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Real Audio : MP3 downloadPut yourself in the position of a policy maker trying to decide whether or not to spend tens, or maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up a polluted river or harbor on the Great Lakes. Forty three such sites have been identified, and they’re contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, and other industrial wastes--really nasty stuff that poses a direct threat to human health and destroys or degrades aquatic life. Among the many questions you face is whether there’s an economic benefit to be realized by such an undertaking. Well, there is. John Braden is a professor in the U of I Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics who has worked in recent years to quantify that benefit. Most recently, Braden has collaborated with economists from Georgia State University and the Northeast-Midwest Institute based in Washington DC to gauge the value to local homeowners of cleaning up sites on the Buffalo River in New York and the Sheboygan River in Wisconsin. One way Braden and colleagues sought to do that was to collect data for housing sales in both areas for the years 2002 through 2004. Their preliminary study of this data suggests that property values of single-family, owner-occupied homes are depressed significantly by the polluted state of the rivers: between one and seven percent in Sheboygan and between six and nine percent in Buffalo. In other words, a home in the Sheboygan study area that sold for a hundred thousand dollars in 2003 would more likely have sold for between a hundred-one and a hundred seven thousand dollars if the river were not so heavily polluted. Not surprisingly, the negative effect of the pollution on property values was more pronounced nearer the rivers. Researchers also surveyed homeowners in both study areas directly about whether they would be willing to pay more for residential properties were the pollution in the rivers cleaned up. In Sheboygan, responses to the survey suggest that area residents would be willing to pay on average ten percent more for residential properties; in Buffalo that figure was fifteen percent. From a public policy standpoint it’s worth looking at the aggregate numbers that come out of these studies. A seven percent increase in property values for the area that was studied near the Sheboygan River would translate into a 108 million dollar increase overall. A nine percent increase in property values for the Buffalo area would mean a 140 million dollar increase overall. Such increases in property values mean increased revenue for local governments, which suffer from depressed values just as citizens do. Since local governments pay a share of clean-up costs in order to obtain state and federal assistance, any revenue increase they invest in further clean up could also bring in even more state and federal help. Braden emphasizes that the increase in property values he and his colleagues have calculated is only one of the economic benefits to be realized by an accelerated clean-up of contaminated areas around the Great Lakes. He suggests such areas would likely also enjoy great benefits as opportunities for recreation multiply and fisheries recover. Of course good public policy does not rest on economic factors alone. In the simplest terms, we ought to clean up our own messes. But that’s not to say we can’t enjoy it when we find out that doing the right thing pays off, too.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadAs 2006 draws to a close, I invite you to pause and celebrate a change that has been set in motion this year that will benefit us all long into the future. I mean the new rule on air pollution from coal-fired power plants proposed by Governor Blagojevich back in January and given final approval by a bipartisan legislative oversight committee just last week. The new rule requires operators of coal-fired power plants to make dramatic reductions in how much mercury their facilities put into the air by installing modern pollution control equipment. This is equipment that is available right now, and at a cost that will not place an undue burden on producers or consumers of electricity. The rule stipulates an average reduction of ninety percent across the fleet of plants operated by each company by 2009, allowing another three years before each individual plant has to meet the new standard. Prior to final approval of the new rule, agreements on emissions were hammered out between the State of Illinois and the three major coal-fired power companies operating here. These agreements also institute significant reductions in emissions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides, which contribute to an array of environmental and human-health problems. It’s especially significant that the new rule on mercury emissions does not permit power plants to buy allowances or trade mercury emissions credits with other companies or states. While such practices can be reasonable with respect to other pollutants, they are not when it comes to mercury, since they can lead to the creation of toxic “hot-spots” in the vicinity of power plants. Although stricter regulations on mercury emissions from power plants in Illinois are to be applauded, it should be remembered that they represent only a second-best option for addressing the problem of mercury pollution. At issue is an airborne pollutant that can travel far from its source without any regard for state lines, one that really should be regulated nationally. State regulations only became necessary when early last year the US EPA failed to require ninety percent cuts in mercury emissions by 2008—despite the fact that its own staff had found such reductions were possible at a reasonable cost using existing technologies. Illinois’ new rule has received strong support from statewide conservation groups, including Prairie Rivers Network, which is based in Champaign. According to Prairie Rivers’ executive director, Jean Flemma, the new rule represents “a victory for public health as well as the health of fish and wildlife in the state.” In requiring power plants to meet higher standards, Illinois—which currently ranks sixth among all states for mercury emitted from power plants—becomes a leader in the effort to reduce mercury pollution. And it joins a number of other Midwestern states in recognizing the value of adopting clean energy technologies to protect human health and natural resources. Somewhere down the road we ought to be able to eat the fish we catch in Illinois without having to worry about how much mercury we’re ingesting when we do. The new state rule limiting mercury emissions from coal-fired power plants is a step in that direction.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadAre there nature lovers on your holiday shopping list? If so, I’ve got some suggestions for how you can help them connect with the natural wonders Illinois. As a bonus, you can obtain these gifts without a trip to the mall. Start with field guides from the Illinois Natural History Survey, which you can purchase at Survey headquarters at 1816 South Oak Street in Champaign. (Free parking, no crowds.) [You can also order INHS field guides via phone at (217) 333-6880 or by downloading an order form and sending in a check or money order. See the manuals page at the INHS website.] The field guides published by the Natural History Survey are similar to the national guides you may be more familiar with, but they’re written and photographed by scientists from Illinois, and they contain more detailed information about ranges and habitats in our state. The most recent addition to the Survey’s field guide series is The Skipper Butterflies of Illinois. It includes full accounts of the 59 species of skipper butterflies found in the state, along with more than 400 color photographs. This book complements two of the other field guides available from the Survey, The Butterflies of Illinois and The Silk Moths of Illinois. If you’re shopping for someone who’s interested in more down-to-earth critters, you can’t go wrong with the Field Guide to Amphibians and Reptiles of Illinois. Like other guides, this book helps to answer that most important question in the field, “what is it?” But it’s also an eye-opener. When people just browse the photographs of some of the fascinating snakes, frogs, toads, lizards, and salamanders that can be found right here in Illinois, they might also be inclined to go looking for them. Are there people on your list who enjoy kayaking or canoeing? Help them learn the difference between a rabbitsfoot and a pistolgrip with the Field Guide to Freshwater Mussels of the Midwest. If you’d prefer to give a gift to be enjoyed inside (and one that can be ordered by phone), consider a year’s subscription to The Illinois Steward magazine, which is published by the U of I Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences, along with other affiliates. The Steward introduces readers to wildlife, natural areas, and important issues in conservation with captivating photographs and top-notch writing. It’s a quarterly reminder of the many natural treasures that are ours to enjoy and protect. The publishers of the Illinois Steward also produce a set of note cards featuring scenes from around the state that makes an excellent gift. Another subscription possibility is, Outdoor Illinois, a monthly magazine published by the Illinois Department of Natural Resources. As a DNR publication, Outdoor Illinois may hold special appeal for the hunters and anglers on you list. If you’re buying for birders, stop by the Audubon gift shop [for info see right sidebar on Champaign County Audubon Society homepage] at the Urbana Park District’s Anita Purves Nature Center. (Again, free parking, no crowds.) There you can pick up Birds of Illinois (De Vore, Bailey and Kennedy 2004) a field guide with state-specific range maps and more detailed accounts of life history and conservation topics than you’ll find in bird guides with a wider focus. If you want a gift for someone who would like to bird more, but doesn’t know where to go, give them the book Birding Illinois (De Vore 2000), which describes how to get around and what you can expect to see at more than 110 locations throughout the state. With a little luck, you’ll be finished shopping early, and have some time to get out for yourself.
