The Environmental Journal of Southern Appalachia
Sustainable Development Goals

Sustainable Development Goals (497)

The Sustainable Development Goals are a universal call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and improve the lives and prospects of everyone, everywhere. The seventeen Sustaiable Development Goals (SDG) were adopted by all UN Member States in 2015, as part of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development which set out a 15-year plan to achieve the Goals.

Children categories

1 No Poverty

1 No Poverty (5)

End poverty in all its forms everywhere

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2 Zero Hunger

2 Zero Hunger (13)

End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture

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3 Good Health and Well-Being

3 Good Health and Well-Being (65)

Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages

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4 Quality Education

4 Quality Education (45)

Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

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5 Gender Equality

5 Gender Equality (2)

Achieve gender equality and empower all women and girls

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6 Clean Water and Sanitation

6 Clean Water and Sanitation (34)

Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all

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7 Affordable and Clean Energy

7 Affordable and Clean Energy (35)

Ensure access to affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all

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8 Decent Work and Economic Growth

8 Decent Work and Economic Growth (10)

Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all

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9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure

9 Industry, Innovation and Infrastructure (30)

Build resilient infrastructure, promote inclusive and sustainable industrialization and foster innovation

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10 Reduced Inequalities

10 Reduced Inequalities (38)

Reduce inequality within and among countries

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11 Sustainable Cities and Communities

11 Sustainable Cities and Communities (162)

Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable

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12 Responsible Consumption and Production

12 Responsible Consumption and Production (58)

Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns

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13 Climate Action

13 Climate Action (128)

Take urgent action to combat climate change and its impacts

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14 Life Below Water

14 Life Below Water (83)

Conserve and sustainably use the oceans, seas and marine resources for sustainable development

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15 Life on Land

15 Life on Land (152)

Protect, restore and promote sustainable use of terrestrial ecosystems, sustainably manage forests, combat desertification, and halt and reverse land degradation and halt biodiversity loss

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16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions

16 Peace, Justice and Strong Institutions (31)

Promote peaceful and inclusive societies for sustainable development, provide access to justice for all and build effective, accountable and inclusive institutions at all levels

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17 Partnerships for the Goals

17 Partnerships for the Goals (20)

Strengthen the means of implementation and revitalize the global partnership for sustainable development

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DSCF8531 scaledMarvin Bullock, president of the Sparta-White County Chamber of Commerce, opposes deforestation efforts in the Bridgestone-Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area to create quail habitat. John Partipillo/Courtesy of Tennessee Lookout

Oak Ridge Rep. John Ragan joins bipartisan pushback against state plans to raze forest for quail habitat

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

SPARTA — For decades, the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has kept the profits from the sale of timber and other natural resources on publicly owned lands, folding the payments from logging companies into the agency’s annual operating budget.

bipartisan bill introduced in the Tennessee Legislature this week seeks to bring that practice to an end. The measure, introduced by Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, and Sen. Heidi Campbell, D-Nashville, would require TWRA officials to transfer all proceeds from the sale of the state’s natural resources into Tennessee’s general fund — the process typically followed by other Tennessee agencies that generate income.

Published in News, Earth, 15 Life on Land
Last modified on Thursday, 16 February 2023 23:07

270741409 285060456987101 7670318144827675720 nWith their zero-emission drive, these quiet buses operate with 100% electric propulsion. Each electric bus helps prevent nearly 300,000 pounds of greenhouse gas emissions in our community annually. That’s like planting 2,283 trees.  by sa Knoxville Area Transit

Shut up and get on the bus

KNOXVILLE — Everyone needs to be everywhere at once: School, work, the grocery story, the mall and back home.

Locked into a society run by time, we tend to prefer methods of transportation that make for the quickest journey from place to place.

The modern car, usually powered by gasoline, provides individuals with quick transportation, which saves time. Private transportation embodies convenience.

Last modified on Sunday, 05 February 2023 17:28

Pictured Just a few of the many handmade bird boxes placed throughout the property by Mr. Savage 

Maryville-based FLC is finalizing this year’s remaining land preservation projects

 

131 acres in Jefferson County, TN, now preserved!


Left: Outstanding views atop this recently preserved property with cosmos blooms in foreground.
Middle: Spring-fed pond on the property.
Right: Mature forest on the west side of the property.  Touch here for additional images

To date in 2021, FLC has worked with landowners to assist in the conservation of over 1,300 acres. It anticipates a few thousand more acres protected by year's end.

Highlights from the past year

Glenn and Katie Savage are two of FLC’s newest friends and partners in land conservation.

They recently placed a conservation easement on their 131-acre property, affectionately named Dancing Winds Wildlife Sanctuary and Arboretum, which is “dedicated to the preservation and protection of God’s glorious creations — plants and animals.” 

Glenn has cultivated over 400 different types of trees which are planted across the property and lovingly tends his home garden full of a variety of beautiful and unique flowers.

