The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon take a step that could help the ozone layer. Health officials say they might phase out certain types of asthma inhalers that use chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley has more:
Transcript
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration may soon take a step that could
help the ozone layer. Health officials say they might phase-out certain
types of asthma inhalers that use chlorofluorocarbons or CFCs. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s Christina Shockley has more:
Since the early 1990’s, CFCs were banned from use in things such as car
air conditioners and aerosol cans. But they were still allowed to be used in
devices deemed medically necessary.
These include some types of asthma inhalers that contain very small
amounts of CFC gas to propel medicine into the lungs.
Now, health officials say there might be an alternative to the ozone-
depleting gas. They say hydrofluoroalkane, or HFA, gas works just as
well.
Doctor Robert Meyer evaluates drugs for the FDA. He says the new ban
may seem like a small step, but the overall picture matters most.
“We’re not really in the business of questioning whether this individual use
is in and of itself impacting much on the environment, we’re really looking
at the overall picture, and this action is a part of that picture.”
The FDA is asking the public for feedback on the possible phase-out.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Christina Shockley.
A recent study seems to indicate that wildlife recover from mercury contamination pretty quickly once emissions restrictions are in place. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
A recent study seems to indicate that wildlife recover from mercury contamination pretty
quickly once emissions restrictions are in place. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s
Lester Graham reports:
The study reveals nearby mercury pollution can end up in local fish and wildlife. It’s
been thought that emissions from incinerators and coal-fired power plants spewed
mercury into the atmosphere where it settled out far away from the source.
In this study, published in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry,
University of Florida scientists determined that mercury in local wading birds rose and
fell with emission levels from nearby sources. Tom Atkeson coordinates the mercury
program at the Florida Department of Environmental Protection.
“Where we were able to make emissions reductions, we’ve been fortunate enough to see
declines in deposition and then very rapid responses in the aquatic system, lower levels of
mercury in fish and wildlife.”
Environmentalists say this means the Bush proposed cap and trade program for reducing
mercury emissions could lead to local mercury “hot spots” across the nation.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester Graham.
For decades, wildlife agencies in several Midwestern states have denied there are wild mountain lions in the region. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports, the debate is heating up again following the release of a recent video:
Transcript
For decades, wildlife agencies in several Midwestern states have denied there are wild mountain lions in the region. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Celeste Headlee reports, the debate is heating up again following the release of a recent video:
Carol Stokes regularly videotapes deer and other animals as they emerge from the
trees near her southern Michigan home. But in April, Stokes filmed two large, sandy colored cats picking through a cornfield.
(sound of video: “Are they dogs or coyotes? They look like lions…”)
Pat Rusz is with the Michigan Wildlife Conservancy. He says the cats are cougars and his organization has gotten thousands of reports from people who’ve spotted mountain lions in Michigan.
“This is not a mysterious, ghostlike animal, as sometimes is written about it. The things leave tracks, they leave other signs that are highly visible and in some cases they walk right out in front of people. The problem is, is that when one sees a cougar or sees a track, one is simply not believed.”
The debate over mountain lions has raged for years in Michigan, Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois. Wildlife agencies in those states say people who’ve spotted cougars have probably seen a large dog or a house cat.
Todd Hogrefe is with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources. He says residents may release a pet cougar into the wild from time to time, but the DNR is really waiting to see the carcass of a cougar before they’ll draw any conclusions.
“We don’t dispute that there may be cougars in the state of Michigan, but the question is whether or not those cougars represent a viable, reproducing population. And at this time, the DNR doesn’t feel as though there is strong enough evidence to make that conclusion.”
Wildlife agencies from neighboring states also say they’re waiting for more definitive evidence. The Michigan DNR has sent Carol Stokes’ video to 14 independent cougar experts for analysis.
The Michigan Wildlife Conservancy says state officials should end the debate and start implementing policies to protect this endangered species.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Celeste Headlee.