For specific information on the Champaign County Christmas Bird Count contact Helen Parker of the Champaign County Audubon Society at [h-parker@uiuc.edu] or 367-3130. For more general information on the CBC visit the National Audubon Society's web pages at http://www.audubon.org/bird/cbc/index.htmlListen to the commentary
Real Audio : MP3 downloadOn Saturday, December 16th the Champaign County Audubon Society will conduct its annual Christmas Bird Count, an event that provides birders of varying abilities an opportunity to contribute to scientific efforts that track trends in bird populations over time. The local count is part of a national effort that dates back to 1900, when a Christmas count was conceived of as an alternative to the tradition of the holiday “side hunt,” in which teams competed to see who could shoot the greatest quantity of birds in a day. Twenty-seven people participated in that first count, and they tallied ninety species of birds. In contrast, recent years have seen upwards of fifty thousand people participating in the Christmas Bird Count, species totals of more than six hundred, and total numbers of birds counted around seventy-five million. Some volunteers participate in the field, where they follow a specific route within the designated count circle, making note of every bird they see or hear for as much of the day as possible. Other volunteers who live within a count circle can participate by keeping track of the birds that visit their yards on the day of the count. The idea is to record not only how many species are observed, but also roughly how many individuals of each species are present on the count day. Given the variability in the way individual counts are conducted, the information gathered from the Christmas Bird Count is most useful for assessing general trends in populations of wintering birds over time, and short term fluctuations in data are expected. Among the thirty-nine people who participated in the Champaign County count last year we observed more than eleven thousand birds, with at least one individual from sixty-eight different species. For me, highlights of the day included seeing a northern goshawk chase pheasants in the restored prairie at Meadowbrook Park, and catching sight of a peregrine falcon as it rode the afternoon wind. But the count is just as much about keeping tabs on the smaller birds that come down from northern states and Canada to enjoy the central Illinois winter with us: dark-eyed juncos, American tree sparrows, purple finches, and the like. If you are interested in participating in this year’s Christmas Bird Count in Champaign County you can find contact information at the Environmental Almanac website, but here are the basics. The count takes place on Saturday, December 16th. Some volunteers are needed to help count birds in the field, for whatever part of the day they are available. Less experienced volunteers will be teamed up with veterans, so there’s no need to hang back if you’re unsure of your bird identification skills. Volunteers are also needed to count birds at their feeders, but only if they live within the count circle, which encompasses an area roughly from Busey Woods in Urbana to Homer Lake. (The count coordinator will gladly help you determine whether or not you live in the circle.) At the end of the day all participants are welcome to a chili potluck where the lists of birds observed will be compiled. Now, I realize that the busyness of the holiday season can leave people feeling short of time, and that counting birds in December isn’t for everyone.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadAs winter weather closes in on east central Illinois those of us who really prefer summer to the other seasons have less and less to sustain us. If you’re working in the yard or garden these days you’re probably making up things to do. Fishing is slow and birding is more and more difficult. Even now, though, there’s one last vestige of summer 2006 left: the Urbana Farmer’s Market. Sure, it has moved inside, and it’s a smaller affair now than it was at the height of the growing season. But hey, come Saturday you’ll still be able to buy locally produced organic food there, and that’s something to celebrate. The farmers I spoke with this week said that root crops will be the most abundant produce: potatoes, radishes, beets, turnips, and the like. But you should also be able to find some leafy greens, like kale. And I’m told that one grower still had some tomatoes and green peppers last week, so you never know. Beyond that, organically produced meat and eggs will also be available Why bother shopping for local food at this time of year when there’s so much else going on? For the same reasons you do any other time. Taste is one reason. Produce that’s eaten shortly after it’s harvested tastes better than produce that’s been wrapped in plastic and trucked from California. And vegetables that don’t have to make such a journey can be selected for their unique flavor rather than their ability to withstand mechanical harvesting and shipping. You may also seek out organically produced food in the interest of human health. That might be your own health, if you’re concerned about traces of pesticides in what you eat, or the health of farm workers, who are exposed to those pesticides in far more concentrated forms. When you buy organic produce you support farmers who are working to create a healthier environment. By avoiding synthetic pesticides and artificial fertilizers they are protecting the soil by which they make a living. At the same time they are protecting the public good as well, by not polluting streams and rivers with nutrient and chemical runoff. When you buy food at the farmers market you also promote a healthy local community. Smaller scale farming is more conducive to family participation than larger-scale, more highly mechanized production. And smaller scale distribution promotes ties between the people who produce food and the people who consume it to the benefit of both. If you are interested in learning even more about organic farming in Illinois, or just eating some really super organic food, you might want to attend the public dinner and reception to be held in conjunction with a conference on organic production and marketing in Bloomington next week. The dinner is billed as “an opportunity to learn about organic food, talk to real organic farmers, get some great recipes, and (best of all) TASTE some wonderfully prepared organic food.” For more information click here, Taste of Organic, or contact Dan Anderson with the U of I’s Agroecology / Sustainable Agriculture Program. His phone number is 217-333-1588.
Environmental Almanac was bumped from AM-580 by national programming on Thanksgiving. Look for a new installment on the air and online this Thursday, November 30.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadEcological footprint analysis is a tool for measuring the impact of human activity on the earth. It was developed in the mid-1990s, and it has been taken up around the world by researchers who are interested in the issue of sustainability. Ecological footprint analysis tells us how much biologically productive land is required to support an individual or population based on the resources they consume and the waste they generate. This allows us to explore a key aspect of sustainability: how well are we living within the means of nature? For all of the time humans lived on earth up until the 1980s, our collective footprint remained within the area that the earth could afford us. But since then, we have overstepped our bounds by an increasing amount every year. The most recent annual calculations published by the World Wildlife Fund (See WWF's Living Planet Report) indicate that the current global average ecological footprint stands at about 5.4 acres per person. That may not sound like a lot, but in fact it’s nearly 25% more than nature can provide on a continuous basis. We’re able get that extra 25% for now by depleting stocks of natural resources that have accrued over millions of years. Ecological footprint analysis also provides information about the relative impacts created by people living in different countries. The United States, which is second only to the United Arab Emirates in this regard, has a per-capita ecological footprint of 24 acres per person. That’s about 4 times the global average, and about 5 times what the earth can support on a continuous basis. If all the people alive on earth today had access to an American standard of living we would need 5 planets to support us. Now, you may hear that and think, whoa, too much—somebody else is going to have to figure that one out. But the cool thing about ecological footprint analysis is the way it can be used by individuals and communities who are interested in moving toward a more sustainable lifestyle. It helps you see which of your choices have the most significant impacts on the earth, and enables you to track your progress as you make adjustments in the way you do things. You can measure your own ecological footprint using the web-based calculator at myfootprint.org. When I took the quiz I came out with a footprint of 20 acres. That’s way over the 4.5 acres available per person as a global average. But it’s not so far over the available biologically productive land in the United States, which is about 12 acres per capita. So, rather than despairing because no change I make can reduce my footprint to the average that the earth as a whole will support, I’m aiming to reduce my footprint to what the land of the U.S. can support. In other words, I want to go from 20-acre footprint to a 12. That’s still a substantial task, but one that’s do-able over time, and really worth engaging. By reducing our own ecological footprints, we bring ourselves into a more equitable relationship to the other people with whom we share the earth, now, and in the future. Thanks to Rumi Shammin, a soon-to-be Ph.D. in the Department of Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences at the U of I for help with today’s show.