Some say that workplace safety awards promote complacency. (Photo courtesy of the NIEHS/DOE)
The companies associated with the two biggest accidents this year both recently got safety awards from the government. Lester Graham reports.
Transcript
The companies associated with the two biggest accidents this year both recently got safety awards from the government. Lester Graham reports.
The Mineral Management Service announced BP was a finalist for a safety award in May. Then, the Deepwater Horizon exploded, killed eleven men, and spilled –who knows how much– oil into the Gulf of Mexico.
The Mine Safety and Health Administration gave the coal company Massey Energy three safety awards last year. Then the Upper Big Branch Mine exploded. 29 miners died.
In an opinion piece in The Hill , The President of the Steelworkers union, Leo Gerard, argued those awards promote complacency– a sort of ‘see we’re already doing it.’
David Uhlmann is a law professor at the University of Michigan. He served for seven years as Chief of the Justice Department’s Environmental Crimes Section. He says awards can prod companies to do better… but…
“There’s always going to be some companies who cut corners, who put profits before safety, who put profits before their obligations to protect the environment.”
BP was to get its award in May. The safety awards ceremonies were postponed.
Gardiner Joe Williamson says sterilization does nothing to solve the immediate problem of too many deer. (Photo courtesy of Adam Allington)
Joel Porath says whitetails are right at home in suburbia because of the abundance of food, and lack of predators other than vehicles. (Photo courtesy of Adam Allington)
Veterinarian Steve Timm operates out of a small eight by sixteen foot trailer… When the does arrive they’re hoisted on to an operating table and prepped for surgery. (Photo courtesy of Adam Allington)
Veterinarian Steve Timm says early information suggests, that if there are some deer in the environment, especially our sterile does, the other deer have less tendency to move in.(Photo courtesy of Adam Allington)
Whitetail deer have adapted pretty well to the suburbs. But… it means a lot of car-deer accidents. It also means deer munching on tulips and shrubs. Some people consider them pests and want to get rid of the deer. But instead of simply killing them, one city has decided to capture and sterilize a number of does.
Adam Allington reports, the results might point toward the future of urban wildlife management.
Transcript
Whitetail deer have adapted pretty well to the suburbs.
But… it means a lot of car-deer accidents. It also means deer munching on tulips and shrubs. Some people consider them pests and want to get rid of the deer.
But instead of simply killing them, one city has decided to capture and sterilize a number of does.
Adam Allington reports, the results might point toward the future of urban wildlife management.
It’s a crisp night in Town and Country, Missouri…home to some 10,000 souls…and about 800 deer.
“There goes a deer over there, it’s just to the left of the tree, you can barely see it.”
Joel Porath is a wildlife regional supervisor for the Missouri Department of Conservation. Just like humans, whitetails he says, are right at home in the quiet cul du sacs of suburbia.
“They have all the food resources, they don’t have hunting and they don’t really have predators, so mainly vehicles are what kill them in communities like this.”
Lynn Wright sits on Town and Country’s board of aldermen. Despite the accidents she says most folks like seeing the deer around…kind of reminding them that they don’t live in the city.
“But when you start going from 2 or 3 and seeing 10 or 12 in the backyard you do start getting concerned about that.”
The car accidents were a problem, but Wright says people also complained about damaged trees and landscaping. Still, the town resisted the easiest solution—to just hire sharpshooters to come in and kill all the deer.
Instead, they explored alternative methods…this is sound from a department of conservation video…it shows four deer eating corn in a back yard…just then, a large dropnet is released…sending them into a flailing frenzy until technicians rush in with tranquilizer shots.
The deer are then brought to Steve Timm. Timm is a veterinarian with White Buffalo Incorporated. Its a company that specializes in sterilizing deer.
“We’ve got two does coming in. We’re going to sterilize them by removing ovaries.”
Timm operates out of a small eight by sixteen foot trailer… When the does arrive they’re hoisted on to an operating table and prepped for surgery.
“I’ve located the left ovary here, and so I’ll clamp it, bring it to the surface, use cautery to prevent any bleeding.”
The whole process takes about 20 minutes. The deer are then stapled up, fitted with reflective collars and released.
Timm says the theory is simple—fewer fauns mean less deer eating shrubs and running into cars.
“The early information suggests, that if there are some deer in the environment, especially our sterile does, the other deer have less tendency to move in.”
But not everyone backs the sterilization approach.
