January February 2003 Sierran

Missouri Environmental Groups Join Forces
by Carla Klein, Ozark Chapter Director

The first Missouri Environmental Summit was held October 19, 2002. The summit sponsored by Missouri Votes Conservation (MVC) was a program of the Missouri Coalition of the Environment. The goal of the summit was to bring together Missouri environmental organizations from local, state, and regional areas to begin building a proactive legislative coalition to protect Missouri’s natural resources.

MVC sent out over 107 invitations to conservation organizations across the state. Invited groups were asked to complete a questionnaire identifying key environmental issues for their perspective groups for the upcoming legislative session. Twenty-seven groups responded and submitted their organizational priorities. The following groups sent a representative to the forum: Audubon Society, Coalition for Responsible Transit, Confluence Greenway, Missouri Alliance for Animal Legislation, Missouri Clean Energy Coalition, Missouri Coalition for the Environment, Missouri Farmland Preservation Trust, Missouri Park Association, Missouri Public Interest Research Group, Ozark Chapter of the Sierra Club, Sustainable St. Louis, and Trust for Public Land.

The information gathered was used to identify the following key issues for an environmental priority platform:

• Transportation: public transit, urban sprawl, pedestrian and biking.
•  Open Space Preservation: restrictions on floodplain development, restrictions on use of tax increment financing (TIF’s), farmland preservation.
•  Parks
•  Prevention of Bad Stuff: defend DNR’s budget, no stricter than federal, environmental audit, keep a watch for new assaults.
•  Electric Utility: net-metering, clean energy.
• Water Quality: big river water quality issues, septic tank legislation, watershed protection, water permits.
•  Sustainable Forestry: chip mills, better management practices.

Organizations with expertise in the various areas will submit background information that will be used for a briefing book outlining information on the priorities selected at the Environmental Summit. The briefing book will also contain the contact information for the organizations involved. The briefing books will be distributed to the entire legislature to inform them of our key conservation and environmental issues.

This is an exciting project that has opened up new lines of communication between the state’s environmental groups and has helped all of us gain a better understanding of our organizations’ goals. The prospect of the entire environmental community speaking with one united voice on issues of major legislative importance is very exciting and powerful prospect.