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadWhether you’re looking to buy a new home or picking up broccoli at a farmer’s market, you’re more likely than ever before to be confronted with the idea of sustainability in the choices you make. But have you ever stopped to wonder where our current focus on sustainability comes from? I have. So I checked in recently with Rumi Shammin, who’s in the final stages of completing his doctoral dissertation on ways to implement sustainability in urban and regional planning. He knows as well as anyone the many ways the term “sustainability” has been defined and redefined in the past couple of decades. Shammin points out that the current interest in ‘sustainability’ has its roots in the 60’s and early 70’s. However, widespread use of the concept was prompted by a 1987 report commissioned by the United Nations to re-examine critical environmental and development problems and to formulate realistic proposals to solve them. That report defines sustainable development as “development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.” For the purposes of his work, Shammin has combined the key elements others have used to define sustainability in subsequent years in a more comprehensive definition. In his terms, sustainability means “ensuring that critical social, economic and ecological processes are maintained in a way so that both the short and long-term quality of life of human societies and the health and diversity of natural ecosystems are not compromised and the scale of human activities are kept within the natural carrying capacity of the environment.” Now, that definition covers a lot of territory. In order to develop a framework for applying it, Shammin breaks it down into five guiding principles. The first principle asserts that humans exist neither above nor outside of nature, and that there are limits on the earth’s capacity to provide resources and accept waste. Principle two tells us that in recent years we have begun to approach those limits very quickly. The third principle defines “development” as improving quality of human life in three dimensions: economic, social, and environmental. Shammin emphasizes that while development is typically equated with economic growth alone, human needs are often better satisfied by an improved environment and opportunities for a safe, engaged social life. This possibility is commonly ignored in the planning process. The fourth principle draws attention to equity in the way the earth’s resources and capacities to process waste are used. This implies an obligation to allow others of our own generation access to the quality of life that we look for ourselves, and an obligation to future generations, that our activities do not diminish their opportunities. This obligation also extends to the other species that we share the earth with. The fifth principle of sustainability stresses that local behavior and global development are inextricably intertwined. For example, many of the clothes we wear and the foods we eat come from around the world, and so our choices in these matters have impacts in far-away places. So to with other activities that have even greater aggregate impacts--our individual contributions to global warming, for example. Shammin emphasizes that these five principles of sustainability are deliberately broad so that they can be adapted for specific purposes in different local contexts. Tune in next week to hear how they can be applied in ecological footprint analysis, which is designed to help people gauge the sustainability of their own activities.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadWhen we think about the landscape of central Illinois prior to European settlement we tend to think “prairie:" tall grasses and wild flowers adapted to life in unevenly drained soil subject to burning on a fairly regular basis. And prairie is most of the story. But it is not the whole story. Groves of trees intruded on the prairie here and there, especially on the eastern edges of rivers and streams, which created natural breaks to prairie fires driven by winds from the west. Such groves were dominated by fire-resistant species of oak, and interspersed with hickory, ash, walnut, sugar maple and linden trees as well. Prairie groves were quite hospitable to humans compared to the prairie itself, offering game, shelter, and respite from some of the discomforts of life in the open. They were preferred sites for Native American villages, and the first places to be settled by Americans of European descent coming from the east. One of the largest of these timbered areas in our region was called by settlers of the early nineteenth century the Big Grove. As it was mapped in the original survey of the area in 1821, the Big Grove covered about 10 square miles. Its western edge roughly paralleled the Saline Branch, the stream that drops into Urbana from the north and runs through Busey Woods and Crystal Lake Park before turning east toward St. Joseph. Along its southern edge the Big Grove extended to about where Urbana’s Main Street runs today. If you’re familiar with Urbana and the locales just north and east of the City, you know there’s no forest left that would merit the name, “Big Grove,” most of the wood from those trees having gone into houses, fences, farm implements and fires long ago. But here’s the cool thing. Some trees that began life in the Big Grove still stand in Urbana today. You can touch them. Heck, you can hug them. They’re the kind of trees that elicit that response from people. Near the corner of East Main and Maple Streets, a Bur Oak that predates the Declaration of Independence rises more than eighty feet from the yard outside Long’s Garage. This tree’s limbs spread as wide as it is tall, which tells us that it grew up in a relatively open area, the meeting zone between woodland and prairie. Farther from the center of town on East Main, a still larger Bur Oak can be seen on the eastern edge of the site of the Quaker Meetinghouse that was completed last year. We know this tree to be roughly two hundred forty years old now, based on calculations made in 1976, when the International Society of Arboriculture recognized it as a “bicentennial tree.” The “bicentennial tree” and the oak at Long’s Garage are both commemorated with stone markers and plaques that were set up by the Urbana Tree Commission in 1976. Greater numbers of oaks that predate European settlement can be seen—and hugged—at Urbana Park District sites. The oldest and largest trees in Crystal Lake Park and Busey Woods are relics of the Big Grove, as are ten or so of the trees at Weaver Park, now being developed on East Main. Special thanks for assistance with today’s piece to Bob Vaiden of the Illinois State Geological Survey, Derek Liebert of the Urbana Park District, and Mike Brunk, City Arborist for Urbana.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadIf you’ve ever been awakened by the call of a screech owl, you know why people associate owls with all things eerie. But as Halloween approaches, I like to take time to appreciate the creatures of the night. The biggest fans of such creatures at my house are my children, Jane and Will, and they’ve joined me today to celebrate owls. As birds that work the night shift, owls are equipped with some fascinating adaptations that enable them to locate and capture prey in the dark. Will, would you tell about owls’ eyes. Will: Sure. Owls see very well in low light. Their eyes are extra large for their bodies, and their retinas are super sensitive. Since owls can’t move their eyes up and down or side to side the way we do, they have to move their heads instead. Sometimes it looks like an owl can turn its head around in a complete circle, but they can’t go quite that far. Rob: Jane, why don’t you talk about how owls’ hearing helps them function in the dark? Jane: Okay. Owls possess excellent hearing, which allows them to find prey they can’t see--like a mouse scratching for food under a pile of leaves. Owls’ ears are surrounded by deep, soft feathers that can be spread to make a sound-collecting funnel. The dish shape created by the owl’s face is also thought to collect and focus sound. It’s said that an owl can hear a mouse squeak from half a mile away! Dad, we should also tell people that an owl’s ears are openings in the side of its head. Those tufts on top of some species are display feathers, which have nothing to do with hearing. Rob: Thanks, Jane. I would add that while owls hear very well, they are also good at not being heard as the fly. They have specially adapted flight feathers that reduce the noise made by air passing over their wings. This allows them to swoop in on prey undetected. Will, maybe you could say more about owls as hunters. Will: Owls use their powerful feet and sharp talons to attack and hold prey. And just about any small animal can be prey for one owl or another. Owls eat some small animals, like insects, worms, scorpions, crayfish, frogs and snakes. Jane: Jane again. Owls also prey on mice, rats, voles, rabbits, squirrels, and many kinds of birds. The great horned owl, which has a poor sense of smell, even makes a habit of eating skunks. You can tell what owls have eaten because they cough up pellets containing fur, bones, and other material they can’t digest. Rob: One way to find owls during the day is to look for these pellets and for large splashes of owl whitewash at the base of trees, especially evergreens, and then look up. Will: Or maybe you’d rather enjoy owls from a distance. Jane: Listen to the great horned owl— All: Halloween is just around the corner. Credit for audio of owls calls to the Macauley Library at the
Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Ithaca, New York. Special thanks to Tammy Bishop for her help!