Dairy cows on the Straub farm look up with a mouthful of
grass. They're in one of 24 sections of a grazing field, and tomorrow
they'll rotate to the next section, and so on. Cows that do
rotational grazing are healthier, more productive and live longer
than cows that are warehoused indoors at Concentrated Animal Feeding
Operations. (Photo by Erin Toner)
The rhythmic click of electric fences and the occasional
"moo" are the only sounds of the morning at the Straub farm. The
rotational grazing method does away with much of the heavy equipment,
fertilizers, barn space and overall cost of farming. That means the
Straubs can bring in about three times more profit per cow than large
concentrated feeding operations. (Photo by Erin Toner)
Howard and Mary Jo Straub have four children. Three of
them are using rotational grazing on their own dairy farms. Daughter
Patty Warnke and her husband farm less than a mile from her parents. (Photo by Erin Toner)
In the retail world, big-box stores have made it tough for small companies to stay in business. That’s also true for agriculture, where the big guys are massive feeding operations that house thousands of cows. Surviving as a small farmer in that world often takes a new way of doing business. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has the story of one dairy-farming family that’s found a way to stay in farming, and make a pretty good living:
Transcript
In the retail world, big-box stores have made it tough for small companies to stay in
business. That’s also true for agriculture, where the big guys are massive feeding
operations that house thousands of cows. Surviving as a small farmer in that world often
takes a new way of doing business. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner has
the story of one dairy-farming family that’s found a way to stay in farming, and make a
pretty good living:
(early morning sounds)
It’s one of those hazy and muggy summer mornings… where the air’s thick enough to
soak up the smell of manure, and dewy grass. Nearby, cows are swatting flies with their
tails, eating grass and relaxing in lush, green pastures. These days it’s a lifestyle most
dairy cows never get to experience. Most are confined in big buildings with hundreds or
thousands of other milk-making machines.
Howard and Mary Jo Straub didn’t like where dairy farming was going. So about ten
years ago, they switched from a farm that warehoused dairy cattle indoors, to something
called seasonal rotational grazing. Mary Jo explains how it works.
“The cows get a new paddock or area, and our areas are about five acres, and each day
they would get a new five acres of grass to eat. We have 24 paddocks, so every 24 days,
they would be back into the same five acres.”
And in those 24 days, rainfall and the cows’ own manure has helped the grass grow back
in that first paddock… and then the second, and so on. This is very low-maintenance
farming… and low-cost farming.
The Straubs don’t have to buy tons of grain to feed their cows. And they’re not applying
pesticides or fertilizer to their pastures as they would on a corn field. They don’t have
tons of manure to dispose of, they don’t have loans out on grain-harvesting machinery,
and they don’t have to pay lots of employees to feed and manage their animals.
Howard Straub says farming is a lot easier than it used to be, and a lot more lucrative.
“We used to get up and milk, we did a three-time-a-day milking before. We mixed up
five loads of feed for different groups of cows. Now we just, we milk the cows twice a
day and when we’re done milking we open the gate and let them out to go eat.”
Since their costs are so low, the Straubs make between 800 and 1,000 dollars profit on
each of their 84 cows. Before, they made around 150 dollars profit per cow.
Howard Straub says grazing has made cattle the chief asset on his farm, instead of a
bunch of machines. His cows are healthier because they’re eating grass… like they were
meant to do… and because they get lots of exercise. The cattle live longer, produce more
milk and have more calves.
And even though the idea with grazing is that there are sprawling pastures for the cows, it
doesn’t require any more land than confined feeding farms. That’s because you have to
consider all the land that supports a herd of cattle, says Tom Kriegl, who studies dairy
farming at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
“You can have a diary operation where the only land that you own is the land that the
building sits on that you house cows in, and you might buy all of your feed for those
cows and you would not own the land that the feed is grown on. But you actually need
that additional land that the feed is grown on even if you don’t own it.”
Howard and Mary Jo Straub say they encourage all the young farmers they meet to make
the switch to rotational grazing. And it is catching on. The Great Lakes Grazing
Network estimates that almost half of all new small and mid-size dairies in the region are
using rotational grazing.
Kevin Ogles is a grazing specialist with the Natural Resources Conservation Service. He
says grazing is probably the future for all smaller dairy farms. But he says grazing is
complicated, with benefits that don’t come immediately.
“The concept is simple. Mastering it, that takes a while. So, once people make the
transition after doing it for a few years, that’s when you hear them talk about the
economic gain. The quality of life has improved.”
At this point, you could call the Straub family master grazers. Since they started ten
years ago, Howard and Mary Jo have managed to pay off a 250,000 dollar mortgage.
