Thoughts on the San Francisco Bay Bioregion

Biohabitats' Leaf Litter
Vol. 6 Number 5
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/2008winter/

The San Francisco Bay Bioregion, which encompasses the entire San Francisco Bay Area and Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, is known throughout the world as a region of beauty, culture and geographic diversity. Its glorious coastlines, wine producing vineyards, majestic redwoods, and iconic Golden Gate Bridge are legendary.

Despite - and perhaps because of - its popularity, the San Francisco Bay Bioregion has a long list of ecological enemies. Industrial pollution, sea level rise, habitat loss and fragmentation, invasive species, water diversions and loss of wetlands are just some of the region’s mounting threats.

Are the region's ecosystems as valued as its recreational sites, agricultural products and cultural icons? What is being done to help the San Francisco Bay Bioregion combat these threats? Join us as we head west and try to find out.

We'll begin by interviewing two experts on the Bioregion. First we chat with Dr. Matt Kondolf, a professor of environmental planning at UC Berkeley and a world-renowned fluvial geomorphologist. Dr. Kondolf shares some insight - and alarming facts - about the dynamics of the Bioregion's river systems. We also talk with Mr. Rick Rayburn, chief of natural resources for California State Parks. Mr. Rayburn tells us about the San Francisco Bay Bioregion's rich biodiversity, and efforts to sustain that biodiversity in the face of climate change.

In your responses to our reader survey, 90% of you agree on what you consider to be the number one threat to biodiversity in the San Francisco Bay Bioregion. Find out what that is, and take a look at some of your other thoughts and questions about the San Francisco Bay Bioregion.

In her article What's In A Leaf, landscape architect Allegra Bukojemsky, officially unveils – and draws a personal connection to - the leaf that will adorn the logo of the Biohabitats San Francisco Bay Bioregion office she leads.

For those of you who want to explore the San Francisco Bay Bioregion in more detail, we've provided lots of helpful links in the resources section of Leaf Litter. Finally, catch up on the latest at Biohabitats.

As always, we want to know what you think. Share your thoughts on Leaf Litter by contacting our editor.

Thoughts on Agroecology

Biohabitats' Leaf Litter
Vol. 6 Number 4
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.28/

Long ago, in the Fertile Crescent of Mesopotamia, human beings began harvesting and domesticating wild seeds, plants and animals for the purpose of yielding food. Thus began agriculture.

Fast forward 10,000 years. Agricultural lands now comprise over 30 percent of the earth's land surface. Agriculture now employs more people and uses more land and water than any other human activity. In fact, the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations refers to farmers as "the largest group of natural resource managers on Earth." Perhaps the greatest challenge these managers face today is how to meet the world's increasing demand for produce without harming its remaining ecosystems.

Can agroecology - the scientific discipline that uses ecological theory to study, design, manage and evaluate agricultural systems that are productive and resource conserving - be the answer? What better time to explore this question than fall, a time known in our hemisphere as harvest season.

We'll begin by talking with Dr. Wes Jackson, a man widely regarded as the father of sustainable agriculture. Dr. Jackson founded The Land Institute back in the 1970s and has been furthering the science of agroecology ever since. He shares with us some history, wisdom, ideas and a palpable passion for our land.

Your responses to our reader survey reveal your concerns about industrial agriculture as well as your commitment to and interest in developing solutions.

In her article A Growing Movement In The Concrete Jungle, Biohabitats Ecological Designer, Nicole Stern, describes one of the hottest new trends to hit our cities - urban agriculture.

We recognize that a discussion of agroecology would be incomplete without mentioning permaculture. The Permaculture Institute defines 'permaculture' as "an ecological design system for sustainability in all aspects of human endeavor." Because permaculture extends beyond how food is grown to address how homes are constructed, diminished landscapes restored, rainwater harvested, communities built, etc., we see it as a topic deserving of its own issue of Leaf Litter. So look for that in the future!