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadResidents of the American Midwest will not witness directly the most dramatic effects of global warming in the century to come. Melting ice sheets, thawing permafrost, and enormous changes in ocean currents will greatly impact our lives, but we won’t have front row seats to watch them happen. Even so, projections by Professor Don Wuebbles and other UIUC atmospheric scientists suggest that by the year 2100 the climate of Illinois will differ greatly from what we experience today. If you’ve got plans to be around then, a visit to present day eastern Texas might be a good preview of what you’re in for. If we do nothing to reduce the amount of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases we put into the atmosphere when we drive our cars and run our air conditioners, the best climate models predict a worldwide rise in average annual temperature of 2 to 11 degrees Fahrenheit by the end of this century. But climate models suggest that temperature changes in our area are likely to be more dramatic. That is, the Great Lakes region can expect a rise in average daily temperatures of 5 to 12 degrees in winter and 5 to 20 degrees in summer. At first glance the projections for changes in precipitation over the next hundred years look a little less depressing, since current models suggest that the annual average amount of precipitation for Illinois is projected to remain more or less constant. But within that average are unfavorable changes in seasonal patterns of precipitation. Models predict an increase in average winter precipitation, and no change or a decrease in summer precipitation. This scenario leaves us with much drier conditions than we now experience, since increases in winter precipitation will not compensate for the drying effects of a warmer climate. Drier conditions, of course, mean more pressure on Midwestern aquifers and surface water, especially as it becomes necessary to irrigate corn Evidence also suggests that Illinoisans of the twenty-second century are likely to face more frequent disruptive weather events than we do now. Projections indicate longer, more severe heat waves, both earlier and later in the season, and a greater likelihood of intense storms, including 24-hour, multi-day rains. Of course such changes in climate would also entail complex, undesirable ecological changes too numerous to even sketch here. But if you call to mind a few of the pests that are currently kept in check by our long winter freezes—kudzu and Asian soybean rust among them—you can get a sense of the impact significantly warmer winters might have. Am I beginning to sound like Al Gore? I guess it’s no coincidence, since it’s the return of his documentary on global warming to Champaign-Urbana that got me going on this topic. Next week the University YMCA and the UIUC Environmental Council will host two free screenings of An Inconvenient Truth. Both screenings will take place on Tuesday, October 24th—the first at noon at the University YMCA and the second at 7:00 p.m. in the auditorium of the National Soybean Research Center [ map] on Peabody Drive in Urbana. A discussion led by Bill Sullivan, Director of the UIUC Environmental Council will follow the evening screening. On the chance that you won’t make it to the film, which is way more entertaining than you might expect, let me emphasize two of the most important points it makes. First, every reputable climate scientist in the world agrees that global warming is real, dangerous, and a result of human activity. Second, most experts agree that we can avoid the most serious consequences of global warming if we act now to reduce greenhouse emissions.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadPut yourself in the position of a policy maker trying to decide whether or not to spend tens, or maybe even hundreds of millions of dollars to clean up a polluted river or harbor on the Great Lakes. Forty three such sites have been identified, and they’re contaminated with PCBs, heavy metals, and other industrial wastes--really nasty stuff that poses a direct threat to human health and destroys or degrades aquatic life. Among the many questions you face is whether there’s an economic benefit to be realized by such an undertaking. Well, there is. John Braden is a professor in the U of I Department of Agricultural and Consumer Economics who has worked in recent years to quantify that benefit. Most recently, Braden has collaborated with economists from Georgia State University and the Northeast-Midwest Institute based in Washington DC to gauge the value to local homeowners of cleaning up sites on the Buffalo River in New York and the Sheboygan River in Wisconsin. One way Braden and colleagues sought to do that was to collect data for housing sales in both areas for the years 2002 through 2004. Their preliminary study of this data suggests that property values of single-family, owner-occupied homes are depressed significantly by the polluted state of the rivers: between one and seven percent in Sheboygan and between six and nine percent in Buffalo. In other words, a home in the Sheboygan study area that sold for a hundred thousand dollars in 2003 would more likely have sold for between a hundred-one and a hundred seven thousand dollars if the river were not so heavily polluted. Not surprisingly, the negative effect of the pollution on property values was more pronounced nearer the rivers. Researchers also surveyed homeowners in both study areas directly about whether they would be willing to pay more for residential properties were the pollution in the rivers cleaned up. In Sheboygan, responses to the survey suggest that area residents would be willing to pay on average ten percent more for residential properties; in Buffalo that figure was fifteen percent. From a public policy standpoint it’s worth looking at the aggregate numbers that come out of these studies. A seven percent increase in property values for the area that was studied near the Sheboygan River would translate into a $108 million dollar increase overall. A nine percent increase in property values for the Buffalo area would mean a $140 million dollar increase overall. Such increases in property values mean increased revenue for local governments, which suffer from depressed values just as citizens do. Since local governments pay a share of clean-up costs in order to obtain state and federal assistance, any revenue increase they invest in further clean up could also bring in even more state and federal help. Braden emphasizes that the increase in property values he and his colleagues have calculated is only one of the economic benefits to be realized by an accelerated clean-up of contaminated areas around the Great Lakes. He suggests such areas would likely also enjoy great benefits as opportunities for recreation multiply and fisheries recover. Of course good public policy does not rest on economic factors alone. In the simplest terms, we ought to clean up our own messes. But that’s not to say we can’t enjoy it when we find out that doing the right thing pays off, too.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadFacilities & Services Rain Garden sketchSandy Mason's UI Extension column on Rain GardensWisconsin DNR Rain Gardens How-to Manual for Homeowners (pdf file) In a vegetable garden, you grow vegetables. In a flower garden, you grow flowers. In a rain garden you . . . . Well, unlike these others, the purpose of a rain garden isn’t limited to what grows in it. A rain garden is actually a landscape feature that functions as a small-scale, temporary wetland. A rain garden typically consists of a shallow depression that is planted with shrubs, flowers, and grasses that are native to the region where it is located. A rain garden may be designed to receive water from a downspout or sump pump, or it may be located to intercept water that runs off of a parking lot or other impermeable surface. Like a natural wetland, a rain garden provides important ecological services. Chief among these, it reduces the amount of water that enters streams via storm drains during and immediately following rain showers. In this way, a rain garden helps to alleviate flooding and cut down on the amount of silt and pollution that washes into our waterways. Water that is held back in a rain garden infiltrates the soil more effectively than water that runs over a lawn, and thus it can also help to recharge groundwater locally. Also like a natural wetland, a well-designed rain garden is a pleasure to look at, and it provides a bit of wildlife habitat, albeit on a small scale. During the growing season native flowers used in a rain garden can be a magnet for butterflies and other beneficial insects. Over the winter the seeds from those flowers and the berries from shrubs can provide food to attract birds. I should emphasize that while a rain garden functions like a wetland, it is not a pond. A rain garden should dry up following precipitation as the water it holds filters into the soil. If you would like to see a really super rain garden in the making, check out the project on the U of I campus just south of Allen Hall on Dorner Drive. There, students enrolled in a Natural Resources and Environmental Sciences internship class are busy actually constructing a rain garden. They’re implementing a design that was produced by students from another class this past Spring. Beyond retaining and purifying stormwater, this particular rain garden is intended to alleviate ponding around a substantial red oak tree on the site, and to prevent flooding on heavily used adjacent sidewalks. Construction of the rain garden is being funded by U of I Facilities & Services in conjunction with the Environmental Council as part of a broader effort to develop and showcase sustainable practices on campus. If you are interested in creating a rain garden of your own, you may want to start with some of the links at the Environmental Almanac website. These include a how-to column by U of I Extension educator Sandy Mason and a more detailed online manual for homeowners. Whether at home or in larger landscapes, if your goal is to reduce storm runoff, rain gardens are an elegant, low tech, low cost, environmental solution.