness and freedom from suffering.
and all beings
have access to clean drinking water.

I wish that you have great strength
to do something bold and courageous
in order to save this land
for future generations.

I would say certain good choices would be to

a) withdraw the draft SGEIS
b) take the "no action alternative"
mentioned in section 9.1 of the SGEIS (meaning, declare a ban),

or
c) resign.

It's time for really bold action now.

I send you wishes for happiness, compassion, strength, and courage.

Peace -- Nya:Weh -- Namaste
WM

TEXT of the speech:

Governor Cuomo! DEC!
We are here today to stop hydrofracking in New York.
We are here today to demand that you uphold the public trust.
We speak for many. The SGEIS process is a sham.
The mission of the DEC is written:
"To conserve, improve and protect New York's natural resources and environment
and to prevent, abate and control water, land and air pollution,
in order to enhance the health, safety and welfare of the people of the state
and their overall economic and social well-being."
The DEC violates itʼs own charter by allowing fracking at all.
Hydrofracking spreads toxins into our air, water, and soil.
Hydrofracking enriches gas companies, but ruins the health, economy and future of the people.
Hydrofracking is a suicide pill for America.
We will not allow this to happen.
We will not allow this dangerous industry to poison us.
We will not allow Big Money to hijack our democracy.
We will not allow you to IGNORE the facts to advance the interests of the few.
You have forced us to take this stand.
The DEC claims it will protect NYCʼs watershed.
But we know, the DEC will not protect any part of New York State.
The DEC has ignored the public health impacts of drilling.
The DEC has not measured the cumulative impact of drilling.
The DEC has issued regulations before public comment on the draft EIS has even been completed.
The DEC allows toxic waste in open pits, spreading volatile toxins for hundreds of miles.
The DEC allows toxic wastewater to be spread on NY roads.
The DEC leaves New Yorkʼs floodplains, farmland, and towns, vulnerable.
It ignores faultlines, earthquakes, and extreme weather.
The DEC has not banned any toxic chemicals from the fracking process.
The DEC knows that there is no safe way to dispose of fracking waste.
The DEC allows the gas industry itself to monitor its own waste disposal, despite a history of abuse.
The DEC is understaffed, and cannot manage an unmanageable industry.
We will not allow you to ignore the lethal reality
of what has happened EVERYWHERE fracking has been done.

Governor Cuomo!
We demand that you ban fracking in New York State!

Governor Cuomo!
If you move to allow fracking in NY State, we will remove you from elected office.

Governor Cuomo! DEC!
If you continue on this path, we will take direct action, and we will shut you down.

Lionk to the video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuE90RpDbM

Remix and republish under
CC-BY-ATTR BY-SA BY-NC
Commercial terms may be available.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

(video) "My Name is Allegany County" now online!

2011-12-05T17:38:00.001-08:00

Shaleshock Media is pleased to announce the online premiere
of the film "My Name is Allegany County"

youtu.be/d6r4iTTZUFc

which documents a (somewhat rare) successful environmental campaign,
to keep a "low level" nuclear waste dump out of NY state.

This campaign was so successful, that it killed the entire
program, which had a national scope.

This present time is connected to history.
I would urge all modern Fractivists to take some time
and watch this amazing film.

I have had the privilege of meeting Spike Jones (featured
in this film) twice, first at Jeff+Jodi's NVDA training camp.
I also met Spike again at the Dansville DEC hearings.
Spike is a brilliant strategist. Our generation can learn
invaluable lessons from the previous one.

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

(video) Mutiny at the DEC! Nearly 2,000 staffers speak against fracking!

2011-12-03T13:37:00.000-08:00

Link to this document:
http://tinyurl.com/2011DECMutiny

Text follows:

From Stephanie Low:

--- QUOTE: --

FYI. I include "my" comments, which were received by phone around 6 PM from the DEC's Wayne Bayer and hand-written. I think they deserve wide distribution, coming as they do
from the belly of the beast. Here they are:

I'm here to deliver a statement from an employee of the DEC, Environmental Program Specialist and Executive Board member of the DEC's union, the Public Employees Federation (PEF). His name is Wayne Bayer and he speaks for the 1774 members of the professional, technical and scientific staff of the DEC, those on the ground who may be assumed to know the issues of fracking and the rdSGEIS best. His statement
follows:

"Three minutes is not an adequate amount of time to fully convey the concerns of Division 169 of the New York State PEF, or PEF/encon, who represent the rapidly declining professional, technical and scientific staff of DEC. Therefore, we will be submitting more extensive comments for the public record before the public comment period is over.

