Tag: new england

Making Boat Washing Mandatory

  • Sarah and Mike Litch rake the bottom of Little Glen Lake, identifying plants to make sure there are no new foreign invaders. They want to catch problems early before they spread and completely take over this lake. (Photo by Linda Stephan)

Aquatic plants and animals can cling to the bottom of
recreational boats. That’s one way invasive species are spread. A couple of hitchhiking zebra mussels, or a plant
caught in the propeller are enough to alter the ecosystem of an
entire lake. One resort region has passed laws requiring boaters
to wash their boats before putting them into their local lakes.
But some state officials don’t like the new laws, and that
might make it impossible to enforce them. Linda Stephan
reports:

Transcript

Aquatic plants and animals can cling to the bottom of
recreational boats. That’s one way invasive species are spread. A couple of hitchhiking zebra mussels, or a plant
caught in the propeller are enough to alter the ecosystem of an
entire lake. One resort region has passed laws requiring boaters
to wash their boats before putting them into their local lakes.
But some state officials don’t like the new laws, and that
might make it impossible to enforce them. Linda Stephan
reports:


Little Glen Lake is known for unpredictable winds, and clear
blue waters… at times the lake is turquoise. It sits against
glacial dunes that lead to the eastern coast of Lake Michigan.
Sarah Litch retired here with her husband Mike:


“It was kind of a toss-up between New England and here. Miss
the mountains, but we love the water here. Although there are
so many water issues now. I don’t know.”


Those water issues include foreign invasive plants that could
take over Little Glen Lake:


On a pontoon boat, the Litch’s zig zag across the lake, raking up
aquatic plants at the bottom. If there are any invaders, they
want to find them early.


One of the bad guys they’re looking for is Eurasian water
milfoil. That’s a long, thin plant with feather-like green leaves.
Another invader is Hydrilla. You’ve probably seen it in
aquariums. It’s taken over lakes from California to Indiana, and
on to Maine. Both plants grow very quickly, they choke out native
fish habitat, and form a green carpet on the lake surface:


“And then it can be all – you’re trying to boat in all this tangle
of aquatic plants, or swim. So it just ruins a lake.”


These invaders have likely spread from lake to lake across the
US hitchhiking on boats pulled out of one lake, and headed for
another.


Some states such as Maine and Minnesota now require boaters
to make sure crafts and trailers are free of aquatic nuisances
before they drive down the road with them, possibly
endangering other lakes. And in those states, officials inspect
boats, too.


But other states, such as Pennsylvania and Michigan, have NOT
taken those steps, and Michigan borders four of the five Great
Lakes.


Since the state hasn’t passed laws to prevent boats from moving
invasive species from one lake to another, some local officials
have.


Sarah Litch designed a local law that requires boats to be washed
before going into local inland lakes, and it easily passed in two
adjoining communities. So around here, it’s a 500 dollar fine if
you don’t wash your boat.


Homeowners provide a free wash station at the main point of
entry to Little Glen Lake, a state-owned boat launch, but a few
boaters had refused the voluntary local inspections. That
frustrated Sarah Litch enough to fight for new local laws:


“Just to give people that are working at the boat wash a little more
backup when they have a refusal. So that they can inform the
individual and take their license if they refuse.”


But the local governments might end up in a power struggle
with the state agency that controls the boat launch, the
Michigan Department of Natural Resources. The state
agency doesn’t like this new local law.


Jason Fleming – who’s with the agency – says the homeowners’
boat wash has been successfully running on state property for a
decade, but only because the state allows it with special
permission:


“When we established that with the association, it was based on
a voluntary basis. So we’d have to review the terms and the
language of that agreement.”


In other words, if workers at the wash station start reporting
boaters to the local sheriff for refusing their services. Fleming
says the state might kick them off the state-owned boat launch
property. He says a voluntary approach is enough.


State officials don’t believe the local law applies to the state-
owned boat launch.


Chris Bzdok is an environmental lawyer. He says state courts have repeatedly ruled that local
governments can make laws like this one… and they can enforce them:


“The localities have a right to protect these resources – whether
they’re being accessed through a road end, through a private
marina, or through a state facility. The larger question is why
the DNR has a problem with it. What would be any good-faith,
genuine, substantive reason for opposing that?”


