Eutrusca
13-02-2006, 18:46
COMMENTARY: If you run into problems with eminent domain, you might want to study how the farmers and friends are fighting the US Navy's plans to condem their property. North Carolinians ... ya gotta love 'em! :D
Fight the Navy or
flights overhead for N.C. farmers (http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=99495&ran=29411&tref=po)
By KATE WILTROUT, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 13, 2006
WASHINGTON COUNTY, N.C. — Two years ago, when a group of North Carolina farmers refused to accept Navy plans for an outlying landing field on soil their families had tilled for generations, nobody gave them much of a chance.
They were ordinary citizens from two of the state’s poorest counties taking on the military during wartime.
Fast forward to 2006.
The empowered farmers have effectively stopped the Navy in its tracks – at least for now.
Allied with environmental groups and represented pro bono by a top Carolina law firm, the unwilling sellers in Washington and Beaufort counties prevailed first in federal district court, then again in one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the nation.
Charles Allen, who tills about 10,000 acres every year, is among the local residents who oppose the Navy’s plan to build an outlying landing field in Washington County. The Navy is re-examining five sites and expects to complete an additional environmental analysis by summer.
The Navy is now working on a court-ordered supplemental study and re-examining potential sites for a 30,000 -acre field where Navy planes would simulate aircraft carrier landings.
Caught in the fray are tens of thousands of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake residents to whom the Navy pledged quieter nights by moving landing practice away from local runways.
Also in the mix are tundra swans and snow geese that feed and preen at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge near the Navy’s preferred site for the field.
The legal battle, for now, is over, but what may seem like a lull in activity is an illusion.
By summer, the Navy expects to have completed its additional environmental analysis of its five original sites and will begin another series of public hearings. In the meantime, it hired three experts to analyze bird activity and help assess the risk of birds and planes colliding.
Nor have the farmers relaxed. They continue to meet with politicians, raise money and run an increasingly sophisticated public relations campaign.
Jennifer Ange , who grew up on a family farm that would disappear if the Navy succeeds, won’t stop fighting. Ange and her twin sister, Christy, vividly recall letters telling them the 13 acres they inherited – and the home they share – would be condemned in 2006.
“We’ve come a long way,” Jennifer Ange said. Still, “We get into the same room, and all you talk about is OLF.”
That single-minded determination is part of the group’s strength, said Christopher Lam , an attorney with the Charlotte law firm that represented the counties in court. In January 2004, the counties sued the Navy on the farmers’ behalf.
Lam is impressed not only by how much the farmers have learned, but by how hard they’ve fought.
“They have taught themselves a lot about issues ranging from environmental law to government appropriations, and they’ve taught us – and taught folks in the government and the Navy in particular – what it means for citizens to come together to fight for what they believe in,” Lam said.
The farmers have gotten more savvy in dealing with politicians and the media , Lam said – but they’re not “spinning” their cause.
“The power of their group and the power of their message comes from their hearts,” he said. “Nobody can teach you that. … It is authentic.”
Inside Myra and Jerry Beasley ’s huge metal garage last Monday night, that message was on display.
Red, white and blue bunting adorned the inside, and a piece of King Kong-sized John Deere farm equipment sat in the corner. Balloons bobbed above the crowd of 200 people, many of whom wore jeans and boots, flannel shirts and ball caps.
Before turning them loose to attack steaming piles of oysters, shrimp and corn cakes, Myra Beasley asked those whose homes are threatened by the outlying landing field to stand behind her.
About 50 people gathered by her. She offered a tearful tribute to the community that has rallied around them, often led by those who live outside the area referred to as “the buy out.”
Beasley singled out Jennifer Alligood and Doris Morris , the chairwoman and spokeswoman of North Carolinians Opposed to the Outlying Landing Field , or NO -OLF.
Neither woman’s home is in the Navy’s preferred sites, but the rural way of life runs through their veins.
Alligood and Morris have learned to write news releases, maintain a W eb site and organize news conferences.
This summer, they led a group of local residents to Washington, where some who’d never visited the nation’s capital went knocking on c ongressional office doors, asking legislators for support and distributing information.
The seafood feast was the pair’s work as well, set up to give visiting journalists an opportunity to hear their views.
“When you’re fighting for all you’ve got, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said Jennifer and Christy’s mother, Phyllis Ange, who along with her husband, Al, owns a home and 54 acres the Navy wants .
“What’s going to be will be, but we won’t give it up easy,” she said.
While the Navy counts 74 families whose homes it wants to acquire in the two counties, Al Ange pointed out that more than 300 landowners own property the Navy wants.
The landing strip itself – a pair of intersecting runways – would require just a few thousand acres. However, to ensure that development doesn’t creep up around the site the way it has at Oceana Naval Air Station and Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, the Navy wants to surround the landing strip with almost 50 square miles of land it would lease back to farmers.
Ted Brown , a spokesman for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, said fewer than 2,000 acres have been assembled so far toward the 30,000 acres that are needed. Since the court rulings, Brown added, the Navy has said it would only buy land from willing sellers.
