All,

safe for now

Thanks to quick work and rapid outreach to members of the General Assembly and to the adminstration at Appalachian State, the sponsors of the ASU Demonstration Wind Bill pulled it from the calendar this afternoon.  The bill would have gone to the floor tonight, and it would have passed.  Your passionate and articulate advocacy made an enormous difference as the prospects for the bill collapsed over the course of the day.  Late today the bill’s primary sponsor said he would like to study the issue for 2 years and try to find a partnership to do research at a mountain site.  There’s a chance this bill could be come back at some point, but for now, it’s dead.

 

Southern Appalachian Highlands Conservancy is not an advocacy organization.  We were founded to protect the Roan and we do that in a number of ways.  Activities I undertook in working on this issue were outside my duties as a trustee for the conservancy but I am grateful that the conservancy is always supportive of efforts to protect the conservation values in our flagship conservation landscape.  It is always an honor to defend the landscape SAHC, TNC, the USFS and all our partners have protected all these many years.

 

Thanks again for working quickly and for doing it with class.  The Roan community gained a lot of respect in the General Assembly over the last 24 hours —

 

Lastly, a great group of folks have worked on this for over two years, and I am thanking all of them separately.

 

Take care, and, as always, support your local land trust!

 

Jay

 

Jay Erskine Leutze