Frogs in Decline

For years it has been known what Atrazine and other pesticides do to amphibians, and yet these chemicals still get pumped into the system. What gives?

http://action.biologicaldiversity.org/p/dia/action/public/?action_KEY=6526

Frogs give, that's what gives.

Radiolab - WNYC

Earth Day 2011 only one week away!

A great resource to rely on for learning how to diminish, if not eliminate, your trash footprint is Colin Beavan's 'No Impact Man' blog.  From a blog entry in 2009, great tips were suggested for eliminating waste from your life.  I'm proud to report that we have only a couple areas to check off: soft paper goods (tissues and paper towels, both of which we buy from unbleached, 100% p-c sources), and certain plastics (specifically, those ratty little plastic "safety" strips found on most bottles, jars and other food containers, as well as, #5/7 plastic tub containers that sour cream, ricotta cheese and certain nuts/seeds come in).  I really appreciate his 'Waste not, want not' category.

From his 2009 blog post:

20 ways to keep the landfill empty

Organic material--food and paper, for example--rot and release methane, a potent greenhouse gas, when sent to the landfill. When the liners meant to seal landfills eventually crack, toxic substances can leach into the water table, causing hard to trace illnesses in faraway communities.
But perhaps the worse thing is, when we throw something in the landfill to be buried in the ground (or worse, in an incinerator to be burned into our air), it represents a waste of resources that we took from the earth in the first place.
Here's the good news: I think it actually feels good not to waste. That is to say, I've found that not making trash, actually makes me feel better about myself.
For these reasons, I've put together this list of 25 ways to avoid making trash suggest by readers of the No Impact Man blog:

1. Keep your own cutlery with you so you don't have to use the plastic versions
2. Cut up your old clothes for use as rags and avoid paper towels
3. Use mason jars to carry everything from drinking water to a packed lunch
4. Use a handkerchief instead of tissue
5. Make notepaper from the blank side of junk mail
6. Give your old eyeglasses to the local Lions Club for distribution to those in need
7. Make cardboard egg cartons into biodegradable seed starters
8. Cut yogurt containers into strips and use them to label garden plants
9. Use cloth bags for the bulk bins at the grocery store
10. Empty out vacuum cleaner bags and reuse
11. Use cloth napkins instead of paper towel
12. Cook from scratch to avoid food packaging
13. Use shaving soap bars to avoid throwaway bottles
14. Make your own yogurt so there are no plastic tubs
15. Wash and reuse ziplock bags
16. Use the waxy liners of cereal boxes to wrap sandwiches
17. Use scrap office paper for kids coloring books
18. Carry a cloth for drying your hands and wrapping things in
19. Pack a lunch in a reusable container instead of buying lunch in plastic packaging
20. Use rechargeable batteries

A hope for Earth's future: 'Power Shift 2011'

Until now, I was convinced there was no hope for our planet and co-inhabitants.  But maybe, just maybe, there is.  From a recent Wonkroom post:

Power Shift 2011, the biennial national summit of the youth climate movement, begins this Friday in Washington, DC. The challenges facing the Millennial generation posed by the dirty energy economy is seemingly insurmountable: the destruction of our planet’s atmosphere, the poisoning of our political discourse, the dissolution of the American Dream. Armed with the vision of a cleaner, greener, future, the participants in Power Shift are choosing not just to fight back, but to organize and realize their collective potential.

Do you have bats living in your barn or house?

Both of the species of bats most commonly found in NH attics and barns--Little and Big Brown bats--will take to bat houses.  Hang them under eaves over areas where you won't be bothered by guano (bat poop, and a good fertilizer), but where they will receive lots of sun and shelter from the elements.  You may have to experiment over a few summers before finding a successful location!

Many bat species are dying from a new disease called White Nose Syndrome.  Thousands upon thousands of bat lives have been lost since the disease was first detected in the northeast in the winter of 2008.

The following is an excerpt from a Speaking For Wildlife presentation that I have given as part of my volunteerism for the NH Coverts Project.  It was written by NH Fish and Game wildlife biologist Emily Brunkhurst and USFWS wildlife biologist Susi Von Oettingen, and is intended to provide homeowners some low cost, easy solutions for problems they find come with having bats, but also for providing bats the critical support they need now:

Have you ever had bats living in your house or barn? Finding solutions to the problems bats can cause without removing them from where they live is an important thing you can do for bats:


• Bats in your attic is a problem that usually can only be remedied by excluding bats from the house. If you are uncomfortable with bats in your attic, you can hire a licensed wildlife control operator to do an exclusion (or you can do it yourself). They will put up a 1-way device over the holes where bats enter your house, so the next time they fly out they cannot get back in. After the bats are all gone, you can seal up the holes. However, from mid-May through mid-August the bats have babies that cannot fly. To avoid baby bats starving in your attic, do not hire someone to do this exclusion during that time. Most won’t do it anyway. Allowing bats to be successful in raising pups is critical, so even in attics, if there is no immediate human health issue, let the bats remain there until the pups fly, then exclude all the bats. For the homeowner, excluding bats when pups are there runs the risk of dead bats remaining in the attic;

• In barns and outbuildings, tarps or other types of temporary ceilings can be put up to catch bat droppings, and be easily removed for cleaning. Thus the owner gets to use the barn for equipment and the bats get to use it too;

• Building bats houses can help too. Be sure they are large and put up properly (you may need to experiment over several summers). Bats look for good roosting places in buildings, so a bat house should be on a building, near the roof, and on the south side so it can get hot;

Big Brown bats are the most common attic bat and will also use barns and other buildings, both in summer and winter.  At night, after feeding on insects for awhile, they will rest in garages or on porches.  They often have two babies, unlike most of the other cave bats who only have one baby.  Big Brown bats appear to tolerate the drier conditions and somewhat variable temperatures found in buildings, as opposed to the consistent temperatures and high humidity found in caves, so while they will hibernate in caves and mines, they can also use buildings for hibernation.

Little Brown bats also live in houses and barns in the summer, preferring buildings close to open water so they can forage on mosquitoes and other aquatic insects. They hold their single pup between their wings during the day, and prefer to gather in very large colonies, with hundreds if not thousands of other bats around them.  In the winter, they all go to caves and mines.  They are the most susceptible to WNS.

• Tracking bats is important, and Fish and Game biologists want you to tell them about any maternity colonies you have in your houses, barns or other buildings. Instructions for doing a simple count and reporting this are on the bat pages of the NH Fish and Game website.  NH Fish and Game biologists cannot reply to every report, as they get many each week, but they will investigate all new locations with multiple sightings (by phone or by visiting the site).  However, they do use this valuable data, so please send it in!