Scanning the lake from the boat launch, Sarah Litch talks of
what to do when – not if – the next invading plant or aquatic
animal arrives.


She says the best way to protect the lakes is to enforce the local
law, to make sure boats don’t bring in new invaders.


For the Environment Report, I’m Linda Stephan.

Related Links

Growing Zones Warm Up

  • The National Arbor Day Foundation's revised hardiness zone map. (Photo courtesy of the National Arbor Day Foundation)

If you’ve been thinking about landscaping your yard, you should know things have
changed. The climate is warming so quickly that one organization has changed the
plant hardiness zone map. That’s the little map you sometimes see on the back of
seed packets. Lester Graham reports… you might want to check out the new map
before you spend hundreds of dollars on a tree that might not live long in your
warmer zone:

Transcript

If you’ve been thinking about landscaping your yard, you should know things have
changed. The climate is warming so quickly that one organization has changed the
plant hardiness zone map. That’s the little map you sometimes see on the back of
seed packets. Lester Graham reports… you might want to check out the new map
before you spend hundreds of dollars on a tree that might not live long in your
warmer zone:


You know, I’ve talked to a lot of gardeners and homeowners who do their own
landscaping about this plant hardiness zone map change, and at first they’re
kind of astounded. The growing zones are changing? Because it’s getting warmer?


But then, they sort of pause and think for a moment… and usually say something like,
“That makes sense.”


The United States Department of Agriculture issues the plant hardiness zone map.
It’s basically a map of the annual average low temperatures that helps folks figure
out what they can plant and expect to survive. But the USDA hasn’t updated its map
since 1990.


The spokesman at the National Arbor Day Foundation, Woody Nelson – I kid you not,
the Arbor Day guy’s name is Woody – Woody says his organization issued a new
map because it really needed to be updated:


“You know, people were asking us to help out, you know, ‘This old USDA map just doesn’t
seem to work for us anymore. I don’t think it’s accurate. What can you do to help?’
So we took it upon ourselves to give tree-planters the most up-to-date information
that we could.”


So the National Arbor Day Foundation looked at the low temperature data gathered
by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration since 1990, and the people
were right: things are warming up:


“And over that 15-year span that we used, much of the country had warmed a full
hardiness zone.”


And there’s a ten degree difference from one zone to the next. It shows a real on-
the-ground trend.


Richard Andres is with Tantre Farm. They grow organic produce for farmers’
markets like this one in Michigan. Andres didn’t know about the new Arbor Day
Hardiness Zone map, but it makes sense to him. He says he’s seeing more
extremes:


“You know, last winter was unusually warm. The winter before, unusually warm.
So, we really didn’t even get a decent freeze. We had a huge amount of bugs the
following spring. So we are noticing more extremes.”


But a farmer or gardener can adjust things for annual plants. Long term, you’re
probably wondering whether you can now plant that dogwood or whether you
should plant that spruce from up north.


(Sound of sprinkler)


Phil Walsh sells a lot of trees at Lodi Farms nursery. He knew about the new Arbor
Day Hardiness Zone map. But, he says there’s a lot more to think about than just
the annual average low temperature when you’re thinking about planting:


“Cold is not the only, or really the most, important factor when determining plant
hardiness. Questions like soil: is it well-drained; is it not; is it wet; is it dry; is it acid
or is it alkaline; do you have wind; do you have shade? Questions like this: is it high
in organic material or low in organic material? These tend to have more impact on
whether or not plants survive than strictly the zone rating.”


Walsh says the trees are pretty tough, and most of them can adapt:


“Yes, things have warmed up over the last 15 years and they may well continue or it may change and it may go down. Pick a good, hardy plant that’s well-suited for your soil
and typically one that’s native here, that’s gone through these temperature changes
in the past and I don’t expect anybody’s going to have any problems with them.”


That’s not to say that every kind of tree is taking this in stride. For example, black
spruce trees adapted to Canadian and upper New England cold might not be such a
good choice as far south as it’s been grown in the past.


