Thursday, March 25, 2010

Dim Your Lights and Support Earth Hour on Saturday, March 27th

Climate change is happening all around us and its pace is accelerating. From melting glaciers to increasingly intense weather patterns, climate change is already impacting life on Earth. Urgent action is needed now to save our planet for future generations.

Luckily, there is an easy action step all of us can take. In a bold statement of collective concern, millions of people around the world will turn off their lights for one hour—Earth Hour—on March 27, 2010 at 8:30 p.m. local time. We urge everyone to take part and support this effort by committing to turn off all non-essential lighting for one hour in their home and workplace.  Learn more about this effort at http://www.earthhour.org/.

At URWA, we’re taking our involvement one step further. We are taking a close look at actions we can take to operate more efficiently, waste less and reduce our environmental footprint. We encourage fellow organizations in this region to do the same. Earth Hour is the perfect time to reassess, recommit and take responsibility for our planet.

Sponsored by World Wildlife Fund, Earth Hour is the largest event of its kind in the world. In 2009, nearly one billion people from 4,100 cities in 87 countries turned out their lights, as well as international landmarks including the Golden Gate Bridge, Empire State Building, Eiffel Tower and Great Pyramids, and the city skylines of Las Vegas, Hong Kong and Tel Aviv.

We have the power to make Earth Hour 2010 even bigger.

This is a critical moment for our planet. On March 27 at 8:30 p.m., let’s all turn out and take action.

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Herbicide Causes Sex Change in Frogs

The herbicide atrazine, heavily used in agriculture, is once again being implicated in the sexual mutation and decline of worldwide frog populations. The most recent study conducted by University of California Berkley professor Tyrone Hayes seems to point to this herbicide as the definitive cause for male frogs developing the physical characteristics of females.

The 40 young African Clawed frogs in the test were exposed to a water environment that contained 2.5 parts per billion (ppb) of atrazine for three years. Seventy five percent were chemically castrated by the exposure. Ten percent of them grew to be females, and were able to mate with males, but because they were genetically males, all of the offspring were males. In a population, these genetically male females can wipe out a population because they skew the sex ratio so badly.

Over 80 million pounds of this herbicide are applied annually in the United States to corn and sorghum crops to control weeds and increase yields. This intense use makes atrazine the most common pesticide contaminant of ground and surface water according to various studies.

The Environmental Protection Agency is reviewing its regulations on the use of the product. The European Union currently bans the use of atrazine. Several states are considering banning the product. Incidentally, the current standard set by the EPA for atrazine in drinking water is 3 parts per billion.

For more information on this topic, please visit http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/180882.php, or http://berkeley.edu/news/media/releases/2010/03/01_frogs.shtml.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Watershed Association Helps Bernardsville Map Shade Trees

Communities across the nation recognize that a healthy and expanding tree canopy improves the quality of life for their residents. In addition to making streets, neighborhoods, parks and commercial areas more attractive and improving property values, shade trees lower energy costs as they help keep homes and other buildings cool in summer months. They provide privacy, emphasize views, and screen out objectionable views. They improve air quality by removing dust and other particulates and by absorbing carbon dioxide and giving off oxygen. They buffer high winds, absorb and filter stormwater runoff and stabilize soil. They provide food and shelter to native wildlife.

The Bernardsville Shade Tree Advisory Committee was created several decades ago by the Borough Council, whose members understood the value of the community forest long before it became fashionable to “go green”. The committee has been working ever since to promote effective stewardship of shade trees.

As part of the team now working to help Bernardsville achieve certification through Sustainable JerseyTM, the committee is responsible for recommending a municipal Tree Canopy Goal with a defined, measurable outcome in relation to historic data. Unfortunately, the committee did not have the type of data necessary to begin developing such a goal, so it turned to the Upper Raritan Watershed Association (URWA) for assistance.

URWA has been utilizing computer-based Geographic Information System technology to create, edit, analyze, manage and display spatial data for nearly two decades. The organization frequently works with municipalities, private landowners and conservation groups to analyze scientific data and produce maps to help them protect and preserve important natural resources.

For the Bernardsville tree canopy project, URWA’s GIS Director Melissa Mitchell provided an analysis of twenty years of data from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection’s Land Use-Land Cover files. Ms. Mitchell then used the information to generate maps that depict the forest cover that existed in Bernardsville in 1986, 1995 and 2002. These “snapshots” and the data from which they were created have given the Shade Tree Advisory Committee the tools it needs to craft a goal for the expansion of tree canopy and measure progress toward the goal over time. Louis Matlack, the committee member who secured the pro bono assistance from URWA, has drafted a goal statement that will be considered when the committee meets on March 18th.