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January 16, 2021

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

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Ecosystem Eco Homepage

Congress Extends Bay Program, Related Conservation Efforts

October 8, 2020 by Bay Journal

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a sweeping conservation measure that provides continued support for several key Chesapeake Bay initiatives and creates a new program to support fish and wildlife habitat restoration efforts in the watershed.

The America’s Conservation Enhancement Act provides support for two dozen conservation initiatives around the nation that were rolled into a single piece of legislation and overwhelmingly approved by the House on Oct. 1.

The Senate had already approved the bill without controversy, and it is expected to be signed by President Trump.

The bill authorizes the continuation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program, which has coordinated the state-federal Bay restoration effort since 1983. The program supports research, helps assess cleanup progress and provides grants to states, local governments, nonprofits and others.

The legislation reauthorizes the Bay Program for another five years at up to $92 million annually. Congress had allocated $85 million for the current year.

The bill also reauthorizes the Chesapeake Gateways and Watertrails Network. Administered by the National Park Service, the network includes more than 200 state parks, museums and historic sites that provide access to waterways and highlight the region’s natural, historic and cultural heritage. The legislation reauthorized that program for five years. It received $3 million in the most recent year.

Reauthorization does not guarantee future funding, but it makes Congressional support more likely.

The legislation also creates the Chesapeake Watershed Investments for Landscape Development Program — dubbed WILD — within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The program is authorized to provide up to $15 million annually in grants that support fish and wildlife habitat projects in the Bay region. That could include things such as forest buffer plantings, wetland restoration, initiatives that improve stream health, removal of barriers to fish migration and efforts to improve habitats for species such as black ducks and brook trout.

Environmental groups praised passage of the measure, which had been in the works since last year.

Noting that outdoor activities generate millions of dollars for the region’s economy, Joel Dunn, president of the Chesapeake Conservancy, said “the conservation and restoration of the Chesapeake Bay’s waters and wildlife habitats is essential for our region’s economic resilience and growth, and the ACE Act will greatly enhance these conservation efforts.”

A bipartisan group of lawmakers helped craft different elements of the Bay-related portions of the legislation, including Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Sen Tom Carper, (D-DE), and Reps. Elaine Luria (D-VA), Bobby Scott (D-VA) and John Sarbanes (D-MD).

“We’re pleased to see the overwhelming and bipartisan support for the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act,” said Jason Rano, who works on federal legislation for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. “Legislators from both parties recognize the importance of clean water and a healthy environment.”

Besides the Bay-specific initiatives, the bill reauthorizes a number of national programs that benefit the region, including the North American Wetlands Conservation program, which helps promote wetland restoration, and the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation, which oversees several grant programs that support Bay initiatives.

It also creates a National Fish Habitat Partnership program to provide funding and technical resources to local public-private partnerships to conserve fish habitats.

The final legislation reflected some compromises. For instance, it prohibits the EPA from regulating lead content in hunting and fishing gear for the next five years. Some had pushed to permanently ban the EPA from such action.

By Karl Blankenship

Filed Under: Eco Homepage Tagged With: bay program, Chesapeake Bay, conservation, EPA, park service

Harm and Probability by Al Sikes (Part Six)

January 13, 2020 by Al Sikes

Rising sea levels—resulting inundations. Extinctions—a serious blow to bio-diversity. Artic ice melting releasing more carbon dioxide. And on and on. 

It is important to keep in mind that these are not ideological theories but scientific ones supported by the analysis and trajectory of past and current data. The next time a politician minimizes the risks of climate change ask him/her whether they favor de-funding the scientific work done by the National Space and Aeronautics Administrations (NASA) and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA). 

Climate change forecasts and consequences are not few in number. Yet, another kind of heat, political, often causes a quick thumbs up or down of a given study, chart or essay depending on the source. So here are readable summaries of key findings by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, from which we all get our weather forecasts. https://www.climate.gov/climate-and-energy-topics/climate-projections-0  

Devastated forests, acidic oceans, tidal inundation and, and; well I don’t want to roll the dice for my children, grandchildren and beyond.  Which, of course, brings me again to the question of probability. 