Woody Nelson at the National Arbor Day Foundation says trees native to the North
are starting to be affected by the warming climate:


“There’s a whole lot of white pines that have been planted in Georgia, in the South
as a nice landscape tree over the years. And now those white pines are coming
under a little bit of stress. The native lodge pole pines, the native loblolly pines in the
deep South, again native species are something that we want to promote and stick
with.”


So, the basic rule is: if the plant hardiness zone map has shifted one growing zone
warmer in just 15 years, you’ll probably want to stick to trees native to your area, or
from just a little south of you just in case this warming trend sticks around for a while.


For the Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

A Mad Dash for Trash

  • Penn State is luring people to its annual "Trash to Treasure" event with gimmicks such as going for the "most people disguised as Groucho Marx" record. (Photo courtesy of Penn State University)

Each spring when college students leave their dorms, they leave behind tons of unwanted furniture, rugs, and other stuff that just didn’t make the cut for the trip back home. At one time, it all would’ve ended up in a landfill. In recent years, some universities have been sorting out the usable items and holding huge yard sales. The GLRC’s Jennifer Szweda Jordan took her pocketbook and her microphone to one of those big sales:

Transcript

Each spring when college students leave their dorms, they leave behind tons of unwanted
furniture, rugs, and other stuff that just didn’t make the cut for the trip back home. At one time,
it all would’ve ended up in a landfill. In recent years, some universities have been sorting out the
usable items and holding huge yard sales. The GLRC’s Jennifer Szweda Jordan took her
pocketbook and her microphone to one of those big sales:


“Welcome to the fifth annual Trash to Treasure sale. Let the excitement begin.”


At 7:30 a.m., the gates to Beaver football stadium at Penn State are hoisted and thousands of
people run through six metal corrals. It’s a mad dash for CD players, stuffed animals, and other
remnants of college. Sixty-six tons… of stuff. What’s with kids leaving behind all this, and that
$215 chichi bronze silk purse – with tag intact?


“No one wants to take it home. I mean to fit all that stuff in a car – it’s awful. It’s really hard to
do. So I mean if you can’t fit it you might as well leave it and leave it for somebody else.”


Erin Horning is a college student herself. She’s here for the fourth year in a row.


“I was a freshman in college this past year so I came here to get all my college stuff from the
students that already left like irons, and oh, furniture….”


Penn State’s Environmental Strategies Team started the Trash to Treasure sale to keep leftover
lumber and coffee mugs out of the waste stream. Other major colleges around the country are
following suit, including Notre Dame and West Virginia University. Penn State spokesman Paul
D. Ruskin says it also saves the school 43-hundred dollars in hauling costs.

“We had a problem. We had 60 to 70 tons of usable material left behind. And the solution which
we found was to have this massive sale and to have the items donated to this sale. And to have
United Way take over and manage the sale.”


The charity brings in 300 volunteers who sort sale items over a few weeks. Bethany Heim
volunteered for 19 shifts. She and her husband are also first in line for the sale, having arriving
around midnight.


(sound of people in stadium)


“I came for a vacuum. It started as a joke when I started volunteering here three weeks ago.
And now I found THE vacuum.”

Heim says that besides keeping trash out of landfills, the sale benefits the community in other
ways.


“They have stuff put away for Katrina victims. I’m sure some of it will make its way to the flood
victims in New England. And just that it’s not on the sides of the streets – ’cause driving
through town when you see all the furniture from the college kids on the sides of the streets.”


Penn State tries to bring more customers in every year. The school’s Paul D. Ruskin admits that
the county market for box fans has already been saturated. So now it’s trying to generate
enthusiasm with gimmicks. Like this year’s attempt to break the record for the most people
wearing Groucho Marx masks. The effort fell 138 people shy. Still, the United Way netted 45,000 dollars. And as for Bethany Heim…


“I got my vacuum!”


And with happy customers like that, universities are starting to realize that selling all the college
student leftovers is good P.R. as well as just good sense.


For the GLRC, I’m Jennifer Szweda Jordan.

