cfrw.us Blog

From the December 13 Raleigh News and Observer http://www.newsobserver.com/news/local_state/story/238382.html

ELIZABETHTOWN Like the river that filled so much of his life, Horace W. Butler Jr. is moving slow.

More than 88 years, a few bouts with arthritis and an 8-foot tree limb that “cracked my head like a coconut” will do that to a man.

But Butler, the last of the river men of the Cape Fear, still has every snag, every bend and bow in that grand, muddy waterway locked in his memory. And more than 50 years after he steered the last raft of logs from Fayetteville downriver, he could talk you all the way to Wilmington – if you had the time.

“It took a bit of time,” Butler said. “About five days, coming from Fayetteville. When the water was low and the wind was calm, we were moving at about a half-mile an hour.

“These days, that seems kind of slow, I guess. Back then, it seemed to move along just fine.”

There are no more loggers on the Cape Fear. Nobody’s seen one of the mammoth rafts skirting places like Pinch Gut Creek, Bullfrog Cut and Pull and Be Damned Landing since about Thanksgiving 1957.

Nearly all the landings are gone, too. Decades devoid of commerce allowed the woods and brambles to reclaim spots that once held thriving little businesses. Raccoons and possums, and the occasional alligator, are the only customers now.

“The river is slow, but it doesn’t stand still,” Butler mused. “It’s all grown back.”

Schooled on the river

Born in 1921 near the Bladen County town of Dublin, Butler’s playground, his church and home was the Cape Fear River. His bedtime stories were tales of the river, shared by his father and other rafters. In the summer, his lullaby was the soft slapping of water as each raft rolled toward Wilmington, pierced by the steam whistle of ships like the City of Fayetteville.

A trip to Wilmington on the ship cost $3, including meals.

It didn’t cost anything to ride the rafts, other than a lot of sweat.

“I was on the rafts early in life,” Butler said. “I never knew nothing but hard work. I didn’t get but a fifth-grade education in school, but I learned a lot on the river.”

Butler grew up short and wiry, with quick reflexes. He learned how to swing a broadax, and was soon helping his dad lash together hundreds of trees with nails the size of railroad spikes for their rides downriver.

“They’d roll the logs down the bank into the water,” Butler said. “Our job was to take care of them once they got there. There was all sorts of logs in a raft. It didn’t have to be one kind of wood.”

His dad taught him the basics of making each raft, how to judge timber and how to keep the raft from smashing into the riverbank, splintering a week’s worth of work in minutes.

“I guess it would be a boy’s dream, but I can tell you it was a lot of work,” Butler said. “You think about floating along on a raft, and it seems like the easiest thing in the world. But that’s your livelihood you’re riding on. You had to stay on top of things.”

When he turned 16, Butler says, his dad let him “fall heir” to rafting. His dad took care of the business end. All Butler had to do was get the logs downstream.

“We’d have a 16-foot-long gig pole with a hook on the end,” he said. “You’d use it to get the logs lined up, then use clamps to hold them together.”

Trees were almost uniformly cut to lengths of 10 feet to 16 feet – perfect for the lumber mills in Wilmington. Rafts could be no wider than 40 feet, about the width of a tennis court, but some stretched up to a mile or more long.

“They couldn’t be any wider because of the locks,” Butler said, referring to a series of structures that helped boats navigate the river. “But they could be long. You’d just unclamp the logs at the lock, then reclamp them as you went through.

“There were crooks in the river where you’d be on one end of a raft and couldn’t even see the other end. And all of it being pushed by the river. You have a 40-foot oar to steer, and beyond that it was all river.”

A small crew

Usually the rafts were large enough to hold a couple of small john boats, in case anyone needed to go ashore for supplies. The small crew pitched pup tents on deck and built fires for cooking and warmth in the winter.

The crew carried provisions, occasionally augmenting the menu with fish or hunted raccoon, possum and squirrel.

A string of small stores lined the river, each with its own landing. Most were at ferry crossings.

“You could get what you needed from Waddell’s Ferry or Cain Tuck Landing,” he said. “From there on, you’d better have what you needed to Wilmington. You were on your own.”

Butler says he never lost a raft, though he found a few that other rafters had lost. “Made a little extra money on those runs,” he said with a laugh.