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadLink to local International Walk to School information. Link to Walk Toward WellnessThe most basic form of human locomotion, walking, gets so little respect in our culture, I sometimes wonder we don’t just forget how to do it. As a means of getting from one place to another, it’s a last resort. As a form of exercise, it’s an afterthought. But upcoming activities in Champaign-Urbana and on the U of I campus suggest that walking isn’t down for the count just yet. Next week six elementary schools—three in Urbana and three in Champaign—will mark the third local observance of International Walk to School Day. This event encourages walking to school as a way of promoting children’s health, reducing fuel consumption and air pollution, and emphasizing the need for safe routes for walking and bicycling. Now these are all fine reasons to walk to school, but they’re a little heavy on virtue. I would emphasize, in addition, that it is enjoyable for children to walk to school, and a treat for parents who take the opportunity to walk with them. The walk to and from school is a great time to enjoy listening to kids. They’re not distracted by books or television or computers or toys. And parents who are walking with them are free to listen instead of focusing on the demands of driving. In the morning you may be reminded of the kinds of things that kids look forward to in a day, whether that’s time to work on a special project in class, free time in P. E., or just what’s on the menu for lunch. In the afternoon, you may find out what children have learned in class, but you’re just as likely to hear what was gross, what was funny, who was mean or nice to whom—the kinds of things that really occupy kids. Walking to school is also a great way to enjoy the natural world, even in a relatively urban setting. After all, any walk can be a nature hike if you approach it as one. Walking to school gives kids a chance to investigate the ants that sometimes pile up around cracks in the sidewalk, time to wonder why squirrels chase each other, or whether a monarch butterfly can really make it all the way to Mexico. It also provides excellent opportunities to smash acorns, kick walnuts, and collect buckeyes. And on top of that, walking to school is good for kids and the environment. Of course walking also promotes wellness in adults, and that’s the aim of the Second Annual “Walk Toward Wellness,” which will begin at noon tomorrow on the main quad at the U of I. The walk will kick off with brief comments from Provost Linda Katehi and take you about 4,000 steps through campus. The walk is part of a larger initiative to promote the well-being of the campus community sponsored by the Culture of Wellness Committee. You can register for the “Walk Toward Wellness” online, or sign in on the quad after 11:00 Friday morning. Whether you can make the “Walk Toward Wellness” tomorrow, or walk to school with your children next week, I hope you do get the chance to reconnect with this most basic form of human locomotion. More walking may not be the answer to all of our problems, but for many of them, it’s a step in the right direction.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadCrawdad. Mudbug. Crawfish. Crayfish. Whatever name you know them by, you probably don’t associate these lobster-like, freshwater crustaceans with the traits that give other wildlife their appeal. Crayfish are not warm and fuzzy, and they don’t sing or sport much color. (They do make great eating, but that’s another story.) I checked in recently with Chris Taylor at the Illinois Natural History Survey to get the scoop on crayfish in our state. Taylor is a crayfish biologist and Curator of Crustaceans there, and he’s eager to help people understand the important role crayfish play in aquatic ecosystems. Although to most people a crayfish is a crayfish, there are actually 360 species of them in the U.S., 24 of which occur in Illinois. Crayfish inhabit every aquatic environment in the state, from the smallest creeks and ponds to the largest rivers and lakes. Crayfish that live in permanent water bodies typically spend the daylight hours concealed under rocks or woody debris. Other crayfish, known as burrowers, spend much of their time in tunnels and chambers they excavate in the ground. Some burrowers inhabit the margins of water bodies, but others live in habitats where there is no surface water for much of the year. You’ve likely seen the entrances to crayfish burrows even if you didn’t know what you were looking at. They are recognizable by the mud chimneys that rise several inches above them, which are formed from material that crayfish excavate with their claws. All Illinois crayfish are most active from dusk to dawn, when they come out from under cover to forage for food and seek out mates. Depending on circumstances, crayfish may eat just about anything they can get their claws on, including plant material and carrion. But recent studies suggest they prefer live animal food--insects, snails, and even small fish. Crayfish in turn serve as a critical food source for sunfish and bass, but also show up on the menu for any number of wading birds, small mammals, reptiles, and amphibians. Aside from biologists and environmental writers, I suppose few adults bother to ever catch crayfish. But if you get children into shallow, clear water, and show them how to find crayfish by turning over rocks, you may have trouble getting them to stop. Crayfish flee danger by a powerful flip of the tail that propels them backward. They are just fast enough to be difficult to catch, but not so fast as to be impossible.  There are two important things people can do to help promote the health of crayfish populations in Illinois. The first is to support efforts to conserve and restore aquatic environments. The second is to never release crayfish into a body of water they weren’t taken from. Many species of crayfish occur in very limited ranges, and so can be lost altogether when aggressive outsiders are introduced. One invader, the rusty crayfish, which was probably introduced by anglers dumping out unused live bait, has already displaced native crayfish from many waters in the northern half of Illinois. Although the role of crayfish in aquatic ecosystems has been sometimes neglected in the past, scientists like Chris Taylor are working hard to further our understanding of them today. That understanding benefits all of us who love the outdoors and value the health of natural resources. Article " The Rusty Crayfish in Illinois" from Illinois Natural History Survey Reports. Sea-Grant fact sheet on Rusty Crayfish
Link to University YMCA Friday Forum page. Listen to the commentary
Real Audio : MP3 downloadWind has an immediate impact on us just about any time we step out of doors. In winter a blast from the north adds insult to the injury of January’s bitter cold. On a summer day, even a slight breeze provides a touch of relief from the heat. But wind has the potential to play a much more significant role in our lives in the near future, as we harness its energy to produce electricity on a large scale. Capturing wind energy to generate electricity is not new. Americans first used wind to generate electric power more than a hundred years ago, when a windmill with a fifty-six-foot-wide blade could produce about twelve kilowatts. The scale of wind energy projects today is entirely different. Most of the high-tech, utility-style wind turbines being manufactured now generate between seven and eighteen-hundred kilowatts—up to a hundred-fifty times more than the electricity produced by the first wind turbines. Today’s turbines are much larger than their predecessors, with blades more than two hundred feet wide, and they convert wind to electricity much more efficiently. The U.S. Department of Energy rates the potential for wind energy in most of Illinois as “fair,” but there are also areas that fall into the “good” category. If the potential were fully developed, it is estimated that power generated from these areas could meet between five and ten percent of current use. At present there are four major wind energy projects operating in Illinois, and together they generate enough electricity to meet the demands of 25,000 to 30,000 households. A number of other proposed projects would quadruple that capacity. One of these projects is coming to the UIUC campus in the near future thanks to the “Clean Energy Technology Fee” that students assess themselves, a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, and capital support from the University. The plan is for the University to build and operate three one-and-a-half megawatt turbines. These turbines will be more than three hundred feet tall at the tip of an extended blade, and they’ll occupy a site on the new South Farms. Together they will provide just under three percent of the electricity used on campus. The U of I’s wind turbines will also serve as a demonstration for landowners who might be interested in wind energy, and for teaching and research by U of I faculty and students. None of this is to say wind energy is without drawbacks. Today’s turbines really loom over the landscape, and they’re not the sort of thing many people want to look at in otherwise unspoiled natural settings. In addition, they affect wildlife to some degree although careful siting and design can minimize their impact. On the whole, the tradeoffs are compelling. Wind energy generates electricity without producing greenhouse gases or other air pollution, and it entails none of the immediate or long term environmental problems associated with nuclear power. Credit for the information in today’s spot goes to Matt Malten, sustainability coordinator at UIUC. [You can learn more about wind energy in Illinois from his article in the Spring 2006 issue of The Illinois Steward magazine.] You can learn more about efforts to make the U of I a testing ground for environmental sustainability at a talk tomorrow by Bill Sullivan, director of the UIUC Environmental Council. He’ll be speaking at noon at the University YMCA as part of the Friday Forum series, which is this Fall devoted entirely to environmental issues.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadLink to "Vet Student Summer" blog. Did you see any brown bears this summer? How about moose? Grey whales? Caribou? You know, I didn’t either. But let me tell you about someone who did. Nina Hansen is in her fourth and final year as a student in the U of I’s Doctor of Veterinary Medicine program. Although she anticipates beginning her career in a relatively conventional job working in private practice, her ultimate goal is to become a wildlife veterinarian. In that role she anticipates working for the good of wild animals by generating new knowledge about factors affecting their health and welfare. Preferably in Alaska. Hansen got to Alaska this past summer by securing a grant from the Morris Animal Foundation to investigate a method for gauging pesticide exposure in caribou by measuring the activity levels of certain enzymes in their blood. Observers have witnessed a drastic decline in populations of North American caribou over the past couple of decades, but as yet scientists have been unable to identify the cause or causes of the decline with much certainty. Some research has suggested that climate change may be a factor, as more variable arctic weather creates conditions unfavorable for caribou to forage, and at the same time swells populations of the parasites that plague them. Working with her U of I faculty adviser, Petra Volmer, who is the principal investigator on the study, Hansen hopes to determine a useful blood marker for evaluating whether exposure to certain pesticides is having a negative affect on caribou health. This measure would fit into the broader assessment of caribou health being pursued by Kimberlee Beckmen, a U of I vet school alum now with the Alaska Department of Fish and Game, and Hansen’s mentor in the field. You can get a sense of what it means to be a wildlife vet in Alaska by checking out the blog that Hansen kept during her four weeks of field work this summer. Although she writes with great enthusiasm for her work, this was no vacation. Consider her entry for June 15th, a day spent doing post mortem examinations of caribou on the tundra. She writes Unfortunately the weather was TERRIBLE all day long. It was like 35 degrees and raining/hailing. We were all wearing layers and layers of clothing covered by full rain gear.
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We did four adults that day, and it took us about 5.5 hours. We were beat after that! I think if I hadn't been sawing through spines and skulls the whole time I would have frozen solid. I feel tough now though, having survived almost 6 hours of freezing rain in the middle of the Alaskan tundra. Now, I imagine it’s a pretty select group of people who will read Nina Hansen’s blog and think to themselves, “I’d like to try that.” But the account of her summer is a good reminder of the wide range of work veterinary medicine can entail, and it’s a testament to the dedication sometimes required of people who work for the benefit of wildlife.