Joe Williamson is a retiree who loves to garden. Walking around his yard he points out flowering magnolias, yews, Japanese maples…basically, a kind of all-night deer buffet.
“This is a good example of antler rubs, this is called Staghorn Sumac. The bucks rub their antlers on here and they break them off, you see all these…its just wrecked.”
Williamson says sterilization does nothing to solve the immediate problem of too many deer. It’s also much more expensive. Town and Country paid White Buffalo 150-thousand dollars to sterilize 112 does, and kill another 100.
But, Joel Porath of the Department of Conservation says in the end, the best solution may involve sterilizing some deer…and killing others.
“Could you imagine if we stopped allowing deer hunting in the state? You know we kill around 300,000 dear each year and it doesn’t take very long for the population to jump back up. So, they do need to continue to do something in Town and Country down the road.”
By the end of spring Porath says the department should have enough information to see if sterilization makes sense for other suburban areas.
Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (Photo by Andy Pernick, courtesy of the Bureau of Reclamation)
The Department of Interior includes
agencies such as the US Fish and
Wildlife Service, the National Park
Service, the Bureau of Land Management
and many other bureaus, services and
offices. Former Senator Ken Salazar
directs it all. Lester Graham recently
talked with the Secretary of Interior
about the Department and the problems
and challenges he faces:
Transcript
The Department of Interior includes
agencies such as the US Fish and
Wildlife Service, the National Park
Service, the Bureau of Land Management
and many other bureaus, services and
offices. Former Senator Ken Salazar
directs it all. Lester Graham recently
talked with the Secretary of Interior
about the Department and the problems
and challenges he faces:
Lester Graham: Interior is a huge department, with many services and bureaus. Some of those departments deal with oil and gas exploration on public lands and places such as Alaska, Utah, and offshore. During the Bush Administration, the Department of the Interior was criticized for being too cozy with the oil and gas industry. And it culminated with a scandal involving oil company execs, government workers, and wild parties – complete with cocaine and sex. Secretary Salazar stressed to me, those days of partying and sweetheart deals with oil and gas companies are over.
Ken Salazar: It is unfortunate that the department was blemished in the Bush era because of the transgressions which occurred here and the paradigm which unfolded – which we are seeing the results of today – is that there was a bending of the rules and a flaunting of the law. There is a lot of cleaning up that has to be done.
Graham: Recently you came to a memorandum, I’m understanding, with FERC about offshore wind turbines. How soon might we see wind turbines off the coasts of the US?
Salazar: I expect that it will happen during the first term of the Obama Administration. I think that there is a huge potential for wind energy, especially off the shores of the Atlantic, because of the shallowness of those waters.
Graham: Will we ever see a point where we have windmills near coast, and drilling rigs out farther, along the Atlantic Coast?
Salazar: I do believe that we will see the wind potential develop. I think it will be similar to what we already see in the United Kingdom and Denmark and Norway. In respect to oil and gas off the Atlantic, I think that is still a question that needs to be looked at. And it’s part of what we’re doing in looking at a new 5-year plan for the Outer Continental Shelf. And we are not making a decision at this point, or pre-judging where we will end up after we complete the comment process which ends in September.
Graham: Secretary Salazar says domestic oil and gas will play a role in American energy. He talked about the Department of Interior’s role in the nation’s energy independence, and noted the departments 15,000 scientists will be helping deal with the big issues such as global warming and climate change. Ken Salazar says that since the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and other nature-related agencies make up Interior, one of its top priorities is a program called ‘Treasured Landscapes.’
Salazar: I am hopeful that we will be able to, in this Administration, create the kind of legacy that was created by Teddy Roosevelt. President Obama has a vision for the landscapes of America, which is one that I believe we can deliver on. Restoration of major landscapes, such as the Chesapeake Bay and the Great Lakes and the Everglades and so many others, will be a part of that agenda.
Graham: Secretary Salazar, thank you so much for your time.
Salazar: Thank you very much, Lester.
Graham: Ken Salazar, President Obama’s Secretary of the Interior. For The Environment Report, I’m Lester Graham.
Grand Teton National Park, Wyoming. (Photo courtesy of the National Park Service)
The US Forest Service has just released new
rules for managing the nation’s forests. Some
environmental groups say the new rules don’t do enough
to protect wildlife. They also believe it will mean more
logging on national forest land. Mark Brush reports:
Transcript
The US Forest Service has just released new
rules for managing the nation’s forests. Some
environmental groups say the new rules don’t do enough
to protect wildlife. They also believe it will mean more
logging on national forest land. Mark Brush reports:
The National Forest Service is required to draw up management plans for all 155
National Forests. Environmentalists say the new rules for drawing up these management
plans gut environmental protection standards.
