Another national park in Poland is under threat! During the 1980s a journalist from Krakow, Janusz Zielonacki had the idea to create a ski slope in the Bieszczady Mountains. His intended name for this slope was apt: "Colorful Giddiness." Zielonacki’s project was met with massive opposition. Unfortunately, at present a similar plan has been proposed. A local leader from Cisna, Elżbieta Łukacijewska, is demanding that the regional government support plans to build a new ski lift and slope on the summit of Jasło Mountain.

The main obstacle is the fact that the heating system would be routed through the national park, requiring the cutting of forests (40 hectares) which is costly. Each ski slope would require the cutting of 12 hectares of land (there are plans to build four such slopes on this mountain, making it necessary to pay damages to the Sate Forest Service as high as 4,600,000 złoty ($1,150,000). For now the local government is against these plans. However, the vice president of the regional government has announced his commitment to doing everything possible to make the ski slope a reality.

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(written at the beginning of February)

The echoes of despair sound in the mountains. There is no snow. What’s so strange about this? Before recent years, there has almost always been an abundant snowfall, punctuating the flow of everyday life. The anomaly of the past couple of years has left few people doubting that global warming is occurring.

Who in our area is involved in the ski business? It turns out that a lot of people are. Many believe that the weather will shape up to meet their needs. The solution for a lack of snow in the meantime appears to be massive quantities of artificial snow.

Newspapers in the Polish city of Jelenia Góra write about the catastrophe of the tourist industry in the Karkonosze Mountains (southwest Poland). Winter has let us down. Owners of ski operations have resorted to transporting snow to their slopes by car using special attachments. And the heroic efforts of skiers continue. It seems that they are most interested in skiing on the Kopia and Szrenica summits--to which it is not possible to transport snow. It’s also not possible to produce artificial snow there, because the Karkonosze National Park administration will not allow it. They will not permit the building of electric cables, water pipelines, or the construction of water reservoirs from mountain streams. They are also concerned about the noise that large scale ski development would bring to the forest at night.

And actually there is nothing to discuss. It is the duty of the park administration to comply with the law and the implementation of its objectives. The Karkonosze National Park was created to protect nature. This principle seems to surprise some local officials. The author of one article referred to the park workers as "orthodox priests of environmentalism." It turns out that everywhere where there are laws protecting nature, we have run-ins with such orthodox priests. Maybe such individuals comprise a new sect? The sect of decent state administrators. Joking aside, the conflict between local interests and nature protection is nothing new. And certainly there are ways to avoid it. However, this doesn’t seem possible when some individuals insist on remaining blind to the facts before them, believing that winters will be cold with lots of snow, mountains increasingly higher, skiing eternally fashionable, and nature always alive and thriving. Parenthetically speaking, doesn’t this view sound like one put forth by a sect?

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The Osława Nature Reserve in the western Bieszczady Mountains (southeast Poland) is under threat by plans to build a hydro-electric plant in the area. This reserve was founded on March 28, 2000. The directive which established the protected area, the Osława Gorge Reserve consists of the most beautiful fragment of the Osława River Valley.” Item 6 of this directive forbids any changes in the water system due to artificial regulation of the river.

Plans to destroy this river valley have been met with widespread protest. Over twenty environmental organizations have expressed their oppositions to the plans to build an hydro-electric plant in this area. Please take part in the campaign to preserve this unique and beautiful valley.

ul. Grunwadzka 15

35-068 Rzeszów

Poland

Minister of the Environment, Antoni Tokarczuk

ul. Wawelska 52/54

00-922 Warszawa

Poland

Glówny Konserwator Przyrody, Janusz Radziejowski

ul. Wawelska 52/54

00-922 Warszawa

Poland

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(summary)

Introduction

The Dniester River winds through the steppes; wolves run freely throughout the Gorgon region. The Podolskie Tovtry National Park is 2,610 square kilometers. It was originally intended to be four times smaller. However, according to Jacek Krzemiński, regional communal farm members did everything in their power to ensure that their land would be granted national park status.

Only 14% of Ukraine consists of woodlands. Over 20% of the country has been contaminated with cesium after the Chernobyl disaster. More than 30% of the land has been destroyed by erosion; soil degradation has been caused by the dumping of garbage and intensive farming, the disruption of the Dnieper River’s natural water systems and the draining of wetlands in the Podlesia region. Other catastrophic occurrences include the environmental degradation of the Black Sea, the widespread poisoning of fish in the Asov Sea, as well as environmental disasters in the cities of Krzywy Rog, Mariupol, and Zaporoż.

In an interview with Janusz Korbel, activist Marina Czernyszova discusses the harsh situation in Ukraine. She speaks of the difficulty of educating people about environmental issues when such topics are often treated as tabu in areas that are largely controlled by proponents of industrial development.

Despite the destruction wrought throughout the Soviet era in Ukraine, Czernyszova points out that there were also certain signs for hope and indications that regeneration was possible. In particular, she mentions a 650-year-old oak tree, that had long stood as a symbol of the resilience of the local population’s spirit. The tree dried up and was thought to be dead for about 25. Though it was still standing, it had long ceased to produce any green leaves. And then suddenly in 1996, a live branch appeared on the tree--a symbol of the potential for rebirth in Ukraine. Unfortunately, according to Czernyszova, the introduction of capital from the West into the Ukrainian economy, along with those seeking to profit from the nation’s desperate economic situation has meant that the process of destruction has started all over again.

Czernyszova mentions that she became involved in environmental activism after her son developed diabetes when he was 13. She describes herself as a feminist and explains that after being involved in environmental activism for several years, she noticed a difference between the dedication of women and men. She suggests that men seemed to feel less of an obligation to the movement. She says that they often opted to get involved in politics instead, or left the movement out of fear, or more common pressures to conform. After this realization--that women activists could only count on each other--she and her colleagues formed the organization "Cury Ziemi" (Daughters of the Earth). They have published a newspaper "Feministka," but, due to limited funding, they have only been able to print eight issues. Czernyszova describes both feminism and environmentalism as tabu issues in Ukraine, nevertheless, she is hopeful that they might be able to continue to publish this newspaper and that they might succeed in shocking people into waking up and taking action.