Welcome to Gypsy Girl Press!
Gypsy Girl Press is a small independent publisher in Ohio that specializes in
gypsies, metaphysics, magic, spirituality, self-help, young adult fiction and
poetry, featuring the works of Allie, the syndicated columnist of "Ask
Allie".
Use us to find help reaching your goals, read poetry, discover
the wonderful world of soul mates and to take a trip to the beyond with a gypsy
teen named Kyra!
For more information on the books for 2006 - please visit our
section on Upcoming Books.
Gypsy Girl Press Mailing List: Sign up here to get advance news of book releases, personal appearances and specials for Gypsy Girl Press.
Be yourself. The world worships an original.
- Ingrid Bergman
|
You
Call This a Wetland?
From
Field and Sream
Conservation
Editor Bob Marshall reveals that the Department of the Interior's new
claim of wetlands growth holds no water.
by
Bob Marshall
The
Bush Administration announced last week
that
the nation is no longer losing wetlands--as long as you consider golf
course water hazards to be wetlands.
Really.
Thursday
(March 30), Interior Secretary Gale Norton called a press conference to
claim our long nightmare of wetlands loss had finally come to an end due
to unprecedented gains since 1997 (click
hear to read the report she cites).
However, she then admitted much of that gain has been in artificially
created ponds, such as golf course water hazards and farm impoundments.
The
sporting community--from Ducks Unlimited to the Theodore Roosevelt
Conservation Partnership--reacted quickly, and not favorably.
Researchers long ago established that natural wetlands such as marshes,
swamps and prairie potholes are far more productive than even the
best-designed artificial wetlands. And sharp-edged water bodies like
water hazards, farm ponds, and even reservoirs offer very little for
wildlife. Putting man-made ponds in the same class as natural wetlands
is like ranking pen-raised quail with wild coveys.
The
boldness of Norton's claim was particularly galling given the Bush
Administration's record on wetlands. President Bush, like other
presidents before him, promised a policy of ěno net lossî of wetlands,
but his administration has consistently supported rollbacks of the Clean
Water Act to satisfy industry and development.
In
fact, at the same press conference, the Fish and Wildlife Service
reported a continued loss of 523,500 acres of natural wetlands during
the same time period. So how could the nation have come out ahead if it
lost more than half a million acres? Norton didn't try to hide the
truth: The 715,300-acre ěgainî was mainly artificial ponds.
While
saying the nation's wetlands picture remains ěprecarious,î Norton
added that "even ponds that are not a high quality of wetlands are
better than not having wetlands." Now there's ringing endorsement
of the president's program.
Norton's
announcement was likely an act of setting the table for more
administration assaults on wetlands protections. It was probably no
coincidence that three days earlier, the Army Corps of Engineers and
Environmental Protection Agency proposed new regulations that encourage
development of companies that build artificial wetlands used by
industries that destroy the vital natural habitats. It's part of the
wetlands mitigation banking concept--which gives companies permits to
drain wetlands, as long as they produce ěnewî wetlands somewhere else.
Norton
may think a water hazard is better than no wetlands but for fish,
wildlife and sportsmen, but it may be even worse. That type of public
policy provides an excuse for more permits to drain more natural and
productive wetlands to be replaced by non-productive water hazards.
Those might be good for real estate values along the 18th fairway, but
for fish and wildlife that rely on wetlands ecosystems to survive, it's
terrible.
04/11/06
Speak out to protect America's Redrock Wilderness
We need your immediate help to block an unprecedented attack on some
of our nation's most magnificent public wildlands.
Legislation has just been proposed that would irrevocably harm some of
the most spectacular expanses of the Redrock Wilderness in southern
Utah.
The sponsors of this proposed legislation, Senator Robert Bennett (R-UT)
and Representative Jim Matheson (D-UT), will accept public comments on
their proposal only until April 19.
Please go to http://www.savebiogems.org/redrock/takeaction.asp
right away and express your opposition to the Washington County Growth
and
Conservation Act.
04/03/06
It's Payback Time..
If you’re getting ready to pay your taxes, you may feel like you
need a break. But after you hear how Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) spent his
vacation -- and our tax dollars -- you’d be
right to demand that he is the person to give you one.
