Marine scientists have long known that plastic pollution in the ocean is a huge problem. The most visible sign of it is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, an accumulation of waste (actually spanning several distinct patches) floating in the ocean. It’s at least twice the size of Texas and can be seen from space. This pollution has an incalculably lethal effect on everything from plankton to whales.
So just how much plastic is there? A study in Science put out some pretty horrifying numbers: In 2010, the study finds, between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons (that’s about 10.5 billion to 28 billion pounds) of plastic entered the oceans — the median of those estimates is 1.3 times the weight of the Great Pyramid at Giza.
If we want to crack down on all that plastic, knowing where it all comes from could be as important as knowing how much there is. That’s the main idea behind this study. A team of scientists set out to calculate how much plastic every one of the world’s 192 coastal countries dumps into the ocean. To do it, they combined data on each country’s per-capita waste generation, the size of the population living within 50 kilometers of the ocean, the percentage of waste that is plastic, and the percentage of plastic waste that is “mismanaged” (defined as “either littered or inadequately disposed”).
A recent report by the U.S. Forest Service shows that for over 19 million people in the South – roughly the population of Florida – clean water begins in the region’s national forests. The report provides information at a level not previously available on the amount of surface drinking water national forest lands provide to communities in the South.
The Forest Service Southern Region and Southern Research Station (SRS) worked together to produce the report’s analysis, tables, and maps, which include detailed data on public water system intakes, number of customers served, and percent of water originating on National Forest System lands for each of the 33 national forests managed by the Southern Region. The Southern Region manages over 13 million acres of forest land in the South, some 6 percent of total forest land in a region where most forests are privately owned.
The report illustrates the extent to which people in the South depend on forested lands to provide them with clean reliable sources of drinking water. A combination of federal, state, and private forests cover over 30 percent of the region’s total land area and provide 36 percent of total water yield. More than 2100 individual communities rely directly on national forest land for drinking water, including large population areas such as Houston, Atlanta, Knoxville, and Birmingham.
Apple CEO Tim Cook announced during a White House summit on cybersecurity that Apple Pay is partnering with the federal government for some financial transactions.
While reaffirming that Apple does not track Apple Pay data, Cook said the service will be available for many government-related transactions starting in September. This includes paying for admission into national parks, receiving benefits like Social Security payments and expenses for government employees.
Cook also pledged to work more closely with the White House to protect privacy. “Security and convenience can work in harmony. This is a world of greater privacy and a world where criminals find it much more difficult to carry out their crimes. No single company or organization can accomplish this on its own. We are committed to engaging with the White House and Congress and putting things into action.”
The Genetically Modified (GM) farming system has made exposure to Roundup herbicide a daily fact of our existence, and according to the latest US Geological Survey study its probably in the air you are breathing. It reveals that Roundup herbicide (aka glyphosate) and its still-toxic degradation byproduct AMPA were found in over 75% of the air and rain samples tested from Mississippi in 2007.
The researchers pointed out that, “the 2007 weekly air concentration pattern for glyphosate was similar to those of other commonly detected herbicides in both 1995 and 2007 in that the highest concentrations occurred in April and May. However, there were detectable concentrations of glyphosate over the entire growing season, which is consistent with how glyphosate is used on GM crops, including for post-emergent weed control throughout the growing season.” The longer period of exposure adds to growing concern that this ubiquitous toxicant represents an unavoidable body burden and that even small daily environmental exposures may be causing significant harm through their cumulative and synergistic effects with other toxicants.
This study brings to the surface the extent to which GM farming has altered our daily exposure to chemicals, such that even the rain and air we now breath contains physiologically relevant levels of glyphosate ‘fall out’ from the war against any plant not part of the monocultured, genetically engineered system of production.
This spring, work crews will suit up and go to the rescue of eastern and Carolina Hemlock trees infested by the woolly adelgid, a tiny invasive insect striking down these majestic trees.
Late last year, the Blue Ridge Parkway Foundation received a grant from the Hemlock Restoration Initiative to collaborate with the National Park Service to help save these disappearing trees which are native to North Carolina. The funding will allow the chemical treatment of trees near the Blue Ridge Parkway in Avery, Haywood, Transylvania, and Watauga counties in North Carolina. Without intervention, woolly adelgid infestations can claim trees within a few years.
