Hi Josses - Thought you might appreciate seeing this news item from the 9/24 York County Journal Tribune - I added the scientific names, but that's it. (If you want the original item, go to http://www.journaltribune.com/wednesday/news2.html) Hope you are all enjoying this lovely fall botanizing-or-anything-else-outdoors weather! Sue Gawler Rare plants on casino property By TAMMY WELLS/Journal Tribune [log in to unmask] SANFORD — A day after Gordon “Bud” Johnston told the town’s casino task force he hadn’t found endangered plant life on the proposed casino property last month, he walked the land again and found four threatened species. Johnston found white-topped aster (Sericocarpus asteroides) and hollow joe-pye weed (Eupatorium fistulosum), listed as “critically imperiled” and “imperiled,” respectively, on the state’s list of endangered plants. He also found Schreber’s aster (Aster schreberi) and late purple aster (Symphyotrichum patens), listed as “extirpated” – which means the plants are an historically occurring species for which habitat no longer exists in Maine and hasn’t been documented in 20 years. Johnston has walked the 360-acre site half a dozen times since it was identified as the location for the proposed casino, hotel and golf course. “If I spent time there in four seasons, I’m confident I could find dozens of (threatened) plants,” he said. As a scientist and environmental consultant for the town, Johnston said his job is to be objective; he hasn’t taken a public stand on the issue. “My purpose was to walk the land and review it,” Johnston said. If Mainers vote on Nov. 4 to allow the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot Indians to operate the $650 million casino, and if Sanford approves the construction, about 40 acres of the heavily wooded tract will be stripped for buildings, Johnston estimated. Another 80 to 100 acres will become a golf course. A longtime naturalist and horticulturist, he said his concerns include loss of plant and animal habitat, impact of vegetation removal and wastewater management. The land is one of the largest undisturbed tracts within the town limits, Johnston said. One inch of rain results in 10 million gallons of water on the site, he estimated. Because its heavily forested, the land now absorbs the rainfall. And while project plans include a pond to deal with the water that accumulates after paving or construction, Johnston believes runoff from parking lots and roofs – and the pollutants that come with them – could end up in groundwater. “Any dissolved substances such as salts, gasses or ions will move freely with overflow water or percolate through the bottom of the pond to the water table,” he said. Open space created by the golf course will alter temperature and humidity of the land, he added. Johnston, a former Nasson College ecology professor, retired environmental science teacher and a longtime radio and television authority on plant life, outlined his findings to the Citizens Casino Advisory Task Force last month. He is scheduled to do a further environmental assessment for the town. Meanwhile, he has found peat bogs, clumps of lilac bushes and a cemetery. He knows how water drains off the property toward Perkins Marsh Brook and eventually the Mousam River. Johnston has seen evidence of deer and moose, including what may be a deer wintering yard. A discontinued road through the property dates from before the Revolutionary War, he estimated. The land first came under public scrutiny in the mid-1970s, when Gibbs Oil Co. planned a refinery there and on another adjacent 900 acres. The proposed casino site was to be undeveloped, a buffer between oil company operations and the Rosenfield housing development, Johnston recalled. Ultimately, he said, Gibbs Oil went bankrupt and the plan was scrapped. Johnston isn’t the only one concerned about the project’s environmental impact. Maine Audubon Society two weeks ago announced its opposition to the casino, partly because Audubon trustees fear it will spur other development and increase the threat to wildlife areas near the site, Audubon conservation Director Sally Stockwell said. Southern Maine has the greatest species diversity and largest number of rare species in the state, she said. Nearby is the southern portion of the Massabesic Experimental Forest, Sanford Ponds and the Sanford and Wells barrens. Kennebunk Kennebunkport & Wells Water District trustees will likely discuss their position on the casino tonight, Superintendent Norman Labbe said. KK&W owns 500 acres of land, bought a few years ago to protect its Branch Brook water supply. But while the brook itself is about a mile away, the watershed is in a portion of the property outlined as a buffer zone between the Rosenfield subdivision and the proposed main entrance into the casino land. “The protection of the watershed is our primary concern,” Labbe said. Johnston, meanwhile made this conclusion in his report to the casino panel: “Conversion of forest land into pavement and buildings,” he said, “is an environmental whammy.” ----------------------------------- Susan C. Gawler Gawler Conservation Services 256 Guptill Road Belgrade, Maine 04917 (207) 495-3513 phone (207) 495-3444 fax [log in to unmask]