Related Links

A MAD DASH FOR TRASH (Short Version)

When college students head home for the summer, the unmatched dishware and stuffed animals that filled dorms often become trash, but a number of schools are turning stadiums into sale grounds and hawking the remnants of college life. The GLRC’s Jennifer Szweda Jordan has more:

Transcript

When college students head home for the summer, the unmatched dishware and stuffed animals
that filled dorms often become trash, but a number of schools are turning stadiums into sale
grounds and hawking the remnants of college life. The GLRC’s Jennifer Szweda Jordan has
more:


When college lets out, dumpsters get overwhelmed with tons of students’ belongings, but not at
a few major universities. Five years ago, Penn State started getting students to donate their
goods. The school invited the local United Way to sort area rugs and shoes, to run a sale and
to reap the profits. Notre Dame and West Virginia University followed suit.


Paul D. Ruskin is a Penn State spokesman.


“It is a solution that has no downside. It keeps things out of the landfill. It keeps down Penn
State operating costs. It makes nice items available to families at a good price. And it helps a
charitable organization.”


It’s also a big draw. More than five-thousand people attended Penn State’s event this year.
Other universities are reporting similar turnouts.


For the GLRC, I’m Jennifer Szweda Jordan.

Related Links

Trash Burning Can Threaten Human Health

  • Burning trash smells bad and it can create the conditions necessary to produce dioxin. If livestock are exposed to that dioxin, it can get into the meat and milk we consume, creating health risks. (Photo courtesy of the Minnesota Office of Environmental Assistance)

For most of us, getting rid of the garbage is as simple as setting it at the curb. But not everyone can get garbage pick-up. So, instead, they burn their trash. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports… that choice could be affecting your health:

Transcript

For most of us, getting rid of the garbage is as simple as setting it at the
curb, but not everyone can get garbage pick-up. So, instead, they burn
their trash. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham
reports… that choice could be affecting your health:


(Sound of garbage trucks)


It’s not been that long ago that people everywhere but in the largest cities
burned their trash in a barrel or pit in the backyard. That’s not as often
the case these days. Garbage trucks make their appointed rounds in
cities, small towns, and in some rural areas, but they don’t pick up
Everywhere, or if they do offer service, it’s much more expensive
because the pick-up is so far out in the country.


Roger Booth lives in a rural area in southwestern Illinois. He says
garbage pick-up is not an option for him.


“Well, we burn it and then bury the ashes and things. We don’t have a
good way to dispose of it any other method. The cost of having pick up
arranged is prohibitive.”


He burns his garbage in the backyard. Booth separates bottles and tin
cans from the rest of the garbage so that he doesn’t end up with broken
glass and rusty cans scattered around.


A lot of people don’t do that much. They burn everything in a barrel and
then dump the ashes and scrap in a gully… or just burn everything in a
gully or ditch. Booth says that’s the way most folks take care of the
garbage in the area. No one talks about the smoke or fumes put off by
the burning.


“I haven’t ever thought much about that. So, I don’t suppose that I have
any real concerns at this moment. I don’t think I’m doing anything
different than most people.”


And that’s what many people who burn their garbage say.


A survey conducted by the Zenith Research Group found that people in
areas of Wisconsin and Minnesota who didn’t have regular garbage
collection believe burning is a viable option to get rid of their household
and yard waste. Nearly 45-percent of them indicated it was
“convenient,” which the researchers interpreted to mean that even if
garbage pick-up were available, the residents might find more convenient
to keep burning their garbage.


While some cities and more densely populated areas have restricted
backyard burning… state governments in all but a handful of states in
New England and the state of California have been reluctant to put a lot
of restrictions on burning barrels.


But backyard burning can be more than just a stinky nuisance. Burning
garbage can bring together all the conditions necessary to produce
dioxin. Dioxin is a catch-all term that includes several toxic compounds.
The extent of their impact on human health is not completely know, but
they’re considered to be very dangerous to human health in the tiniest
amounts.


Since most of the backyard burning is done in rural areas, livestock are
exposed to dioxin and it gets into the meat and milk that we consume.


