Posts filed under 'Nature'
November 12th, 2009
The Hoo Haven Wildlife Rehabilitation & Education Center is celebrating its Renewable Energy Project with an open house from 1 to 4 p.m. Sunday at 10823 Cleveland Road, Durand.
Its new Photo Voltaic Green Energy System can generate and store electricity — and lower bills, which helps Hoo Haven care for orphaned, ill and injured wildlife. In fact, on the first day of solar power, the electric meter ran backward.
A $30,000 grant from the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation provided more than half of the funding. Steven J. Herdklotz, one of Hoo Haven’s founding directors, designed and installed the system.
Real-time graphing and power generation data will be available soon on www.hoohaven.org. This will be useful for teachers and students interested in alternative energy.
If your group wants to tour the facility, call 815-629-2212.
September 26th, 2009
When you buy toilet paper, you don’t think about the fact that a tree fell to make it (and probably an old one).
Same thing goes for paper, I suppose, except often paper is made from recycled products. TP, not so much.
I read a story from The Washington Post that can be summarized in one sentence:
Big toilet-paper makers say that they’ve taken steps to become more Earth-friendly but that their customers still want the soft stuff, so they’re still selling it.
But it’s actually a long piece full of interesting data:
– Toilet paper accounts for 5 percent of the U.S. forest-products industry, compared with 26 percent for paper products and 3 percent for newspapers.
– If you want to be green about your toilet paper, go to the bathroom away from home, where you have no choice. That “cheap stuff” uses recycled fiber about 75 percent of the time. Compare that with 5 percent fully recycled stuff for what you buy for your home.
– By 2011, Kimberly-Clark says 40 percent of the fiber in all its tissue products will come from recycled paper or sustainable forests.
I’ll try the recycled stuff once, I guess. I’m not ashamed to admit that I like my Cottonelle. Marcal, which says “soft is overrated,” asserts that strength is more important.
This issue makes the whole “over” or “under” debate seem so 20th century.
September 23rd, 2009
The scene hardly looks real: Red dust blowing over the bridge and Opera House in Sydney. Australia is suffering through its worst dust storm in 70 years.
The city’s particle pollution recorded its worst day ever today as the interior of the country suffers from its worst drought. The mess is reportedly clearing already.
The BBC has a gallery if you want to check it out.
September 18th, 2009
I wrote this week about the various green stories in the news. One I wanted to know more about? The holiday tree that was removed in Sinnissippi Park in Rockford to make way for the $9 million Nicholas Conservatory, to open in 2010.
So I asked and got a few answers from Denise Delanty at the Rockford Park District.
Q: We never say what happened to the thing. Was it just chucked?
A: The tree was removed and is currently being stored. At the end of the year, all plant material accumulated will be chipped and used as mulch.
Q: Was it possible at all to save it?
A. No, transplanting a tree of that size during the summer months is a very expensive process with very low chance of survival. Unfortunately, the tree was not in condition to successfully survive a transplant.
Q: Will the new one be permanent?
A: Current plans are for a community holiday tree to be planted at the Nicholas Conservatory — with better shape and branching than the previous tree!
UPDATED 9/18:
Q: This year, it will have to be a temporary tree, right? Because the projected opening is December 2010.
A: The event details and exact location are still being confirmed. The replacement tree will not be planted until next year.
Q: Exactly what kind of tree was the old one, how tall was it and when was it planted?
A: It was a 22-foot Colorado Blue Spruce planted in late April 2003. … (Jan Herbert at the district added that if the tree had been a hardwood, it could have been saved for something like planks.)
September 16th, 2009
The Blackhawk Sierra Club will hold a meeting at 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 28, to shed light on “The Multiple Personalities of an Urban Creek.”
Member Steve Vaughan will speak about his summer study of Keith Creek, which flooded to destructive levels twice in an 11-month span this decade.
The free event will be at JustGoods Meeting Room, 201 Seventh St., Rockford.
Vaughan explored 15 miles of Keith Creek, tracing the stream from its source northeast of Rockford all the way to its mouth, where it empties into the Rock River. According to the press release:
“Along the way he found bucolic farmland, exurban housing developments, well-manicured city parks and frequent signs of wildlife. He also came across industrial litter, indicators of poor watershed management and condemned buildings that will never recover from the floods of several years ago.”
August 28th, 2009
Just a little reminder: I learned from an Associated Press story this week that demand for water is expected to increase 50 percent by 2050:
Experts warn that booming populations in some Illinois counties, especially around Chicago, could threaten the amount and quality of groundwater supplies.
In Rockford, we’re awfully close to that big city and hope it doesn’t come down to the water wars you hear about in the Southwest and Southeast. According to a 2003 GAO report, 36 states anticipated a water shortage by 2013.
To learn your water footprint, take these quizzes.
From aboutmyplanet.com, here are 10 tips to reduce water use:
1. Consider cutting a little water usage from your morning routine. Keeping a timer in your bathroom will remind you to wrap up and get out of the shower faster.
2. If a home renovation is in the cards, splurge on low-flow and water-efficient appliances they’ll save you money in the long-run. A front-loading washing machine, for example, uses 40-60% less water than top-loading machines.
3. A new toilet can save you water too, but if you can’t install a low-flow toilet, reduce the amount of water used by placing a jar or other closed container full of water into your toilet tank.
4. Install low-flow shower heads and sink spigots, which can both be purchased at your local hardware store, or contact your water utility company to find out if they distribute them for free.
5. When running the dishwasher, make sure it’s full to get the maximum use per drop. There’s no need to pre-rinse, since most of today’s models can handle any kind of grime.
