Dr. Virginia Dale will speak about a recent action of the City of Oak Ridge. The city sought DOE authorization to build an electric transmission line along the DOE patrol road on the boundary between the Black Oak Ridge Conservation Easement (BORCE) and the Horizon Center industrial park or cutting through other “natural areas”. These “natural areas” are identified in mitigation conditions required for the NEPA Finding of No Significant Impact (FONSI) which allowed the subsequent development of the Horizon Center.  DOE chose to accept the mitigation conditions for the FONSI in order to avoid the requirement to prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS).

Environmentalists and citizen and community groups feel that the cleared corridor would destroy

1. wildlife habitat connectivity within the Horizon Center and
2. habitat connectivity between the riparian zone and forests of the Horizon Center and the upland forests of the BORCE.

That habitat connectivity forms part of the natural resource value that DOE provided as compensation for natural resource damages assessed under CERCLA.

Dr. Dale is a Corporate Fellow Emeritus with Oak Ridge National Laboratory where she worked in the Environmental Sciences Division. She is currently a researcher in the Ecology and Evolutionary Biology Department at the University of Tennessee.  She has authored 11 books and more than 250 published articles. She received her B.A. in Mathematics, UTK; M.S. in Mathematics with a minor in Ecology, UTK; and a PhD. in Mathematical Ecology, University of Washington, Seattle.

The meeting will be held from 11:45 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. in the Social Hall of the Oak Ridge Unitarian Universalist Church, located at 809 Oak Ridge Turnpike.

Lunch with the League is a public service program open to the community.  Membership in the League of Women Voters is not required, there is no cost to attend, and no reservations are required. The presentation will begin at 12:00 noon.  Lunches are provided by the Soup Kitchen and are available at 11:30 a.m. on a first-come basis for a reasonable cost, or you may bring your own.  Coffee and tea are provided.

The League of Women Voters of Oak Ridge, a nonpartisan political organization for men and women, encourages informed and active participation in government, works to increase understanding of major public policy issues, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.