SIERRA CLUB TO MEET ON FORESTS HERE

The Sierra Club plans to hold a statewide conference on Missouri's public forests this spring in Cape Girardeau.

Plans for the conference were discussed at a meeting of the executive committee of Missouri's Ozark Chapter of the Sierra Club being held in Cape Girardeau this weekend. Seventeen executive committee members attended Saturday's session. The meeting continues today.

The forestry conference highlights one of the Sierra Club's statewide priorities: conservation of the state's public forests.

Alan Journet, conservation chairman for the local Trail of Tears group of the Sierra Club, is coordinating the forestry conference.

"This conference provides an opportunity for people involved in forest management and forest research to interact with the concerned public," Journet said. "It should be an informed and more sophisticated public debate of what the issues are and what the concerns are."

The conference is scheduled March 27-28 at Southeast Missouri State University.

Working with the local Trail of Tears Sierra Club group on the forestry conference are Southeast Missouri State University's College of Science and Technology, the School of Natural Resources at the University of Missouri-Columbia, Missouri Department of Conservation, Mark Twain National Forest and Four Seasons Audubon Society.

Presentations will cover a range of research, management, economic and administrative issues, Journet said.

At the meeting this weekend of the executive committee, state officers of the club reviewed conservation activities.

The Sierra Club in Missouri has five groups and 7,300 members. The Trail of Tears group in Cape Girardeau is the newest. It was officially recognized in October, said Barbara Conover of Kansas City, chairman of the state Ozark Chapter.

"If you look at the programs we're involved in, it shows the kind of strength our membership has. Our 7,300 members are also the kind of people who will write to their senators and congressmen.

"Most of what we are doing this weekend is updating and furthering campaigns, which are already under way," Conover said.

"Forestry is probably our main goal. Many conservation issues tie in with forestry," she said, "and that fits with the history of the Sierra Club. It was founded as a public lands protection organization, and public lands tend to be at the heart of everything we do.

"That's how lead mining became an issue with us. A proposal was made to mine lead in the Mark Twain Forest. We are also interested in implementation of the Clean Air Act. If we pollute the air so much, the forest doesn't grow."

Dan Lehocky, of St. Louis, conservation chairman for the state chapter, has been working to stop lead mining. "We have to stop thinking of lead as a natural resource and start thinking of it as a toxin," he said.

Lehocky said the Sierra Club is working to "make sure no new mines start up and more recycling of lead takes place." He said the club will lobby, monitor, appeal, harass and publicize to reach that goal.

He, along with other members at the meeting, said public awareness of conservation issues has been on the rise over the past few years.

"I think there has been a quantum jump in awareness and concern about environmental and conservation issues," Lehocky said. "I think it started with an awareness about solid waste and the need for recycling.

"It is now growing in other areas like toxic waste and pollution. But I think the danger of plant and animal extinction is more critical."

Conover said the Sierra Club serves as a governmental watchdog. "We employ the only full-time legislative lobbyist for conservation issues in Jefferson City. "We watch the laws and rules as they develop."

Conover said paying for a lobbyist is the statewide organization's largest expenditure.

Becky Rawlings is the chapter's legislative lobbyist. In addition to forests, she sees the Clean Air Act and energy as top legislative issues for 1992.

"The feds sent down the Clean Air Act, and now Missouri is trying to figure out, what does that mean?" Rawlings said. "I think energy will also be a major focus for the legislature."

Among other items of concern for the Sierra Club's Missouri chapter are expansion and acquisition of state park lands, protection of wetlands and ATV use.

The next meeting of the local Sierra Club group will be held Nov. 18 at 7 p.m. in Room 121 of Rhodes Hall on the university campus. Bruce Stansil of UPR Missouri Inc. will talk about Cryogenic Recycling of products like tires, batteries, phones and milk bottles.