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Green Tip of the Week
BYOB. Last year Americans went through about 50 billion
plastic water bottles. Fill up a reusable water bottle at home and
bring it with you. Don't like the taste of your tap water? Buy a filter!
(Remember, much of the bottled water sold today is filtered tap water
anyway . . .) Original text from World Wildlife Fund
Conservation Calendar
Winter Farmers Market
Saturday, Nov 17, 10 am to 1 pm at the Ag Hall in West Tisbury.
The winter market takes place every other weekend inside the Ag Hall. Check website for more information.
Felix Neck Fall Festival
Friday, Nov 23, 11:00 am to 3:00 pm, Edgartown.
This celebration of fall, held every year the day after Thanksgiving,
features hayrides, face painting, live music by The Flying Elbows, food,
wreath making, crafts for kids and other fun for the whole family. $4
member, $7 nonmember, children under 3 free. For more information, or to
volunteer to help at the festival, call Felix Neck at 508 6274850.
Sandy Leaves Her Mark
(click photos to enlarge)
A small crowd gathered the day after to survey the damage at Lucy Vincent Beach.
Flattened grass, new flows of red clay, and a new Easter Island face for the cliff greeted the visitors.
Menemsha harbor: Fill 'er up!
Wave power at Squibnocket tore the parking lot in two (close-up of the split here).
Exposed conduit along the Squibnocket access road
Washover at Norton Point, Chappaquiddick
Flattened beachgrass on the last remnant of dune remaining for the entire beach (Chappy photos by Dana Gaines)
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Saturday, November 10, 2012
Local News
Winter Walks Are Back!
Honk if you love VCS Winter Walks
The
year’s walks will focus on some historic land usage crossroads, crises
averted, and the favorable conservation outcomes facilitated by VCS.
All walks are FREE and start at 1:00 pm. Cider and cookies will be
served. Times and locations may be subject to change, please call in
advance or check our website for details. (Slideshows of some of our
previous walks can be found at the Events page.)
2012 - 2013 Winter Walks
November 11: Katama Farm
December 9: Eastville Beach, V.H. Harbor
January 13: Katama Airpark
February 10: Mary Black Sanctuary, Edg.
March 10: West Chop Beaches
First Walk Tomorrow: Katama Farm
Today in Katama, agriculture and
residential development co-exist. Learn more about the history, and what
could have been, at the VCS Winter Walk. (Click to enlarge)
We kick off this year's winter walks Sunday, November 11 from 1:00 to
3:00 pm with an interpretative hike around the agricultural land and
outwash plain at Katama Farm.
The land on which Katama Farm lies could have easily come to a much
different fate, but the community united to prevent development of
possibly hundreds of building lots. Leadership from the town, smart land
use planning, and successful fundraising resulted in permanent
conservation of 162 acres, today leased to the non-profit FARM
Institute.
Walk participants should gather at the FARM Institute parking lot near
the barn. Bob Woodruff, who helped facilitate the Katama conservation
outcome more than thirty years ago, will co-lead the walk.
Non-Native Bullies Shake Down Local Flora
A lush green blanket, creating a deceptive image of ecological health.
The eleventh installment
of Liz Durkee's 14-part series on local climate change impacts focuses
on the effects of invasive species on native plants. Will the changing
climate further heighten their impressive ability to overwhelm
everything in their path?
“The natural world is in a climate
change flux and even the lush, green foundation beneath our sandy feet
is shifting – invasive species are quickly and quietly changing the
local landscape.”
[Note: the Almanac piece about the invasive species debate that is referenced near the end of Liz's article can be found here]
Other News
Warrants Mentioning: Climate Change Makes a Rare Appearance in President's Victory Speech
It was just one sentence, and only a portion of it really – “We want our
children to live in an America that . . . isn't threatened by the
destructive power of a warming planet” – but this brief mention in the
middle of Barack Obama’s speech
late last Tuesday night was, by far, the strongest public statement on
climate change from the President in months. The subject was notably
absent during the President’s re-election campaign, which to be fair was
a sound strategy regarding job one – winning. But perhaps now, with the
election in the rearview mirror, it isn’t too crazy to hope for greater
leadership on climate and other environmental issues.
Outside of the rhetoric, the President has actually done more on climate
in the past four years than he gets credit for (which, again, may be by
design – much of this “credit” would be more accurately termed
“blame”). Instead of pursuing legislation through Congress to curb
carbon emissions, a difficult battle that – win or lose – would have
garnered much more attention, the administration chose to more quietly
direct their own agencies to take action. As a temporary stand-in for
pricing carbon (through a carbon tax or cap-and-trade market), the EPA
was simply given the authority to regulate carbon dioxide as a pollutant
under the Clean Air Act; the move was challenged but ultimately upheld in federal court. In a less controversial move (because industry groups agreed with it), much more ambitious fuel efficiency standards were announced in August, requiring the U.S. auto fleet to average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025.
But as pragmatic as making changes at the EPA may be, there is a
downside: it’s just as easy to change thing back when a new, less
environmentally concerned (or more climate-skeptical) administration
takes over. In the long run, trying to slow global warming through
executive order is a perilous plan; hopefully, the President’s words on
Election Night suggest a renewed willingness to spend some political
capital on climate legislation. |