There were winters on the river so cold that the raft crunched ice as it floated. Some summers were so dry the rafts would scrape the river bottom.

Gators were occasional companions, floating along like stray logs. And one time, a rattlesnake decided to hitch a ride with the crew.

“We had to get a big ol’ stick and take care of him,” Butler recalled. On other occasions, confused mullet would leap onto the deck, becoming a suppertime stew. One time a huge sturgeon stranded itself on the raft.

“You never knew what would happen,” he said. “That was life on the river.”

After a time, Butler met and married Lucille, a girl from Elizabethtown.

Eventually, they settled in town.

By then, life along the river was changing.

Improved roads and transportation had taken many of the lucrative rafting jobs. River traffic all but vanished.

In November 1957, Butler made his final run down the river.

He lashed a load of lumber near the bluffs behind the Veterans’ Administration Hospital in Fayetteville.

It was a big load, one that took about two weeks to prepare – a fitting farewell for the last of the river men.

After that, Butler continued to work in timber and worked on the last two tugs that pushed cargo up the river.

“The march of life brings changes,” he said. “We all just flow with it.”

Cape Fear River Watch has announced that, as part of its Second Annual Invitational Striper Tournament, it will set aside one entry slot (including boat and guide) for a young fisherman/woman to be selected from entrants to an essay contest. As the tournament is already fully subscribed this is the sole open slot for this year’s tournament. (A waiting list has been established in case space opens up.)

Since the goal of the tournament, and of CFRW’s Cape Fear River Striper Foundation, is the preservation and restoration of the Cape Fear River fishery for generations to come, it is only fitting that the tournament reach out to and include the next generation of anglers.

Junior Anglers (who will be between the ages of 12 and 16 on January 16, the day of the tournament) wishing to fish in the tournament are asked to submit a 500-1,000 word essay on the topic “How a Strong and Healthy Cape Fear River Fishery Will Benefit The Entire Region.” The winning essay will convey the angler’s passion for conservation minded fishing as well as his or her understanding of the special characteristics of the Cape Fear River fishery. Proper spelling and grammar are also strongly encouraged.

Entries may be submitted online at http://www.cfrw.us/striperessay.html until December 17th.  The winner will be selected by the board of the Cape Fear River Striper Foundation, whose decision will be final.

The Cape Fear River Watch Invitational Striper Tournament is an annual tournament to celebrate the magnificent striped bass of the Cape Fear River and to raise awareness of the decline of the once bountiful fishery on the river. The fishermen and guides involved with the tournament hope to restore not only striped bass but the total fishery – including shad, river herring, and sturgeon populations as well. The Cape Fear Fishery Restoration Foundation has been established to receive funds and implement the goals of the tournament.

The tournament is held in partnership with NC Fish & Wildlife.  All fish caught in the tournament will be tagged, measured and released to be caught again while providing important census data to State fisheries scientists.

In many ways the Second Annual Greenfield Lake Cypress Festival resembled the first: it rained, the bands played on, crowds stayed away in droves, those who came out had a good (but soggy) time.

The irony is that one of the lessons we learned from the 2008 event was to have a rain date in our pocket. We did. But the weather forecast for the 27th was just as bad as for the 26th. That the actual weather on one day turned out so much nicer than the other just points out the folly of placing too much reliance on weather forecasts.  There are probably some lessons to be learned from the 2009 festival.  When we eventually dry out we’ll try to decipher them.

CFRW’s monthly padding series visited Shelter Creek last weekend.  Dire predictions of rain were wrong, wrong, wrong. 28 paddlers turned out for ~6 miles upstream and lunch at Holland’s.

     The efforts to protect Island Creek, the Northeast Cape Fear River and the entire region from the ravages of a fast tracked enormous coal fired cement kiln and adjacent deep pit limestone quarry plopped in the middle of fragile wetlands continue.  In  Raleigh Rep. Carolyn Justice has been working with Sen. Julia Boseman to pass a bill requiring state agencies to consider all issues before them before issuing any permits to companies receiving public monies.  Such a law would hopefully prevent an air quality permit being issued before completion of the environmental impact statement.As you might imagine: this proposal is displeasing to Titan America and their small army of high dollar Raleigh lobbyists.  They managed to delay a vote on the bill in the Senate Commerce Committee on Tuesday and are doubtless working overtime to prevent the bill from ever coming to a full vote.  We need you -  all of you – to work the phones hard.  Today. Your phone calls do make a difference.  This works. It has worked. It will work. Democracy is a beautiful thing.

