Protecting Migratory Birds

The government will be taking steps to help protect migratory birds. Five
billion birds migrate from North America to the tropics every year. Land
development is threatening the birds’ stopover habitats. Kyle Norris has this
story:

Transcript

The government will be taking steps to help protect migratory birds. Five
billion birds migrate from North America to the tropics every year. Land
development is threatening the birds’ stopover habitats. Kyle Norris has this
story:


The new policy announced by President George Bush will include habitat
improvements for migratory birds. The improvements will happen on national wildlife refuges and in some
urban areas. The US government will collaborate with Mexican officials to
create habitat programs in Mexico.


Greg Butcher is the Director of Bird Conservation for National Audubon
Society. He says birds are an excellent indicator of the environment:


“Birds have many of the very same needs that people have. So they need
clean air, they need clean water. They need good healthy habitats that are
productive. And so when good things happen to birds, good things are happening
for humans at the same time.”


The government will also offer financial incentives to private landowners in
the US. Who either make their property more habitable to migrating birds, or
who agree to not build on their land.


For the Environment Report, I’m Kyle Norris.

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The Dirt on Diaper Duty

  • She's cute, but what about all those diapers? (Photo by Mark Brush)

There’s a reason more than 90% of American parents choose disposable
diapers over cloth. Nothing beats the convenience of disposable
diapers. But what about their effect on the environment? Reporter
Mark Brush has two little ones at home and decided to take a closer
look at the question:

Transcript

There’s a reason more than 90% of American parents choose disposable
diapers over cloth. Nothing beats the convenience of disposable
diapers. But what about their effect on the environment? Reporter
Mark Brush has two little ones at home and decided to take a closer
look at the question:


My wife and I didn’t hesitate in our decision about diapers. We went
with disposables from the start.


(Sound of baby crying)


Raising kids can be hard work. The convenience of disposable diapers
was just too much to pass up. But what does that decision mean for the
environment? I mean, if I do the math, we’ve got a three-year-old who’s
out of diapers. And a one-year-old who’s going through three or four a day now. Over
the years, we’ve dumped about 5,480 diapers into a nearby landfill.
Five thousand four hundred eighty. Going with disposables can’t be
good, can it?


Well, as it turns out, the answer is pretty darned complicated. There
have been several studies done on diapers and the problems they create.
Most recently, a study was done on diapers by the Environment Agency in
Great Britain.


It compared disposable diapers with cloth diapers washed at home, and
cloth diapers from a diaper service. In the end, they said, there were no clear
winners. So disposables aren’t so bad, right?


Well, not so fast, says Greg Keoleian. He’s the co-director of the
Center for Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan. Keoleian
says it all depends on where you live:


“In evaluating life cycle results you should look at local conditions.
For example if you’re in an area where water is scarce, like let’s say
Arizona, then you want to weigh that factor more heavily in your
decision.”


Keoleian says since I live in an area where landfill space is short,
and where water is plentiful… I might want to consider cloth diapers,
so, I bring the idea home to my family:


(Mark:) “What do you think, Andrea? Do you think we should try cloth
diapers?”


(Andrea:) “No.”


(Mark:) “Why?”


(Andrea:) “‘Cause you might have to send me to the Looney bin.”


(Eli:) “Well, Mom, then you don’t have to through them away.”


(Andrea:) “That’s true, you’ve got a good point.”


(Eli:) “You only have to wash them.”


(Andrea:) “Yep, that’s true. And you know what, my Mom and Dad always
washed all of our diapers. She was a better woman than I am…
(laughing)”


(Sound of baby crying)


But today, the choices are different than they were for our parents. It’s not just about cloth vs. disposable anymore. There are tons of different choices. For instance, I went down the street to our friend
Melissa’s house.


She and her husband have a two-year-old. They’ve tried out a bunch of
different diapers including one you can flush down the toilet. The
point of the G-diaper, Melissa says, is to treat the waste – rather than simply throwing
it in your garbage can:


“So then when you go to change him… you take it out… and then you put it
in the toilet and they give you a swish stick. And then you swish it
as it’s flushing – therefore you won’t clog up your toilets. Now, I did
notice that when I used these in public restrooms and I didn’t have my
swish stick I would kind of clog up the toilet sometimes… it all
depended on the toilet. So for going out, the G-diapers for me didn’t seem
to be such a good idea because I hated clogging up the toilets (laughs).”