For those of you who want to dig deeper into the topic of agroecology, we provide loads of resources. Be sure to check them out. Finally, catch up on the latest at Biohabitats.

As always, we want to know what you think. Share your thoughts on Leaf Litter by contacting our editor.

Thoughts on Ocean Health

Biohabitats’ Leaf Litter
Vol. 6 Number 3
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.27/

With the onset of summer, our thoughts often turn to vacation. For many of us, this means a journey to the ocean. The mere act of burying one’s toes in the sand and gazing at the surf can be more rejuvenating than a full body massage. But despite their restorative power, the world’s oceans are sick. Sixteen percent of the world’s coral reefs are disappearing within a single year and populations of various ocean wildlife are declining.

Can something so vast, so powerful and so plentiful really be in peril? How important is marine biodiversity, anyway? Is anyone doing anything about it? How are our oceans governed?

In this issue of Leaf Litter, we’ll plunge into the topic of ocean health as it pertains to the fields of ecological restoration, conservation planning and regenerative design.

We’ll begin by talking with Tom McCann, the Director of Strategic Communications for Ocean Conservancy, an organization dedicated to promoting healthy and diverse ocean ecosystems on through research, education, and science-based advocacy. Based on what you told us in your responses to our reader survey on ocean health. Public education about this issue is critical, so Tom has his work cut out for him.

All is not doom and gloom when it comes to our oceans. In fact, when it comes to oceans, we encourage you to Go Ahead And Play. The number of ways to enjoy the world’s oceans is as expansive as the oceans themselves.Many of you will likely want to dive further into this fascinating topic. We encourage you to do so, and hope that the links we’ve provided are helpful.

Thoughts On Earth Day

Biohabitats’ Leaf Litter
Vol. 6 Number 2
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.26/

While every day is Earth Day at Biohabitats, the arrival of April 22 evokes very personal sentiments among many of our team members. Senior ecologist Laura Backus shares memories of the very first Earth Day. Accounting assistant Tiffany Koerner steps away from her spreadsheets for a minute to reflect on the significance of the day. And senior ecologist (and humorist) Bill Young tells how he plans to barrel into his annual Earth Day celebration in his home town.
Earth Day – A Beginning
By Laura Backus
Senior Ecologist, Southern Rocky Mountain Bioregion Office

As my spring schedule fills with a stream bank planting project on the Southern Ute Reservation, figuring out the best native species to plant in Idaho as well as Wildlands Restoration Volunteers commitments to explore cloud forest restoration in Latin America, help train our new crop of crew leaders, and arrange a Russian-olive pull, I think back to the first Earth Day in 1970.

I was a psychology student at Ohio State University, as yet untouched by the passionate anti-war protests soon to erupt on Ohio campuses. I had never heard the word "ecology" or considered that how we live makes a difference to the green forests covering the Hocking Hills to the south. Despite my childhood delight in hiking up shallow streams looking for crayfish, my biology courses were simply prerequisites to graduation. Suddenly on April 24th, Earth Day activities filled the campus Oval with eager people handing out information on the seriousness of human impacts to the planet. Taken with this new idea that the earth needs human care, I went to rallies, attended workshops, and wore an Earth Day pin.

Although I was to spend the next two decades working office jobs, racing bikes, and raising a family, before making the transition to ecologist, I can see in retrospect how the fresh ideas of the first Earth Day opened my awareness to our responsibility to care for our beautiful and complex earth, the foundation of life forms in vast numbers and astonishing complexity.My earth day pin, now missing from my box of 70s memorabilia such as "Surely" (for Shirley Chisholm, the first woman to make a serious run for the presidency) is still cherished in my memory.

What Earth Day Means To Me
By Bill Young

I love my wife; I really do. But sometimes I have to work double hard to make up for her environmental unconsciousness. You would think, married to a card-carrying tree hugger, she would fall in line and recycle, wash clothes with earth friendly products, and buy organic. Most of the time, I guess, she does, but way too many times I have fished though the garbage bin in our kitchen to remove plastic bottles and even paper, and put them in the recycling bins.