When you call . . .

1. State your name.
2. State the purpose of your call:   you’re calling to ask the Senator to support the legislation to bring Titan America under the State Environmental Policy Act
3. Mention that despite the claims of Titan’s lobbyists, the proposed plant and pit does not have widespread public support in the area.
4. State a few reasons why you and your neighbors are concerned:
   • destruction of thousands of acres of irreplaceable wetlands
   • the threat to the aquifer from which we draw much of our drinking water
   • the thousands of tons of particulate matter to be emitted from the plant
   • mercury emissions into our community and into an already mercury impaired river
   • emission of chemicals that cause smog,
   • increased emission of chemicals (arsenic, benzene, chromium, etc.) that are known to cause cancer
   • that such a plant in such a location is absolutely not in line with the “Green Jobs” agenda the Governor and Secretary of Commerce have been promoting.

Be polite, be concise, be resolute.  It’s not necessary to speak with the Senator him or herself.  Speak with an aide or leave a message – you will be heard.

If you’ve never done this before the first call can feel awkward.   The second call goes a little easier.  By the fourth call it’s as natural as ordering a pizza. Raleigh politicians did not get elected by being rude or aloof.  They enjoy hearing from their constituents.  Your calls will be answered promptly and professionally and politely.

Ready to call? Good. It’s a big committee.  Here’s who needs to be called:

• Sen. R.C. Soles, Jr. (representing Brunswick, Columbus & Pender Counties) Chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee (919) 733-5963
• Sen. Floyd McKissick (representing Durham County) Vice Chairman 919-733-4599
• Sen. David Hoyle (representing Gaston County) Vice Chairman 919-733-5734
• Sen. Tony Rand (representing Bladen & Cumberland Counties) Vice Chairman 919-733-9892
• Sen. Tom Apodaca (representing Buncombe, Henderson & Polk Counties)  919-733-5745
• Sen. Doug Berger (representing Franklin, Granville, Vance & Warren Counties) 919-715-8363
• Sen. Dan Blue (representing Wake County) 919-733-5752
• Sen. Tony Foriest (representing Alamance & Caswell Counties) 919-301-1446
• Sen. Larry Shaw (representing Cumberland County) 919-733-9349
• Sen. Phillip Berger (representing Guilford & Rockingham Counties) 919-733-5708
• Sen. Harris Blake (representing Harnett & Moore Counties) 919-733-4809
• Sen. Julia Boseman (representing New Hanover County) 919-715-2525
• Sen. Peter Brunstetter (representing Forsyth County) 919-733-7850
• Sen. Debbie Clary (representing Cleveland & Rutherford Counties) 919-715-3038
• Sen. Katie Dorsett (representing Guilford County) 919-715-3042
• Sen. James Forrester (representing Gaston, Iredell & Lincoln Counties) 919-715-3050
• Sen. Linda Garrou (representing Forsyth County) 919-733-5620
• Sen. Eddie Goodall (representing Mecklenburg & Union Counties) 919-733-7659
• Sen. Steve Goss (representing Alexander, Ashe, Watauga & Wilkes Counties) 919-733-5742
• Sen. Malcolm Graham (representing Mecklenburg County) 919-733-5650
• Sen. Neal Hunt (representing Wake County) 919-733-5850
• Sen. Jim Jacumin (representing Burke & Caldwell Counties) 919-715-7823
• Sen. Clark Jenkins (representing Edgecombe, Martin & Pitt Counties) 919-715-3040
• Sen. Martin Nesbitt (representing Buncombe County) 919-715-3001
• Sen. William Purcell (representing  Counties) 919-733-5953
• Sen. Bob Rucho (representing Mecklenburg County) 919-733-5655
• Sen. Josh Stein (representing Wake County) 919-715-6400
• Sen. Richard Stevens (representing Wake County) 919-733-5653
• Sen. Don Vaughan (representing Guilford County) 919-733-5856