Today, they’re almost debt-free… and they’re able to stop farming for two months in the
winter… when they head down to Florida… as Howard says… to take time for the fun
things in life. He says that would never have been possible before.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Erin Toner.
The Kirtland's Warbler is listed as an endangered species. Its numbers are up these days in Michigan, due to a devastating fire that had positive consequences for warbler habitat. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources)
The Kirtland's Warbler has a big song for such a small bird. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Department of Natural Resources)
New census figures show the population of one of the rarest songbirds in North America is at a record high. Biologists say the tiny Kirtland’s Warbler is one of the lesser-known success stories of the Endangered Species Act. But the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally Eisele reports that success has not come without a price:
Transcript
New census figures show the population of one of the rarest songbirds in North America is at a
record high. Biologists say the tiny Kirtland’s Warbler is one of the lesser-known success
stories of the Endangered Species Act. But the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Sally
Eisele reports that success has not come without a price:
To find the bird at this time of year, there’s only one place to go—the pine forests of
northern Michigan.
“Hear anything out there yet? No, we may need to take a walk.”
Forest Service biologist Joe Gomola hikes off in search of a Kirtland’s Warbler. He’s
armed with binoculars and a bird watching scope that looks like a bazooka. But he’s
really using his ears.
(forest sounds)
He doesn’t need to go far.
Quietly, he sets up his scope and focuses on a small pine about twenty feet away. There,
a bluish-gray bird—head thrown back, yellow breast puffed out—warbles the loudest
song in the forest.
(Kirtland’s Warbler singing)
“He has to know we’re here… and he just sits unperturbed. Just gorgeous.”
This is the only part of the world where Kirtland’s Warbler are known to nest, drawn to
the scrubby young jack pine that reseed in forest fires.
Logging and fire prevention efforts brought the bird close to extinction. In 1987,
researchers counted only 167 singing males. Ironically, a tragic accident marked a
turning point for the warbler. In 1980, what had begun as a small controlled burn to
create nesting ground for the bird turned into a massive wildfire, killing a Forest Service
worker and engulfing the small village of Mack Lake. But Rex Ennis, head of the
Warbler Recovery Team, says the disaster eventually created 25,000 acres of ideal
warbler habitat. Unexpectedly the bird began to thrive.
“There was loss of life, loss of property which were all tragedies when you looked at
that… but the end result of that was it created an ecological condition we saw the warbler
respond to. Those things we learned from that wildfire made our current management
strategy very successful.”
That strategy involves state and federal agencies working together under the Endangered
Species Act to control predators and create warbler habitat by clear-cutting and
reforestation. The goal is to replicate conditions once created naturally by wildfire.
After the Mack Lake disaster, researchers realized much larger managed habitat areas
were needed. Today, 150,000 acres of state and federal land have been identified as
potential habitat. It’s a massive, multi-million dollar effort and not everybody likes it.
(store ambience)
Linda Gordert and her husband own Northern Sporting Goods in Mio, the heart of
warbler country. She says folks resent the warbler program because it restricts access to
the state and national forests.
“More complaints from hunters and just everybody… when they come in and say you
can’t go into this area because it’s Kirtland Warbler management area. They’re taking up
thousands and thousands of more acres of this because of the Kirtland management area
and that’s the complaints we hear.”
The bird supporters counter the warbler benefits the region. The forestry program
generates jobs and revenue and a yearly Kirtland’s Warbler Festival attracts thousands for
a glimpse of the rare, pretty songbird. But there will always be competition for the land.
And the recovery team says it needs more acreage, not less, to replace habitat as it
matures and becomes unsuitable for the bird.
(Warbler sings)
His scope still on the warbler, Joe Gomola says some worry about the danger of a fire
like the Mack Lake burn, happening again in the flammable jack pine they now plant.
“But it’s part of the ecosystem that was here before us…same with the Kirtland’s and
we’re charged with managing habitat for this endangered species. And that’s what we’re
doing. (SE: “Is that the same bird?”) Same bird. We’re probably close to the center of
his territory, he’s made almost a full circle around us.”
This year’s census found 1,340 singing males—a record that has started talk of eventually
changing the warbler’s endangered status. But the recovery program has become the
bird’s life support system. 90 percent of the birds were counted in man-made plantations,
indicating habitat management must also continue indefinitely if the bird is to survive.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Sally Eisele.