The Center for Biological Diversity along with 13 other environmental groups have filed
suit against the Forest Service. They say the new rules will keep citizens in the dark.
Marc Fink is a lawyer for the Center.
“We’re talking about our public national forests. And I think it’s important to give the
citizens who are concerned about these forest the right to have meaningful standards to
hold their local officials accountable for when they’re proposing projects that might be
bad for the forests.”
Fink says, if the plan goes forward, logging could increase, or wildlife habitat could be
damaged without the public knowing about it.
The Forest Service says it’s just trying to take the red tape out of the forest planning
process.
Some populations of gray wolves could be taken off the endangered species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to issue proposed new rules for gray wolves in the upper Great Lakes region in the next week or so. We have more from the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Tracy Samilton:
Transcript
Some populations of grey wolves could be taken off the endangered
species list. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is expected to issue
proposed new rules for gray wolves in the upper Great Lakes region in
the next week or so. We have more from the Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Tracy Samilton:
The growth of the grey wolf population in the Great Lakes area is good
or bad, depending on who you talk to. Wolves help control deer herds,
but they also prey on livestock.
Adrien Wydeven is with the Wisconsin Department of Natural
Resources. He says in extreme cases, states might want to let farmers
who’ve had problems shoot wolves they catch in the act of killing
livestock.
“And we could consider the possibility of a public harvest of members of
general public applying for permits to trap or hunt wolves in limited
areas.”
There will be a 90-day public comment period before the delisting of
Great Lakes wolves is adopted. It will apply mainly to wolves in
Michigan, Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Each state will also have to adopt
its own wolf management plan.
A farm in Manistee County, Michigan using an irrigation system. (Photo courtesy of Michigan Land Use Institute)
In the Great Lakes region, farmers are one of the biggest users of water. They
pump water from underground aquifers or from lakes and streams to irrigate their
crops or water livestock. Agriculture has been criticized for its large withdrawals
of water. Farmers say they want to be recognized in a Great Lakes water use
agreement as efficient water users, but as Erin Toner reports… it’s unclear
whether that’s true:
Transcript
The series, Ten Threats to the Great Lakes is now looking at the threat of water withdrawals from the Great Lakes. Our guide through the series is Lester Graham. He says a lot of businesses and homes use water from the basin, but one group says its use is especially efficient.
In the Great Lakes region, farmers are one of the biggest users of water. They
pump water from underground aquifers or from lakes and streams to irrigate their
crops or water livestock. Agriculture has been criticized for its large withdrawals
of water. Farmers say they want to be recognized in a Great Lakes water use
agreement as efficient water users, but as Erin Toner reports… it’s unclear
whether that’s true:
Scott Piggott is the sixth generation to grow up on his dad’s cattle farm in a small
town in central Michigan. He says not everything on the farm is perfect, but he
says he grew up knowing that you have to do things right to protect the
environment.
“If we don’t begin to stand up and say, look, this is what we’re doing to protect
the environment, I think more people will continue to say, hey, they’re not telling
us what they’re doing, they must be doing something wrong.”
Piggott also works for the Michigan Farm Bureau. He says his goal is to make
sure every farm in his state is doing everything it can to protect the environment,
including conserving water they use for irrigation.
But Piggott and the farm bureau oppose broad regulations for large water users,
such as farmers. That’s proposed in a draft of a Great Lakes regional water use
agreement. Piggott argues the agreement should treat farmers differently because
the water they use goes right back into the ground.
Piggott said in a Farm Bureau press release that, “95 percent of the water that
touches a farm field seeps into the soil providing aquifer recharge.”
Later, he qualified his statement.
“It is estimated that 95 percent of the water that touches an open, pervious space
seeps into the soils and a portion of that, which I would infer that, it does provide
aquifer recharge, but necessarily does all 95 percent of it go towards aquifer
recharge. I think that might be debated. The quote could probably be stronger in
a given direction, but I stand by it.”
Piggott says his information is based on Environmental Protection Agency
estimates. But is his 95 percent figure true?
Jon Bartholic is with Michigan State University. He’s done research on water
use on farms. He says of all the water that falls on a farm – that’s rainfall and
irrigation – about 70 percent of it evaporates.