It was August of 2003 and Pombo, America’s #1 Wildlife Villain,
wanted a vacation. So Pombo used our tax dollars to rent an RV
for a two-week family vacation in some of our nation’s most
(MORE)
04/03/06
Polar bears drowning as ice sheets melt away!
Perfectly at home in one of the world's most forbidding
environments, polar bears spend their summers roaming the Arctic on
large chunks of floating ice. Without these thick rafts of sea ice,
the bears can’t survive. As you read this, global warming is causing
the polar bears’ Arctic habitat to literally melt away beneath them.
However, we can ensure a future for the polar bears by protecting
them under the Endangered Species Act (ESA).
(MORE)
03/31/06
A Big Cat Needs Your Help
The Florida panther is in big trouble.
Past human persecution and ongoing habitat loss have pushed the
Florida panther into only 5 percent of its historic range. Fewer than
100 survive today, and 10 have died so far this year alone.
Officials are close to completing a management plan for the
Florida panther, and we need your help to ensure it does all it can to
protect this majestic great cat.
If the federal management plan doesn't provide the strongest
protections possible -- including checking the out-of-control
development that is driving this great cat to extinction -- we could
lose the Florida panther forever.
(MORE)
03/21/06 Tell
the U.S. Forest Service our National Forests are Not for Sale
As you know, President Bush has proposed selling off some of
America's National Forests and BLM lands as part of this year's budget
process. Tens of thousands of WildAlert subscribers have already spoken
up asking their members of Congress to oppose this wrong-headed move.
While members of Congress have voiced their opposition, the proposal
nevertheless remains a part of the budget and a very real threat to our
public lands.
The Forest Service is seeking public comment on the proposed sale of
National Forest lands, which could be the only official public comment
gathered. Please send a resounding "Not for Sale!" to the
agency.
(MORE)
03/21/06
Humane Society of Boulder Valley
Progressive adoption program
The Humane Society of Boulder Valley (HSBV) in Boulder, Colorado, has
a comprehensive approach to adoptions that focuses on meeting the needs
of animals and their new guardians. They have shifted their adoption
process from screening clients according to rigid guidelines to matching
clients and pets through an open conversation made possible by a climate
of trust, communication and understanding. The new approach has come to
be known as open adoptions.
(MORE)
03/21/06
Important message from Robert F. Kennedy, Jr
The Bush administration wants to sell off an astonishing 300,000
acres of our national forest lands across 35 different states -- to pay
for its mismanagement of America's finances.
We need your immediate action to stop this raid on our natural heritage,
which would sacrifice some of our nation's most treasured wildlands,
including irreplaceable expanses of several NRDC BioGems.
(MORE)
03/21/06
Tell the Bush administration not to log Oregon's Siskiyou National
Forest
The Bush administration has announced plans to log the two largest
unprotected wild areas in the Siskiyou National Forest. These two areas
-- the North and South Kalmiopsis roadless areas -- are in the southwest
corner of Oregon not
far from the Pacific coast and are bordered by the world-famous
Kalmiopsis Wilderness. They are two of the largest unprotected roadless
areas along the coast outside of Alaska, and help form the watershed of
some of the most
valuable salmon and steelhead habitat in the United States.
(MORE)
03/02/06
Help protect North America's most endangered grizzlies!
The U.S. Forest Service is planning to withdraw proposed protections
for crucial grizzly bear habitat in the Cabinet-Yaak wildlands of
northwestern Montana.
We need your immediate action to fight this proposal, which jeopardizes
the future of North America's most endangered grizzly population.
The lush valley bottom and rugged alpine slopes of this region
provide a vital ecological link between endangered grizzlies in
Yellowstone and more robust bear populations in Canada. This untouched
stretch of the Kootenai National Forest also provides expansive ranges
and rich food sources for wolves, bighorn sheep, elk and trout.
(MORE)
03/01/06
Save Yellowstone's Grizzly Bears
The Endangered Species Act has protected Yellowstone's grizzly
bears for thirty years. Now, the Bush administration has proposed
removing them from federal protection. Since first being listed as
"threatened" under the Endangered Species Act 30 years ago,
restoring grizzly bear numbers to their current levels has taken
tremendous public investment. Removing federal protections for the
bear right now is far too risky.
(MORE)
|