Meanwhile, two additional awardees are blazing trails to thwart the invasive woolly adelgid in other ways. While treatment crews work to save the stands that are vulnerable in the forest, Southwestern NC Resource Conservation & Development Council, based at the Mountain Research Station in Waynesville, is diligently working to create a hybrid hemlock species that will be resistant to the aphid-like insect. The Blue Ridge Resource Conservation and Development Council is expanding its program to release a natural predator, the Laricobius nigrinus beetle native to the Pacific Northwest, which can eat six or more adelgids per day. So far, the program has seen success in the Grandfather Mountain area.
In 2010 Wyoming became the first state to require oil and gas companies to disclose chemicals used in fracking operations. Home to the petroleum-rich Powder River Basin, proponents saw the rule as a model for other drilling-dependent states to follow. The message they hoped the regulation would convey: We can be energy-friendly and environmentally friendly too.
But the rule contained a trade secrets caveat, which allowed companies to skirt the disclosure requirement if they said the chemicals were confidential business information. That exemption created a massive loophole. Now, thanks to a settlement approved Jan. 23, 2015, companies will have to do more to justify keeping fracking chemicals secret.
The settlement comes from a 2012 lawsuit that environmental nonprofit Earthjustice filed on behalf of public interest groups against the Wyoming Oil & Gas Conservation Commission. The suit challenged state regulators’ decisions to withhold the names of 128 fracking chemicals.
Chemicals range from the same benign ingredients found in everyday products like toothpaste and detergent, to cancer-causing substances like Benzene. Since frack wells often pass through aquifers, there’s a risk those chemicals could contaminate drinking water, and because of drilling-related emissions, many fracking-intensive areas suffer levels of air pollution that exceed federal standards.
Congress, which in December passed legislation that created a number of new national park units, is now being asked to expand by 75,000 acres the Mojave National Preserve as well as Death Valley and Joshua Tree national parks, while also being called upon to create two new national monuments.
U.S. Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer are working to build upon a landscape-level legacy for the California desert that began more than 20 years ago through their California Desert Conservation and Recreation Act.
“This piece of legislation is the final chapter in a long effort to preserve one of the most magnificent landscapes in the United States,” Sen. Feinstein said. “We must ensure that critical parts of the California desert—with its mountain vistas, bighorn sheep, mule deer, desert tortoises, Joshua trees, Native American petroglyphs and much more—will be protected for all time.”
The Act if enacted would provide new and expanded wilderness area designations, as well as provide Wild and Scenic River protections to the Whitewater River, Deep Creek, and the Amargosa River – crucial waterways for the California desert. Areas of cultural and historic significance, including Flat Top Mesa and Black Lava Butte, are also included in the legislation.
A community close to the proposed Maine North Woods National Park has drafted a letter that outlines the requirements it would like to see met before it could support such a park.
The letter drafted by the Town Manager of Millinocket to U.S. Sen. Angus King, Maine’s former governor, touches on a number of issues, from air quality and the eventual size of such a park to free access for Maine residents. In the letter, Town Manager Margaret Daigle said the town wants the park limited to 150,000 acres in size, a far cry from the 3.2 million-acre proposal initially outlined by park proponents.
More recently, though, those pushing for a park have agreed with a 150,000-acre park, half of which would be designated like a national recreation area with more of a multiple-use philosophy than a traditional national park that could be more restrictive when it comes to snowmobiling and logging, two traditional uses of Maine lands.
Talk of creating a national park in Maine’s North Woods has been kicking around for roughly 20 years. Supporters say such a park would provide an economic boost to the region that has suffered through shrinkage of the timber industry, preserve a breathtaking landscape, help wildlife species threatened with extinction for lack of habitat, and protect the “wild forests of New England.”
As morning light painted the far-reaching buttes of the Grand Canyon gold, Renae Yellowhorse stood at the edge of the canyon’s rim, looked out toward where the rivers met below her, and smiled.
“It is my church, it is where I say my prayers. It is where I give my offerings. It’s where I commune with the holy ones, the gods that walk along the canyon,” said Yellowhorse, a member of the Navajo Nation.
This place, called “the confluence,” is where the Colorado River meets the Little Colorado River on the canyon’s east side. According to the Navajo creation story, the confluence is where their people first emerged. And now this Navajo-owned land is at the center of an ugly land-use dispute.
Developers Confluence Partners want to provide the more than 5 million annual visitors to the Grand Canyon National Park with a new 420-acre attraction. Their plans for the canyon’s rim include a multimedia complex with an IMAX theater, retail shops, hotels, an RV park and a gondola tram that would take visitors 1.6 miles to the canyon floor in ten minutes. Confluence Partners has also drawn up plans for a “Riverwalk” on the canyon floor that would include elevated connected walkways, a food pavilion, a tramway station, a terraced seating area and a wastewater package plant.
