Posted August 26, 20222 yr Ohio Conservationists Cautiously Optimistic About Huge Wildlife Bill Ohio has never been immune to the worldwide biodiversity crisis threatening creatures big and small with extinction. Statewide bat populations are being devastated by white-nose syndrome. Earlier this year, Ohio named the Eastern brook trout as a state endangered species. Even recognizable and beloved species like the monarch butterfly are at dire risk. Much of the crisis can be attributed to widespread habitat disruption, both historic and ongoing. “If you look at Ohio, since European settlement, we’ve lost more than 90% of the wetlands. Virtually all of the forest land in Ohio was timbered,” said Nathan Johnson, public lands director for the Ohio Environmental Council. “We’ve got some really great forests now but even those forests are, many would say, juvenile forests. They’re still just recovering. They’re somewhere between 60 and 100 years old, they’ve still got a few more hundred years to go before they’re going to recapture their full ecological potential.” With about a third of wildlife species in the U.S. either threatened or endangered, Congress appears to be on the cusp of addressing the problem with what Johnson said could be the most important piece of federal wildlife legislation since the Endangered Species Act of 1973. If passed, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act (RAWA) would provide more than a billion dollars a year to help states, territories and tribes restore habitats and reintroduce species that have disappeared from regions of the country they once roamed. More below: https://columbusunderground.com/ohio-conservationists-cautiously-optimistic-about-huge-wildlife-bill-jb1/ "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
August 26, 20222 yr Vox had a good explainer on what is in this bill and what it will do, more broadly -- https://www.vox.com/down-to-earth/23288563/recovering-americas-wildlife-act-explained If passed this would be huge for wildlife conservation. It will provide a funding source for conservation efforts as hunting and fishing license sales decline (current source of 80% of funding for these efforts). And because funding wont be linked to hunting or fishing conservation efforts will not be focused on maintaining game species, and instead focus on all threatened species. States put in place Wildlife Action Plans back in 2005, but because funding has been an issue many states haven't been able to fully implement them. This bill helps close that gap. This, along with certain provisions in the infrastructure bill (Vox: Animals need infrastructure, too) and the climate provisions in the the inflation reduction act, the Biden administration has done a lot to pushforward conservation efforts.
May 23, 20232 yr Interesting article in Crains a while ago. In general, I'm somewhat skeptical of carbon credits, but when they are purchased domestically from known quantities in the conservation space, it's hard not to see them as an unalloyed good. https://www.crainscleveland.com/manufacturing/nordson-buys-carbon-credits-help-preserve-ohio-forest
May 23, 20232 yr 50 minutes ago, Ethan said: Interesting article in Crains a while ago. In general, I'm somewhat skeptical of carbon credits, but when they are purchased domestically from known quantities in the conservation space, it's hard not to see them as an unalloyed good. https://www.crainscleveland.com/manufacturing/nordson-buys-carbon-credits-help-preserve-ohio-forest I can't read the article but your tone sounds positive. Back in college the use of such credits was the hallmark of the "free market environmentalists" point of view. Like a lot of proposed solutions there was obviously potential for abuse within the system, but we've seen some good come out of wetlands mitigation and some other similar regs over the years.