“So the remaining part, 30, 40 percent depending where you are. It might be
almost 0 percent, if you’ve got clay soil and it’s all run off, is there to potentially
to go back and recharge the aquifer.”
Bartholic’s estimate is that 30 to 40 percent potentially flows back into the Great
Lakes basin and its aquifers – that’s nowhere near 95 percent. Bartholic says farmers
do consume water.
“Clearly, farmers are being very conscientious about their water use, but, yes, if
you use water for crops and have economic value, there is some consumptive
usage of that water.”
Other water experts in the region say the issue is complicated. A lot of factors
effect how much water used to irrigate crops actually gets back to the aquifer.
Although one expert says at best the 95-percent estimate is “theoretically
possible” if conditions were perfect.
Conditions are rarely perfect.
Mark Muller is director of the Environment and Agriculture Program with the
Institute of Agriculture and Trade Policy in Minneapolis. Muller says it’s
generally agreed that right now there’s plenty of groundwater in the Great Lakes
region, but he says there is still reason for concern. That’s because in other areas of the
country, aquifers thought to be plentiful have gone dry.
Muller says managing Great Lakes water resources is important for the close to
40-million people who rely on the basin for their drinking water. He says
managing that water correctly is also crucial to sustaining the region’s farming
industry.
“Industry and agriculture is going to look at the Great Lakes basin as a place
where they should set up shop. So, I think we should realize that we have a very
valuable resource that’s only going to become more valuable in future years.”
Muller adds that public opinion is very important to shaping the Great Lakes
regional water use agreement. He says any misleading information, from any of
the stakeholders, is just not helpful. That’s why the farm bureau’s claim that 95-
percent of the water used for irrigation recharges the aquifers is more important than
just an optimistic viewpoint. It’s seen by some as a public relations spin.
A new survey by the Pew Institute for Ocean Science finds sturgeon populations are severely depleted throughout the world, including in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Transcript
A new survey by the Pew Institute for Ocean Science finds sturgeon populations are severely depleted throughout the world, including in the Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s Erin Toner reports:
Sturgeon are called “living fossils” because their bodies are virtually unchanged since the time of the dinosaurs. The only species native to this region is the lake sturgeon. Nancy Auer is a fish biologist with Michigan Technological University.
She says sturgeon populations in the Great Lakes dropped severely in the 1850’s because of overfishing and because dams were built that blocked migration routes. She says now there are only a couple of places where sturgeon are somewhat abundant.
“One is the St. Clair River area and Detroit River are and one is up in Lake Superior in the Portage Lake area and these stocks are some of the last ones that have free capacity to range throughout the Great Lakes system.”
Hour says the state of Michigan has closed all sturgeon fisheries in an effort to boost populations. Other Great Lakes states are developing lake sturgeon management plans.
The demand for timber has increased in the past year and is expected to continue to rise. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife
Service)
The sale of timber from national forests in the upper Midwest is expected to be up ten percent this year. That follows a ten percent increase last year. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette Reports:
Transcript
The sale of timber from national forests in the upper Midwest is expected to be up 10 percent this year. That follows a 10 percent increase last year. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Peter Payette Reports:
Two years ago, the six national forests in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota sold 230 million board feet of timber. Next year the industry expects sales to top out at more than 300 million board feet.
The forest service has been drafting new management plans. Altogether those plans propose an increase in the amount of logging in the forests. Jim Crouch is a consultant for the Lakes States Federal Timber Purchasers.
“All six plans are either complete or at least in draft form, and so there’s new clear direction on what the forest should be doing and that equates to substantial increases in what we’ve seen happen in the past.”
Environmental groups have fought the new management plans in every state. They say the forests are already being harvested at unsustainable rates and the new plans will make things worse.
People’s fear of wolves led to a steady practice of bounties, poisoning, and trapping until the wolf pretty much disappeared from this region by the 1960’s. But a new survey confirms that these old attitudes have changed. A five-year study of people’s opinions about wolves was recently completed. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
Transcript
People’s fear of wolves led to a steady practice of bounties, poisoning, and trapping until the wolf
pretty much disappeared from this region by the 1960’s. But a new survey confirms that these old
attitudes have changed. A five-year study of people’s opinions about wolves was recently
completed. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mike Simonson has more:
More than 600 people in Michigan and Wisconsin responded to a survey about wolves. The
survey was done by Northland College Sociology Professor Kevin Schanning. Schanning says
people from both states feel the same way: more than half think wolves should be protected, and
most of the respondents appreciate wolves as a natural part of things:
“When you ask people ‘are wolves the symbol of the beauty and wonder of nature? Do we need
wolves to help manage the eco-system?’ 75 percent to 80 percent of respondents are saying ‘yeah,
we need wolves. They’re a part of our state now and we need to manage them, we need to protect
them.'”