Jeanine Saunders lives outside the buyout area, but she understands her neighbors’ love of the land and refusal to sell. Her husband’s family has owned property in Washington County since 1744 . They have the original land grant, signed by an agent of King William II, to prove it.
Americans who don’t work the land can’t grasp what it means to have your property confiscated, even if the government offers a fair price, Saunders said.
“It’s not what you do, it’s who you are. You’re killing something that money can’t replace,” she said.
Saunders said the buyout would be easier to swallow if the Navy planned to build an actual base – if pilots and planes would be stationed in the community, their paychecks spent at local stores. However, exporting the jet noise from Chesapeake and Virginia Beach while keeping the economic benefits there is unfair, the farmers often say.
Navy officials insist the outlying landing field is critical to train pilots for the trickiest maneuver they perform: landing a fighter jet or surveillance or electronic jamming plane on the deck of a moving aircraft carrier at night.
For decades, Beach-based pilots have honed their skills at the landing field in Chesapeake, where they routinely touch down on the runway before bouncing back into the air.
Yet explosive development outside the fence has brought light pollution to what used to be a rural neighborhood, and admirals say that pilots can’t help but “cheat” on the practice landings with a strip mall’s brightly lit parking lot clearly indicating their position.
The bottom line, Brown said, is every day the Navy is delayed in building the outlying landing field is detrimental to pilot readiness.
“The sooner we can get it, the better it will be for our aviators,” he said.
The swampy lands of eastern North Carolina are a mecca for migrating birds. On peak days in December and January, more than 100,000 snow geese and tundra swans congregate at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, according to refuge manager Howard Phillips.
A shallow lake is their home base at night; days see them flocking into farmers’ fields to forage for remnants of winter wheat, soybeans and corn.
Stand at the edge of one of the lakes on a winter morning around sunrise, and the air is filled with primeval squawks and long, mournful bleats.
Phillips said it’s impossible to figure out exactly what spooks birds.
“It’s hard to get inside a bird’s head. Is he reacting to this or something else in his environment?” Phillips said.
Tuesday morning, when thousands of geese took to the sky, it was clear the birds were reacting to something.
A few seconds later, four A-10 Warthogs from Pope Air Force Base came lumbering overhead, probably on the way to Dare County Bombing Range two counties away.
A half-hour later, the planes retraced their steps, this time scaring the birds out of a farm field where they had settled.
Alligood had parked her SUV on a dirt road to watch the flocks.
“I hate this. It makes me so upset,” she said. “What if this was 24-7? They won’t be able to feed or rest.”
Fight the Navy or
flights overhead for N.C. farmers (http://home.hamptonroads.com/stories/story.cfm?story=99495&ran=29411&tref=po)
By KATE WILTROUT, The Virginian-Pilot
© February 13, 2006
WASHINGTON COUNTY, N.C. — Two years ago, when a group of North Carolina farmers refused to accept Navy plans for an outlying landing field on soil their families had tilled for generations, nobody gave them much of a chance.
They were ordinary citizens from two of the state’s poorest counties taking on the military during wartime.
Fast forward to 2006.
The empowered farmers have effectively stopped the Navy in its tracks – at least for now.
Allied with environmental groups and represented pro bono by a top Carolina law firm, the unwilling sellers in Washington and Beaufort counties prevailed first in federal district court, then again in one of the most conservative federal appellate courts in the nation.
Charles Allen, who tills about 10,000 acres every year, is among the local residents who oppose the Navy’s plan to build an outlying landing field in Washington County. The Navy is re-examining five sites and expects to complete an additional environmental analysis by summer.
The Navy is now working on a court-ordered supplemental study and re-examining potential sites for a 30,000 -acre field where Navy planes would simulate aircraft carrier landings.
Caught in the fray are tens of thousands of Virginia Beach and Chesapeake residents to whom the Navy pledged quieter nights by moving landing practice away from local runways.
Also in the mix are tundra swans and snow geese that feed and preen at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge near the Navy’s preferred site for the field.
The legal battle, for now, is over, but what may seem like a lull in activity is an illusion.
By summer, the Navy expects to have completed its additional environmental analysis of its five original sites and will begin another series of public hearings. In the meantime, it hired three experts to analyze bird activity and help assess the risk of birds and planes colliding.
Nor have the farmers relaxed. They continue to meet with politicians, raise money and run an increasingly sophisticated public relations campaign.
Jennifer Ange , who grew up on a family farm that would disappear if the Navy succeeds, won’t stop fighting. Ange and her twin sister, Christy, vividly recall letters telling them the 13 acres they inherited – and the home they share – would be condemned in 2006.
“We’ve come a long way,” Jennifer Ange said. Still, “We get into the same room, and all you talk about is OLF.”
That single-minded determination is part of the group’s strength, said Christopher Lam , an attorney with the Charlotte law firm that represented the counties in court. In January 2004, the counties sued the Navy on the farmers’ behalf.
Lam is impressed not only by how much the farmers have learned, but by how hard they’ve fought.
