Chattooga Quarterly
Summer, 2005
Preserve & Protect
Director's Page
Many, myself included, were caught off guard by the rapid, well orchestrated effort to plan, fund and construct a new interstate highway through the Blue Ridge mountains. Rest assured that the Chattooga Conservancy will be working hard to beat this thing back. Read more.
- ENDANGERED SPECIES ACT—ENDANGERED
- MAJOR TIMBER SALE PROPOSED FOR CHATTOOGA HEADWATERS
- VOLUNTEERS NEEDED FOR STEKOA WATER SAMPLING
Upcoming Events - Cultural Heritage Series
Interstate 3
An interstate highway wider than three football fields is on the fast track for the north Georgia mountains. The initial route, outlined in federal legislation authorizing a “study” of feasible routes and cost, would connect the port of Savannah, Georgia, to Knoxville, Tennessee, and pass through the mountains near Helen, Georgia. Read more.
"Major" Lewis Redmond
So, you think the Eric Rudolph extravaganza was pretty special, maybe even unique? In reality, Rudolph is only the latest in a line of picturesque desperadoes produced here in the southern mountains. One of the most colorful and ruthless was “Major” Lewis R. Redmond, a late 19th century mountain outlaw and bootlegger. Read more.
Monsanto Re-engineers Nature
Percy Schmeiser and his wife saved seeds from their Canadian canola farm for forty years. They had effectively developed a strain of canola that was perfectly adapted to their locale, requiring less herbicides and pesticides than other conventional seeds would have needed. But in 1998 Schmeiser noticed something strange about his crop. He sprayed the popular herbicide Roundup on stray canola plants near a telephone pole, but the plants didn’t die. The huge biotech corporation Monsanto got wind of Schmeiser’s Roundup resistant crop and paid his farm an uninvited visit. Without consent Monsanto tested the canola and determined it contained patented genes. In August of that year Monsanto filed a statement of claim against Schmeiser demanding a $15,000 “technology fee.”
Read more.
Endangered Plants in the Watershed
“Nothing is more priceless and more worthy of preservation than the rich array of animal life with which our country has been blessed. It is a many-faceted treasure, of value to scholars, scientists, and nature lovers alike, and it forms a vital part of the heritage we all share as Americans.” These words of President Richard Nixon heralded the signing of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) in 1973, designed to protect the diversity of animals and plants throughout our nation. With an almost unanimous vote from Congress, the ESA was a rewrite of the 1966 Endangered Species Preservation Act. Read more.