Emergency in Atlanta Regarding Old Growth White Oaks
9/30/99
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RELAYED TEXT STARTS HERE:
Title: Emergency in Atlanta Regarding Old Growth White Oaks
Source: Earth First! Media and Action Network,
http://www.efmedia.org
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: September 30, 1999
Byline: Andy Caffrey
Your help is needed to save one of metro Atlanta's last significant
groves of "old growth" white oak trees.
Thomas W. Connally Nature Park is an amazing 27 acre sight recently
sold to Fulton County Schools for $350,000, by the city of East
Point. The school board has secretly gone forward in developing the
sight without following guidelines of public notice that would alert
groups that might oppose the destruction of the park.
The park is located one mile west of Stanton Rd, south of Lakewood
Freeway, on Connoly Dr. between Stanton Rd and Delowe Dr. Twenty
seven old growth white oaks have been identified on the site with 10
magnificent trees 175 to 300+ years old with 12-16 foot
circumferances. The sight is home to a variety of plant and wildlife
including the endangered pink lady's slipper. The sight is believed
to have Civil War significance and may be the burial site of slaves
owned by Thomas Connally, one of Atlanta's earliest leaders. This
land was deeded by the Connally family to the City of East Point to
be PRESERVED AS A PARK.
It is estimated that the Fulton County School Board will have to
spend 1.5 million dollars to bulldoze and grade the sight, removing
all but two of the old growth hardwoods, to build a new prototype
school housing only 800 students. It is reported that there are
several (possibly 4) vacant schools in the vicinty that could provide
an excellent alternative to the cost of destroying this valuable
cultural and historical site.
What you can do:
Call Governor Barnes and ask him to designate this as the first site
of his Green Space Initiative and to stop School Board sprawl,
Governor Roy Barnes 404-656-1776.
Call and voice your discontent with the Fulton School Board and tell
them to find another site, 404-768-3600.
Contact Harold Reheis Director of the Environmental Protection
Division and let him know the School Board plans to pipe OVER 500
FEET of stream in direct violation of water quality laws and stream
buffer requirements, 404-656-4713.
Forward this email to everyone in your email address book.
Your phone call is the only thing that can protect this treasure from
the idiocy of Atlanta's Bureaucrats. PLEASE GET INVOLVED AND SAVE
PAPA TOM!
SAVE THOMAS W. CONNALLY NATURE PARK FOR FUTURE GENERATIONS!
The following is from:
Andy Caffrey, founder
Hayduke Rocks! an Earth First! Media and Action Network [previously
aka EF! Media Center]
I attended the hearing today and it does not look good at all for the
park. The schoolboard is unwilling to even think about letting go of
the park. It looks like unless the Governor moves in, or the Sierra
Club/Riverkeeper buys the property for an exhorbitant sum, the
schoolboard will build something on the site. Because of the
location of the trees, there is no chance to save but one or two of
the moderate sized white oaks, as the biggest ones are located right
in the path of everything from the building to the parking lot.
They are offering to relinquish the stream which ends the hearing,
but does nothing to save the trees. This does not accomplish holding
EPD accountable for rubber stamping the varience for non-
environmental reasons, will displace more citizens from the
neghborhood, force the citizen groups out of future litigation
opportunities, and still destroy the park completely, but the stream
will be saved. It is disgusting.
Please encourage everyone to continue calling the Governor and asking
him to step in, make Connally Park the first site of his Green Space
Initiative to preserve this amazing site of old growth inner city
trees. 404-656-1776
Call Harold Reheis Director of the Environmental Protection Division
and criticize the decision to approve the variance based on non-
environmental factors (ie supporting education and schools) His
affidavit submitted into evidence this morning stated he approved the
variance without visiting the site, reviewing the plans, or having
any reasonable knowledge what-so-ever of Thomas Connally Park based
on reccomendations on a memo from Simmons Watts. Ask him to start
saving the environment and stop supporting development. Harold Reheis
404-656-4713.
The school boards goal is to begin the destruction of the old growth
section at the completion of this hearing. Our next alternative is
to prepare to take lessons from the Treeman on camping in trees
because the park is going to lose. Whose schedule is open for the
next few weeks?
Please circulate this to all of your contacts and pray! I have
gotten Creative loafing interested and hope the I-team will return my
call. Anyone with strings, please pull them now. The decision from
this case will be used to build a school in the Big Creek Wetlands
next. A meeting is scheduled for Weds. 9-29-99 at 7:00 at Lake
Winward Elementary to move forward on the plans for this next assault
on our local environment at Big Creek. The batlle over Connally Park
is going to set precedent on EPD and schools noncompliance with
environmental standards.
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