Principles

This is the recap by Frank Robinson, of a presentation by Lynne Jackson, at the May 13th, 2007 CDHS monthly meeting.

Our speaker in May was Lynne Jackson, who has been active in the organization Save The Pine Bush (SPB) from its 1978 inception, serving most of that time as Secretary. Lynne is a SUNY graduate in Environmental Studies. Her talk was titled “You Can Fight City Hall and Win.”

The Pine Bush originally encompassed virtually the entire area straddling Albany and Schenectady, about 58,000 acres; today, occupying portions of Albany, Guilderland and Colonie, it includes about 10% of its original acreage, about half of which is owned by government and half is privately owned. (But, if you own land there, and want to do anything with it other than look at the butterflies, good luck, because you’ll surely face a lawsuit from SPB.)

Lynne explained that the Pine Bush is a rare ecosystem, one of about twenty inland pine barrens in the world, and possibly the best of them. This ecosystem is characterized by pitch pine trees and scrub oak, atop sand dunes. She talked about and showed pictures of its most famous indigenous species, the Karner Blue Butterfly, with an estimated population of about 1,000. About the size of a quarter, this butterfly has been on the federal endangered species list since 1992. We also saw an enlarged photo of a Karner Blue egg, looking something like a golf ball; the actual egg is the size of a pin-head. Further mentioned was that spay-foot toad, which spends most of its life hiding deep within the sand (perhaps trying to avoid SPB lawsuits), and the hog-nosed snake, with the interesting characteristic of playing dead (perhaps for the same reason).

SPB is an all-volunteer organization devoted to opposing development in the Pine Bush. “Whatever isn’t built in the Pine Bush is good,” she stated. SPB’s principal weapon is indeed litigation, and Lynne devoted much of her talk to recapitulating some of it. “Litigation is always good,” she said. (This would be a good place to insert a lawyer joke, but I will resist the temptation.)

As for “fighting city hall,” Lynne noted that the environment faced by SPB, especially in its earlier years, has been shaped by Albany’s famous political machine. When SPB started out, Erastus Corning was still the mayor, and it seemed that that circumstance had lasted, and would continue to last, forever. (But he died after all, in 1983, in his forty-second year as mayor). Lynne discussed some of the ways in which the machine used its power to try to quash its opponents.

Lynne expressed particular satisfaction with one of SPB’s lawsuits that forced a developer to move water lines, at considerable expense, even though the water lines only trivially encroached on the Pine Bush and were, she acknowledged, doing no real harm. She also discussed how SPB has opposed expansion of the Albany landfill, which is the repository for our trash; the landfill is almost entirely surrounded by the Pine Bush Preserve, but, after being thwarted in several previous expansion proposals, the City is now seeking to expand it into land it owns that is not within the Preserve.

Refreshments at the meeting featured a special cake honoring the recent nuptials of members Tiya Madden and Rich Cotter. The cake’s icing incorporated an edible picture of the newlyweds. An especially nice touch was the garnish of crushed Karner Blue Butterflies (just kidding, of course).

Saving The Pine Bush:

You CAN Fight City Hall

and WIN!