John Giesy is with the National Food Safety and Toxicology Center at
Michigan State University. He says as people burn garbage, the dioxins
are emitted in the fumes and smoke…


“So, when they fall out onto the ground or onto the grass, then animals
eat those plants and it becomes part of their diet, and ultimately it’s
accumulated into the animal and it’s stored as fat. Now, particularly with
dairy cattle, one of the concerns about being exposed to dioxins is that
then when they’re producing milk, milk has fat it in, it has butter fat in it,
and the dioxins go along with that.”


So, every time we drink milk, snack on cheese, or eat a hamburger, we
risk getting a small dose of dioxin. Beyond that, vegetables from a
farmer’s garden, if not properly washed, could be coated with dioxins,
and even a miniscule amount of dioxin is risky.


John Giesy says chemical manufacturing plants and other sources of
man-made dioxin have been cleaned up. Now, backyard burning is the
biggest source of dioxins produced by humans.


“So, now as we continue to strive to reduce the amount of dioxins in the
environment and in our food, this is one place where we can make an
impact.”


“That’s the concern. That’s the concern, is that it’s the largest remaining
source of produced dioxin.”


Dan Hopkins is with the Environmental Protection Agency. He says,
collectively, backyard burning produces 50 times the amount of dioxin as
all the large and medium sized incinerators across the nation combined.
That’s because the incinerators burn hot enough to destroy dioxins and
have pollution control devices to limit emissions. Backyard burning
doesn’t get nearly that hot and the smoke and fumes spread unchecked.


The EPA wants communities to take the problem of backyard burning
seriously. It wants state and local governments to do more to make
people aware that backyard burning is contaminating our food and
encourage them to find other ways to get rid of their garbage.


“(It) probably won’t be a one-size-fits-all solution, but by exchanging
successful efforts that other communities have had, we should be able to
help communities fashion approaches that have a high probability of
success.”


But public education efforts are expensive, and often they don’t reach the
people who most need to hear them. The EPA is not optimistic that it
will see everyone stop burning their garbage. It’s not even a goal. The
agency is just hoping enough people will find other ways to get rid of
their trash that the overall dioxin level in food is reduced.


For the GLRC, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

Maple Syrup Flows With Tradition

  • A demonstration of making syrup without modern tools. Hot rocks are placed into a hollowed out log to boil the sap. (Photo courtesy of the Geauga Park District)

April is the month for the highest maple syrup production in North America – and a time when many towns and villages in the Great Lakes states hold pancake breakfasts. The practice of tapping trees for syrup or sugar goes back centuries, long before European settlement. But as the Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Urycki reports, the methods used to make syrup have changed only a little with time and technology:

Transcript

April is the month for the highest maple syrup production in North America – and a time when
many towns and villages in the Great Lakes States hold pancake breakfasts. The practice of
tapping trees for syrup or sugar goes back centuries, long before European settlement. But as the
Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Mark Urycki reports, the methods used to make syrup have
changed only a little with time and technology:


In a world where sugar is infused in almost every processed food we eat, it’s hard to imagine a
world without it. But before Europeans introduced honey bees to North America, most native
Americans could only turn to the trees. In a grove of sugar maples, called a sugar bush, Park
naturalist, Dan Best, illustrates the painstaking way Indians boiled down the sap without metal
utensils. It starts with pouring the gathered sap into a hollow log.


“I’m taking this fire-heated rock that’s absorbed a lot of heat from the fire and placing the sap
in the hollow log here. All day and all night for days at a time to get any quantity of sugar made.


Later, white settlers brought cast iron cauldrons. And a bigger improvement in maple sugar
production came with the invention of tin sheet metal. That allowed farmers to pound metal
tubes, or spiles, into the trees and then hang lightweight buckets.


“Tin buckets, like I say, have been used for since the 1860’s. Some places, smaller sugaring
operations, today still find it feasible to use buckets. It’s mounted on a hole under the rim of the
bucket right on the metal spile, so you can keep it, you pivot it right on the spile and empty it into
a gathering pail and today most people use 5-gallon plastic buckets for gathering pails.”


Doesn’t this harm the tree to some degree to be losing sap?


