North Carolina Wildlife Federation

Affiliated with the National Wildlife Federation

2155 McClintock Rd.

Charlotte, NC  28205

www.ncwf.org

April 17, 2007


My name is Tim Gestwicki. I am a Charlotte resident, and I work as Deputy Director of the North Carolina Wildlife Federation. First I would like to thank the Navy for accepting our request to hold another hearing on the OLF, and listen to the concerns of North Carolinians who live far from the flatlands of the eastern counties. We believe that all North Carolinians have a stake in this issue, because all North Carolinians have a stake in a future North Carolina that is friendly to the environment, friendly to birds, and friendly to a Department of Defense that is second to none in the world. And we believe that these are not exclusive, one to the others. So thank you for coming to Charlotte.

The proposal to site an Outlying Landing Field adjacent to the Pocosin Lakes National Wildlife Refuge is an extremely important matter to a broad cross-section of North Carolinians. The North Carolina Wildlife Federation and its more than 70,000 members, supporters and affiliate club constituents, have opposed this location for many years due to the wildlife and habitat implications surrounding this site. While the majority of us do not live on the farmland or cities that would be directly impacted by the proposed construction, we voice our concerns as a statewide organization that is dedicated to all NC wildlife and its habitat and want to impress on the Navy that we stand united in our full and total opposition to this site.

When President Theodore Roosevelt established the National Wildlife Refuge System, he said that, “Wild beasts and birds are by right the property not merely of the people who are alive today, but the property of unborn generations, whose belongings we have no right to squander.”

I do not wish to recite the litany of complaints you have already heard from the Federation and local refuge supporters regarding insufficient environmental studies, unnecessary harm to a globally important wildlife refuge, and the ill-conceived destruction of thousands of acres of prime farmland. These arguments you have heard, time and time again, and there is a growing chorus of discontent whose voices now include the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and members of the United States Congress.

Instead, I would like to ask the United States Navy to be, in this place and at this time, what it has been in other places, at other times, around the world. I ask you to be heroes.

I ask you to recognize and accept that you are welcome in our state, you are valued in our state, you are honored in our state. The support of North Carolina for the American military has never been questioned, in any battle, in any war. It should not be questioned now.

But to be a true hero in this time and place, you must seek to work with our elected officials and the 100s of 1000s of North Carolinians who treasure our natural resources, and find a suitable location, one that will not destroy our wildlife and wild places, and one that will not put top naval pilots—our top naval pilots—in harms way.

To be a true hero in this time and place, you must recognize that empty places on the map are places which North Carolinians love, and will protect, with determination.

Tonight, I ask you to be heroes and do not destroy a place where silent wings have flown for millenia, where families have farmed for centuries, where red wolves howl yet today. I ask you to be heroes and not compromise a wildlife refuge of true international importance. And I ask you to not destroy the faith of thousands, and erode their support, of our military forces.

Thankfully, there is a way to do this. It is simply to acknowledge the unacceptability of the current siting of the Outlying Landing Field, and to begin a serious and open dialogue with the people and the elected representatives of North Carolina to find the right place for the OLF.

Do this, and you will live by Roosevelt’s words: You will not squander the wild beasts and birds that are the property of unborn generations. And you will not squander the support North Carolina has steadfastly shown for the United States military.

Thank you.

Tim Gestwicki
Deputy Director
North Carolina Wildlife Federation
2155 McClintock Rd.
Charlotte, NC 28205
(704) 332-5696
tim@ncwf.org