[CPEO-MEF] 'Today Show' to air OLF report

[CPEO Moderator <cpeo@cpeo.org>]

North Carolina
WASHINGTON DAILY NEWS
'Today Show' to air OLF report
By Jonathan Clayborne
Thursday, October 2, 2003

Residents of Washington County were interviewed recently for a "Today
Show" report on the Navy's plan for an outlying landing field in that
county, said Chris Canfield, executive director of Audubon North
Carolina, on Wednesday.

In related news, attorneys with the Southern Environmental Law Center
and the National Audubon Society continue compiling arguments for
possible legal action against the Navy, Canfield confirmed.

Audubon has objected to the Navy's preference for an OLF in Washington
County because the site is three miles away from the Pocosin Lakes
National Wildlife Refuge.

The refuge is the winter gathering place for about 100,000 snow geese
and tundra swans, according to refuge officials.

"I think what all of us hope is that this lawsuit isn't necessary to get
the Navy to change its plans," Canfield said. "We absolutely support
working with the Navy and the government and our congressional leaders
to find a location that we can work with and that's reasonable."

A reasonable location would be one "that certainly meets the Navy's
needs while not causing the dramatic destruction that seems evident to
happen here," he explained.

Audubon is pursuing a lawsuit "as though it has to be done," Canfield
said. "But the second the Navy steps forward and says we're going to
look for an alternative location, I would gladly give up the lawsuit --
but not until that time."

New information on "facts and strategies" for opposing the OLF might be
broadcast during NBC's three-minute report, according to Canfield, who
declined to elaborate.

"I don't understand the innuendo that they're going to blow the top off
of everything with the 'Today Show,'" said Beaufort County Commissioner
Hood Richardson, who's actively fighting the construction of an OLF just
north of his county. "I don't hardly see how three minutes on national
television is going to do a whole lot unless they have some sort of
secret that nobody else knows."

This article can be viewed at:
http://www.wdnweb.com/articles/2003/10/02/news/news03.txt

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