Link: Monarchwatch.org is the place to start further research into monarchs on the web.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadIf you’re wondering whether you’ve been seeing a lot of monarch butterflies in the past couple of weeks, you probably have. Spurred on by cooler, shorter days, monarchs from southern Canada and the northern U.S. have already begun their southward fall migration. At our latitude, peak abundance for monarchs typically occurs between about September 10th and September 23rd, although variations in weather patterns and other factors shift the timing of this event from one year to the next. If you are a native to Illinois, where the monarch is the state insect, you are probably familiar with some of the characteristics that make it one of the world’s favorite insects. Chief among these is the fact that North American monarchs migrate, like no other butterflies in the world. Each year, the summer’s last generation of monarchs born east of the Rockies flies south to the mountains of central Mexico, a journey of more than fifteen hundred miles for some. Under normal conditions, migration advances at roughly fifty miles a day, although tagged individuals have been reported to cover close to eighty miles. Monarchs feed on nectar as they move south, and actually gain weight over the course of the journey. At their overwintering sites, which were only discovered in 1975, monarchs congregate by the millions on Oyamel fir trees, resting quietly from mid November to mid April. As spring advances, the overwintering monarchs begin to mate, and they move north into the Gulf Coast states to lay eggs. The resulting young will become the year’s first generation of new adults. Members of this new generation will then continue the journey north, laying eggs as they go. How the south-migrating monarchs of the fall locate the same clusters of trees their great great great grandparents left in the spring remains a mystery for scientists. Monarchs are also memorable for the fact that as caterpillars they feed exclusively on plants of the milkweed family, which contain toxic compounds that make them unpalatable to birds and other would-be predators. Thus the showy bands of white, yellow, and black on the caterpillars and the vivid orange and black of the adult’s wings, are a warning to other animals: “Don’t eat me; you’ll get sick.” This is not to say that monarchs have it easy. Monarch caterpillars are preyed upon heavily by ladybugs, as well as various other insects and arachnids, despite the toxic milkweed compounds that protect them from birds. Monarchs are also quite frequently killed by cars. In fact, the first study to document systematically the magnitude of roadway mortality of butterflies and moths anywhere in the United States was conducted by a group including May Berenbaum of the U of I Department of Entomology. Extrapolating from counts of dead monarchs along roads near Champaign-Urbana, they estimated that, statewide, more than five hundred thousand monarchs became roadkill over one week during the course of their study. Of course, the long-term well being of monarchs as a species depends on habitat. They are especially vulnerable at their overwintering sites, where logging and other disturbances can affect large portions of the population at once. But habitat alteration is also a factor here in the north, where suburban development and the expansion of agriculture leave less and less room for the plants that monarchs depend on.
Links:ChampaignCountyBikes.orga group of citizens from the community working together to make Champaign County, Illinois the most bicyclist friendly county in the Midwest.Photos of campus bike path hazards by UIUC professor Gary Cziko. These illustrate why I leave bike paths out when discussing commuting by bike. Bicycle Commuting web page by the League of Illinois Bicyclists. Listen to the commentary
Real Audio : MP3 downloadBetween three-dollar-a-gallon gas and mounting concern over global climate change, more and more people are looking for ways to burn less fuel as they commute. In this quest, we often plow straight ahead to new technologies—hybrid cars now, hydrogen powered cars in the future.But you know, I bet you’ve already got a vehicle in your garage that can “out-green” any new car, a vehicle that’ll get you from point A to point B quickly and efficiently using century old technology. I mean your bike, of course. I’ve been commuting by bike in Champaign-Urbana for just over twenty years now, and I’ve found that there are really very few days when taking the bike to work isn’t my best option. I don’t ride in thunderstorms, or when snow and ice make the roads hazardous. Otherwise, the weather here doesn’t present many obstacles that can’t be overcome with the right clothing. And the flat terrain means you never have to pedal all that hard. Sometimes when I’m biking I’ll stop to talk with friends or colleagues who comment on the environmental virtue of not driving. But you know what? I don’t bike because it’s virtuous. I bike because I like to. When I get to work on the U of I campus, I park right outside the door to my building and pay no money for the privilege. Aside from other bicyclists, who else does that? I am able to listen for birds all the way to work, and if I hear something interesting, I can pull over to take a look. I don’t need to make time in my day to “exercise” when that’s taken care of in my commute. I get to enjoy the sun on my face, and the breeze in my hair. And of course on my bike I never stop at gas stations. I suppose there are plenty of reasons for people not to use bikes for commuting, but I suspect that the most significant one is automobile traffic. People fear being hit by a car while riding a bike . . . so they hop into a car, instead. The thing is, bicycle commuting need not be dangerous, and it’s not scary once you become accustomed to it. In order to enjoy commuting by bike, you need to claim for yourself a place on the road. There are plenty of web pages and books that provide detailed instructions about how to do this, but the main idea here is really not that complicated. As a bicyclist you are not in the way of traffic, you are traffic. You should operate your bike as a vehicle and expect others using the roadway to treat you as one. This means you use lights when lights are needed, you signal your turns, and you obey other traffic laws as you do in a car. You turn left from the left turn lane, you don’t pass on the right, and you don’t ride on the sidewalk. In short, you assert yourself and behave predictably. Now, asserting yourself need not include riding on the busiest streets in town at the busiest times of day. One of the great pleasures of bicycle commuting is developing routes that allow you to enjoy the journey. If you’re interested in touching base with others in our community who want to promote bicycle commuting, check out ChampaignCountyBikes.org on the web. They are a newly formed group whose goal is to make Champaign County the most bicyclist friendly county in the Midwest.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadWhen the Champaign-Urbana Mass Transit District moved to annex newer housing developments in southwest Champaign last year, it ignited a controversy that has yet to be fully resolved. I don’t mean to take on the legal or political ins and outs of annexation, and I don’t mean to speak for how the MTD operates. But I would like to recall to your attention the environmental benefits of mass transit, benefits that are enjoyed by everyone in the community served, riders and non-riders alike. When some people take the bus rather than drive in individual cars, we all benefit from cleaner air. You may hear people complain about the exhaust that buses produce. But from the perspective of the community as a whole, the real issue is the per-mile difference in emissions between bus travel and car travel. A bus does produce more exhaust than a car, but it also transports more people. In net terms, bus travel reduces air pollution. When some people take the bus rather than drive in individual cars, we all benefit from a reduced demand for parking. Of course there’s money to be saved for every parking space that employers don’t have to build or maintain, but there are also important environmental benefits to not building parking, too. By not building parking, we reduce the rate at which land surrounding the urban area is gobbled up, and we refrain from putting additional stress on local waterways with more storm runoff. When some people take the bus rather than drive in individual cars, we all benefit from reduced congestion on city and campus streets. According to Census figures from the year 2000, the average travel time to work for residents of Champaign-Urbana was 14.6 minutes. That relatively short commute is one of the factors that makes our community such a pleasant place to live, and mass transit helps to make it possible. Local planners project that over the next two decades traffic congestion will increase to twelve times present levels, given current patterns of new development, which heavily favor travel by car. In other words, unless mass transit plays a larger role in the way our community grows, drivers in Champaign-Urbana will spend more and more time sitting in their cars in the years to come, using more gas, creating more exhaust . . . you know this picture. Beyond the inconvenience increased traffic congestion means for drivers, it also creates an environment that is hostile to other means of transportation. As streets become more crowded with cars, they become more dangerous for people who walk or bike, in effect creating pressure for them to drive, too. Clearly, not everyone in our community is going to use bus service to get from place to place. But that does not make the benefits of bus service to the community any less real.
Environmental Almanac was bumped by a news story on August 10, but will return at the regular time next week!
