This is some sort of early season algae bloom (before the really hot weather) that we have seen before, but it seems to have been smaller in previous years.
Kayaking the Creek, saw the occasional small individual fry jumping — don’t know if that’s a symptom of low oxygen already?? bpThe Center for Neighborhood Technology (CNT) in Chicago has developed a complicated model to 337 neighborhoods around the country, showing the real economic and environmental costs of sprawl.
A URL for some of the interactive, on-line map products is at http://htaindex.org/mapping_tool.php#region=Baltimore%2C%20MD&theme_menu=0&layer1=23&layer2=24 or Anne Arundel County is notable for the fact that 100% of the county has combined housing and transportation costs OVER 45% of median income. . . . shows darker blue in the map on the right. . .
Guess BRAC will be good for the county by reducing the average commuting time for county residents.. .
| Posted by: JeffMasters, 3:26 PM GMT on March 12, 2010 |
Tuesday afternoon — there were about 30 swans in the middle of the river – really looked like 15 pairs. Sorry I spooked them from the kayak.
excerpt from the New Scientist at http://www.newscientist.com/article/mg20527501.200-extermination-in-paradise.html?full=true
AS ISLANDS go, you would be hard pressed to find one more remote. Deep in the southern Atlantic Ocean sits South Georgia, a haven for wildlife in the midst of ferocious seas. Over 30 million birds of 31 species breed here and a further 50 species have been spotted. It is home to grey-headed albatrosses, northern giant petrels, white chinned petrels, Antarctic prions, half of the entire population of macaroni penguins and most of the planet’s population of the South Georgia blue-eyed shag.
But it is not as idyllic as it sounds. Under the surface lurks a menace that is slowly ripping the ecosystem apart: rats.
The rodents were stowaways on sealing and whaling ships that visited the island until the mid-20th century. When the hunters stopped coming, the rats were left to their own devices along with a small population of reindeer that had been brought for food and now roam wild. Without natural predators, the rat population has swollen to many million, eating their way through tens of millions of ground-nesting birds’ eggs and chicks in the process. As a result, the island’s endemic wildlife is under threat, and its only songbird, the South Georgia pipit, is on the brink of extinction.
Now the South Georgia Heritage Trust (SGHT) is going to fight back. In what will be the largest mass extermination ever attempted, the SGHT plans to poison every rat on the island. “The difference between success and failure is the survival of two rats on the entire island,” says Tony Martin, project manager of the SGHT Habitat Restoration Programme. “We don’t have to get rid of most or even 99.9 per cent of the rats – we have to eradicate 100 per cent.”
Absolute eradication is the only option because rats breed rapidly. They can live for around two years, achieve sexual maturity at two months old and are able to produce seven litters of 8 to 10 offspring a year. Female rats reach menopause at around 18 months. Even in the harsh climate of South Georgia, a sexually mature female is likely to have around four litters a year. If just one couple survive, it will only take a few years before the island is overrun again (see diagram).
go to the link above for graphics and the rest of the article . . .
Sanjida O’Connell is an editor in New Scientist‘s Opinion section
In our local area, retired Baltimore Sun columnist, Tom Horton is one of the few opinion leaders who is willing to take on questions of economic and population growth as fundamental drivers of pollution and environmental degradation. We had the pleasure of hearing Tom speak last week and he was handing out this copy of his article, appended below.
Perpetual economic growth is neither possible nor desirable. Growth, especially in wealthy nations, is already causing more problems than it solves.
Recession isn’t sustainable or healthy either. The positive, sustainable alternative is a steady state economy. Learn More >>
“Growth for the sake of yet more growth is a bankrupt and eventually lethal idea. CASSE is the David fighting the Goliath of endless expansion, and we know how that one turned out.”~ David Orr
February 5, 2010, C.Hofberger Fuel Company made a last minute fuel delivery before the February 5th snow storm. That was MUCH appreciated.
January 24th the ice finally melted from Church Creek and I went out for a little [kayak] navigation.
Tide was real high so I decided to go up one of the branches of the creek by the the house. Based on Erik Michelsen’s blog in the South River Federation web pages (www.southriverfederation.net), I thought I’d see if I could get up to the beaver dam that he found. I didn’t get to the dam, but I was surprised to find this BIG BEAVER LODGE — it doesn’t look like much here (and note Aris T. Allen Blvd bridge in the background), but the lodge is AT LEAST six feet high, above the water in this picture, and that was on a very high tide — maybe 1.5 or 2.0 feet above normal high tide. Those little beavers have been working on this for quite a while — obviously busy as beavers. (sorry).
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