For all of you kayak fishermen out there this Saturday (May 16) will be a day you want to mark on your calendar. Renowned kayak fisherman Jimbo Meador will be giving on and off water clinics on kayak fishing, paddleboard fishing, and cast netting from a kayak. There will also be fishing kayaks and paddleboards on hand for test drives. Jimbo is a master fisherman with a ton of experience and practical knowledge to inpart. Kayak fishing is seeing a major upswing in popularity as fishermen realize how fun this sport can be. Come out on Saturday and learn how to catch more fish! Admission is $10 and proceeds go towards charity. Call Hook, Line, and Paddle for more info: 910-792-6945

Our representatives in Raleigh have been very busy the last few months and lots of issues are coming to a head (among them: a possibility to stop the fast track to disaster that comes in the form of an enormous Cement Plant and open pit limestone quarry plopped down in pristine wetlands, atop a regional aquifer and upwind from beaches and schools.)  Your representatives and your neighbors representatives need to hear from YOU.  They’re locked up there in an echo chamber with the platoons of professional lobbyists and they desperately need a reality check in the form of a call or visit from you. What’s coming up next week that’s so important? 

Senate Bill 699 is expected to come up for a hearing and a committee vote next week. S699, sponsored by Sen. Julia Boseman, would simply enact an 18 month moratorium on new cement plants in the state, allowing time to research the true and full impact of the industry and slowing down the current unwarranted fast track permitting.  S699 seems like an obvious fix – how could it face opposition?  Yet it does – significant opposition – and it may be in trouble.  You, who cares about the river and the watershed and the environment and the future, need to make yourself heard.  At the very least click your mouse a few times and send some e-mails to your representatives.  Click here to visit the NC Conservation Network site and send an e-mail encouraging your representatives to support this moratorium.  Or click here to visit the NC Coastal Federation’s advocacy e-mail widget for help generating a well thought out and composed e-mail on S699.

Even better: get in your car and drive up to Raleigh and stop in and visit a few Senators and Representatives in person.  Most representatives’ offices in Raleigh have an open door and even if the representative isn’t available personally a relevant staffer usually is. There’s no need to bring flowers or a casserole when you visit, just stop by and ask if you can shortly and succinctly offer your views.  You can bet that Titan Cement’s paid lobbyists have been visiting, now is the time for you to visit as well.  Gas is cheap, Raleigh really isn’t that far away (2 hours away – a straight shot up I-40 if you’re coming from Wilmington) and they have lots of places to get a nice lunch or dinner before heading home.  If you’d like some advice on how to get there, what to say or who to see, Doug Springer, the Cape Fear Riverkeeper will be happy to help you.  Give him a call (910-602-3862) or an e-mail (doug@cfrw.us) and get on your way.  Doug might even be able to coordinate cars with empty seats and riders with no cars.

No more excuses.  Go.  Now.  Drive safely.

And while you’re there . . . you might mention a few other concerns to any legislators you happen to meet.  For example, the Haw River Assembly and the Haw Riverkeeper is concerned about efforts to significantly weaken (or even eliminate) the Environmental Management Commission rules protecting Jordan Lake from pollution.  (For those of you without a map at hand, the Haw River and the Deep River form the Cape Fear River just a few miles downstream from the Jordan Lake Dam)  Click here for more details about HRA’s efforts to protect Jordan Lake.

At the same time the White Oak – New Riverkeeper (up near Jacksonville and Onslow County if you still haven’t pulled out your map) is leading the fight against House Bill 643, which would allow operators of sewer systems to inject their effluent into drinking water aquifers.  Click here for more information on this outrageous proposal.

What? You’re still here?  Go put gas in the car.

The following letter was sent to the New Hanover County Commissioners.  The request was denied out of hand with not a single commissioner willing to put the matter on the agenda.

Not one.

Make of that what you will.

Sirs,

On behalf of Cape Fear River Watch, North Carolina Coastal Federation, Cape Fear Group of the North Carolina Sierra Club, Friends of the Lower Cape Fear, Pender Watch and Audubon North Carolina, I am requesting that the New Hanover County Board of Commissioners formally ask the Secretary of the State Department of Natural Resources (DENR) to review and regulate the proposed Carolinas Cement plant along the Northeast Cape Fear River under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA.)  I am further requesting a minimum of 45 minutes at the April 6th, 2009 Commissioners‘ Meeting for myself and representatives of other groups to present their rationale as to why they believe the Commissioners should make this request.