The Savages have several fields planted in corn/grain sorghum as well as a variety of oaks and other mast-producing trees to supplement the diet of the countless white-tailed deer and turkeys that call their property home. 

Glen and Katie are also avid birdwatchers and provide many types of feeders for their winged backyard visitors. The Savages say that protecting their beloved property and knowing that it will forever remain a safe haven for wildlife has given them peace of mind, and Glenn hopes in the future to convince some of his neighbors to partner with FLC to protect their land, too. 
Tap here for additional images

Landowner Glen Savage and FLC Biologist Shelby Lyn Sanders place FLC conservation easement boundary signs along the property. 768x558

Published in News, Earth, 15 Life on Land
Last modified on Tuesday, 21 February 2023 00:12

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Citizens and scientists weigh in on controversial TWRA logging plan

For months, Tennessee Lookout has bird-dogged a Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency proposal to clear at least 1,000 acres of hardwood forest in the Bridgestone Centennial Wildlife Reserve in White County to create habitat for dwindling bobwhite quail

Hellbender Press has published most of the stories, with much appreciation to Tennessee Lookout. Most recently, the online news outlet reported that legal hurdles had been cleared to allow TWRA to proceed, at least for now, with its game-bird reintroduction plans at the expense of acres of approximately 65-year-old hardwood forest. 

Though it was not Hellbender’s original reporting, on our end the social media response to the articles has been thoughtful and reasoned — with, of course, occasional disagreements among commenters. With permission from the posters, I’ve compiled an edited and abridged recitation of some comments, which were too good to languish in the social media ether.

Last modified on Tuesday, 25 October 2022 20:48

Bridgestone

Legal opinion cuts path for TWRA forest clearing in White County’s Bridgestone wilderness area despite local opposition

This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

A controversial plan by the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency officials to clearcut forest in a popular hunting, hiking and recreation area in order to create habitat for Northern bobwhite quail has gotten a legal go-ahead, despite opposition from residents and local leaders in White County, a bipartisan group of lawmakers and environmental groups.

The 16,000-acre Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area, a forested area adjacent to Fall Creek Falls State Park and Virgin Falls State Natural Area, was a late 1990’s gift to the state from the tire company that came with certain strings attached, including that state officials “preserve the property predominantly in its present condition as a wilderness area.”

The Tennessee Wildlife Federation was charged with ensuring the state honors those conditions.

On Friday, a spokeswoman for the Tennessee Wildlife Federation confirmed that outside legal counsel hired to review the state’s clearcutting plan found it “meets the requirements” of the gift.

“Speaking broadly as a conservation nonprofit, we have supported throughout our 75-year history the science-based, proactive management of lands to maintain or restore diverse habitats and diverse wildlife,” Kate Hill, a Tennessee Wildlife Federation spokeswoman, said via email. “The fact is savannas are an endangered habitat in the Southeast that were once common and provided essential habitat to many species across Tennessee.”

Neither the Tennessee Wildlife Federation nor the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has communicated the outcome of the legal review to local residents, who have complained for months that they have been kept in the dark and offered no meaningful opportunity to weigh in on plans to radically alter a landscape that is both beloved and central to the local economy.

Last modified on Tuesday, 25 October 2022 20:47

foothills map

Critics have called for full Environmental Impact Statement amid threat to Southern Appalachian habitats; previous draft EIS identifies many rare, notable species in project right of way

GATLINBURG — Proposed construction of an unfinished section of Foothills Parkway from Wears Valley to the Gatlinburg Spur would traverse 9.8 miles of natural beauty that is home to multiple rare species identified in a 1994 study.

The federal government last month opened the latest round of public comment on the project, which would traverse Buckeye Knob and Cove Mountain and multiple aquatic and karst environments. Concerns raised by the public over the decades range from impacts on domestic water supplies and endangered or threatened species to the fact the roadway might be a catalyst for excessive tourism infrastructure in Townsend and Wears Valley. 

The proposed route also extends through dense areas of pyrite, a highly acidic sulfate mineral (also known as fool’s gold) that can poison entire watersheds when exposed if proper erosion controls aren’t followed. Contamination of streams and creeks led to the decades-long delay in full construction of the existing parkway section (known as the missing link) that extends from Walland to Wears Valley. 

Last modified on Wednesday, 14 August 2024 18:03

(Remember this?) Report: Sen. Joe Manchin, a holdout Democrat on climate-change legislation, is a “coal baron”

Joe Manchin Official Senate Portrait

The Guardian: Manchin monkey-wrenches climate change legislation because he’s made millions off fossil fuels

West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, the Democratic linchpin for game-changing climate legislation proposed in a budget bill as part of the Biden administration’s plan to provide aid to families as well as give a boost to efforts to reduce global warming, has thrown a now-infamous wrench in the works. 

He has vigorously opposed key parts of the climate legislation included in the 2022 budget bill. Per the Guardian, it’s simply because he and his family have made a fortune off coal extraction in the relatively impoverished state of West Virginia and elsewhere.