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadFor many of us, summer means lawncare, especially when the weather cooperates to really make grass grow. It’s probably not news to you that conventional lawncare has a significant negative impact on the environment. But it’s also possible to enjoy the benefits of a yard without compromising our own health or the health of the planet. Before I talk about what’s wrong with the conventional lawn, I should emphasize that I like turf in my yard. My children play wiffleball and run around there. I play wiffleball and run around there. We have picnics, we wash the car, we catch up with the neighbors, we hang out laundry now and then. I even like the way grass looks. But to have some grass does not require any of us to participate in the ongoing environmental degradation associated with conventional lawn care. According to the US EPA Americans spend twenty-five billion dollars a year on lawn care. Residential lawns and gardens are doused with eighty million pounds of chemical pesticides and seventy million tons of fertilizers each year, with far reaching environmental impacts. Some portion of our fertilizer runs off into local streams degrading those waters by promoting algae growth, and eventually contributing to water quality problems as far away as the Gulf of Mexico. In the yard itself, the insecticides used to fight pests typically kill all bugs, not just the ones we mean to target, and they pose health risks to those who apply them as well as children and pets who come into contact with them. Excessive lawn watering also represents a misuse of fresh water, already a scarce resource in some parts of the U.S., and one that we’re just beginning to value properly in the Midwest. I mean to outline here some of the changes individuals can make toward creating a more sustainable home landscape, but for particulars let me also encourage you to explore the resources linked to this piece on the Environmental Almanac website [links below]. For high impact change, nothing beats cutting down on the amount of your yard kept as turf. Most of us tend more grass area than we need, or even want, out of inertia. Our yards are covered in grass when we get them, and we’re not highly motivated to change. But if we make the initial investment of time and energy to replace part of a lawn with native perennials, we liberate ourselves from some part of lawn care forever, and benefit the environment at the same time. We can also cut down on the environmental impact associated with our yards by some basic changes in our practices: Watering less frequently but more deeply, mowing to a height of three inches rather than scalping the lawn, using organic alternatives to the ubiquitous commercial products--dry compost for fertilizer, or corn gluten as a weed preventer, for example. A lawn managed according to sustainable principles may not meet the aesthetic standard set by pictures advertising conventional lawn care products. But it can serve our needs and contribute to the long-term health of our environment. National Audubon Society "Healthy Yard" pages: http://www.audubon.org/bird/at_home/Healthy_Yard.htmlEcology Action Center (Bloomington IL) Yard Smart pages: http://www.ecologyactioncenter.org/yard-smart/
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadThe next time you visit the U of I’s Robert Allerton Park near Monticello, make time to observe the changes that are taking place around the Mansion Pond. In the years between its creation in 1903 and the summer of 2003, a hundred years later, the natural value of the pond and surrounding area had become degraded. The small wetland connected to the stream that flows into the pond was choked with daylilies, which are a nuisance in natural areas. The upland surrounding the stream inflow had become overgrown with other invasive plants, Japanese honeysuckle, garlic mustard, and multiflora rose. And the pond itself was choked with algae and muddied by the rooting of common carp, which also prevented the growth of beneficial aquatic vegetation. In addition, the roots of trees growing on top of the dam were creating fissures that allowed water to seep through. Over the course of the 2003-2004 academic year, sixteen U of I students investigated the problems facing the pond, and then devised strategies for resolving them. Their goal was to establish a healthy ecosystem emphasizing plants and wildlife native to the area, with attention to aesthetic values as well. Thus began a multifaceted restoration project that has continued in the years since with the assistance of hardworking summer interns. Visitors to Allerton can already enjoy many of the changes to the pond and surrounding area. The inflow stream and edges of the pond are now graced by the growth of native plants, including cardinal flower, swamp milkweed, common arrowhead, and wild blue iris. The understory of the wooded upland has been opened up by the removal of invasive plants, which have been replaced by native wildflowers. Wildflowers have also replaced the trees that were removed from the top of the dam, which was reinforced and altered to better handle overflows. With help from the Illinois Department of Natural Resources, the pond itself has been restocked—not with a typical mix of bass and bluegill, but rather some of the now rare nongame species native to the Sangamon River basin. At present, these include the ironcolor shiner and the lake chubsucker, neither of which you are likely to see since they shy away from the top of the pond. You should be able to observe the pond’s other new resident fish, the state-threatened starhead topminnow. It’s a two to three inch fish that is easy to see because it hangs out near the surface of the water, and easy to identify because it sports two very light spots, one on the top of its head and another on its back. As the aquatic vegetation of the pond expands to provide cover for smaller fish, plans call for the introduction of native predator species, perhaps smallmouth bass and grass pickerel. In the current absence of predatory fish, the amphibians that use the Allerton Mansion Pond are enjoying a population boom. You can see and hear bullfrogs and cricket frogs throughout the day, but the pond is also a breeding hotspot for grey treefrogs, chorus frogs, leopard frogs and two species of toads. From a visitor’s perspective, perhaps the coolest aspect of the Allerton pond restoration project is the boardwalk just now under construction. When it’s finished, everyone will be able to enjoy an up-close view of this renewed ecosystem.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadSky glow, which obscures our view of the heavens at night, is the most commonly recognized effect of bad lighting, or light pollution. But bad lighting also causes a number of other problems. It creates glare, which is light that shines in our eyes rather than on things we need to see, and light trespass, unwanted light that strays into our yards and windows. Bad lighting is also the source of what some call light clutter, the unappealing and visually confusing nighttime environment so common in modern cities. Beyond its undesirable visual effects, bad lighting also wastes energy—a lot of it! One reasonable calculation puts the cost of wasted light in the U.S. at one billion dollars a year. The energy used to produce that wasted light would equal at least six million tons of coal, or twenty-three million barrels of oil. Why is such waste so widely accepted? Because we’ve come to equate more light with better safety and security. But that is simply not the case. In fact, overly bright, misdirected light can actually do more harm than good. Light that shines in our eyes prevents us from seeing hazards as we walk or drive at night. Widely scattered, bright light also creates hard shadows, which can conceal criminals while making victims visible. Worst of all, excessive, poorly designed lighting can make us feel safe when we should actually be on guard. The principles of good lighting are really pretty simple. Good lighting shines down, only where it is needed, rather than sideways, where it causes glare, or up, where it causes sky glow. Good lighting is bright enough to light only what needs to be illuminated, and does not create harsh transition zones between light and dark areas. Good lighting is also energy efficient and on only when it is needed. It’s actually pretty easy to spot well-designed light fixtures once you know what to look for. They have the light source high, with a top and sides that direct light downward. It’s worth noting that you can illuminate even large areas such as parking lots and ball fields with such fixtures. In poorly designed fixtures the light source is not fully shielded, either on the sides or at the top. The worst offenders are drop-lens cobra fixtures—the ones that loom over our arterial streets in town and the lighted portions of many interstates. Most locales have a policy of replacing these as they wear out with far superior flat lens fixtures that shine light only where it’s supposed to go. Other poorly designed fixtures include the super bright barn light fixtures found on power company poles, and decorative globes that shine light in all directions You can do your part to reduce light pollution by replacing poorly designed fixtures on your property with well-designed ones. And remember as you do this that you’ll likely recover the cost of new fixtures with the money you save on electricity to operate them. If you want to go beyond that, check in with the Champaign-Urbana Astronomical Society or the U of I Astronomical Society concerning local efforts to promote dark skies. With good lighting we’ve got nothing to lose, and an entire universe to gain.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadWe’ve grown accustomed to the alarms raised when a new species of animal makes its way into Illinois, and in most cases with good reason. Creatures like the Asian longhorned beetle and the Bighead carp wreak havoc on ecosystems and threaten our economy. But there’s a newcomer to the southern part of our state that seems to be stirring up more curiosity than eradication plans--the nine-banded armadillo. Nine-banded armadillos are the most numerous and widely distributed of the twenty species of armadillos that exist today, and the only kind that inhabit the United States. They are native to South and Central America, but they’ve been expanding their range for at least the past hundred and fifty years. They were first reported north of the Rio Grande in Texas in 1849 and have steadily spread north and east from there. During the early part of the twentieth century, another population of armadillos was established in Florida when they were brought there by people and released. That population also spread rapidly and converged with the Texas population in northern Florida and southern Georgia in the 1970s. Armadillos now also occupy parts of South Carolina, much of Alabama, Mississippi, Oklahoma, southern Kansas, Arkansas, western Tennessee, and southern Missouri. Individuals have even been reported as far north as Nebraska. Will Illinois be added to the list of states that armadillos call home? People have reported seeing them here since the 1970s, but a flurry of sightings in recent years has prompted Joyce Hofmann and colleagues at the Illinois Natural History Survey to look into the issue. With support from the Illinois Wildlife Preservation fund, they surveyed 135 people familiar with the animal life of southern Illinois and solicited