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Tuesday, 01 November 2011 00:00 |
By Merritt Frey – River Network Blog – October 31, 2011 Luckily for the Charles River (and all the people who visit it) some people don't see any problem as too big. Or too long-term. Or too gross. On September 27, 2011 the Charles River won the International RiverPrize, for excellence in river management. The $330,000 prize went to a River Network Partner group Charles River Watershed Association. (CRWA's Executive Director, Bob Zimmerman, also sits on River Network's Board of Directors.) The Boston Globe summarizes the river's past in its article about the recent award: It was unthinkable 20 years ago that the Charles River would ever be clean enough to win the world’s leading environmental prize for river restoration. Back then, human feces lapped at the Museum of Science. It was a river with “belly-up fish and algal blooms making dogs sick,’’ recalled Arleen O’Donnell, former state department of environmental protection acting commissioner. For full blog post, click here.
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Last Updated on Wednesday, 30 November 2011 14:05 |
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Monday, 28 November 2011 16:23 |
By Carol Hardin – Opinion – Leader-Telegram – November 26, 2011Proponents of state Senate/ Assembly Bill 24 are calling it a “wetland reform bill.” This is very misleading because while it does concern regulations relating to wetlands and dock-siting, SB/AB 24 is actually a repackaging of an environmentally damaging mining bill introduced last spring. The bill was tabled after the huge outcry against it by people who value and want to protect our precious natural resources and environment. This bill has provisions to remove air emissions modeling requirements for new air permits for coal plants and other polluters. The bill would rubber-stamp permits for high capacity wells. It would require the Department of Natural Resources to approve shoreland and dredging permits within 30 days, regardless of staffing levels or permit volume, and it reduces the department’s ability to require complete permit applications. For full story, click here. |
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Monday, 14 November 2011 16:34 |
By Gary Chittim – King 5 News – November 10, 2011For decades a Tacoma industrial area wetland served as a landfill. For years Ryan Peterson served as a soldier in Iraq. Now their service is over and they are working together to find their way back. "I wanted to keep serving the community," said Peterson as he planted a tree on a steep slope, "I got out and this provided me that opportunity. I get to do that and be outdoors." The recently formed Puget SoundCorps, a combination of programs under the Washington Conservation Corps, is funded by federal and state funds and gives returning vets a job and training for a possible career in natural resources. It gives Peterson, whose wife is still on active duty while they raise they child, a chance he hasn't gotten from other employers. To read full story, click here.
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Monday, 28 November 2011 16:25 |
By Julia O'Neal – Opinion – Sun Herald – November 26, 2011The day before Thanksgiving the Corps of Engineers published a permit application for wetlands filling from Mississippi Power. It came two weeks after the re-election of the three members of the Public Service Commission -- two in thrall to Mississippi Power and able to overrule the third. The wetlands fill will be in connection with building a scrubber for Plant Daniel’s two coal-fired generators (the other two are natural gas) along with a sideline gypsum business. Mississippi Power refuses to convert the coal generators to natural gas, even though it would save ratepayers money. But ratepayers don’t count; they are stuck with the same PSC that gave us the Kemper coal plant. (And they deserve them; they elected them.) For story, click here. |
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Monday, 14 November 2011 16:43 |
By Mark Schleifstein - The Times-Picayune – November 10, 2011Local leaders announced Thursday the beginning of a project to restore a key area of cypress swampland near the Lower 9th Ward, an effort they called essential to protecting the metro area in the event of another major hurricane. Swinging shovels full of dirt, New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and St. Bernard Parish President Craig Taffaro said the eventual restoration of the 30,000-acre triangle of the once-vibrant Central Wetlands will be part of the several lines of defense that will keep the area safe from storm surge. To read full story, click here. |
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Last Updated on Monday, 14 November 2011 16:55 |
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Thursday, 15 September 2011 00:00 |
September 2011
This report, prepared by the Massachusetts Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs and the Massachusetts Climate Change Adaptation Advisory Committee, is the first broad overview of climate change as it affects Massachusetts, the impacts of this change, vulnerabilities of multiple sectors ranging from natural resources, infrastructure, public health, and the economy. It addresses the role of wetlands in several areas of the report. It also provides an analysis of potential strategies. To read the report, click here.
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