May 23, 20232 yr 1 hour ago, Ethan said: Interesting article in Crains a while ago. In general, I'm somewhat skeptical of carbon credits, but when they are purchased domestically from known quantities in the conservation space, it's hard not to see them as an unalloyed good. https://www.crainscleveland.com/manufacturing/nordson-buys-carbon-credits-help-preserve-ohio-forest I share your perspective, it's green washing and not actually doing anything to either reduce carbon output or capture and sequester more carbon. In this case, Western Reserve Land Conservancy likely wasn't going to develop this land in anyway, including for logging or mining, so Nordson gets to say it's reducing it's carbon footprint when there is no real net effect on carbon. However, as you allude to, it is giving WRLC basically money to do something they already planned to do so they can keep doing what they are doing. Here's a good vox explainer on the problems of carbon offsets, they have some longer ones too if you're interested. https://www.vox.com/2020/2/27/21154553/carbon-offsets-explained-climate-change
November 4, 20231 yr a new documentary about the serious amd (acid mine drainage) runoff issues poisoning rivers in se ohio and artists trying to publicize and deal with it — Scientists Are Turning Toxic River Waste Into Paint Pigments A new documentary follows a team of Ohio artists and environmentalists transforming acid mine drainage into viable art materials. Sarah Rose Sharp November 1, 2023 A common side effect of the mining industry, iron oxide runoff has been impacting Ohio’s waterways for generations. Now, a group of artists and scientists in the state are removing this contaminant from a section of Sunday Creek and using it as an ingredient in paint pigment — and a new documentary short shares their inspiring story. “In Southeast Ohio, acid mine drainage is a common pollutant in our streams,” said Guy Riefler, professor and chair of Civil Engineering at Ohio University, in the documentary Toxic Art (2023), directed by Jason Whalen. “You can still run into children who, you tell them to draw a stream, and they reach for an orange crayon.” more: https://hyperallergic.com/853795/scientists-are-turning-toxic-river-waste-into-paint-pigments/?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=W110423&utm_content=W110423+CID_1914e02235fe35cdeff041faa379679a&utm_source=hn&utm_term=Scientists+Are+Turning+Toxic+River+Waste+Into+Paint+Pigments Many of Ohio’s rivers run orange, due to AMD damage, which kills wildlife and destroys habitats.
February 28, 20241 yr Author Green Columbus, American Forests Release Tree Equity Tool By any metric, the tree cover over Columbus is abysmal. Now, thanks to Green Columbus and American Forests, the average citizen has a free, accessible tool to examine just how bad the tree canopy is in their neighborhood compared with others, and how much that lack of tree coverage is impacting their health and wellbeing. Earlier this month, the Washington D.C. based nonprofit American Forests released a tree equity score analyzer specifically for Franklin County. The free digital app allows a user to zoom into each neighborhood down to the parcel level, where every parcel is given a tree equity score out of 100. The equity score is not based solely on how many trees are planted in a specific parcel or neighborhood, but also on a number of social factors like the health index, the poverty rate, and racial composition. “It’s not just about the tree canopy but it’s also about those socioeconomic factors,” said Shelly Douglas, executive director of Green Columbus. “So an area that has 20% tree canopy in German Village and an area that has 20% tree canopy in the South Side community are not going to be scored the same because they have different socioeconomic factors.” More below: https://columbusunderground.com/green-columbus-american-forests-release-tree-equity-tool-jb1/ "You don't just walk into a bar and mix it up by calling a girl fat" - buildingcincinnati speaking about new forumers
May 5, 20241 yr restocking the cuyahoga — 👍🎉 https://www.instagram.com/reel/C6O95oMrYjQ/?igsh=MWR1bzE2MmtjOXA4Nw==
May 5, 20241 yr Fight to save Lake Erie needs uprising, a battle against norms, Lucas County lawyer says TOM HENRY The Blade [email protected] MAY 4, 2024 Saving Lake Erie may ultimately require the same kind of civil unrest that Americans have seen in protests over the past few years, from the war in the Middle East to civil rights, gun control, and abortion. That’s the apparent message from attorney Fritz Byers, who is representing the Board of Lucas County Commissioners in a new Lake Erie lawsuit that was filed against the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency in U.S. District Court last week. While not directly comparing Lake Erie’s chronic algal bloom to any of those other high-profile issues, Mr. Byers predicted meaningful improvements for the world’s 11th largest freshwater lake will only come as a result of social change. He said the public at large must stop being numbed into accepting algal blooms as the norm, and should demand regulators act more aggressively to enforce the federal Clean Water Act of 1972. https://www.toledoblade.com/local/environment/2024/05/04/fight-save-lake-erie-needs-uprising-battle-norms-county-lawyer/stories/20240504017
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