“They have taught themselves a lot about issues ranging from environmental law to government appropriations, and they’ve taught us – and taught folks in the government and the Navy in particular – what it means for citizens to come together to fight for what they believe in,” Lam said.
The farmers have gotten more savvy in dealing with politicians and the media , Lam said – but they’re not “spinning” their cause.
“The power of their group and the power of their message comes from their hearts,” he said. “Nobody can teach you that. … It is authentic.”
Inside Myra and Jerry Beasley ’s huge metal garage last Monday night, that message was on display.
Red, white and blue bunting adorned the inside, and a piece of King Kong-sized John Deere farm equipment sat in the corner. Balloons bobbed above the crowd of 200 people, many of whom wore jeans and boots, flannel shirts and ball caps.
Before turning them loose to attack steaming piles of oysters, shrimp and corn cakes, Myra Beasley asked those whose homes are threatened by the outlying landing field to stand behind her.
About 50 people gathered by her. She offered a tearful tribute to the community that has rallied around them, often led by those who live outside the area referred to as “the buy out.”
Beasley singled out Jennifer Alligood and Doris Morris , the chairwoman and spokeswoman of North Carolinians Opposed to the Outlying Landing Field , or NO -OLF.
Neither woman’s home is in the Navy’s preferred sites, but the rural way of life runs through their veins.
Alligood and Morris have learned to write news releases, maintain a W eb site and organize news conferences.
This summer, they led a group of local residents to Washington, where some who’d never visited the nation’s capital went knocking on c ongressional office doors, asking legislators for support and distributing information.
The seafood feast was the pair’s work as well, set up to give visiting journalists an opportunity to hear their views.
“When you’re fighting for all you’ve got, you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do,” said Jennifer and Christy’s mother, Phyllis Ange, who along with her husband, Al, owns a home and 54 acres the Navy wants .
“What’s going to be will be, but we won’t give it up easy,” she said.
While the Navy counts 74 families whose homes it wants to acquire in the two counties, Al Ange pointed out that more than 300 landowners own property the Navy wants.
The landing strip itself – a pair of intersecting runways – would require just a few thousand acres. However, to ensure that development doesn’t creep up around the site the way it has at Oceana Naval Air Station and Fentress Naval Auxiliary Landing Field, the Navy wants to surround the landing strip with almost 50 square miles of land it would lease back to farmers.
Ted Brown , a spokesman for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command in Norfolk, said fewer than 2,000 acres have been assembled so far toward the 30,000 acres that are needed. Since the court rulings, Brown added, the Navy has said it would only buy land from willing sellers.
Jeanine Saunders lives outside the buyout area, but she understands her neighbors’ love of the land and refusal to sell. Her husband’s family has owned property in Washington County since 1744 . They have the original land grant, signed by an agent of King William II, to prove it.
Americans who don’t work the land can’t grasp what it means to have your property confiscated, even if the government offers a fair price, Saunders said.
“It’s not what you do, it’s who you are. You’re killing something that money can’t replace,” she said.
Saunders said the buyout would be easier to swallow if the Navy planned to build an actual base – if pilots and planes would be stationed in the community, their paychecks spent at local stores. However, exporting the jet noise from Chesapeake and Virginia Beach while keeping the economic benefits there is unfair, the farmers often say.
Navy officials insist the outlying landing field is critical to train pilots for the trickiest maneuver they perform: landing a fighter jet or surveillance or electronic jamming plane on the deck of a moving aircraft carrier at night.
For decades, Beach-based pilots have honed their skills at the landing field in Chesapeake, where they routinely touch down on the runway before bouncing back into the air.
Yet explosive development outside the fence has brought light pollution to what used to be a rural neighborhood, and admirals say that pilots can’t help but “cheat” on the practice landings with a strip mall’s brightly lit parking lot clearly indicating their position.
The bottom line, Brown said, is every day the Navy is delayed in building the outlying landing field is detrimental to pilot readiness.
“The sooner we can get it, the better it will be for our aviators,” he said.
The swampy lands of eastern North Carolina are a mecca for migrating birds. On peak days in December and January, more than 100,000 snow geese and tundra swans congregate at Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge, according to refuge manager Howard Phillips.
A shallow lake is their home base at night; days see them flocking into farmers’ fields to forage for remnants of winter wheat, soybeans and corn.
Stand at the edge of one of the lakes on a winter morning around sunrise, and the air is filled with primeval squawks and long, mournful bleats.
Phillips said it’s impossible to figure out exactly what spooks birds.
“It’s hard to get inside a bird’s head. Is he reacting to this or something else in his environment?” Phillips said.
Tuesday morning, when thousands of geese took to the sky, it was clear the birds were reacting to something.
A few seconds later, four A-10 Warthogs from Pope Air Force Base came lumbering overhead, probably on the way to Dare County Bombing Range two counties away.
A half-hour later, the planes retraced their steps, this time scaring the birds out of a farm field where they had settled.
Alligood had parked her SUV on a dirt road to watch the flocks.
“I hate this. It makes me so upset,” she said. “What if this was 24-7? They won’t be able to feed or rest.”