Almost everyone agrees that public regulatory involvement and oversight is necessary to protect the public, vital natural resources, and wildlife, as well as the natural gas industry itself from unjustified allegations of mis- and/or malfeasance with gas extraction activities.

The point PEF/encon wishes to make loud and clear today is that the 25% reduction in existing staff at DEC has crippled our ability to carry out all existing regulatory and statutory responsibilities assigned to our agency.

There is NO FRACKING WAY we can presently, honestly and adequately add any new responsibility as labor-intensive as regulating, monitoring and inspection activities related to high volume hydraulic fracturing of natural gas. DEC would also be hard pressed to adequately provide emergency remedial response in cleanup assistance for a major accident of any kind. Till there are adequate staffing resources available, the moratorium should be extended."

Then, since I had 33 seconds left over, I added a couple words about
friends of mine presently dying from lung and pancreatic cancer, and
those dead in the last 18 months from similar cancers. I said
"Don't do this. Ban fracking now." and that was it.

--- ENDQUOTE --

RED ALERT! Martens says final SGEIS in the spring

2011-12-03T02:48:00.001-08:00

While the people have decided the SGEIS is DOA,
Cuomo has a different idea: frack the Southern Tier by Summer 2012.

http://innovationtrail.org/post/dec-fracking-report-may-come-soon-spring-2012

DEC fracking report may come as soon as spring 2012

By Marie Cusick

New York's top environmental regulator, Department of Environmental Conservation Commissioner Joe Martens, says his agency will likely finish its review of hydrofracking late next spring.

That means drilling permits for fracking could quickly follow.

That's a faster timeline than expected. DEC officials had previously been much less specific, saying their report will probably be finished "sometime next year."

"That's really alarming," says Robert Moore, executive director of Environmental Advocates of New York. "I'd be curious to know how [the DEC] reached that conclusion, unless they've already determined an outcome … Clearly that would signal to me that there continues to be pressure to get this done sooner rather than later."

Drillers see it as a good sign. Brad Gill is the executive director of the Independent Oil and Gas Association of New York, a trade association representing the industry. He wrote in an an e-mail statement:

" Given the work that the DEC has left to do, late spring seems like a realistic time frame to begin issuing permits. It's been a three-and-a-half year wait, and during that time, we've watched as businesses left New York for other states. It's encouraging to think about moving forward in spring of 2012 and realizing the benefits that have eluded New Yorkers."

Earlier this week, the DEC extended the public comment period on its review of fracking, known as Supplemental Generic Environmental Impact Statement (SGEIS). The comment period was originally supposed to end on December 12th, but will now go until January 11, 2012.

Agency officials cited the huge volume of comments they've received on their latest draft of the report, which has already topped 10,000 in just three months. The DEC also saw an unprecedented turnout to a series of four public hearings about hydrofracking held around the state last month. More than 6,000 people attended the meetings.

The SGEIS will determine whether New York moves forward to allow hydrofracking. The DEC's current position is that the controversial drilling technique can be done safely, with strict regulations.

Martens was in WMHT's studio today to answer questions from viewers about hydrofracking. That interview will be broadcast on the December 9 edition of New York NOW (check your local listings).

----- end ---

URGENT ACTION NEEDED - Broome, Chenango, Tioga Counties!! - PREVENT POISONING of the S. Tier!!!

2011-12-02T18:56:00.001-08:00

URGENT ACTION NEEDED
for residents of Chenango, Broome, and Tioga County
to STOP FRACKING in our area!!!!
Prevent the Poisoning of our Water!

As reported in the Binghamton PSB on Monday,
Senator Tom Libous and Gov. Andrew Cuomo
are hatching a plan to frack & POISON the Southern Tier of NY:

http://www.pressconnects.com/article/20111128/NEWS10/111280311/Desperate-times-could-bring-about-desperate-measures-NY

QUOTE: But in New York politics, such pessimism can be gold if you are backing big, bold and controversial plans like hydrofracking for gas in the Southern Tier.

The faltering economy provides fuel for residents there who envision an energy boom after decades of decline. It may also be the catalyst needed for an already powerful political mix involving the Democratic governor [Cuomo] and Republican Sen. Thomas Libous of Broome County. Cuomo and Libous, the Senate's deputy majority leader, have formed perhaps Albany's closest alliance.

It's the kind of partnership that could yield a deal in which Libous' Southern Tier district gets state approval for hydraulic fracturing of natural gas wells, called hydrofracking, where many residents want it. In return, Cuomo can limit the process of shooting water and chemicals into underground shale, which environmental groups strongly oppose.