When the Commissioners approved the incentive package to invite Titan America to our county it did so with the understanding that any new mining or manufacturing operation along this beautiful stretch of the river would be subject to complete, thorough and rigorous scrutiny from the state and federal regulating agencies.  The most relevant standards are those of SEPA.  Holding a company to a less rigorous standard, or allowing a company to bypass the most relevant standard, is contrary to the promises made by the Commissioners at the time Titan was formally invited into the community and is frankly an insult to the voters of New Hanover County.

It is appropriate for DENR to regulate Carolinas Cement under SEPA and it is certainly appropriate for the Board to request that the Secretary invoke his authority.

“An environmental document is required when the Secretary determines that”:

(1) Proposed activity may have a potential for significant adverse effects on wetlands; surface waters such as rivers, streams and estuaries; parklands; game lands; prime agricultural or forest lands; or areas of local, state or federally recognized scenic, recreational, archaeological, ecological, scientific research or historical value, including secondary impacts; or would threaten a species identified on the Department of Interior’s or the state’s threatened and endangered species lists; or

 

(2) the proposed activity could cause changes in industrial, commercial, residential, agricultural, or silvicultural land use concentrations or distributions which would be expected to create adverse water quality, in stream flow, air quality, or ground water impacts; or affect long -term recreational benefits, fish, wildlife, or their natural habitats; or

 

(3) the proposed activity has secondary impacts, or is part of cumulative impacts, not generally covered in the approval process for state action, and that may result in a potential risk to human health or the environment;

I look forward to speaking before you on the 6th as you consider this matter.  If you require any additional information, background or action from me, feel free to contact me at 910-602-3862 or by e-mail at dspringer@cfrw.us.

Sincerely,

Doug Springer,

Riverkeeper

This has been circulating among the green crowd for a few years now. Just because it’s on the internet doesn’t mean it isn’t true.  See how many of these tactics have been used by a certain mammoth Greek Cement company

Community Selection:
Find a place where you will run into the least opposition ~ target a “Cerrell” community. (21 years ago the California Waste Management Board paid Cerrell Associates half a million dollars to define communities that won’t resist siting of LULUs [ Local Undesirable Land Use]. Cerrell provides important proof that siting is 99% politics and 1% science)
The Cerrell study says:
Least Likely to Resist:

Southern/Midwestern
Rural
Open to promises of economic benefits
Conservative
Above middle age
High school or less education
Low income
Catholics
Not involved in social issues
Old-time residents (20 years +)
“Nature exploitive occupations” (farming, ranching, mining)

Most Likely to Resist:

Northeastern, western, California
Urban
Don’t care or benefits are minor concern
Liberal, welfare state
Young and middle aged
College educated
Middle and upper income
Activist
Residents for 5 – 20 years
Professional occupations

Scope out the opposition:

__ monitor news media to identify community activists
__ assess potential opponents past behavior
__ determine their self-interests and vulnerabilities
__ keep good, up to date files on opponents
__ determine their sources of funding, if any
__ find out who their friends are

Don’t’ waste time or money trying to win over the NIMBYs:

__ follow all of the steps in #2, scoping out the opposition, plus:
__ involve them in the process, painlessly and ineffectively, through devices like Citizens Advisory Committees.
__ take them on trips to see “models” on which our LULU will be based.
__ find out what they need (or would like) and promise it (jobs, money for schools, public services, free trash service, direct grants to the community, increased tax base, donations for community projects, museums, the arts, etc.) Don’t worry about delivery.
__ determine what benefits they will get from the LULU and make sure they understand what’s in it for them.
__ find backers who have “name appeal”, who will sway others.
__ get opinion-shapers and community leaders bought in by offering them shares in the project either at reduced cost or for free, or promise them jobs or business for their companies or economic benefits for the community in general.

Let our allies take on the NIMBYs for us.
Use sophisticated public relations methods:

__ use “quality” public relations materials, the slicker the better.
__ use our greater resources by use of the media through paid ads in local newspapers, television and radio.
__ have good, well-trained people representing us. Recruit tired, disgruntled staff from environmental groups who are tired of working for public interest wages.
__ use quality audio-visual materials (videos, slides, tape, displays, movies.)
__ prepare and distribute quality materials for the children and donate them to local schools. Cartoon or coloring books are an excellent tool.