“Not really, if you tap according to the guidelines roughly speaking for every foot of diameter
that you have you can have a bucket. You have to have a good 12 to 18 inch tree to be able to put
on a single bucket. You get up 24 inches so you can put two buckets on and so on but these days
you don’t put any more than three buckets on the trees – too many stresses these days on maple
trees. Between air pollution and the drought we’re having, and so fourth, that we really look
closer. Today’s producers look very close at the health of individual trees.”


(sound of horse team)


Traditionally, the buckets were emptied into a large holding tank. Draft horses like these pulled
the tank on a sled through the forest to a sugar house. Viola Skinner remembers her parents using
a team.


“The tank that we had in our sugar bush had a rail on it and it was drawn by horses on a sled and
with the rail on it we could all jump up and hang on to the rail and go for a ride and we thought it
was fun and games. We didn’t realize we were working dumping into the gathering tank, so
that’s how we did it.”


Amish farmers are still using that method. Fourteen states from New England along the Great
Lakes to Minnesota and Canada produce maple syrup. A common method today is to run plastic
tubing from one tree to another. Sap usually runs by gravity down to a holding tank, saving work
and lessening erosion caused by driving on steep slopes. The tanks of sap are then boiled down
in a sugar house – 40 gallons of sap to get one gallon of syrup. Hans Geiss looks over one
evaporator, which, like most, are fired by wood.


“Probably about 85 to 90-percent are still wood fired.”


So what degree of sweetness do you want here?


“If you take it up from an average of 2 % sugar to about 67 % sugar.


What happens if you’re a little too sweet or a little under sweet?


“If you’re very much below 66% sugar the syrup won’t keep, it will ferment. If it’s much over
67% it will crystallize in the can; it’s like rock candy on the bottom. So you got to be pretty
much right on.”


Maple candy has been the specialty of Debbie Richards’ family. Her grandparents built a sugar
house in 1910 and it’s been the family’s only business ever since.


Richards buys syrup from area Amish farmers to make candy. The sap runs when daytime
temperatures rise above freezing and nighttime temperatures drop below.


Did you have a later season this year?


Yes, quite a bit later. The last three years the season has started earlier than usual. The season
most commonly starts between Valentine’s Day and President’s day. Wasn’t until March that
most people tapped.


Simply because the weather was so cold?


“Right.”


Are there fewer people doing this as maple forests get cut?


“I wouldn’t say there’s fewer people doing it, but the size of the operations are smaller. With
developments going in and roads being widened a lot of the sizes of the farms are being cut
down.”


Although the season started late, Richards says this was a good year, with the sap having a high
sugar content. Sweet news for the maple syrup industry.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Mark Urycki.

Feds Take Utility Company to Court

The U.S. Justice Department is suing several utility companies in the Midwest and South. The charge is that they didn’t install state of the art pollution controls when they renovated their power plants, a violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The first case is being heard in a federal courtroom in Columbus, Ohio. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Cohen reports:

Transcript

The U.S. Justice Department is suing several utility companies in the Midwest and South. The
charge is that they didn’t install state of the art pollution controls when they renovated their power
plants, a violation of the federal Clean Air Act. The first case is being heard in a federal
courtroom in Columbus, Ohio. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Bill Cohen reports:


About a decade ago, First Energy corporation fixed up a power plant built in 1959 in
Steubenville, Ohio, but it didn’t put in the latest high-tech scrubbers. The company insisted it was
just routine maintenance, so the requirement for top of the line pollution controls didn’t apply.
The justice department disagreed and sued, and states in the Northeast are cheering. They say
soot and smog from the Great Lakes region travel hundreds of miles to New England.
Environmental activists like Jack Shaner say maybe the pollution travels, maybe it doesn’t, but
either way, a crackdown is needed.


“Study after study have shown it’s the folks that live in the shadow of these power plants within a
hundred miles or so that bear the brunt of it. That’s why it’s particularly important for Ohio and
for the Midwest to clean up these power plants. If it helps New England, God bless ’em, but we
gotta start in our own backyard here first.”


President Bush is reportedly pushing for changes, so that state of the art pollution controls
couldn’t be required so often.


For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, I’m Bill Cohen.