Even so, 62 percent of those surveyed said they worry about wolves being dangerous. And 41
percent are in favor of hunting wolves to manage their populations.
Park managers determined that this area of land in southeast Michigan was historically a prairie. They're using fire to return it to that state, and to keep invasive plants and shrubs in check. (Photo by Mark Brush)
A burn crew member keeps an eye on a hot section of the 'burn unit.' (Photo by Mark Brush)
The blackened ground after the burn. The freshly burned ground traps heat causing soil temperatures to rise which encourages new plant growth. (Photo by Mark Brush)
Some natural areas need fire. A number of prairie plants and pine trees must have fire for their seeds to pop open or germinate. But burning a natural area can quickly turn into a wildfire without a team to keep it under control. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush spent a day with a burn crew… and brings us this audio postcard:
Transcript
Some natural areas need fire. A number of prairie plants and pine trees
must have fire for their seeds to pop open or germinate. But burning a
natural area can quickly turn into a wildfire without a team to keep it
under control. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Brush spent a day
with a burn crew… and brings us this audio postcard:
(sound of walking through dry grass and birds)
“Good morning, Hi, How’s it going?”
“Little dry?”
“It’s pretty dry, it’s forecasted, I think to be twenty one percent humidity…”
“My name is David Mindell, and I am the burn boss for this project. I’m a contractor that does ecological restoration. The first step is we’ll take a quick walk through and rake some of the fuel around stuff we don’t want to burn. This is the kind of thing if fire got in here, it’d burn for hours and hours and just put out a lot of smoke…”
“My name is Lee Root, and I just am a burn crew member. I’m filling up what’s known as an ‘Indian tank. It’s a backpack frame that has a water tank and a hand pump. This is our little portable fire engine, is what it is. So, you see where the black top is? If that was our fire, and we didn’t want the fire to come onto the grass, we would just…
(sound of squirting)
“…spray like that, and that would prevent the fire from crossing over.”
“Well, my name is Ross Orr, and I’ve been working with David for a couple of years, and um, we’re wearing these crazy, screaming yellow body suits that are flame-retardant fabric, and also helps keep us cool from the radiant heat of the burn, and big, big cumbersome helmets with visors that flip up and down…
(Sound of visor plastic clacking)
“…we’ll ingite using drip torches, which are these canisters filled with a mixutre of diesel and gas. It’s got a wick on the end, a burning wick, and as you tip the canister, it dribbles gas-diesel mix across the wick, and trails fire as you go.”
(sound of fire crackling and wind)
“Okay, I’m gonna burn it up right next to you Lee. All right, here we go.”
(sound of crackling and walkie-talkies)
“Catherine, keep coming right around.”
“Is this one of the crabapples we wanted to save, or they’re on the other end?”
“I believe they’re on the other end, unless they’re crabapples there?”
“Nope, it’s a hawthorne.”
“My name’s Catherine Marquardt, and I do whatever they tell me to do…
(sound of laughter)
“…whether it’s lighting fires or putting them out. Um, I think it looks like a Dr. Seuss story, actually, sometimes when you burn and it’s all black. You don’t get to see this very often, it’s very cool. And then it greens up so quickly, that’s the other amazing thing, is that if you come back here in a couple of days, it’s already getting green. So, it changes so quickly.”
“You know, I’m guessing it took probably forty-five minutes for the backburn to go a third of the way through the unit, and I think the headburn will run through the other two-thirds in about three minutes.”
(sound of large flames fading out)
(sound of walking, rubber squeaking and metal clanging)
Mindell: “And we’re, basically just walking around looking for things that are still smoking. Got a juniper that’s smoking at the base…
(sound of spraying)
“And just spraying out the smoldering bits.
“Burning is extremely fun, but it’s also a great management tool for improving the ecological quality of natural areas.”
(sound of wind and bird chirping)
HOST TAG: “This audio postcard of a prairie burn was produced by the
GLRC’s Mark Brush. To see photos of the burn and learn more about fire
as a management tool, you can visit glrc dot org.”
Some say that workplace safety awards promote complacency. (Photo courtesy of the NIEHS/DOE)
