Minutes of the Sierra Club, Niagara Group Meeting on Octobe 24, 2000

The meeting was held in conjunction with our awards banquet at the Eagle House in Williamsville. Art Klein made arrangements for us in this historic inn. He invited us to shmooz at 6 and then eat sumptuously at 7. In the lull after our salads arrived, Larry Beahan convened the group for this business.

Treasurer's report: deferred

Minutes of previous meeting: deferred

Report from the Chair: Friends on Hunter's Creek met recently and persuaded Larry Jazinski the new County Parks Commissioner to remove no trespassing signs and thus legitimatize use of this land, which is considered part of a land bank rather than an active park.

The decision to ban use of snowmobiles in Yellowstone is to be made soon. This is a critical time to write letters.

Audubon is opposing the sale of Cemetery Woods in Tonawanda to developers. We will keep an eye on the issue and be ready to support them.

Russ Luke, Art Klein and Barry Boyer have been conducting an active discussion on riparian wetland designation on our Sierra List -serve.

Richard Lippes discussed the Friends of the Buffalo River suit against the city with regard to there offer to allow "Iron Mountain to build in the green space along the river.

Liz Kaszubski discussed the suit against the DEC for changing wetland designation without public input and favoring development in the sensitive Klydel wetland.

Awards: The meeting concluded with awards to Mike Kukla and Liz Kaszubski.

We recognized Mike for his outstanding and diligent work in developing, single handedly, our Sierra Club, Niagara Group web-page as well as instituting the Niagara Group Email list serve He did this while at the same time editing and publishing four successful issues of the Trailblazer. He has brought our club, brilliantly, into the information age.

Liz was selected for her award because of her powerful and enduring efforts on behalf of Klydel wetland. She has investigated, documented, organized, publicized, litigated, and lion like pursued the preservation of this invaluable resource. Her example has become a template for such actions inspiring us and activists across the state. Meeting closed at 7:30. We all enjoyed great food and conversation and we thank Art Klein for bringing us back to this wonderful tradition.

--Submitted by Larry Beahan