Scientists are sounding the alarm about what they call a catastrophic decline of the American Eel in the Great Lakes. They say the eel’s fate is a warning sign of overall climate change. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
Scientists are sounding the alarm about what they call a catastrophic decline of the American Eel
in the Great Lakes. They say the eel’s fate is a warning sign of overall climate change. The Great
Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
John Casselman is a researcher with the Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources. He says
American Eels used to be to Lake Ontario and the St. Lawrence River what salmon is to the
Northwest.
“Inshore eels represented half of the total weight of fish inshore, so they were massively abundant
and the Onondaga of the Iroquois Confederacy actually had an eel clan.”
Today there’s only about one eel for every 10 acres in Lake Ontario. The eel spawns in the
Sargasso Sea and migrates into the Great Lakes. While commercial fishing, pollution, and dams
have contributed to the eel’s dramatic decline, Casselman says oceanic climate change may be a
culprit.
“And if we’re not concerned about it, or trying to do something about it, it is at our peril. Maybe
the loss of this eel resource is telling us something that’s a lot bigger and that I think we should be
paying a lot more attention to.”
Concerned scientists and the Great Lakes Fishery Commission have issued emergency
declarations urging the U.S. and Canada to take immediate action.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
A popular federal program that pays farmers to restore wetlands on their property is underfunded in President Bush’s budget proposal. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein has more:
Transcript
A popular federal program that pays farmers to restore wetlands on their property is underfunded
in President Bush’s budget proposal. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein
has more:
The 2002 Farm Bill called for turning 250,000 acres a year of marginal farmland into wetlands.
Wetlands on farms help control pesticide run-off, replenish aquifers, and provide wildlife habitat.
And the effort gives farmers some extra cash in lean times. The Bush Administration wants to
downsize the program by 50,000 acres a year. But critics say it’s too popular to reduce.
“For every acre that gets enrolled, there are five acres waiting to get enrolled.”
Julie Sibbing is the wetlands policy specialist for the National Wildlife Federation. She says millions
of acres of wetlands nationwide are under threat from development. And farm conservation
programs are a crucial way to preserve them.
“There’s been a lot of talk about how the farm programs have expanded under the Bush
Administration. It’s really not been the great expansion that we would have liked to have seen.”
Last year, the program helped convert 213,000 acres of unused farmland into wetlands, short of the
250,000 acre goal.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Most dairy farmers around the Great Lakes region milk their cows all year long. It brings in a steady paycheck and ensures a steady flow of milk to manufacturing plants. Now a small but growing number of farmers give their cows a break during the coldest months. It’s a technique called seasonal dairying. Its supporters say it’s gentler on the cows. It’s easier on the environment. And it gives small dairy farms a future in an industry that’s growing ever bigger. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
Most dairy farmers around the Great Lakes region milk their cows all year long. It brings in a steady
paycheck and ensures a steady flow of milk to manufacturing plants. Now a small but growing
number of farmers give their cows a break during the coldest months. It’s a technique called seasonal
dairying. Its supporters say it’s gentler on the cows. It’s easier on the environment. And it gives
small dairy farms a future in an industry that’s growing ever bigger. The Great Lakes Radio
Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
It’s a chilly winter day in the northern New York town of Denmark. Kevin Sullivan strides into
the barn where his 60 cows munch quietly on their day’s feed.
“In the winter we’re pretty much conventional farmers.”
On conventional farms, cows stay in the barn all year long. The farmer trucks hay and grain into
the barn to feed them. But Sullivan is a grazier. His cows munch on pasture grasses from April
to October. And when they’re inside for winter, he “dries the cows off” for a couple months.
That means they don’t give milk until they start calving in the spring. Sullivan says he first read
an article about what’s called “seasonal dairying” ten years ago.
“I started thinking about it then and I kinda ran it past my wife and she laughed at me and said
‘y’know it’ll never work.'”
The problem with the seasonal system is dairy farmers are used to relying on their monthly milk
check to pay bills. No milk, no check. That took some getting used to.
“The first year was kind of scary ’cause you don’t really have any income for a couple months in
the wintertime but after we made it through that first year, I knew it was going to work pretty
good.”
The reason it works is outside.
Sullivan zips up his jacket and walks out to the barnyard. Unlike most farms, there’s not much
mud, just acres of thick green grass peeking through a dusting of snow.
“Once you get a sod built up like this, you can bring out your cows, I mean, the cows could be out
here today and they’re not going to hurt this pasture at all.”
