Some government scientists say right now could be the only time in their careers to make some some key environmental advances. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
We’re hearing more and more about federal
stimulus money being used to help laid-off
workers or repair bridges or roads. Shawn
Allee reports the government wants
stimulus money to move through a wish list
of environmental science projects, too:
Transcript
We’re hearing more and more about federal
stimulus money being used to help laid-off
workers or repair bridges or roads. Shawn
Allee reports the government wants
stimulus money to move through a wish list
of environmental science projects, too:
Department of Energy labs say stimulus dollar figures are staggering compared to what the government has been spending on science.
Take a federal renewable energy lab in Colorado.
Jeffrey Baker is a lab director there.
Baker says they’re learning to make ethanol out of plants other than corn. That project’s getting ten million dollars in stimulus money.
“The Recovery Act is allowing us to expand a project we already have, going to, in effect, double the capacity the nation has to do that research and development.”
Other Department of Energy labs got stimulus money for work on high-tech car batteries, smart energy grids, and radar to model global warming.
Some government scientists say right now could be the only time in their careers to make some some key environmental advances.
Mother-calf pair of "Type C" orcas in the Ross Sea. (Photo by Robert Pitman, NOAA)
For many people orca whales are very
familiar. Think Shamu. We’ve even given the wild
killer whales of the Pacific Northwest individual
names. But there’s still a lot we don’t know, like
where the whales go and what they eat. Now that they’re
listed as endangered, those have become important
questions. Liam Moriarty accompanied a research
crew trying to get answers:
Transcript
For many people orca whales are very
familiar. Think Shamu. We’ve even given the wild
killer whales of the Pacific Northwest individual
names. But there’s still a lot we don’t know, like
where the whales go and what they eat. Now that they’re
listed as endangered, those have become important
questions. Liam Moriarty accompanied a research
crew trying to get answers:
Killer whales are sloppy eaters, so one way to study their diet is to
scoop up the leftover crumbs. Robin Baird says another way is to
study what comes out the other end.
“And so we basically follow behind the whales and pick up whatever
they leave behind, so either bits of fish if they’re actually catching
prey, or fecal material which we can use to look at what they’re
feeding on using genetic analysis.”
Baird is a biologist with Cascadia Research in Olympia, Washington.
(outboard motorboat sounds up)
On this morning, Baird, biologist Brad Hanson, and several other
researchers are piled into a 19-foot inflatable boat. We’re heading out
from Friday Harbor, north of Seattle to look for whales. We head
toward the Canadian border, keeping our eyes peeled. A while later,
we locate a group of more than a dozen whales.
(boat slows down)
Now comes the tricky part. The game plan is to pick an animal to
follow, and hope it leaves a specimen in its wake.
Baird: “We’ll come along side this one, get an ID then we’ll start a
flukeprint on her.”
Whales are surfacing and diving all around us.
(whale exhalation)
Researchers call out sightings, directions and distances …
“Multiple targets. Two animals. (How far?) 100 meters.”
Robin Baird maneuvers the boat into the wake of a passing whale.
“Oh, fish in mouth! Eleven’s got … the male’s got a fish in mouth!”
Researcher Greg Shorr stands in a pulpit at the bow of the boat with
a long handled pool net, looking intently into the water for the telltale
glitter of fish scales.
“OK, dip!”
He dips the net and comes up with a few scales and bits of tissue.
(whale breath)
Soon we’re tracking other orcas.
Hanson: “Chase! Underwater chase, 12 o’clock! Another target up,
125 behind us at 5 o’clock … might be chasing something … Yep!
Definitely chasing something! Two animals back there, three
animals!”
We spend over an hour tailing whales and dipping pool nets that
mostly come up empty.
(whale breath)
Getting this up-close and personal with the whales would get anyone
who doesn’t have a federal research permit ticketed for whale
harassment … But this kind of work is one important way to get
information that could help save the orcas from extinction.
Eventually, the whales move on. We make the long trip back.
(boat motors up, fades)
(brewpub noise)
That evening, in a dockside brewpub, Brad Hanson and Robin Baird
reflect on the day’s work; twelve hours on often-choppy seas. Baird
says that’s what it takes to get close to the whales.
“If we want to be able to really understand what they’re doing, we
have to be able to see the fine details of their behavior. And the only
way we’re going to se those fine details is if we’re actually close
enough to see whether a whale has a fish in its mouth when it comes
up to the surface.”
Hanson says that approach is paying off.
“Some 30 years we’ve known all these individual animals and people
have spent a lot of time looking at them, but we are seeing things in
the last couple of years that other people have not seen.”
For instance, orcas sometimes play with their food or share prey with
each other. Analysis of fecal samples has pinpointed what kinds of
fish the whales eat, and when. Observations like these have given
researchers a better picture of how the animals interact with their
habitat. And that fills in a few more pieces of the puzzle they hope will
lead to recovery for the Pacific Northwest’s endangered killer
whales.
To quarantine the emerald ashborer, the delivery of firewood has gone through some restrictions. This is leading to some shortages in certain areas. (photo by Joao Estevao)
There are firewood shortages in some areas. That’s because states are restricting the transportation of wood to try to keep the emerald ash borer from spreading. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports:
Transcript
There are firewood shortages in some areas. That’s
because states are restricting the transporation of
wood to try to keep the emerald ash borer from
spreading. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester
Graham reports:
Firewood providers are finding they’re cut off from
their customers. States are restricting the
transportation of any firewood from some areas to keep
the emerald ash borer contained. Some firewood suppliers
say the states are over-reacting. Jim Albring is with
Lumber Jacks Quality Firewood. The company is in
Michigan less than a mile from the Ohio border.
“We have three thousand customers in Ohio that we
can’t ship to.”
Including wood bundles for Krogers grocery stores.
Albring says his company hasn’t cut ash, the wood the
emerald ash borer is attacking, for two years now.
Still he can’t ship his firewood.
“I think what happened is that they jumped the gun and
before researching things they made a lot of decisions
that were really, really bad. It’s just a scandal.”
In areas where there are shortages of firewood, the
price is going up.
For the Great Lakes Radio Consortium, this is Lester
Graham.
Some government scientists say right now could be the only time in their careers to make some some key environmental advances. (Photo courtesy of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory)