Skiers and snowboarders often overlook that most of the thrills and spills they have at a Colorado resort take place with publicly owned lands underfoot.
So as tens of thousands of spectators converge on the White River National Forest for the 2015 FIS Alpine World Ski Championships at Vail and Beaver Creek, the U.S. Forest Service thinks it’s a great time to raise the collective consciousness about the importance of keeping forests healthy.
The year-long “It’s All Yours” campaign will kick off at the championships as a way to not only let skiers know how public lands are the foundation of outdoor recreation in the West, but also the importance of treating our wild lands with respect. Sponsors are Forest Service, the National Forest Foundation and Vail Resorts.
With the World Championships set on public lands – and skiing-snowboarding rank behind only hiking as most popular activities in the central Colorado national forest – it appears to be a prime time to emphasize how conservation makes all that possible. Twelve major ski resorts sit with in the White River National Forest.
The U.S Forest Service wants to hit the reset button on its planning process for Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests in North Carolina.
The agency is planning a new series of public meetings, tentatively scheduled for April, regarding its ongoing forest plan revision, which will guide management of the two forests for at least a decade, said Kristin Bail, supervisor of North Carolina’s national forests.
She said she hopes this next round of meetings will be marked by collaboration, rather than the controversy that has plagued the process since a draft copy was presented to the public in October.
That document indicated about 700,000 of the 1 million acres in the Pisgah and Nantahala were in management areas that would be open to logging, prompting a host of interest groups to declare that foresters were either destroyers or champions of their charges.
“We will use these meetings to ‘step back’ the public dialogue away from commenting on (and advocating for) what some believe was a specific proposal concerning the designation of management areas,” Bail said.
In 2014 there was an agreement between the U.S. and Mexico that allowed for the release of water into the Colorado River Delta. Known as a pulse flow, it lasted from late March to mid-May last year. Scientists have now returned to the path of the historic pulse flow, a release of water designed to rejuvenate the delta that has been totally dry for decades.
By all accounts, the pulse flow’s most important outcome is that it actually happened. For so long, the forces against it seemed overwhelming. With western water such a scarce commodity, and so many entities drawing water from the Colorado River, a bi-national agreement seemed unlikely to gain any traction. But against these odds, an agreement was forged.
More than 105,000 acre-feet of water (equal to 34 billion gallons) was released in one large pulse flow between March 23 and May 18, 2014. That’s less than one percent of what would naturally flow into the delta without all the upstream diversions. Since it came as such a big surge over such a short time, the river channel and floodplain were inundated. Cottonwood and willow seeds filled the air. To everyone’s surprise and delight, the pulse flow temporarily re-connected the river with the Gulf of California.
Success was even beyond expectations. The pulse flow benefited existing vegetation throughout the surrounding area, well beyond designated restoration sites. There was a 43% increase in green vegetation in places the pulse flow inundated, and a 23% increase in the broader riparian area. Bi-national negotiations for another agreement will begin soon.
President Obama’s budget request for fiscal year 2016 — the centennial year of the National Park Service — includes $3 billion for the bureau’s critical conservation, preservation, and recreation mission. The budget boosts the National Park Service’s essential programs and operational needs by $432.9 million.
The president’s budget highlights the importance of investing in a historic effort to attract and host more visitors as well as leverage additional private philanthropy for the parks.
“In 2016, the National Park Service will celebrate its Centennial by inviting hundreds of millions of Americans to find their park by visiting a park and sharing their favorite park story,” said National Park Service Director Jonathan B. Jarvis. “This budget will prepare the National Park Service to ensure that every one of those visitors has a wonderful and safe experience.”
It includes funding to put hundreds more seasonal employees in the familiar Green and Gray uniform to work to serve visitors. It also would provide $40 million in federal matching funds for NPS Centennial Challenge projects, which are designed to leverage partnerships with outside organizations to bring additional funding to support our national parks.
BP will support a shareholder resolution calling on the company to release information about how climate change could affect its business. It’s the second big win for climate-conscious investors this year: Shell agreed to support a similar resolution last week. Both the Shell and BP resolutions were submitted by a coalition of activist investor groups representing more than 150 major shareholders in Europe and America.
The resolution asked Shell and BP to reduce emissions, to invest in renewables, to provide transparency about bonuses that reward “climate-harming activities,” and to test how their business models would hold up if governments were to take action to limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius. These steps are good business, the resolution argues, “given the recognised risks and opportunities associated with climate change.”
