Happy National Wildlife Day!

I just learned that September 4th is National Wildlife Day in honor of Steve Irwin.  – Gene

 

 

National Wildlife Day, founded in 2005 and carried forward in the memory of animal lover and conservationist Steve Irwin, serves to bring awareness to the number of endangered animals nationally, as well as globally, that need to be preserved and rescued from their demise each year, and also to acknowledge zoos and outstanding animal sanctuaries and organizations globally for everything they do to help preserve this planet's animals and educate the public about conservation - especially to children....our animal's future caretakers and conservationists.

National Wildlife Day will also encourage citizens to stand up and fight for animals that need a voice, visit their local zoo and donate to worthy wildlife rehabilitation sanctuaries and organizations that make a difference in the lives of our beloved wild animal friends.

Look up your local zoo or animal sanctuary, sponsor a favorite animal, donate or volunteer to help in any way you can.
 

The animals thank you!!

 

 

HELPING ANIMALS IS SO EASY

There are many ways that you can celebrate National Wildlife Day!
 

• Partner with a local animal sanctuary to host a fun and educational event.
   
• Helping to promote an event at your local zoo or library by handing out flyers and posting info on your
  website if you have one.
   
• Partner with us to host an event at a local zoo or sanctuary.
   
• Help support our work by promoting our social media pages to your friends.
   
• Draw or paint your favorite wild animal and share it with us for a chance to be featured on one of our tees.
   
• Suggest to your local zoo, school, library, nonprofit organization or animal sanctuary about hosting a
  National Wildlife Day event.

 

National Wildlife Day Founder

 

Colleen & Denali,
a black Mackenzie Valley Wolf.

Colleen Paige is a Pet Lifestyle Expert, Animal Advocate, Conservationist, Animal Behaviorist, Author and founder of a myriad of other animal related holidays such a National Dog Day and National Cat Day, to bring public awareness to the plight of animals around the globe.

Colleen thrives off the special connection she has with animals and has spent countless hours rehabbing and cuddling with bears, tigers, wolves, bobcats and more. She founded National Wildlife Day in March of 2005, and later changed the date to honor the memory of wildlife conservationist and animal rescuer, Steve Irwin, for his eternal love of all animal species and all he taught about the amazing animals we share this planet with.

For more information about Colleen, click here.

 

http://www.nationalwildlifeday.com/

 

 

 

 

Friday Funny

The Other Coast by Adrian Raeside          

August 29, 2015

 

 

 

 

Tree Counter Is Astonished By How Many Trees There Are

September 02, 2015

Nell Greenfieldboyce

 

An impala strikes a pose under a forest canopy in Zimbabwe. Morkel Erasmus/Getty Images/Gallo Images

(if you would rather listen to the story you can go to:   http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/09/02/436919052/tree-counter-is-astonished-by-how-many-trees-there-are?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150902  )

 

Here is a pop quiz: How many trees are on the planet?

Most people have no idea.

A new study says the answer is more than 3 trillion trees — that's trillion with a T, and that number is about eight times more than a previous estimate.

Thomas Crowther was inspired to do this tree census a couple of years ago, when he was working at the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. He had a friend who was working with a group with an ambitious goal: trying to fight global warming by planting a billion trees. A billion trees sounded like a lot. But was it really?

"They didn't know if planting a billion trees was going to add 1 percent of the world's trees, add 50 percent of the world's trees," recalls Crowther. "They didn't even know if it was even possible to fit a billion trees on Earth."

So his pal asked him a simple question: How many trees are growing on our planet? "I assumed that this was somewhere out there, it's information that someone will know," says Crowther.

That turned out to be wrong, he says. "Having spoken to a lot of forestry experts, it doesn't seem like anyone had any idea."

There was one estimate based on satellite images: about 400 billion trees worldwide, or 61 trees for every person.

But there were doubts about that number because another recent estimate, based on ground-truthed measurements, found 390 billion trees in the Amazon basin alone.