Grazing is the key to seasonal dairying. You time when your cows give birth to calves and
produce their best milk to coincide with spring and early summer. That’s when pastures grow
the most nutritious grass. Sullivan says it’s a cow’s natural cycle.
Cows were made to eat grass. A lot of people forgot about that, I guess. I would say the two biggest things that
harm a cow is grain and concrete and a lot of guys push grain and the cows are on concrete all
the while but by kicking the cows outside and letting them be on the sod and letting them eat the
grass, you can get rid of about 90% of your cow problems.
In the pasture, they’re less susceptible to foot diseases than cows in a muddy barnyard. And
because grazing cows roam many acres, their manure is spread naturally and fertilizes the land.
A grazing farm typically has less erosion, uses fewer pesticides, and is less polluting to nearby
creeks than a conventional farm, where cows are confined to a small area and the farmer has to
dispose of tons of manure.
The method is easier on the animals and the land. And often easier on the farmer’s wallet too. A
study by the American Farmland Trust finds seasonal dairying can be an economically viable
alternative to conventional farming, especially for small farms like Kevin Sullivan’s. But only one or two percent of farms in the U.S. are seasonal. Brian Petrucci directs the American Farmland
Trust’s farm division.
“At some point in the last twenty years, it was decided that the only way to farm in this country was to get big or
get out.”
Under the tutelage of Ag school extensions, farm herds have swelled from the hundreds to the
tens of thousands. State and federal environmental agencies have had to create new regulations to
contain all the waste the farms generate. At the same time, thousands of small farms have gone
out of business.
Petrucci says seasonal dairying can help reverse the trend. But it’s slow to catch on in part
because the agriculture industry – the companies that supply the farmers – often doesn’t benefit.
“Dairy graziers and others who are operating on a smaller scale are not the consumers of feed
stuffs and farm supplies and farm equipment that the larger farmers are.”
There’s another reason, says Pete Barney of the Cornell Cooperative Extension in St. Lawrence
County, New York. It’s rooted in dairy history in this country.
“Milk plants, milk companies wanted a year-round, constant supply of milk, so now farmers bred
animals so they were coming in periodically throughout the whole year so they could keep a constant
flow of milk going.”
A different system can work on a large scale. Brian Petrucci says in some countries all dairy
farms are seasonal and grazing operations.
Back on the Sullivan farm, Kevin Sullivan says seasonal dairying is also good for his family. The
two months off from milking means more time for his kids, even a vacation, a rare thing among
dairy farmers.
“Farming is, you know, daily grind. Most people get locked into it and they don’t realize that there is
something besides going to the barn and doing chores every day. It’s really kind of opened up
our life a little bit to enjoy our hobbies in the wintertime at least.”
Sullivan’s business is good. He’s invested in an ice cream factory with some neighbors. He says
thanks to grazing and seasonal dairying, his fields are clean and green, his cows are healthy, and
his farm is thriving when so many other small farms are up for sale.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
The public release of a little aquarium fish that glows in the dark is stirring the waters of the genetic engineering debate. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
The public release of a little aquarium fish that glows in the dark is stirring the waters of the genetic
engineering debate. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Texas-based Yorktown Technologies calls its creation a Glo-fish. It’s a genetically-modified
zebrafish that glows in ultraviolet light. It’s marketed as an attractive and graceful addition to a fish
tank. The company says because the Glo-fish is tropical, it wouldn’t survive in cold waters like the
Great Lakes if it escaped.
But environmental and consumer groups worry that genetically-modified pets of the future could
threaten the ecological balance. Peter Jenkins is a policy analyst with the Center for Food Safety.
He says the Glo-Fish also raises ethical concerns. He’s calling on the federal government to
regulate them.
“We’re not flat-out opposed to all genetic engineering. If it is to be used, it should be for the
betterment of mankind and for the environment and not for frivolous pets.”
California is the only state that can bar genetically-engineered species. It recently ruled to prohibit
Glo-Fish sales. In all other states, the Glo-Fish will be available in pet stores starting January 5th.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Research assistant Molly Wright on the trail for
radio-tagged turtles. (Photo by David Sommerstein)
Driving on country roads can sometimes be like navigating an obstacle course of wildlife – deer, skunks, raccoons, frogs, and throughout much of the summer – turtles. Turtles like to lay their eggs along roadsides and become easy candidates for road kill. They live and reproduce for decades, so when an adult is killed prematurely, it can have a big effect on turtle populations as a whole. Researchers are trying to find out how often turtles cross the road and how to help them get safely to the other side. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
Driving on country roads can sometimes be like navigating an obstacle course of wildlife – deer,
skunks, raccoons, frogs, and throughout much of the summer – turtles. Turtles like to lay their
eggs along roadsides and become easy candidates for roadkill. They live and reproduce for
decades, so when an adult is killed prematurely, it can have a big effect on turtle populations as a
whole. Researchers are trying to find out how often turtles cross the road and how to help them
get safely to the other side. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Tom Langen starts his day around 6 in the morning on the shoulder of a two-lane road in northern
New York State. He walks along and counts roadkill.