With apologies to the forgotten source, this analogy makes sense to me. A doctor can diagnose an illness just as NOAA can accurately predict the weather for several days.  A doctor can also predict troubles ahead if his/her patient is overweight and sedentary. Global choices of production, transportation, energy use and the like have altered atmospheric gasses in perilous ways. We, yes the global we, are overweight and sedentary.

Paris Climate Agreement

So, what should we do? Here again the literature is not sparse. There is no end of scientific journals, government agency studies and the like that point to ways we can mitigate the threat. And, of course, there is the Paris Climate Agreement that points to specific targets. There must be targets and initiatives that achieve their ends. The internationally agreed upon target of limiting global temperature increase to no more than a 2 degrees Celsius or 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit is the result of careful analysis. America should be an active member of the Convention which led to the Agreement and use its targets. 

Markets

The United States knows the power of markets. There is a carbon credits market—we should be a part of it. At its simplest, carbon emitters (for simplicity sake companies) are assigned acceptable levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Companies that emit less receive credits that they can sell to companies that exceed the limit. The force of financial rewards or penalties works.

Nuclear

I am all in favor of alternative energy incentives, but to meet ambitious goals we will need to use zero-carbon emission nuclear energy. It has always been passing strange to me that America has a nuclear navy but now resists civilian nuclear power generation. Since the Navy is well organized to manage a widespread nuclear program, I would be happy to put them in charge of a civilian one, a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) if you will. TVA is the nation’s largest government-owned power provider and among other things sells electricity to local power companies. 

One thing to keep in mind, the worst power plant accidents in the United States were hydroelectric ones. Climate change threats, if taken seriously, need a comprehensive response.

Transportation

Transportation is a major source of greenhouse gasses and increasingly we buy things that are brought to our houses by trucks. China is already using drones for rural delivery. We should be doing the same.

Plus, all fossil fuel subsidies should be phased out. It will need to be done over some period of time so as to not drive up fuel prices rapidly with the likelihood of severe political backlash.

These thoughts are in no way exhaustive. Progress is being made in greenhouse gas recycling and sequestration, for example. What I do know is that if incentives are created for technologies that reduce greenhouse gases, American ingenuity will find solutions and build companies that cannot be currently imagined. Related investment, business start-ups and jobs will provide a significant economic boost. 

But here is my fear. We are in the middle of a political brawl. Too many Republicans dismiss science as somehow a part of the other side’s playlist. And, too many Democrats suffer from Three Mile Island syndrome, notwithstanding minimal health effects and noted precautionary improvements since the accident. 

Final Thought

A friend of mine recently used the word Staycation. I asked that it be repeated. I learned that it means a stay at home vacation. Maybe we need to think more about the wonders of our own backyards and the power of we.

We is a powerful pronoun, The power of we or if you prefer, concerted action, can move mountains. We have spent much of our energy seeking to dominate nature. We need a campaign to live with it. 

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Filed Under: Al Sikes Eco, Top Story Tagged With: Al Sikes, Chestertown Spy, conservation, Talbot Spy

What Do We Comprehend? By Al Sikes (Part Five)

January 6, 2020 by Al Sikes

One of my obligatory visits after becoming Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission was to Alaskan villages that were being transformed by communications technology. I can remember going into a very remote village store and seeing videocassette movies straight from Hollywood. More than just communications was being transformed.

Alaska’s subsistence farmers and fishermen were in nature’s loop—overfish or hunt or plant and nature’s bounty will disappear. The next generation was losing its connection.

In the “lower 48”, as Alaskans say, most people lost their organic connection to nature decades ago. The intersecting lines of production, storage, transportation and distribution and their effect on nature is barely understood. 

Yet, if we turn to our human-made infrastructure, the story is different. In 2018 Gallup reported that, “Infrastructure spending has bipartisan support: in addition to winning broad national support, infrastructure renewal sparked majority support from both major parties last year.” 

