McCollum on Environment feb 23, 2008

Thank you Congresswoman McCollum for meeting with environmental groups.

I enjoyed meeting with White Bear Lake’s 4th District Congresswoman Betty McCollum Feb. 20 at her St. Paul office. Also attending were members of several other conservation organizations. I was representing White Bear’s own new environmental group — the Friends of White Bear Lake (see our blog of the same name for information on current city issues).

Congresswoman McCollum, who’s up for re-election Nov. 4, was very interested in supporting conservation programs to bring a balance between human needs and the environment. Conservation programs within the Farm Bill, for example, which is being debated in Washington, D.C., provides landowners with payments to put 34 million-plus acres of land into wildlife habitat through the Conservation Reserve and Wetlands Reserve programs.

We also discussed how her votes could help reduce greenhouse gasses, increase renewable energy, save wetlands and promote population control in this country and around the world. After all, expanding human populations create most environmental challenges.

Congresswoman McCollum said she’s particularly interested in protecting urban forests. Urban wildlife needs trees for all their life needs. I hope to hear more from her on this and other environmental issues during her campaign.

McCollum’s believes the District’s primary issues are education and health care. I agree. Our youth need to be educated about the need to get outdoors (fewer are doing so than at any time in our history), to fall in love with nature and care for her. Further, what greater health care issue is there than the need for a clean environment? The metro has regular air pollution alerts, rising respiratory ailments, polluted ground water from 3M and other corporations and mercury contaminated surface water such as White Bear Lake from burning coal.