The Southern Environment Law Center says these places are facing immediate, potentially irreversible threats today. Their list below illustrates the cultural, ecological, and scenic riches at stake now.

1. Clinch and Powell Rivers, Virginia – Issue: Construction of a new coal-fired power plant in Wise County will accelerate mountaintop removal mining in Appalachia, and further increase mercury levels in the Clinch and Powell rivers.
2. Interstate 81 Corridor, Virginia – Issue: Virginia officials are reexamining a plan to widen all 325 miles of I-81 to perhaps eight lanes to support long-haul truck traffic – a plan that would cost billions of dollars and cause tremendous harm to communities and historic, scenic, and environmental resources.
3. Marine Waters, Virginia – Issue: Virginia is the first state in our region to begin the process of opening up its marine waters to offshore drilling for oil and gas. The benefit of this short-term supply of energy is dramatically outweighed by the harm to the environment and communities.
4. Globe Forest, North Carolina – Issue: Destruction of rare, old-growth forest in the Southern Appalachians.
5. Pamlico River, North Carolina – Issue: The single largest destruction of wetlands in North Carolina’s history will occur if a phosphate mining company gets permission to expand its operations on the river’s banks.
6. Great Pee Dee River, South Carolina – Issue: Santee Cooper, a state-owned utility, is proposing to build more coal-fired power plants with outdated technology that would dump an additional 300 pounds of mercury into an already mercury-overloaded river.
7. Johns Island, South Carolina – Issue: A $420 million highway proposal threatens to bring large-scale development to this historic community, transforming the island into a sea of condos, mega-stores, and traffic.
8. Salt Marshes, Georgia – Issue: Large-scale development on biologically rich islands and tidal waters.
9. Weeks Bay, Alabama – Issue: Unchecked development and weak regulation threatens an area so unique it is one of only three in Alabama to receive the designation of Outstanding Natural Resource Water.
10. Cherokee National Forest, Northeast Tennessee – Issue: The U.S. Forest Service is moving forward with its plans to log several areas of this remarkable landscape, endangering trout, unbroken wildlife habitat and rare species.

I’m partial to Johns Island being on the list, especially since I was born 2 miles from the Angel Oak Tree right off Maybank Highway. With all the fuss about possible highway development coming on the island, people are up in arms over the change it will inevitably bring to the slow & easy way of doing things.

From the Shem Creek blog.

Top 10 Most Endangered Places in the South 2009

Even though they are far away from the international law-breaking Japanese whale hunters, their newest enemy is our own government. Just recently, the Supreme Court sided with the Navy for a sonar training range which harms marine wildlife according to many environmentalists.

With funding by NOAA Fisheries, (another arm of Uncle Sam) Wildlife Trust is busy right now monitoring the last known calving grounds of the N.A. right whales. As this image shows, the calving grounds extend from the upper half of Florida to North Carolina.

An entangled Right whale.
Credit: Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

One thing government did do right was make ships coming in and out of Charleston slow down to 10 knots.

• 1/23/9: NOAA Gives Navy Marine Mammal Protection Measures for Sonar Training off the Atlantic Coast and Gulf of Mexico
• 2/12/9: Crews Work to Free Another Right Whale From Entangling Ropes
• 2/18/9: Harbor pilots seek exemption from federal slow-down rule, citing “Boats that perform law enforcement or search-and-rescue work get a waiver”

From the Shem Creek blog.

Right whales, far from Japan, still being wronged

Rondo Dwarf Galago Galagoides rondoensis	Ceylon Mtn. Slender Loris Loris tardigradus nycticeboides	Greater Bamboo Lemur Prolemur simus	Brown Spider Monkey Ateles hybridus
Pennant’s Red Colobus Procolobus p. pennantii	Simakobu Simias concolor	White-Collared Lemur Eulemur albocollaris	Brown-headed Spider M. Ateles f. fusciceps
Tana River Red Colobus Procolobus rufomitratus	Siau Island Tarsier Tarsius sp. nov.	Silky Sifaka Propithecus candidus	Yellow-tailed Woolly M. Oreonax flavicauda
Roloway Guenon Cercocebus diana roloway	Delacour’s Langur Trachypithecus delacouri	Sahamalaza Sportive L. Lepilemur sahamalazensis
Miss Waldron’s Red Colobus Procolobus badius waldroni	Cat Ba Langur Trachypithecus p. poliocephalus
Kipunji Rungwecebus kipunji	Western Purple-faced Langur Semnopithecus vetulus nestor
Cross River Gorilla Gorilla gorilla diehli	Grey-Shanked Douc Pygathrix cinerea
	Tonkin Snub-nosed Monkey Rhinopithecus avunculus
	Hainan Gibbon Nomascus hainanus
	W. Hoolock Gibbon Hoolock hoolock
	Sumatran Orangutan Pongo abelii

As you can see, most are from Asia – the world’s largest continent – and then from Africa, with Madagascar and the neo-tropics of South America coming in 4th.

For more information, please read the IUCN’s article ‘Primates in Peril:
The World’s 25 Most Endangered Primates.

Images courtesy of the IUCN.

Ironically, there have just been more than 100,000 rare gorillas found in Congo.

From the Shem Creek blog.

The 25 Most Endangered Primates 2008

The Wateree River, which is downstream of North Carolina’s Catawba River, gets us to the top of the list this time.

Requirements for getting on the ‘Most Endangered River’ list include: energy development, sewage pollution, over-development, and the effects they have on a river for a given year.

I hope our state government does the right thing and steps up for us. Water is such an important part of our lifestyle here in South Carolina, whether upstate with the lakes and rivers, or here on the coast with our creeks and beaches.

From the Shem Creek blog.

South Carolina is home to America’s Most Endangered River