reports of armadillo sightings by birderwatchers. Respondents reported 76 different armadillo records from 22 counties between 1999 and 2003, mostly in the western half of southern Illinois. There were also reports in 2004 from seven additional counties. How armadillos arrive in Illinois is an open question. They might be brought by people and released, as they were in Florida. Or they might come as stowaways in cargo on barges, trains, or trucks. Or they might arrive on their own power walking across bridges, or--unlikely though it may be--even somehow crossing the Mississippi river. Although we know that armadillos can get to Illinois, we don’t yet know whether or how well they might become established here. Cold will eventually stop their spread north, since they can’t hibernate and depend for food on insects and other creatures they find by digging in the earth. Where the ground stays frozen for too many days in a row during winter they are unable to dig for food and can’t survive. The current prediction for their northern limit is a line that runs across the state about a third of the way up from the bottom. Whether or not armadillos become Illinois residents, they are fascinating for their many quirks. When they are startled, armadillos may jump four feet into the air, and they are surprisingly fast for such ungainly looking creatures. Armadillos don’t float naturally, so they cross small bodies of water by walking across the bottom, like divers wearing weights. When they must swim, they can make themselves buoyant by gulping air to partially inflate their intestines. Armadillos typically give birth to identical quadruplets every year, and they can delay pregnancy at the earliest stages to ensure that young will not be born until weather conditions are favorable. And of course, armadillos are the only North American mammals that grow their own armor. If you happen to see an armadillo in Illinois, make a note of the date and location and contact the Illinois Natural History Survey. You’ll be contributing detail to a unique ecological success story.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadWind has an immediate impact on us just about any time we step out of doors. In winter a blast from the north adds insult to the injury of January’s bitter cold. On a summer day, even a slight breeze provides a touch of relief from the heat. But wind has the potential to play a much more significant role in our lives in the near future, as we harness its energy to produce electricity on a large scale. Capturing wind energy to generate electricity is not new. Americans first used wind to generate electric power more than a hundred years ago, when a windmill with a fifty-six-foot-wide blade could produce about twelve kilowatts. The scale of wind energy projects today is entirely different. Most of the high-tech, utility-style wind turbines being manufactured now generate between seven and eighteen- hundred kilowatts—up to a hundred-fifty times more than the electricity produced by the first wind turbines. Today’s turbines are much larger than their predecessors, with blades more than two hundred feet wide, and they convert wind to electricity much more efficiently. The U.S. Department of Energy rates the potential for wind energy in most of Illinois as “fair,” but there are also areas that fall into the “good” category. If the potential were fully developed, it is estimated that power generated from these areas could meet between five and ten percent of current use. At present there are four major wind energy projects operating in Illinois, and together they generate enough electricity to meet the demands of 25,000 to 30,000 households. A number of other proposed projects would quadruple that capacity. One of these projects is coming to the UIUC campus in the near future thanks to the “Clean Energy Technology Fee” that students assess themselves, a grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation, and capital support from the University. The plan is for the University to build and operate three one-and-a-half megawatt turbines. These turbines will be more than three hundred feet tall at the tip of an extended blade, and they’ll occupy a site on the new South Farms. Together they will provide just under three percent of the electricity used on campus. The U of I’s wind turbines will also serve as a demonstration for landowners who might be interested in wind energy, and for teaching and research by U of I faculty and students. None of this is to say wind energy is without drawbacks. Today’s turbines really loom over the landscape, and they’re not the sort of thing many people want to look at in otherwise unspoiled natural settings. In addition, they affect wildlife to some degree although careful siting and design can minimize their impact. On the whole, the tradeoffs are compelling. Wind energy generates electricity without producing greenhouse gases or other air pollution, and it entails none of the immediate or long term environmental problems associated with nuclear power. Credit for the information in today’s spot goes to Matt Malten, sustainability coordinator at UIUC. You can learn more about wind energy in Illinois from his article in the Spring 2006 issue of The Illinois Steward magazine.
[Audio for this spot currently unavialable.] Have you ever found yourself wishing you had a better understanding of the wildlife and natural systems of east central Illinois? Have you wondered about how you might get involved in conservation work as a volunteer? A program beginning this Fall, East Central Illinois Master Naturalist, may be just the ticket for you. Sponsored cooperatively by University of Illinois Extension, the Urbana Park District, and the Champaign County Forest Preserve District, the Master Naturalist Program is designed to educate and train a corps of volunteers to provide support for the conservation, management, and interpretation of our natural resources. As its name suggests, the Master Naturalist program is modeled on Extension’s much loved Master Gardener’s program. You need not have a college degree or years of experience to participate in the Master Naturalist program. You do need to have a sincere desire to learn about the natural world, and some interest in and capacity for sharing your knowledge with others. More of a challenge, perhaps, you need to be able to make time for the classwork, volunteering and on-going training required for Master Naturalist certification. Classes for the Master Naturalist program will typically be offered one day a week over a two month period, and they will be led by expert educators from around the region. For the inaugural session, which will begin on September 5th of this year, classes will be held on Tuesdays from 9 am to 4 pm. Class instruction is designed to provide Master Naturalists with a framework for understanding the natural world and how people fit into it. Class topics will include reptiles and amphibians, insects, birds, mammals, and aquatic life. Participants will also learn how the components of various ecosystems—prairies, forests, and wetlands, for example—function together, and how human activities past and present have affected those systems. Fall training for the Master Naturalist program will also include three Saturday field trips to natural areas around the region. After completing their initial training, participants will have the opportunity to assist local conservation organizations in any number of ways, depending on their interests and capabilities. As a Master Naturalist volunteer you might find yourself collecting seeds from native plants with the Grand Prairie Friends, leading a nature hike for schoolchildren at Busey Woods in Urbana, or helping restore the Point Pleasant wetland at the Middle Fork River Forest Preserve. Or you might write newsletter articles and help with outreach and education at a local non-profit group. You can learn more about the East Central Illinois Master Naturalist program by contacting University of Illinois Extension’s Champaign County office. Applications for Fall 2006 training are available via their website or by phone [217-333-7672], and are being accepted through July 25th.
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Real Audio : MP3 downloadIf you watch the sky as you travel by car in warm weather, you’re likely to see soaring birds from time to time, even if you don’t count yourself a birder.In our part of the country, most of the large soaring birds you’ll see are turkey vultures, which you can recognize from a long way off without binoculars or a field guide. Turkey vultures in flight are identified by their large size—they have a six-foot wingspan—their blackish color above and below, and their manner of flight. Turkey vultures hold their wings in a shallow dihedral, or “v” shape, and constantly tilt back and forth. They are so skilled at using rising currents of warm air for lift that you’ll rarely see a turkey vulture flap its wings, even if you watch and wait for it to do so. A group of turkey vultures circling together is called a kettle. A kettle may form as vultures come together to take advantage of an updraft for gaining altitude, or as they scan the countryside looking for food. It is not, by any means, a sure sign that something below has died. Turkey vultures are very well equipped to search for food on the wing. They have excellent vision, which is not uncommon in birds, as well as an extraordinary sense of smell, which is. A turkey vulture’s sense of smell allows it to locate carrion even when it is concealed from above by a forest canopy. Turkey vultures are not at all picky about which animals they eat, as long as they are dead. A turkey vulture’s diet may include anything from dead domestic livestock to roadkilled animals like skunks, raccoons and deer, or even turtles and snakes. This is not to say that turkey vultures have no preferences, as they have been shown to select recently dead animals over more decayed food when given a choice. Turkey vultures also eat varying amounts plant material, presumably more when carrion is scarce. If you happen to see a turkey vulture close up, you’re likely to notice its red, featherless head. In this feature, as well as its bulky, brownish-black profile, the turkey vulture resembles the wild turkey, which is where it gets its name. Being bald allows the turkey vulture to poke its head right into a carcass and not wind up capturing little bits of its meal in hard-to-clean feathers. Couple the turkey vulture’s bald head with its cast-iron digestive system, and you’ve got a very effective processor of carrion. Now, I realize that you might be inclined to leave off contemplating turkey vultures as they soar in the sky, half a mile away. But I think looking at them more closely really can foster a deeper appreciation for the diversity and complexity of life. After all, without turkey vultures and other decomposers, life as we know it simply wouldn’t be possible. I’d like to take a moment today to thank one of the people who came up with the idea for Environmental Almanac and then worked to make it a reality, Walt Robinson. Over the past two years Walt has generously provided story ideas, background information, intellectual guidance and constructive criticism. For whatever has worked well on Environmental Almanac, Walt deserves some of the credit. Thanks, Walt. Turkey Vultures on the Web:The Turkey Vulture SocietyTurkey Vulture entry on Cornell Lab of Ornithology's "All About Birds"
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