“Financial records detailed by reporter Alex Kotch for the Center for Media and Democracy and published in the Guardian show that Manchin makes roughly half a million dollars a year in dividends from millions of dollars of coal company stock he owns. The stock is held in Enersystems, Inc, a company Manchin started in 1988 and later gave to his son, Joseph, to run,” according to the Guardian.

“He has already effectively succeeded in stripping the bill of its most powerful climate change provision, a program that would have rapidly shut down coal and gas-fired power plants and replaced them with wind and solar power,” according to the New York Times.

Thursday, 14 October 2021 13:02

Requiem for the Lord God Bird

Written by
Movie footage from Louisiana, 1935 by Arthur Allen. Courtesy of Macaulay Library at the Cornell Lab of Ornithology. The library also has ivory-billed woodpecker calls recorded by Allen.
 

The ivory-billed woodpecker is officially extinct, and it strikes a chord in Knoxville

Clinging to a maple in the bayou, Jim Tanner finally had the rare nestling in his grasp. 

He fitted it with a numbered leg band and placed the bird back in its hole high off the ground. 

But true to its seldom-seen self, the juvenile ivory-billed woodpecker squirmed free and fluttered to the base of a giant maple tree in a southern Louisiana swamp owned at the time by the Singer Sewing Machine Co.

The year was 1936, and Jim Tanner was in the midst of doctorate research at Cornell University funded by the Audubon Society as part of a push to prevent the pending extinctions of multiple bird species, including the California condor, roseate spoonbill, whooping crane and ivory-billed woodpecker. Eighty-five years later, the regal woodpecker would be the only one grounded for eternity.

In the heat and rain of mucky, gassy bayous, Tanner compiled data on the range, population, habitat and prevalence of ivory-billed woodpeckers. He camped for weeks at a time in the swamps of the birds’ original range.

On this day, his only goal was to band the bird but he rushed down the tree and picked up the agitated but uninjured woodpecker.

He also wanted photographs.

Tanner took advantage of the moment.

He placed the bird upon the shoulder of an accompanying and accommodating game warden for 14 shots from his Leica.

They were probably the first, and perhaps the last, photographs of a juvenile ivory-billed woodpecker photographed by Tanner in its natural habitat. He named the bird Sonny, and he was the only known member of the species to be banded with a number.

The regal, smart, athletic bird, which peaceably flew over its small slice of Earth for some 10,000 years, was declared extinct last month by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Twenty-two other species also qualified for removal from the Endangered Species List — in the worst possible way.

The ivory bill inhabited the swamps of the Deep South, far removed from Rocky Top, but old visages of the departed were found in Little Switzerland in South Knoxville. The work of Tanner, who would go on to complete a rich ecological research career at the University of Tennessee, has been memorialized by a talented East Tennessee science writer.

And the Southern Appalachian region has other long-gone kinships with species that vanished from the Earth a long time ago. 

Last modified on Tuesday, 21 February 2023 16:56

DSCF8232 1 2048x1365 Tree trunks in the Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area in Sparta marked for clearcutting, despite local opposition.  John Partipilo/Courtesy Tennessee Lookout

Hundreds of citizens publicly reject TWRA Middle Tennessee deforestation plans

This story was originally published by the nonprofit Tennessee Lookout and is shared (with much appreciation) with Hellbender Press via Creative Commons License. 

Officials with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency faced considerable pushback Monday night (Oct. 4) at a public meeting in Sparta over plans to raze old growth forest in a popular hunting and recreation area located about halfway between Nashville and Knoxville.

A standing room-only crowd of more than 200 people filled the town’s small civic center to hear directly from state officials about what had been — until now — an unpublicized internal agency plan to clear forest on public lands in the Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area to create grassland habitat for northern bobwhite quail, a game bird whose populations have plummeted in Tennessee.

Last modified on Tuesday, 25 October 2022 20:46

Bridgestone Main 2048x1365Mike O’Neal, a longtime hunter, surveys an expanse of the Bridgestone Firestone Centennial Wilderness Area in Middle Tennessee where clearcutting of public hardwood forest is planned to create quail habitat. John Partipilo/Courtesy of Tennessee Lookout

The plan to clear forest for quail habitat is raising the ire of hunters and hikers, as well as a bipartisan group of state lawmakers

This story was originally published by the nonprofit Tennessee Lookout and is shared (with much appreciation) via Creative Commons License. 

It’s a pretty bird, easily recognizable by dark stripes on rust colored feathers and a distinct two-syllable chirp that announces its name: “bob” (the high note) then “white” at a lower pitch — also known as the northern bobwhite, a species of quail.

The otherwise unassuming bird is now at the center of a fight over public lands in White County, Tennessee, pitting the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency against an unlikely coalition of hikers, hunters, cavers, local business leaders and state lawmakers on both sides of the political aisle.

Last modified on Wednesday, 01 March 2023 11:06