BIOSPHERE, PROPERTY RIGHTS DISCUSSED AT NEWSPAPER MEETING

A proposal to turn a swathe of Southeast Missouri from Cape Girardeau to Springfield into a federally-designated "biosphere reserve" may be dead, but opponents of the concept aren't taking any chances.

Theresa L. Goedke, University of Missouri-Columbia department of rural sociology, said the biosphere idea was poorly presented, misunderstood and has been dropped. It was designed as a research and educational tool, Goedke said.

However, members of a property rights groups aren't convinced the idea is dead. "The U.S. State Department is still promoting this United Nations initiative," said Ray E. Cunio, president of Citizens for Private Property Rights.

The debate took place at the annual meeting of the Missouri Society of Newspaper Editors and the Associated Press Managing Editors at the Lake of the Ozarks.

The Ozarks Biosphere Reserve project started as an outgrowth of a United Nation's project to establish biospheres around the world. The United States has 48 biosphere reserves, designated by the White House.

Thursday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed bill 833 that would preserve private property rights in non-federal lands surrounding public lands. Biospheres would be included. "We are begging for something like this to affirm and shore up our property rights," Welch said.

Dennis Figg with the Missouri Department of Conservation said the proposed legislation isn't necessary. Existing laws already protect those rights. Biospheres operate in the Adirondack Mountains, the Catskills Mountains and around Yellowstone National Park.

Goedke said each biosphere is independent of another. The proposed Ozarks Biosphere Reserve would have included 32,000 to 45,000 square miles, stretching from the Missouri River to the north into northern Arkansas to the south. It would have included the Mississippi River and Cairo, Ill., on the east and parts of Kansas and Oklahoma on the west.

The core area was the Mark Twain National Forest. Goedke said, "The study was looking at ways to coordinate resource management in a more sustainable way," she said.

"It would have offered access to global research on flora and fauna and more cooperation and education."

The core zone was to be centered in the already protected national forest. Confusion and fears quickly overtook discussion of the project, she said.

People in the region, especially those in the proposed core area, didn't like the idea that the government or the United Nations might have a say over what happens on their property. Missourians in the proposed biosphere learned of the possibility, not through official public meetings, but rather by discovering the plan as part of a Missouri Department of Conservation document. Establishing the biosphere was goal 9.

"This bio-diversity treaty and ecosystem management system puts man on the same level as all other animals. We are not at the top of the food chain. We are no different than any other organism," said Marge Welch with People for the USA, a private-property rights group.

A biosphere includes three zones. In the center is a core area where human activity is almost nonexistent. The land is essentially in a wild state. Outside this core area is a buffer zone, where limited human activity is allowed. The outer zone of the biosphere is a transition area.

"These are islands of human habitat," Welch said. "These are the places where people can work and live." The Cape Girardeau area would have been in a transition zone.

Welch worries about regulations that come with any type of designation. Scenic byways, for example, bring "protected view sheds."

"We can't infringe on someone's view traveling along one of these byways. It starts with regulating outdoor advertising and junk yards. At the extreme, regulations govern what color to paint your house," Welch said.

The groups organizing the Ozark Biosphere included state and federal agencies, but no elected officials.

"The problem was with the process," Goedke said. "People were excluded. There was no one disseminating information. No one working with the communities."