Melissa says after problems like this, she eventually switched to a kind of disposable diaper
that’s supposed to be better for the environment.


Now, if you really want to think outside the box, there’s another choice that might come in handy. It’s a practice called Diaper Free: No diapers. Parents help their infants go to the toilet when nature calls. Erin LaFreniere is a sort of local expert on the Diaper Free method:


“Diaper Free is a little bit misleading because people think you’re not
wearing a diaper, oh that must be horrible, how can you deal with the mess, that’s not sanitary. And really, diaper
free really means not being stuck with diapers all the time.”


LaFreniere says parents still use diapers, just not as often. They
learn how to pick up on their infant’s cues, and when it’s time they
take them to the bathroom. She says cutting back on diapers is a side
benefit. For her, learning how to communicate with her baby was more
important.


But, I don’t know. I can’t imagine the diaper free idea going over well at home. I mean, our lives are really busy and it’s hard enough for us to keep up. Disposable
diapers are just too convenient.


I guess it’s like a lot of decisions people make in their lives:
convenience will often trump a slight benefit to the environment.
And experts I talked to said if we take a look at all the impacts we have on the
environment, diapering is pretty low on the list. So, my wife and I can do right by the environment somewhere else in our lives.


For the Environment Report, I’m Mark Brush.

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Artist Carries Tribe’s Traditions Forward


Every artist depicts nature in a different way. In one artist’s world, nature is a place where people, animals and plant life are intertwined in vibrant color. Karen Kelly visited this new exhibit:

Transcript

Every artist depicts nature in a different way. In one artist’s world, nature is a place where people, animals and plant life are intertwined in vibrant color. Reporter Karen Kelly visited this new exhibit.


Six and seven year olds are pointing and chattering in front of a mural bursting with plant and animal life. One of them, Pierre Rousseau, describes his favorite parts of the painting.


“People, strawberries, some leaves, and fish, and kind of mister who has a bird on his head.”


The kids are at an exhibit of Norval Morrisseau’s work at the National Gallery of Art in Ottawa, Canada. Usually, you hear a lot of shushing when kids are in an art gallery.
Here, you can almost feel the energy between the kids and the paintings.


In one corner, Sadok Benmoussa and Amir Shallal are trying to figure out a mural that tells the story of creation.


“And what’s that big stuff? A flower? That big stuff… Oh, the big stuff, bears? A bear? A bear.”


Norval Morrisseau grew up on an Ojibway reservation on the north shore of Lake Superior, and that environment fills his paintings; the water, the animals, trees, berries.
But most important are the people, his own people interacting with that nature.


Gabe Vadas lived with Morrisseau for many years, and now that the artist has Parkinson’s disease, Vadas is his spokesman and guardian. He says when Morrisseau was growing up in the 50’s, his tribe began rejecting many of its traditions, and it’s connection to the natural world, so Morrisseau used his paintings to tell the stories he learned from his grandfather who was a shaman.


“And I think Norval just felt desperation as a young person to regain the identity that had been passed down to him. And of course Grandpa is only telling him, so there’s a desperation that ‘wait a minute, I’m the only one who’s learning these things and learning these legends.'”


One of these legends shows a man who changes into a thunderbird. It’s one of Morrisseau’s most famous works and it shows this transformation over six canvases. It begins with a man who has a bird perched on his head, as well as one in each arm. Slowly, his eyes get larger, his mouth forms a beak and his arms become wings. This is Morrisseau’s later style, and it resembles stained glass. He uses thick black lines to create an intricate design of colors and shapes.


Greg Hill curated the Morrisseau show for Canada’s national gallery. It’s now on display at the McMichael Gallery north of Toronto and it will be in New York City in January. Hill says the artist’s later works contain a message for everyone, not just members of his own community.


“He’s saying that we all exist here on mother earth and we need to respect that, those interrelationships.”


That message is something that visitor Yvette Debain says she could see in Morrisseau’s work.


“Very spiritual. That’s why it touches me because I believe also that we’re all part of a creation, and the spirit, you can say God, is in all the creation. It’s not separate.”


Morrisseau’s guardian, Gabe Vadas, says that when the artist returned to his hometown many years later, he was surprised to find many people who had gone back to the native traditions, and many told him that his paintings had inspired them to do so. Now, he hopes that with this major exhibit, more folks will be touched by his message.


