IN FIELD: MIAMI ACTIVISTS CAMPAIGN TO SAVE ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE
"Miami's Stonehenge" Threatened By Development
It's not often that archeological treasures are discovered these days. It's even rarer that such sites are found near major urban areas. But a mysterious circle nestled among Miami's high rises could be one of the most important Native American archeological discoveries in years... if it's not buried under a parking garage.
The two thousand year old site, discovered when an apartment building was razed to make way for the $126 million dollar development called Brickell Point, may be the only surviving record of a Native American people known as the Tequesta. If the development goes forward, the strange circle, along with the tunnels and walls that surround it, could be lost forever.
Local Sierra Club activists, along with concerned city officials, Native American groups, and even schoolchildren to wage a campaign to save the circle. A front page story in the 2/10/99 edition of South Florida's Sun-Sentinel newspaper detailed their fight.
At a hearing on 2/9/99, more than 100 children from the Miami Shores Elementary School and the Miami Country Day School summed up their feelings about the circle with a song. "There's a lot of things in downtown Miami. But there is only one Tequesta Circle in the whole wide wide wide world." (Sun Sentinel, 2/10/99)
The newspaper rain the full lyrics to their song in a special box beside the story.
Their campaign is already paying off. Miami's mayor, Joe Carollo, who is a backer of the development, is struggling to come up with alternatives to destroying the site. He, along with the developer, has suggested digging up the limestone formation in which the circle sits and moving it somewhere else. Activists argue that a solution that destroys the character of the site is no solution at all.
Miami-Dade County Mayor Alex Penelas supports buying the site and keeping it intact. So do City Commissioners Arthur Teele and Tomas Regalado, who are working to involve the Smithsonian Institution in protecting the circle.
"It doesn't belong to the city, it belongs to history." said Regalado.
DEFENSE OF THE ENVIRONMENT: SEND A MESSAGE TO YOUR REPRESENTATIVE
Send A Letter To the Editor To Your Local Paper!
For you diligent SC-ACTION readers, you know that there was a recent vote in Congress on the Rep. Waxman Defense of the Environment amendment. This amendment would have demanded full and open debate and an accountable vote on any legislation that would undercut environmental safeguards and public health protections. Last year - as you may recall - our environment and health was undercut by sneaky, back door tactics.
Please send a letter to the editor thanking your Representative if they did the right thing - or condemning them if the voted against protecting the environment. You can find the vote on the web by going to the Library of Congress website: https://thomas.loc.gov. Once there, look for Wednesday's vote on HR 350, specifically the Waxman amendment.
Inform your community, and let Congress know that we pay attention!
February 11, 1999
"What is now proved was once only imagin'd." William Blake
TAKE ACTION: Support Miller's Natural Resource Bill
ROADBUILDING MORATORIUM: We Want Permanent Protection
CAIRO-PLUS-5: Mrs. Clinton Promises More Funding
TAKE ACTION!
IN CONGRESS: Support Miller's Natural Resource Bill
We recently reported that some members of Congress were interested in securing full and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We've now received word that Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) will soon introduce a bill that will build on the Clinton administration's "Land Legacy" initiative by providing such a source of funding for programs to protect natural resources.
This bill is coming along just in time, because a competing bill was introduced yesterday that would endanger our fragile coastal areas. Rep. Don Young (R-Alaska) introduced H.R. 701, which also includes natural-resource funding, but unfortunately sets up an incentive to increase off-shore oil drilling. H.R. 701 would encourage more oil drilling by providing financial incentives to states based in part on how much drilling takes place off their coasts. Unless these drilling incentives are removed from the bill, the Sierra Club will continue to strenuously oppose the bill.
Please take a moment to call your member of Congress and ask him/her to become an original cosponsor of Rep. Miller's upcoming bill called the "Permanent Protection for America's Resources 2000 Act." Let your representative know that this bill is a good alternative to H.R. 701 because it funds wildlife and natural-resource programs without increasing local demand for off-shore oil drilling. Ask him/her not to cosponsor H.R. 701 as introduced.
THANK YOU!!!
ROADBUILDING MORATORIUM: We Want Permanent Protection, No Exemptions
The 18-month moratorium on roadbuilding in national forests -- announced today by the U.S. Forest Service -- is a step in the right direction to protect the nation's roadless areas. But the moratorium is full of political loopholes that will leave tens of millions of acres of America's last remaining wild forests open to logging, roadbuilding and mining.
The policy places a temporary moratorium on roadbuilding in roadless areas of 5,000 acres or more and protects many other smaller roadless areas that have been identified by the Forest Service. But the plan specifically exempts many critically important national forests, such as the Tongass forest in Alaska and the ancient forests of the Pacific Northwest and Northern California. In addition, the policy allows logging and other destructive activities to continue during the moratorium.
"If we are going to save the last wild, unspoiled places in our nation, this moratorium should be made permanent and applied to all of our national forests, without exceptions," said the Sierra Club's Forest Policy Specialist, Sean Cosgrove. "The real test will come when the administration completes the policy. President Clinton and Vice President Gore have an historic opportunity to protect and preserve the dwindling forest wilderness areas of the United States as a legacy for future generations."
If these precious roadless areas are not permanently protected, then the administration will have sent the signal that we can expect business as usual in the development of our public lands and the continued loss of our heritage. "It is time for the Clinton administration to give the American people what they want -- a national policy that would protect America's wild forest heritage forever," concluded Cosgrove.
CAIRO-PLUS-5: Mrs. Clinton Promises More Funding
Women's rights to quality and affordable family planning, education and economic improvements; reproductive health and services; and protection from discrimination and violence have dominated the proceedings at the Cairo-Plus-5 world population conference in The Hague. Nearly 150 nongovernmental organizations are convening this week to assess the progress of programs aimed to slow global population growth.
First Lady Hillary Clinton delivered an inspirational and forthright keynote address at the conference Wednesday, calling on volunteer agencies to continue to work toward slowing global population growth. She urged them to persevere in the face of dwindling financial support, both from industrialized donor countries and developing nations.
Participants were encouraged when Mrs. Clinton promised increased funding from the Unitd States. Since U.S. population-planning funds peaked at $600 million in 1995, spending has been slashed by almost 40 percent. This year, the U.S. will spend $385 million.
Mrs. Clinton underscored the need to invest in human resources and give equal access to family planning to all women. She urged governments not to interfere in women's rights to reproductive choice and education.
What you can do:
Send a letter to the editor to your local newspaper on the importance of protecting family-planning programs and the need for the U.S. to reinstate full funding for these programs.
Check out https://www.iisd.ca/linkages/population/hague on the Web for continued updates on the Cairo-Plus-5 meeting.
Contact Jennifer Kurz at (202) 547-1141 or jennifer.kurz@sierraclub.org for more information.
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