Keep the debate focused on our agenda and make the NIMBYs react:

__ create a sense of the inevitable with remarks like, “it’s got to go somewhere.”
__ speed up the process, or at least create the impression the process is moving along rapidly to keep the NIMBYs on edge.
__ emphasize every single step of the process so NIMBYs see each stage as a life-or-death situation.
__ bring in and keep in the forefront an array of “bi-lingual” technical experts (who can speak plainly when appropriate, but are good at scientific double talk.)
__ only do battle with the NIMBYs in forums that are either friendly (e.g. government-run public hearings) or controlled by us.
__ have hearings and meetings held in rooms that are much, much larger than the anticipated crowd, it makes it look like not many people are concerned.
__ do all we can to subtly avoid meeting the NIMBYS on their turf, but without running the risk of seeming cowardly.
__ if we must meet the NIMBYs, try to select who and how many of them we meet.
__ make NIMBYs feel they must answer our technical arguments, point by point, by stressing rules of government procedure that require decisions to be made on the legal and technical merits, discounting public sentiments and politics.
__ make arrangements with government hearing officers so our technical experts make
their presentations first. Have our technical experts take their time.
__ dismiss NIMBYs during and after encounters as “emotional, hysterical, selfish, unfactual, irrelevant, selfishly motivated, anti-jobs, tree huggers, socialists (or worse), unrealistic, ignorant, hypocritical” (by focusing on household toxics use and other consumer behavior.)
__ try “sand-bagging” (it’s fun) Get hearing dates changed at the last minute, sinceNIMBYs have little money or access to technical experts and changing a hearing date will make them panic

__ try to get hearings scheduled during the daytime on a working day or during the Thanksgiving to Christmas period.

Use “state of the art” language:

__ start with “state of the art”
__ “acceptable risk” – what our experts, not to mention our accountant, feels would be ok for the turkeys in this community
__ best available technology
__ best available European technology
__ use poly-syllable, hyphenated terms derived from Latin or Greek or explanations like, “the hydro-geological characteristics of these soil strata indicate a excellent permeability co-efficient of ten to the minus 7, meaning that compounds such as VOCs will leach at the rate of less than 1 ug per milliliter per meter per year, but that’s not a problem since our state of the art leachate collection system will capture any ambient discharge that
escapes our double-lined 60-mil polyethylene liner, which as you all know, is the height of the science of such technologies.” Ok?
__ only talk about what we want to talk about, in terms we want to use. If NIMBYs don’t use our language, treat them as ignorant and unworthy of respect, talking down to them is the best way to do this.

Carefully monitor the NIMBYs’ activities:

__ Monitor the media. Keep a good clippings file. Record any television coverage.
__ Have a representative at their meetings. They need not identify themselves, though there could be backlash if discovered. If our rep does identify him or herself, it could have a useful chilling effect on the group or could make the representative a “lightning rod” for anger (which isn’t so bad, since s/he isn’t a policy maker).
__ listen to what people are saying on the street, on radio talk shows, in the letters to the editor column, etc.

Be prepared to get tough with the NIMBYs:

__ When the NIMBYs hold a public meeting, it’s perfectly legal for us to invite our supporters, including employees, to attend in force and speak their minds.
__ if NIMBYs make uncomfortable accusations about us, don’t be bashful about having our lawyer send them a letter warning them of the consequences of breaching libel orslander laws (even if there’s no such breach evident).
__ If, heaven forbid, a member of the NIMBYs works or does business for us, take all necessary steps to remind him/her about basic loyalty and self-interest
__ if the NIMBYs sue us, we’re well without our rights to counter-sue
__ if the NIMBYS sue us, make sure our counsel wages an aggressive defense. Don’t hold back in tactical use of the deposition, interrogatories, etc.
__ use higher authorities. If the NIMBYs block us through local government, see if a higher authority (state, federal or the courts) can override that local decision
__ everybody’s got their price. Determine the price of key NIMBY leaders and be prepared to pay it
__ rough stuff, like getting physical, isn’t nice and could backfire in a real serious way. But be prepared to do damage control should one of our employees view our frustration with the NIMBYs as a signal we want them “dealt with”

Have a back up site in mind, or a Plan B if we fail to defeat the NIMBYs.