Don't STAMP Out Indigenous Heritage

Over 20,000 acres of wetlands, grasslands and woodlands supporting rare, threatened and endangered species are at risk of injury from a 1,263-acre mega-industrial development referred to as STAMP (Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park) proposed by the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) outside of Buffalo NY.

The STAMP development site is directly adjacent to the territory of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, which opposes the industrial project, and whose input has been completely ignored.

Adding injury to insult, the project is proposed in an ecologically sensitive and important rural part of New York, within a state-significant Raptor Winter ...

Over 20,000 acres of wetlands, grasslands and woodlands supporting rare, threatened and endangered species are at risk of injury from a 1,263-acre mega-industrial development referred to as STAMP (Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park) proposed by the Genesee County Economic Development Center (GCEDC) outside of Buffalo NY.

The STAMP development site is directly adjacent to the territory of the Tonawanda Seneca Nation, which opposes the industrial project, and whose input has been completely ignored.

Adding injury to insult, the project is proposed in an ecologically sensitive and important rural part of New York, within a state-significant Raptor Winter Concentration Area, including open fields deemed “occupied habitat” for state-listed Endangered Short-Eared Owl and Threatened Northern Harrier. The project must be stopped.

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Email the Department of Environmental Conservation

Help us urge the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to deny the “Take” Permit requested by STAMP (Science, Technology and Advanced Manufacturing Park) site developers, and to respect indigenous peoples’ voices by establishing public hearings and requiring a full environmental impact survey for the development.

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I am writing to urge the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to deny the “Take” Permit requested by STAMP site developers–which would green-light the destruction of 665 acres of habitat occupied by Threatened and Endangered species, and to respect indigenous culture, voices, and lands by holding public hearings and issuing a requirement for a full environmental impact statement for the proposed STAMP development project.

The Tonawanda Seneca Nation opposes the permit, which would decimate species of cultural importance to the Nation and threaten the health of the Nation’s Big Woods, its waters, its environment, and future generations. The Nation has demanded that DEC apply its Environmental Justice policy to this permit application but DEC has refused. The taking of species considered culturally significant by Seneca and Haudenosaunee people will result in disproportionate and irreversible impacts to Seneca cultural practices. This permit application raises critical environmental justice issues and DEC’s Environmental Justice policy should be followed.

In addition, the Tonawanda Seneca Nation has repeatedly requested that a robust supplemental environmental impact statement process be conducted to determine the full range of direct, indirect and cumulative impacts from the STAMP project on the Nation, its culture, its territory and future generations. This should be completed prior to permitting. DEC should hold a public hearing so that stakeholders can understand and weigh in on this permit application.

State law requires a “net conservation benefit” to threatened and endangered species, but the permit would allow destruction of 665 acres of “occupied habitat” in exchange for creation of a meager 33 acre “mitigation area.”
 
The proposed development would turn a rural, pristine and ecologically rich area into a massive industrial facility with 460 acres of impervious surfaces, over six million square feet of manufacturing space, and over six hundred diesel truck trips to and from the site each day, with peak daily traffic rates of nearly one vehicle per second.
 
The Northern Long-Eared Bat is also known to use and occupy this area, and will be listed as an Endangered Species effective March 31. DEC should not allow destruction of potential NLE Bat habitat under these circumstances, and should instead first require a robust assessment of NLE bat presence on and near the STAMP site.

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