76-19-B8

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Furbish Lousewart [Lousewort]

Transcript Some time ago on one of these broadcasts, I told about a giant electric power project; a multi-billion dollar construction job that had been stopped before it could start. It was the Dickey-Lincoln power program in northern Maine, intended to supply energy to a large section of the northeast. The project was halted when it was discovered the huge hydroelectric dam essential to the program could not be built. Federal law prohibits use of federal funds in any construction that could harm plant or animal species included on the rare and endangered list of the United States Fish and Wildlife service. And there on the banks of the St. John River in the area to be flooded by the building of the dam, someone found about 200 weeds. They were a particular kind of weed - a sort of wild snapdragon known as the Furbish Lousewart. The Furbish Lousewart is on the endangered species list. Furthermore, some supposedly knowledgeable people said those were the only 200 furbish lousewarts left in the world. So scratch one power project. I found it a little hard to believe that all the rocks and rills and templed hills in Maine and elsewhere had been scoured for Furbish Lousewart and so stated on this program. If no one knew the 200 were there until they were getting ready to build a dam and accidentally stumbled on them, wasn't it possible they might stumble on some more? I also remember suggesting that weeds aren't all that hard to grow; that possibly they could gather seeds from the 200 or even transplant some of them. After all, a few more winters like the last one without an adequate power supply and some New Englanders might get on that endangered species list. Well, I'm happy to tell you I've learned, thanks to the New York TIMES, that the Army Corps of Engineers were having some of the same thoughts. They like to build dams and didn't take kindly to being shut out by a weed called the Furbish Lousewart. They enlisted the aid of George Stirett, a naturalist from New Brunswick and Dr. Charles Richard, a botanist from the University of Maine. These gentlemen, along with some other scientists who were interested in the situation, discovered that, apparently, by doing a little hiking, the Furbish Lousewart reproduces by seed and can be transplanted outside its original habitat. I wonder if they'll grow in California? It would be quite a conversation piece to have a weed that stopped a $700 million dam. I wonder, too, if one of these days I might be doing a broadcast about the emergency situation in Maine where a weed called the Furbish Lousewart had become so prolific that it threatened the state's agriculture? What we really should wonder is -- will environmentalists find another reason why the dam shouldn't be built? This is Ronald Reagan. Thanks for listening.		Details Batch Number 76-19-B8 Production Date 09/06/1977 Book/Page RPtV-197 Audio Youtube? No
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