For the Environment Report, I’m Karen Kelly.

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Ten Threats: Coastal Development Pressures

  • Construction along the shorelines can put a strain on natural systems. (Photo by Carole Swinehart/Michigan Sea Grant Extension)

One of the more subtle but relentless threats to the Great Lakes is
coastal development. Condos, ever larger and nicer beach homes
and buildings and parking lots in the watershed all have an
impact on the Lakes. As the population grows and the suburban
lifestyle keeps spreading, the health of the lakes is compromised
in countless tiny ways. Reporter Peter Payette finds those tiny
ways all add up:

Transcript

We’re continuing our look at ‘Ten Threats to the Great Lakes.’
Lester Graham is our guide through the series. He says the
experts who were surveyed to determine the threats say rapid
development is among the problems affecting the lakes:


One of the more subtle but relentless threats to the Great Lakes is
coastal development. Condos, ever larger and nicer beach homes
and buildings and parking lots in the watershed all have an
impact on the Lakes. As the population grows and the suburban
lifestyle keeps spreading, the health of the lakes is compromised
in countless tiny ways. Reporter Peter Payette finds those tiny
ways all add up:


Greg Reisig is standing at the edge of a 20-acre construction site
just down the street from the shore Lake Michigan.


Below him is a man-made pond a few hundred feet long. It was a
dry summer around here, but the pond is full.


In fact, Reisig says the water level is always the same.


“And that indicates there’s a lot of ground water flowing
here…there’s a lot of water in this pond and you can see what
was a whole big wetland complex…there’s a lot of cedar and red
osier dogwood…all the wetland plants.”


There are no wetlands here now.


The site in northern Michigan was excavated for homes a few
years ago.


But now the Army Corps of Engineers says the wetlands that
were here need to be restored. A few acres likely will be
restored. But Reisig says almost the whole site was wetlands
once. He expects it will soon be a subdivision with not much
more than a drainage ditch connecting it to Lake Michigan.


“What will that do to the amount of flow of water going into the
bay? Because of hard road surfaces, hard driveways, roofs,
buildings and supposedly fertilized lawns. What will happen to
the water and how will that increase the flow to the bay?”


The developer’s attorney says this is nonsense. Matt Vermetten
says this land was heavily farmed and mined for clay.


“There are pockets of quote unquote wetland and those are there
because of excavation for clay. So is this a wetland complex of
the nature we speak of when we typically speak of such a thing? I
think not.”


Disputes like this are becoming more common around the Great
Lakes. John Nelson is the baykeeper with the Grand Traverse
Bay Watershed Center. The bay off Lake Michigan and attracts a
lot of people. But Nelson says development doesn’t have to be a
problem.


He says the problem is people don’t think about the ecology of
the lakes. For example, east of Traverse City, Michigan, resorts
dominate the coastline. Along the beach, thick stands of sedges
and rushes extend out a few hundred feet. But the sections of
dark green marsh alternate with stretches of clean sand and white
lawn chairs.


(birds calling on beach)


Nelson grew up here and says this part of the lake was never a
sugar sand beach.


“They’ve located in a coastal marsh. Instead of celebrating and
dealing with that they’ve chosen to see it as they would like to
have it and then change it.”


The impacts of the changes are cumulative. Fish and wildlife
habitat is fragmented. The natural filtering properties of the
wetlands are gone.


So every time the city gets a rain shower all the dust and grime
and pollution are washed right into the lake.


Census data show people are leaving many of the Great Lakes
coastal cities and spreading out along the coastline. But it’s not
clear how local governments should plan for the growth.


Mike Klepinger studies land use planning for the Michigan Sea
Grant program. He says it’s hard to make direct connections
between a healthy lake and particular land uses.


“We are getting more planning along the shoreline than we had
thirty years ago in the state. The number of counties and number
of townships that have a plan has gone up, for example. But we
don’t know whether those plans are really doing any good.”


And it’s hard to implement good planning on a broad basis. In
any area, dozens of different local governments might have
independent control over development.


Multiply that by the number cities, townships and counties along
the coasts of the Great Lakes… and it’s hard to see how it all can
be managed so that enough coastline habitat is preserved.


For the GLRC, I’m Peter Payette.

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