Friday, March 16, 2007

Navy Outlying Landing Field - No help From Congressman McIntyre, Jones or Senators Dole & Burr.


From the Charlotte Observer :
Outrage in the refuge - Interior Department gag order on OLF an abuse of power.
"The U.S. Department of the Interior has told its U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service employees in northeastern North Carolina not to respond to public inquiries about the effects of a proposed Navy practice landing field there. Any questions are to be referred to an office in Atlanta -- more than 500 miles away." Photo by Juan A. Pons

"Why this cockeyed scheme? It's "an effort to keep the public from knowing ... about the effects a proposed landing field will have on wildlife and the refuge," says Derb Carter, an attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. The field would be near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, one of the East Coast's most important migratory waterfowl refuges."

"The field will endanger large birds that spend their winters feeding and nesting near the field. If the 15- to 20-pound tundra swans and the 5- to 12-pound snow geese collide with expensive F/A 18 Super Hornet jets, chances are the jets are going down. So are the pilots. A coalition of local governments, citizens and advocacy groups is working to stop the Navy from building this new facility in Eastern North Carolina. As part of a Pentagon push to find additional training grounds in the United States, Navy officials are intent on installing an "outlying landing field" (OLF) for squadrons of F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets based near Norfolk, Va. The Navy is moving forward with their plan to acquire 30,000 acres for the airfield in Beaufort and Washington counties, in land near the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge. This will be one of the largest abuses ever of Eminent Domain.

There are places on this earth that are sacred, places where one cannot walk and not be struck by their beauty and a sense that these places are the cradle of our earth and whole species. The Pocosin Lakes region of Eastern North Carolina is such a place. It is the winter home to tens of thousands of geese, tundra swans and other birds - its estuaries and waterways a reliable feeding place and a safe harbor.



Now this region is at risk—chosen for its rare, quiet darkness along the Eastern Seaboard for practice drills in flight of an altogether different kind. It does not make sense that such a sacrifice take place. Further, after being caught lying and "reverse engineering" their environmental impact study the Navy was rebuked in three separate courts. Now the US Navy is coming back again to take these beautiful lands from us.

It's time to put a stop to this abuse of power. It's time to protect North Carolina's family farmers in Washington and Beaufort Counties. It's time to tell the Navy to find a better place for its outlying landing field. Please take action to block any future expenditures by the US Navy related in any way to the pursuit of Site C. The pleas of interested sportsmen and environmentalists in SE NC and throughout the state have fallen on deaf ears.


We've had either no response or no help from Congressman Mike McIntyre or Walter Jones or Senators Dole and Burr. This is not responsive government!