"It makes sense to me that if we are going to permit environmentally safe drilling, that you go to those regions that are willing at accept it," Libous said. "I know this region is willing to accept it." ENDQUOTE

I call your attention to the phrase:
"...where many residents want it..."

Do YOU want the Southen Tier Fracked?

NO WAY!

Here are a couple of things you can do right away to voice your
opposition to this plan:

Option 1) PLEASE CALL Senator Tom Libous' office 607-773-8771
and tell him WE WILL NOT ALLOW HIM TO FRACK/POISON
the Beautiful Southern Tier!!!

Option 2) leave a message on his Facebook page for "Safe Drilling Now"
and tell him WE WILL NOT ALLOW HIM TO FRACK/POISON
the Beautiful Southern Tier!!!
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Safe-Drilling-Now/338270946640

Please SHARE THIS with all friends in these three counties
Broome - Tioga - Chenango
(this is basically Sen. Libous' district)

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

(video) Highlight from NYC DEC hearings. Eugene Leff's reaction to Dave Publow / United for Action

2011-12-02T16:43:00.001-08:00

This was an early highlight, and helped set the tone for the rest of the day:

Dave Publow, United for Action,
NY DEC SGEIS hearings on Hyrdrofracking, NYC, 11/30/2011
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=myuE90RpDbM

Please share this on other NY lists, and if you are on
Facebook, please post this video to Governor Cuomo's wall!!
https://www.facebook.com/andrewcuomo2010?sk=wall&filter=1

Note about the video:

Earlier in the day as I was setting up, I happened to
share a moment with NY DEC Deputy Commissioner Eugene Leff.
(his name is listed on the Cover Page of the SGEIS document)

He is a very soft-spoken, gentle man.
So with very gentle, low-key energy I approached him and asked
for a quick interview. He asked me what service I was with.
I said, O2E-TV in Binghamton, and also Shaleshock Media.

He quickly got his press secretary Emily DeSantis. I said
I was just looking for any insights as to what was going on
inside the DEC, or his own personal reaction to the hearings so far.

Desantis redirected the discussion to the technical process
of the SGEIS/Regs review ... basically she ran interference
and I was denied an interview.

If you watch the video @ 1:00, I was panning around the audience
and happened to spot Eugene Leff in the audience. I finally got
what I was looking for: Mr. Leff's personal response to the proceedings.
He was looking a bit green.

If you watch carefully, @ 1:15, he looked right at my camera, checking
out my shot. Yes, coming right to you, sir. He got real fidgety at that point,
knew he was being watched, grabbed some water, etc.

I really have great empathy for him. He must have one of the most
difficult jobs in the known universe right now, sitting between
his boss, Gov. Andrew "Drill Baby Drill" Cuomo, and The People.

BH

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org

(video) Sidney SGEIS comment writing workshop ++ LOTS OF INFO to help you file comments

2011-11-27T20:43:00.001-08:00

Get those comments submitted folks.

Please consider organizing something like this in your town.
http://vimeo.com/32761355

Here are some resources to help you.
Lots of info here... just click on a few to get some ideas...

Official DEC page, with links to documents and online submission form:
www.dec.ny.gov/energy/75370.html

Still time to get to a hearing!!! 3 left this week.

November 29 - Public Hearing on the SGEIS – Loch Sheldrake, NY 1-4pm, 6-9pm
November 30 – Public Hearing on the SGEIS – New York City, Tribeca Peforming Arts Center, 199 Chambers Street, New York, NY. 1-4pm, 6-9pm
December 1 -- Public Hearing on the SGEIS -- Ithaca State Theater 7pm
December 8 -- Last day to safely mail comments (unless you send overnight)
December 12 -- LAST DAY FOR COMMENTS received by DEC online or by USPS mail.

GET THOSE COMMENTS FILED!!!!
Thank you all for your service to Seven Generations

Namaste -- Nya Weh -- Peace
BH

--
William Huston WilliamAHuston@gmail.com
Binghamton NY    Phone: 607-321-7846

SocialNet: http://facebook.com/billhuston
Videos: http://youtube.com/billhuston    http://vimeo.com/billhuston
Bio/blog: http://binghamtonpmc.org/bio.html    http://WilliamAHuston.blogspot.com
Binghamton-area discussion; spirituality topics: http://tinyurl.com/STNYlightworkers
Binghamton Public Access TV is Open-To-Everyone! http://www.O2ETV.org