Conservation updates
The information included in the articles below attempt to keep our club members aware of issues that effect our world.If you would like to contribute an article this page, please send it to me at jb@flyfishwebdesign.com
Potomac River Health
Last week the Potomac Conservancy released its fifth annual State of the Nation's River report. Scoring the rivers' health at a barely passing "D" grade, a downgrade from our previous D+ in 2007. "The report points to reasons for the low grade: growing population and poor land use practices are the primary culprits for a polluted and degraded Potomac River. So what can we do? The effort must start at home by using less fertilizer and insecticides on your plants and lawn. Be observant, if you see incidences of poor runoff control at development sites, report it to the EPA. If you know a farmer that does not have his stream fenced, please talk to him about the problems created by farm animals in the stream and runoff of fertilizer and insecticides . There are programs, both government and nonprofit, that will pay for the fencing, planting riparian buffers and even pay a yearly fee for the acreage that is fenced. If you have suggestions on additional things we can do to protect our streams, please let me know and I will add the information in the next newsletter.The Potomac Conservancy report is available at http://www.potomac.org/site/SONR_2011/index.php. Please let me know if you have questions or meed additional information.
Global Climate Change
When I was growing up in Hanover, Pa. in the 50's and 60's I could expect to make money numerous times each winter shoveling snow. We would also be able to ice skate on Hollonger's pond for a month or more. Those days are long gone and it is the result of global climate change. Now we see much more extreme weather variations and most of our cold spells don't last very long. The debate continues over how much humans are responsible for this change, but most of the scientists in the world believe human activity is significantly contributing to warmer weather.It is "extremely likely" that human activities are "by far the dominant cause of warming" in Earth's climate since 1950, according to a study published this weekend in the journal Nature Geoscience. (http://www.nature.com/ngeo/journal/vaop/ncurrent/full/ngeo1327.html#/)
Here is some interesting information from an article in the New Scientist by Michael Le Page: "From melting glaciers and earlier springs to advancing treelines and changing animal ranges, many lines of evidence back up what thermometers tell us - Earth is getting warmer. Over the 20th century, the average global temperature rose by 0.8 degrees Centigrade."
"There are two broad explanations: more heat is reaching Earth, or less is escaping. The first option can be ruled out. The amount of solar heat entering Earth's atmosphere varies by about 0.1 per cent on a timescale of years as the sun's activity changes, but satellite data show no overall increase corresponding to the soaring temperatures of recent decades. We are left with the second possibility: less heat is escaping." I feel it is our responsibility to analyze the available information and do what we can to convince government and industry to do the right thing.
Another issue you may wish to consider viewing involves native people in Ecuador who are suffering as a result of a toxic mess left behind by Texaco (now Chevron). To view a video please go to: http://amazonwatch.org/news/2011/0512-chevron-in-ecuador-a-defining-moment
Chesapeake Bay
A couple of interesting articles, the first from the National Parks Conservation Organization and the second summarized from an article in the Bay Journal (Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay). Please take a few minutes to read the articles on the web."This year, the EPA is set to issue enforceable plans that will curb haze-causing pollution from some of the nation's biggest and oldest coal-fired power plants. That means 2012 could be a critical year to help air quality in parks around the country, from Acadia to Joshua Tree-and many places in between." Learn more at http://www.npca.org/protecting-our-parks/air-land-water/clean-air/haze.html
Below is a summary of a recent article in the Bay Journal by Karl Blankenship. The complete article is available on http://www.bayjournal.com/newsite/article.cfm?article=4269.
A year after the EPA put the Bay on a "pollution diet," states are providing new details about how they - and local governments - will curb the nutrient binge that transformed the Bay's once-clear water into a murky soup over the last 50 years.
States in mid-December began turning in first drafts of new Phase II Watershed Implementation Plans - or WIPS - that will guide cleanup efforts through 2017 and ultimately affect nearly all of the 16-million-plus residents of the Bay watershed, from how much they pay in sewage bills and stormwater fees to how farmers apply manure and fertilizer to their fields.
While the WIPs provide broad strategies about how to achieve Bay cleanup goals, state milestones spell out the specific actions each will take during 2012a "13 to control Bay pollutants.
The Phase II WIPs and new milestones are the next steps on the path toward implementing the EPA's Chesapeake Bay Total Maximum Daily Load, or pollution diet, which was finalized in December 2010.
Maryland cited costs as one reason why, in its draft Phase II WIP, it punted its Bay cleanup goal to 2025.
Phase I WIPs written in fall 2010 were large-scale plans that described how states would achieve the nutrient and sediment reductions needed to restore Bay water quality.
To provide more certainty that nutrient reductions will be achieved, states are to show in their Phase II WIPs that local governments and conservation districts are engaged and understand their Bay cleanup responsibilities.
Instead, it said that the states could describe the actions that local governments would take to meet the goals - but those actions had to add up to limits set for the major river basins within each state.
Still, the draft Phase II WIPs did provide new information about how states will implement their own nutrient reduction programs.
New York, the most distant state involved in the Bay cleanup effort, didn't submit a draft Phase II WIP by the deadline.
Join the Conservation Committee
If you are interested in helping with conservation projects or wish to provide information for this page please contactJohn Brognard on 301-371-4205
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