 

The Amazon basin leads the world in tree density: dark green represents a million or more trees per square kilometer. There are fewer trees in the lighter shades of green. The buff color has very few trees and darkest brown represents areas with no trees. Crowther, et al./Nature

 

Crowther knew there was a way to get much better numbers.

"We used ground-sourced information," says Crowther. "All of the information that went into our models was generated from people standing on the ground counting numbers of trees in a given area. And so we could relate this information to what the satellites are telling us."

To get a better estimate, his team took advantage of the fact that countries produce detailed forest inventories. "It definitely couldn't have been done without all of those huge national forest inventories and thousands of people going out, collecting tree information around the world," says Crowther.

Using information from around 400,000 forest plots, the researchers painstakingly crunched a ton of numbers. And then it was time for the computer to spit out the final total.

"We all gathered in a room, it was a very exciting time," remembers Crowther. "We'd been working toward it for two years."

He says the huge number astonished them. And then he got a little worried.

"My fear is that a lot of people might think, 'OK, well, there's loads of trees, so who cares about the environment, there's plenty left! No worries!' What I'd highlight is that it's not like we've discovered new trees," he says. "We've just generated a new number that will help us to understand the global forest."

The results are being published by the journal Nature.

"It's quite rigorous. It's using all of the best available data that we have at a global scale, so I think it's a nice advance," says Matthew Hansen, a geographer at the University of Maryland who maps land cover.

Hansen says in the future, he'd like to see new instruments in space that could do increasingly detailed observations of forests. That would let scientists do a more direct census of trees over and over, to track how the total number changes.

Crowther says their work suggests that, compared to the days before human civilization, the world has lost roughly half its trees. And the gross number of trees lost each year because of humans is now about 15 billion.

So did all of this news discourage that group that wanted to plant a billion trees?

"Based on this, they really want to upscale their efforts hugely," says Crowther, who explains that the new analysis has spurred them on. "Their goal is now to plant a trillion trees."

 

http://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2015/09/02/436919052/tree-counter-is-astonished-by-how-many-trees-there-are?utm_source=facebook.com&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=npr&utm_term=nprnews&utm_content=20150902

 

 

 

 

Call To Action! Beach Clean-Up September 12th!

CALL TO ACTION!   FORT LAUDERDALE BEACH SWEEP partners with the City of Fort Lauderdale and Kids Ecology Corps to meet monthly for a day of fun and service to keep Fort Lauderdale beaches clean and beautiful!    "We are thrilled to partner with Kids Ecology Corps to educate our children about what they can do to help sustain our pristine shoreline for now and for generations to come."         - Bobby Lieberman, CEO, Fort Lauderdale Beach Sweep    VOLUNTEERS WE NEED YOU!       Volunteers please register at FortLauderdale.gov/volunteer    Volunteers will meet at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park (south park), 1100 Seabreeze Boulevard, at the picnic area just north of the public restroom facilities.    Limited free parking will be available for volunteers at the Las Olas Intracoastal Lot, located along 2-174 Las Olas Circle, south of the east ramp of the Las Olas bridge. Metered parking is also available at Fort Lauderdale Beach Park South Lot for a fee.   Families, civic groups, students, organizations, and beach lovers are all welcome to attend. Students can receive community service credit.     For additional event information call Bobby Lieberman, 954.593.8501.   Please visit facebook.com/flbeachsweep.     YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE!   When you pick up debris from the beach, you protect and preserve Fort Lauderdale marine life and coral reefs too!   SEE YOU ON THE BEACH!  Joan Starr CEO, Kids Ecology Corps   The Kids Ecology Corps | 3299 SW 4th Avenue, Fort Lauderdale, FL 33315 www.kidsecologycorps.org     kec@kidsecologycorps.org     954 524-0366

 

 

Five Ways of Making Your Lawn Better

8/31/2015 // By David Mizejewski

 

Fall is a great time to get your yard ready for the next growing season. The cooling temperatures often make working outside less taxing, and some of the late-blooming plants in your yard provide a great opportunity to get a close look at many birds and butterflies.