Analyses suggest that in order to stay below the 2 degree level, much of the fossil fuel in the ground will have to stay there — including all of the oil remaining in the Arctic, which both Shell and BP are hoping to tap. If governments take more stringent action to confront climate change, these resources could end up stranded, despite the high value oil companies place on them.
The North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission has publicly denounced the red wolf reintroduction in coastal counties, calling for the red wolves to be rounded up — despite being the only wild population of red wolves on the planet.
Last week, the Commission adopted two resolutions: one requesting that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service end the red wolf reintroduction, and the second asking the agency to capture and remove all the wolves and their offspring that have ended up on private land.
The Southern Environmental Law Center, which brought a lawsuit in 2012 opposing the Commission’s red wolf management, disagrees.
“Red wolves have lived — and thrived — on the current mix of private and public lands for 25 years, becoming one of the most successful predator reintroductions in U.S. history,” said Sierra Weaver, senior attorney with SELC. “Asking that the federal government declare ‘extinct’ the 100 red wolves that live in eastern North Carolina is a blatant attempt to remove from the wild one of our country’s most beloved animals.”
For its part, U.S. Fish and Wildlife released a 171-page evaluation of the program in November 2014 and is expected to release a decision on the program’s future early this year.
The Experience Your Smokies program is looking for applicants who want to get an insider’s look at park operations while getting some exploration into their lives as well.
Participants will attend five full-day sessions in locations throughout the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. They’ll accompany park employees in activites ranging from wetland restoration to fish surveys to trail work.
“If you have ever wanted to be a park ranger or get a behind the scenes look at what goes on in Great Smoky Mountains National Park, this is your opportunity,” said acting park Superintendent Clayton Jordan.
2015 sessions will be held Tuesdays, March 17, March 24, April 14 and April 28, and Saturday, May 9. Applications will be accepted through Feb. 27 and can be accessed at Friends of the Smokies Events Calendar or by calling 828.452.0720. The $50 cost goes toward program administration and materials.
Experience Your Smokies is a collaboration of GSMNP, Friends of the Smokies and the Great Smoky Mountains Association.
Carbon accumulation levels in the southeastern U.S. may be slowing due to forest dynamics and land use changes, according to findings of U.S. Forest Service researchers published in the journal Scientific Reports in January.
The study is the first to isolate the impacts of forest disturbances, such as fire, disease, and cutting, as well as the impacts of land use change using permanent monitoring locations across the Southeast, making it one of the most thorough carbon studies completed.
Researchers show that future carbon accumulation rates are highly sensitive to future land use changes. Land use choices that either reduce the rate of afforestation or increase the rate of deforestation are key factors in future forest carbon accumulation.
The aging of forests in the region was also a significant force behind potential slowing accumulation rates as growth rates are typically lower for older forest. The study found forests to be fairly resilient to natural disturbances caused by weather, insects, diseases and fires. These disturbances reduced carbon accumulation rates but the losses were compensated by subsequent regrowth and storage in dead material on the site.
After more than a decade of hydropower relicensing negotiations and years more of permitting and construction, Duke Energy is finishing a slate of river accesses that will make the Tuckasegee one of the most accessible rivers in the Southeast. At the same time, a collective effort to create an interactive map showing where and how to recreate on Western North Carolina waterways — using a tool called Smoky Mountain Blueways — is wrapping up, further boosting WNC’s future as a Mecca for outdoors lovers of all skill levels.
Before Duke’s relicensing agreement spurred the development of more access points along the waterways from which it generates its power, there were only four places along the entire reach of the Tuckasegee which were built specifically to put in a canoe, kayak or raft. That number will soon reach 17, including reservoirs on the Tuckasegee.
There are just a few projects to finish up as spring approaches. Probably the most notable is the Pine Creek Access at Lake Glenville. There’s going to be a swimming area there — Duke drew down the reservoir so that crews could reconstruct the reservoir bottom to a more gradual slope — as well as a pump and haul toilet, picnic area, dock and handicapped-accessible walkway.
There’s also going to be a hiking trail, 0.8 miles of steep downhill into the canyon that houses 120-foot High Falls. By all accounts, it’s incredible, especially during wildflower season. “You need to go to the High Falls Trail in March and April,” a spokesman said. “It’s drop dead spectacular,” calling the trail construction of harvested rocks “incredible.”
I am Jeff Clark, founder of Internet Brothers, producer of this blog, and passionate about hiking. I live in Western NC near the Blue Ridge and Great Smoky Mountains. Pisgah and Nantahala National Forests are just out my door, so the content will focus on these areas, but let me know what you would like to see on the site. 
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