As this political consensus translates into another trillion dollar package, can we afford to compartmentalize the importance of nature’s infrastructure? What about the disappearance of pollinators and birds? When we abolish natural settings they disappear. And what happens when the plant life which helps to balance atmospheric gasses is largely replaced by the plow, chemicals or some version of concrete or hard metals?

Ultimately, the integrity of nature is often a neighborhood question. Governments can seek to regulate, but day-to-day attitudes are extremely important. And, they ultimately translate into who we elect. 

One easy attitude test is litter. Survey the rights-of-way before and after the “Do Not Litter” signs for attitude. And when you are driving or walking along streams, creeks, ditches and the like do you see tree rows? Trees are a first line defense against pollutants while providing an important CO2 sink and shade for the waterway. And, take a look at the larger water basin. Basins are plant nurseries. Do they exist or are they constrained by some form of engineered compaction?

Collectively we watched as the Cuyahoga River southeast of Cleveland actually caught fire. Yes, human actions or inactions caused water to burn. We learned causality in high school chemistry as chemical elements were altered. I recall guys loved to cause minor explosions. 

If attitude and individual approaches toward how we live our lives are important, our concerted action can be pivotal.

Ducks Unlimited (DU) is a good example of neighborhood attitudes writ large. It is also proof that individuals sharing a common goal can have an enormous impact on nature.

A New York Times article in September of 2018, The Crisis for Birds Is a Crisis for Us All began its review of a comprehensive study by scientists covering the United States and Canada with this preface: “Nearly one-third of the wild birds in the United States and Canada have vanished since 1970, a staggering loss that suggests the very fabric of North America’s ecosystem is unraveling.”

The study found an important outlier: “Fortunately, it’s not all bad news. Populations of North American ducks and geese have grown by 56 percent since 1970, according to the Science paper, and this is not an accident. During the first half of the 20th century, hunters became deeply concerned about declines in duck populations every bit as severe as those we’re witnessing among common songbirds today. The United States and Canada responded with laws to protect wetlands and collaborated with Mexico to safeguard migrating waterfowl. Conservation management became increasingly driven by science. Private philanthropy, especially by Ducks Unlimited, generated significant financial support for wetlands acquisitions. Millions of additional acres of wetlands were restored and protected by the federal and state governments. The result: Waterfowl populations are booming today.”

DU has protected or restored 14 million acres of wetland. And DU Canada reports: “Canada’s wetlands store approximately 150 billion tons of carbon. That’s equivalent to the emissions of roughly six billion cars over 20 years.”

If we turn to farmland use it is now mostly under the corporate plow, owned by entities seeking to maximize return. Iowa State University Farmland Value Survey reports a 346% increase in cost per acre since 1981. It further noted that the investors “..…favor conventional agriculture—the kind that uses the agro-chemicals, mono-cropping, and extensive tilling that continue to degrade American farmland. For financial investors, commodity crops are king, and it’s hard to imagine that they will change their minds anytime soon.”

As I turn back to my own neighborhood, the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, I am encouraged by the leadership of ShoreRivers, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy and Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage and the splendid work they are doing to restore and protect. Among other initiatives, they work with the farm community to filter runoff, create buffers and convert farmland to natural habitats. 

Nature’s gifts are expressed in many ways. Poets, lyricists, and, most especially visual artists enliven our understanding and imagination. One way to appreciate nature is to understand it the way a subsistence forager in Alaska must.  

After-note: It is not possible to assess the challenges to biodiversity and climate with a column or two. I have reached this point by pairing what I know through personal experience with what is projected or recommended by others. The next columns will be even more specific.

A healthy earth requires us to both comprehend our role and take action. As to comprehension, let me suggest: The Creation: An Appeal to Save Life on Earth, by E.O. Wilson.

Al Sikes is the former Chair of the Federal Communications Commission under George H.W. Bush. Al recently published Culture Leads Leaders Follow published by Koehler Books. 

Filed Under: Al Sikes Eco, Top Story Tagged With: Chesapeake Wildlife Heritage, conservation, Eastern Shore Land Conservancy, global warming, Shorerivers

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