Recent action

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Keeping the Appalachian Trail green

Last year, the 10,000th hiker completed the Appalachian Trail (AT), which stretches from Georgia’s Springer Mountain to Maine’s Mt. Katahdin. Thanks in part to our sister group, PennEnvironment, the AT in Pennsylvania is more likely to remain unspoiled for the next 10,000.

An estimated 229 miles of the trail pass through Pennsylvania. The adjacent land is home to dozens of threatened and endangered species—and perhaps the greatest biodiversity of any leg of the trail. Developers in Pennsylvania, however, have been threatening to build right along the Appalachian Trail. Among these developers: Pennsylvania-based Richard Muller, Jr., who pushed to build a $25 million auto racetrack and road course adjacent to the AT in Smith Gap Township, in the Poconos.

PennEnvironment recently helped convince legislators to strengthen the state’s Appalachian Trail Act, which will allow nearby communities to change their zoning to be more protective of the trail—ensuring happy hiking for thousands of us and a healthier habitat for hundreds of species.

Obama’s budget could restore toxic cleanup program

Environment Rhode Island is backing President Obama’s proposal to restart the cleanup of our country’s most contaminated sites. For over a decade the Superfund program, established to clean up these toxic sites, has been without any resources to accomplish that goal.

The 2010 budget proposes to reinstate excise taxes that expired in 1995. These taxes would take effect in 2011 and collect over $1 billion to clean up toxic sites within the Superfund program. In Rhode Island, a number of super-toxic sites could be cleaned up under President Obama’s budget proposal. These sites include the Davis Liquid Waste in Smithfield and Peterson/Puritan, Inc. in Cumberland and Lincoln. To find a full list, visit www.epa.gov/superfund/sites/index.htm.

Mission statement

We all want clean air, clean water and open space. But it takes independent research and tough-minded advocacy to win concrete results for our environment, especially when powerful interests stand in the way of environmental progress. That’s the idea behind Environment Rhode Island. We focus exclusively on protecting Rhode Island’s air, water and open space. We speak out and take action at the local, state and national levels to improve the quality of our environment and our lives.

Credits

Photos: Banner: Flickr user Wally G.** A fresh start story: Jim Watson/Getty Images. To our members: Joy Brown*. A greener future story: Andrei Merkulov*. Clean water story: Flickr user Stephie**. Solar rising story: DOE/NREL. Ad: Gary Detonnancourt*. Appalachian Trail story: Melinda Fawver*.
*: under license from Shutterstock.
**: under creative commons license.

Editor: John Rumpler. Contributors: Jim Amspacher, Justin Boyles, Matthew Curtis, Sara Landis, Ethan Lavine, Jesse Littlewood, Ryan Moeckly, Leana Nordstrom, Megan Parks, Dan Platt, Kate Powers, Nathan Proctor, Heather Shute, Tessa Simonds, Jenne Turner. Publications Director: Richard J. Hannigan. Design: Public Interest GRFX (215) 985-1113.