“We like to get out early before the traffic gets bad, but also before the crows and other animals
have drug everything away.”
When he finds a dead snapping turtle, he nudges it off the road and bends down to study it.
“So this is a female. It’s pretty mangled. Unfortunately I can’t see any of the banding on her
shell.”
Each morning, he’ll find two or three like this. Langen’s a biology professor at Clarkson
University. He specializes in animal behavior. He’s trying to figure out whether a few smooshed
turtles a day is a little problem or a big one for the species as a whole.
His hypothesis is that it is a big problem. Turtles can live more than 60 years. And they have a
higher reproduction rate the older they get.
“So the old individuals are very important, and the older they are, the more important they are.”
Turtles like to live in marshes or ponds. But they like to lay their eggs in drier places. In what
Langen describes as a cruel twist of ecological fate, road berms are perfect. They’re dry, sandy,
and often close to marshes.
“The turtles have evolved over millions of years certain cues of what makes a good nesting site.
And by chance the roads that we’ve built in the last 50 to 75 years have some of those features
that match that so they’re tricked into going to those places.”
To figure out how many turtles are tricked into playing chicken with cars, Langen and his
research assistants catch turtles in nets. They inject them with a tag that identifies each
individual. So when they find a dead one, they know who it is.
They also want to know how far the turtles range. So they attach tiny radio transmitters to turtles’
shells and track their movements. That job falls to research assistant Molly Wright.
“Umm, we’re going to go after a snapping turtle. It’s a snapping turtle that we found in a swamp
by the Grasse River.”
(sound of sloshing water)
It’s known only as “Turtle #6”. Wright slogs waist deep through a marsh just off the highway.
She slings a radio receiver over her shoulder and holds an antenna like the one you’d put atop
your house.
“Yeah. That’s the noise that the radio antenna telemetry device makes for the turtle, so it’s a
pretty distinctive sound. It’s straight in front of us somewhere, the turtle is.”
We trudge slowly past green lilypads into the middle of the marsh. We clutch long grasses to
keep our footing among the muck and submerged logs. Wright sweep the antenna left and right.
She looks like a radio statue of liberty.
“People see us pretty regularly on like their drives to and from work and people bicycle. There’s
one man who pulled over and he’s like, “what’s up with that girl with the antenna on her head?”
“You see that moving right there?” “Yeah.” “That’s the turtle. It’s moving in the lilies.”
“Right there?” “Yup.” “That’s him right there. Turtle #6 has been found.”
Wright jots down the GPS coordinates, water temperature, and other observations in a notebook.
She notices we’re only several feet from the road. Of the 15 turtles she’s tracking, about a third
have crossed.
“I can’t make any conclusions from it because I haven’t done the stats yet, but you see a lot of
dead turtles on the road.”
The team of researchers will compile data over the next three years. They hope to get a sense of
how many turtles live in the area and what percentage of them get run over. Lead scientist Tom
Langen says, ironically, some of these turtles are older than the roads they’re getting killed on.
“It would be a terrible tragedy to remove these animals from our environment and over a brief
period of fifty years because of our traffic activities. I’d like to see those populations preserved
and maintained in good numbers. My daughter likes to see them, and I want her to see them as
well.”
Langen says his research could give road engineers a mandate to design fences, baffles, and
passageways that could keep turtles and other animals out of harm’s way. He cautions drivers to
be careful near wetlands, and if they see a dead turtle, odds are more turtles are trying to cross the
road nearby.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommertein.
Research assistant Molly Wright on the trail for
radio-tagged turtles. (Photo by David Sommerstein)
Turtles like to live in wet, marshy areas. But they make their nests in dry areas, like in the gravel on the side of roads. Researchers are trying to determine how many turtles are becoming road kill and what effect that’s having on their populations. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
Turtles like to live in wet, marshy areas. But they make their nests in dry areas, like in the gravel
on the side of roads. Researchers are trying to determine how many turtles are becoming roadkill
and what effect that’s having on their populations. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David
Sommerstein reports:
Biologist Tom Langen spends a lot of time walking along roads in northern New York State. A
professor at Clarkson University, he and his team of researchers catch turtles and put an
identifying tag on each one. So when they find one that’s been run over, they know who it is.