6. Check for–and hastily repair– leaky pipes and faucets. The tiniest leak has far greater impact than you’d think.
7. Don’t use your sinks and drains as trash cans, and dispose of oil and other toxic materials properly. Just one gallon of oil reaching the sewer can contaminate one million gallons of fresh water.
8. Reduce water use in your own yard: Try collecting rainwater by placing containers at the end of each gutter. It’s perfect for watering your garden; water your lawn or garden in the morning or the evening when the water will evaporate less rapidly, and limit pesticide use, as they’ll eventually be carried into our freshwater supply by runoff.
9. Take the easy way out and hit the car wash. A car wash typically uses about 32 gallons of water per vehicle, but the EPA estimates that washing it yourself can use up to 500 gallons of water.
10. Take advantage of recreation opportunities on local lakes and rivers, and learn about the wildlife they support. It will help you understand what we could lose if we don’t manage our water wisely.
June 26th, 2009
If you missed the Openfields Dinner at the Celtic Thistle on Sunday night, you missed a lovely evening. It was filled with the most mouthwatering steaks I’ve seen in years, thanks to Tom Eickman of Eickman’s Processing in Seward. And the dessert was to die for, with strawberries picked lovingly from Harrison Market Garden by Jill and Bill Beyer. Succulent jewels ladled over a puff of meringue.
If you weren’t in attendance, don’t fret, as there will be more opportunities. The next Openfields dinner featuring local foods will be on July 18 at Pine Row Farm in Roscoe, with catering by Kiki B’s and A Movable Feast. Other local foods dinners will be held on July 23 at Octane and August 6 at Brio, plus more opportunities to finish out the summer and head into fall. All of these dinners are being planned to take advantage of the bounty of what is in season.
An Openfields dinner is as much about enjoying the company of kindred spirits as it is about the mouthwatering local food. It is an opportunity to meet new people, and exchange ideas and philosophies, as well as recipes. It is an ancient ritual repeated in a modern world. Bread and wine shared amongst a diverse and growing clan.
Now that we’ve considered the wine, on to the weather! Rain, rain, rain, and more rain. There are springs seeping upward through the earth in my fields. More springs than anyone can remember, and it is a good thing that hope springs eternal, as well. We keep planting, while some things grow and thrive and others rot in the rich dark soil that had been so productive in previous years. Ah, the life of a farmer!
The beauty of local food is that it is the tie that binds. It binds the farmer to the community, and it binds the community back to the earth. Those ties have been severed for decades and we have the ability to respond…responsibility… to recreate those frayed threads. To create anew a system that will sustain and nourish not just our bodies, but, our minds and our souls.
Raise your glass to a new paradigm, and join us as we celebrate a new understanding. To make reservations to join us at future Openfields dinners, visit web.extension.uiuc.edu/winnebago or phone the University of Illinois Extension Winnebago County office at (815) 986-4357. Andrea Hazzard is the Farmer at Hazzard Free Farm, partner in First Hand Harvest CSA and the Local Food Systems Coordinator for Winnebago County
May 12th, 2009
A few things in the news, in case you missed them:
1. Chicago is taking steps to be the first U.S. city to ban the sale of baby bottles containing bisphenol A, or BPA — a chemical that hardens plastic. A measure was passed Monday by a city council committee and goes up for the big vote Wednesday.
Minnesota has already passed its own measure limiting use.
The science is at what’s at odds here. I found this breakdown from the New York Times:
BPA is a strengthening agent in many hard clear plastics. It is also used in the lining of cans and myriad everyday products from CDs to eyeglass lenses. The Food and Drug Administration agreed in December to reconsider the issue of the hazards of BPA, after it received criticism from its own advisory board for a draft risk assessment it issued in August saying that the levels of BPA to which children and adults are exposed do not pose a meaningful risk. The chemical appears to have estrogen-like effects, and in animal studies it appears to accelerate puberty and pose a cancer risk. Other studies have linked BPA to higher risk of heart disease and diabetes in adults.
2. This is a little old, but … President Bush’s polar bear ruling will stand. From the Los Angeles Times:
The Interior Department let stand a Bush administration policy barring the federal government from using the precarious state of the U.S. polar bear population as a reason to crack down on global warming, upsetting environmentalists and cheering oil and gas companies.
The decision means the government cannot use the Endangered Species Act to regulate greenhouse gas emissions, though Interior Secretary Ken Salazar explicitly has blamed those emissions for the habitat erosion that last year landed the polar bear on the list of threatened species.
The AP summarizes it like this:
The iconic polar bear was declared a threatened species because global warming is causing a severe decline in Arctic sea ice. But the Bush administration rules limit that protection, saying no action outside the Arctic region could be considered a threat to the bear under the law.
Environmentalists have strongly opposed the rule as have many members of Congress. They argued the limits violate the Endangered Species Act because the release of greenhouse gases from power plants, factories and cars indirectly threaten the bear’s survival.
But Salazar said the answer to dealing with global warming rests in a broader, comprehensive approach that limits greenhouse gases.
April 28th, 2009
Yep, here’s the story. But apparently, the polar bear is still at risk.
April 17th, 2009
In case you missed it, earlier this month, Keep Northern Illinois Beautiful handed out its second annual Earth Day Awards.
According to WREX:
Forest City Gear in Roscoe received the Outstanding Corporate Friend of the Environment Award. The company has been working to improve the environment for more than 25 years, making changes to its facility and production process.
Harlem Middle School teacher Jackie Plaetzer was given the Outstanding Individual Friend of the Environment Award. Plaetzer is the leader of recycling efforts at the school and she spreads the message to her students, their parents and other teachers.
The Hutchcroft Environmental Youth Award was given to the East High School Key Club. The club planted hundreds of oak trees, placed 125 recycling containers throughout the school and educated school staff and students on the value of recycling.
Previous Posts