This fun video from John Green, the popular novelist and co-creator of vlogbrothers, points out several compelling reasons why we should move away from the American obsession with the conventional lawn:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=-enGOMQgdvg

 

The video advocates for converting some of our lawns into productive vegetable gardens that would help produce local food to feed us. We at National Wildlife Federation think that’s a great idea, and we’d add that it would be amazing if more people also incorporated native plants that provide habitat for wildlife into their landscapes too.

Lawns don’t provide habitat for wildlife. Native plants are a much better choice. Photo by F_A via Flickr Creative Commons.

With that in mind, here are five tips for converting your lawn into a landscape that is better for wildlife and the ecosystems upon which we all rely:

1. Add one new garden bed each season.

The idea of replacing your lawn can be intimidating, especially if you’ve got a large one. Rome wasn’t conquered in a day, and it’s ok if your lawn isn’t either. A good way to break up the work is to make it a goal to add one new garden bed each season. Remove the grass and add ornamental native plants, and soon your yard will be a gorgeous oasis teeming with life.

Start small. Add one new garden bed each season. Photo by scottie32 via Flickr Creative Commons.

2. Focus on blooming wildflowers and shrubs.

One of the biggest arguments made in favor of lawns is that they present a clean, tidy look in our front yards. Many worry that getting rid of their lawns will reduce property values or trigger the ire of neighbors. To avoid both situations, focus on replacing lawn with native wildflowers and shrubs that have gorgeous blooms and colorful berries. You’ll not only support birds, butterflies and other wildlife, but you’ll also make your yard look like something out of Better Homes and Gardens.

Replace lawn with beautiful, blooming native plants. Photo by JKehoe_Photos via Flickr Creative Commons.

3. Let your lawn be diverse.

“Weed” is a subjective term that really only means a plant growing where we humans don’t want it. The original lawns of Europe were filled with a diversity of plants (and mown by sheep and other grazing animals to boot). Here in America, we’ve developed a militant aesthetic, largely fueled by the lawn chemical industry, for lawns that are total and uncompromising monoculture. Letting so-called “weeds” such as clover or–yes–dandelions co-exist with grass will add diversity, wildlife habitat and even help fertilize the soil. You’ll also spend less time and money spreading dangerous herbicides.

Let clover and other plants co-exist with you turf grass. Photo by Rob via Flickr Creative Commons.

4. Stop using chemicals.

One of the things that makes lawns ecological dead spaces is that we dump tons of chemicals on them each year. Whether it’s chemical fertilizers, insecticides or herbicides, these poisons reduce the local biodiversity and toxify the soil. If over-applied they can run off into local waterways. Use organic products if you must use something, but focus on reducing the size of your lawn and adding more natives plants, and you’ll have less need for chemicals.

Pesticides are bad for wildlife. Photo by Michelle Tribe via Flickr Creative Commons.

5. Upgrade your mowing practices.

Gasoline-powered lawn mowers are noisy, smelly and polluting. Switch to an electric mower and one that finely chops clippings and returns them to the ground, where they compost and add nutrients back into the soil. Even better, use a push mower powered by you, not by fossil fuels (pushing a mower is great exercise too). Allow your grass to grow a little longer, which will result in stronger root systems that are less susceptible to drought and require less watering. Research has shown that even just mowing your lawn every other week instead of every week can have significant impacts for local wildlife.

A push mower is a better choice for mowing your lawn. Photo by Brian Boucheron via Flickr Creative Commons.

Visit National Wildlife Federation’s Garden for Wildlife site to learn more about sustainable and wildlife-friendly gardening practices and certify your green space today!

 

 

http://blog.nwf.org/2015/08/five-ways-of-making-your-lawn-better/

 

 

 

City of Fort Lauderdale Residential Tree Giveaway 9/12/15

The address for Osswald Park is actually 2220 NW 21st Avenue, not Street. 
 

 

 

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Turning cow poo into power is profitable for US farm

 

• Mira Oberman, AFP

• Aug. 9, 2015

 

Plymouth (United States) (AFP) - For most farms, manure is a pungent problem. At Homestead Dairy, it smells like money.