“…and by looking at the number that we find that are hit, and the number that are hit that have
been caught before, we can estimate the population size and what percentage are being hit.”
Langen says killing adult turtles has a big effect on the population because they reproduce for
decades. He says the project could persuade road engineers to build tunnels and other passages.
That way turtles and other animals will be able to cross the road and get to the other side safely.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Chopping down trees for subdivisions and farm fields isn’t just bad for forests. It can also hurt people. According to new research, small patches of woodlands breed more ticks with Lyme disease. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
Chopping down trees for subdivisions and farm fields isn’t just bad for
forests. It can also hurt people. According to new research, small
patches of woodlands breed more ticks with Lyme disease. The
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Felicia Keesing, a biology professor at Bard College, wanted to know
where people ran the greatest risk of getting Lyme disease, an illness
spread by ticks. She knew Lyme disease-bearing ticks are carried mostly
by the white footed mouse. And she knew that kind of mouse thrives in
small chunks of forest.
That’s because its predators need larger woods to live and have
moved away. So Keesing compared forest chunks of different sizes for
tick populations. She found a lot more ticks with Lyme disease in small
forests boxed in by houses or farmland.
“On average about seven times as likely to encounter an infected tick in a patch of woods
smaller than five acres.”
Keesing says the results send a clear message to town and village zoning boards
weighing development issues. They should do everything they can to prevent the
fragmentation of forests.
Keesing says her research doesn’t suggest small lots should be cut down altogether. But
new development could be better planned to reduce the risk of Lyme disease.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
The soggy spring has helped raise water levels in the Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is above average, but the upper lakes could still use more rain. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein explains:
Transcript
The soggy spring and summer so far has helped raise water levels in the
Great Lakes. Lake Ontario is above average, but the upper lakes could still
use more rain. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein
reports.
A few years of drastically low water levels have stranded boats and docks
and forced shippers to light their loads throughout the Great Lakes, but
Chuck O’Neill, of New York Sea Grant, says spring rains have come to the
rescue. Precipitation was 30% higher than normal in May region wide, 60%
higher than normal in Lakes Erie and Ontario:
“And when you put that much water into a basin that responds quickly like
the Lake Ontario basin, that’s reflected in the lake level quite dramatically.”
Lake Ontario is up more than 30 inches from March and is now four inches
above average. O’Neill says the rain has helped the upper lakes some, but
they’re still low, especially Lake Superior.
“That is such a huge lake even when they do have above average
precipitation, it takes an awful lot more above average precipitation to
push that lake up anything significantly.”
The rise and fall of the lakes is natural over time, but many experts worry
climate change is lowering the watermark for the long term.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Joe Rappa holds up the final product: biodiesel made from used vegetable oil. Photo by David Sommerstein.
It doesn't take much to brew a mini-batch of biodiesel. Here are all the ingredients Joe Rappa used to make his batch of biodiesel. Photo by David Sommerstein.
This winter, U.S. automakers have unveiled more environmentally friendly cars, SUVs, and trucks. They include gas-electric hybrids, even hydrogen fuel cell-powered vehicles. The new models will reduce smog and other emissions and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But a cleaner domestic fuel already exists for diesel cars and trucks, and you can find it at most restaurants. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein profiles a man who brews his own biodiesel from used vegetable oil:
Transcript
This winter U.S. automakers have unveiled more environmentally friendly cars, SUVs, and
trucks. They include gas-electric hybrids, even hydrogen fuel cell powered vehicles. The new
models will reduce smog and other emissions and reduce our dependence on foreign oil. But a
cleaner domestic fuel already exists for diesel cars and trucks, and you can find it at most
restaurants. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein profiles a man who brews
his own biodiesel from used vegetable oil:
Joe Rappa’s VolkSwagen Quantum looks like any older car. It’s a maroon station wagon with
180,000 miles on it. It’s got a diesel engine with the tell-tale diesel rattle.
(car starts)
But even though we’re inside an enclosed garage in an auto lab, there’s no black exhaust, no acrid
diesel smell. Instead, it smells like a kitchen.
“Some people say it smells like French Fries, some say it smells more like hamburgers on the
grill than anything else. But everyone smells something different with biodiesel.”
Rappa teaches automotive courses here at the State University of New York in Canton. He lives
120 miles away. Several times a week he commutes in this car powered by biodiesel – a fuel
made from used vegetable oil he collects from local restaurants. He says anyone with a diesel car
can do it themselves.