The family-run American farm invested in a biogas recovery system which transforms cow poo and other waste into electricity. 

Enough electricity, in fact, to power 1,000 homes, a service which the local utility company pays for handsomely.

But that's just a side benefit.

Farmer Ryan Rogers checks on a generator at Homestead Dairy in Plymouth, Indiana, which invested in a biogas recovery system which transforms cow manure and other waste into enough electricity to power 1,000 homes

 

"It works economically, but one of the main reasons we did it was to try to help take care of the odor control for the neighbors," said Floyd Houin, whose family has owned the farm in Plymouth, Indiana since 1945.

"The land's important to us also because we produce a crop for feeding cows. So we want to do everything we can to take care of the land and the water. We drink the same water as everyone else."

Livestock farms typically store their effluent in open lagoons and the stench does not make them very popular with the neighbors.

The lagoons also have a significant environmental impact because they emit methane and carbon dioxide -- major contributors to climate change -- and can sully the groundwater if they leak or overflow during heavy rains.

Setting up an anaerobic digester -- essentially a giant shed that uses heat to speed up decomposition -- captures both the smell and the greenhouse gases.

 - Power one million homes -

 The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that more than three million tons of greenhouse gas emissions were eliminated last year by Homestead and the 246 other US livestock farms which have installed biogas recovery systems.

That's equivalent to taking more than 630,000 cars off the road.

There are about 8,000 dairy and hog farms in the United States which are large enough to make a biogas recovery system viable.

The EPA estimates they could generate enough electricity to power over a million homes and cut emissions by the equivalent of taking nearly four million cars off the road.

Biogas recovery is also being used to capture methane from landfills and sewage treatment plants and even at craft beer companies.

"The federal government is really committed to seeing progress in this sector," said Allison Costa, program manager for the EPA's AgStar unit.

"Widespread investment and adoption could help us make significant inroads in helping us address some of our environmental and energy challenges."

The problem is the financing, Costa said. There's a huge upfront cost and most utility companies in the United States won't pay enough for the electricity to make the project appealing to a bank loan officer.

It also requires a lot of maintenance, which many farms don't have the manpower to manage. But when it works, Costa said, it really works.

"We've seen a lot of farms expand and build a second one," she told AFP.

"You just have to have someone willing to love that digester and take care of it."

Ryan Rogers, 31, loves his digester.

"There's so many (good) things, you forget them all," said Rogers, who married into the Homestead family and spends about four hours a day on digester maintenance and management.

Controlling the smell from the 70,000 gallons of manure and urine produced every day by the dairy's 3,400 cows clearly tops the list.

Then of course, there's the crops. The digester does a much better job of turning the manure into fertilizer, which means a better yield from the farm's 4,500 acres of corn. 

Once that nutrient-rich liquid fertilizer is extracted, what's left makes for some nice soft bedding for the cows.

And instead of spending money to manage the manure, soon they'll be making money off it.

 - Recover cost in five years -

 The family managed to get a grant to help cover some of the cost of the facility and a favorable contact with the local power company which was looking to expand its renewable energy supplies.

They bring in extra income -- and fuel for the generators -- by charging restaurants and food processing plants a lower rate to dump their waste than the local landfill.

It will probably only take about five years until the initial investment is fully paid off, Rogers said. And it's working so well they're planning to build a second facility.

"It's definitely a growing field within the United States," said Mike Fenton of Michigan CAT, which sold the Caterpillar generators used by Homestead and helps them to maintain the system.

The European market is much more advanced because there are so many more subsidies available and the cost of electricity is so much higher, he said.

While US farmers may balk at the initial cost -- a system like the one at Homestead would run around $6 million -- Fenton said it's a good investment. Most farms can pay it off and start making a profit within three to five years.

"It's a proven technology that works really well," he told AFP.

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/afp-turning-cow-poo-into-power-is-profitable-for-us-farm-2015-8#ixzz3kUNRTWtG