“It might be a bit unnerving at first because we’re so conditioned to put the same fuel in our car,
that y’know that you go make something in your garage and then go pour it in the tank of your
car goes against everything you’ve been ever taught for the last 20 years that you’ve been
driving.”
Joe Rappa has a mischievous smile when he talks about brewing his own fuel, especially with
most people worrying about the price of gas, the places our oil comes from, and what it does to
politics and the environment. But Rappa insists he’s not an environmentalist.
“I don’t consider myself a big polluter, either. I’m a tinkerer. I always have to fool around with
something. It’s funny, my dad always used to kid me from the time I was a little kid, ‘You’re not
happy unless you’re screwing around with something.’ My bicycle worked fine, I’d take it apart.”
As an adult, he bought a diesel car. One day, he started reading about biodiesel on the Internet.
“And the more I looked at it, the more I thought, that’s kind of silly, but I bet I could do that, and
got a hold of the chemicals and started fooling around and making mini-batches, and once I was
confident the mini-batches were actually biodiesel and something I can burn in an engine, I
started making bigger batches and putting the stuff in my car.”
Today Rappa spends Sundays in his garage brewing up to 120 gallons of it at a time. He’s
considered a leading expert on biodiesel bulletin boards on the Internet.
Most of the enthusiasts he e-mails with are environmentalists. They see biodiesel as a way to
reduce our reliance on foreign oil and clean up the choking exhaust cars and trucks belch out their
tailpipes. Rappa says biodiesel creates less than half the smog-causing emissions of regular
diesel.
“The particle emissions out of the tailpipe, 70% less simply by switching fuel, 70-80% less
hydrocarbon, 70-80% less carbon monoxide, those are some serious numbers.”
Nitrous oxide levels are a little higher, though. Those also contribute to smog. But for Rappa,
the big number is price. It costs him 54-cents a gallon to brew the stuff.
Rappa snaps on rubber gloves to show me how it’s done. Basically you mix methanol and lye to
make methoxide. Then you add the methoxide to the oil. The ratio depends on the amount of
animal fat in the vegetable oil, which you figure out through what’s called a titration, and the
amount of biodiesel you want to brew.
“Now we just add the methoxide to the vegetable oil.”
Rappa uses old Pepsi bottles for this demonstration and a wine carafe to hold the oil.
“Put our lid on there. Give it a shake. Immediately it turns to a milkshake consistency. And the
reaction only takes a couple seconds to take place. You mix it thoroughly and it’ll start to get
dark as my biodiesel starts to form.”
The result is honey-colored biodiesel. Glycerine – basically soap – settles on the bottom as a by-
product. Rappa cautions this takes practice. You have to boil the vegetable oil to remove any
water in it. You need to make sure you separate the biodiesel from the glycerine.
In fact, most people who use biodiesel in their cars buy it commercially. Their number is
growing. The National Biodiesel Board predicts biodiesel production will increase by 20 million
gallons this year. Most it is made from soybeans. Some producers use other vegetable oils. But
a U.S. Energy Department-funded study says there’s enough used vegetable oil and other waste
grease to produce 500 million gallons of biodiesel each year.
(sound up of driving)
That’s plenty to keep Joe Rappa’s car on the road and encourage others to join him.
“I still chuckle every time I pour in fuel I made in my garage in the tank of my car.”
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
Despite warmer weather, the St. Lawrence Seaway will open six days late because there’s too much ice on the St. Lawrence River. Icebreakers will begin work clearing a shipping channel this week. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Transcript
Despite warmer weather, the St. Lawrence Seaway will open 6 days late because there’s too much
ice on the St. Lawrence River. Icebreakers will begin work clearing a shipping channel this week.
The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s David Sommerstein reports:
Ice fishermen on the St. Lawrence are drilling through more than three feet of ice in some places.
[drilling sound]
It’s the thickest ice buildup they’ve seen in decades. It’s causing the St. Lawrence Seaway to
postpone its opening from March 25th to March 31st this year. It’s the first time that’s happened in
the waterway’s 44 year history.
Seaway Administrator Albert Jacquez says the decision was made after consulting weather experts
and officials in Canada.
“If we can’t ensure to the best of our ability that a ship can get through without damage to either
our facilities or the ship itself and ultimately to the environment around us, we shouldn’t be
opening and so that’s what is the determination.”
When there’s too much ice on the river, a freighter’s wake can damage
vegetation, cause shoreline erosion, and disturb fisheries. Shippers say an
idle freighter can cost them 100,000 dollars a day.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m David Sommerstein.