To her credit, she keeps the thermostat down pretty low in winter. My two kids and I have adapted to wearing sweatshirts around the house, and we use plenty of blankets. I, alone, am the “leftovers king” thereby closing that loop.

We bought a Toyota Prius in 2003, and when she saw that car she thought I had gone off the deep end (“It looks like a moon beam!”). She almost refused to get in. But, to my delight, she did, and playing on the radio was our song! She just looked at me and said, “You win; we will buy this car.” Now, she steals the Prius whenever she can. Our town, Point Pleasant, NJ, is a little seaside town on the Jersey shore. It gets invaded every weekend in the summer with tourists. We try to spend the entire summer weekend on our bikes, riding to the beach with baskets loaded. We have gotten close, but have not gone car-less for an entire weekend.

Earth Day is truly one of my favorite days. One day is not enough, but the festive atmosphere makes it such a positive message for the general public. It is a day when the environment is cool. And the public will turn out in droves for Earth Day events. I always try to give a lecture, or man a table for the Native Plant Society of New Jersey. I like to give away seedlings, even if half of them will not survive a month, because it is symbolic to plant and tree. It raises consciousness, and makes people feel they are doing something helpful.

This year, I am manning a table at my hometown Earth Day celebration. CAPTION: Bill’s rain garden display It is an all day event, taking up the entire community park. There will be music and prizes, and the town shows up en masse. Over 43 vendors and tables will be there. I intend to bring a rain barrel, and illustrate to kids how, if they hook it up to the downspout, they can improve life for fish and reducing flooding and erosion. I am trying to get my hands on old waste barrels, and have the kids paint them, so their parents will have to use them at home (how do you turn down your kid’s artwork?). I will have a photo display of native plants, and answer questions to get homeowners to replace non-natives with natives. I try not to preach, but instead to gently inform, knowing in their hearts, people want to do the right thing. I will hit up my friend Don Knezick (of Pinelands Nursery) for free plants to give away. I also want to build a raingarden exhibit, because that is fun and easy to do. The idea is to give regular people simple steps to improve their impact on this beautiful, yet fragile, planet.

Earth Day is every day, my brothers and sisters. We in the environmental field have a gift, and it is called knowledge, and Earth Day is one day to share it with those less knowledgeable.

Still Feeling The Ripples Of The First Earth Day
By Tiffany Koerner
Accounting Assistant

For years, Earth Day has been a renowned celebration to promote awareness about environmental concerns and to share appreciation for our environment. Since the environmental movement in the 1970s, Earth Day has united individuals of varying demographics for a common goal — conserving and sustaining our environment.

From a financial perspective, I view Earth Day as both an integral part of environmental citizenship and an essential aspect of intelligent financial decisions in today's turbulent economy. If our society, as a whole, acted preemptively in preserving our environment rather than reacting to the deterioration of our environment, citizens could save money while catering to their environmental conscience. American citizens, in particular, must strive to preserve the world's dwindling natural resources; after all, America is home to only five percent of the world's population but consumes twenty-five percent of its natural resources. If we are diligent in conserving our environment and its natural resources, we will subsequently reduce our cost of living and increase our quality of life.

Although Earth Day is a one-day celebration, it represents far more than just twenty-four hours of environmental citizenship. It encourages us, as the world's inhabitants, to continually preserve, respect, and appreciate our environment through our everyday decisions. It invokes a sense of pride in our environment. Most importantly, it conveys an urgency to maintain a healthy environment for future generations.

Thoughts on GIS

Biohabitats’ Leaf Litter
Vol. 6 Number 1
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.25/

From retail to routing to restaurants, Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are impacting almost every industry. But what about ecological restoration, conservation planning and regenerative design?

While some practitioners shy away from GIS, intimidated by what they perceive as cumbersome and complex technology, others see it as a gift from the techno gods -- a vehicle that can bring information from numerous sources and provide an otherwise unattainably holistic understanding of a site.

How are GIS science, technology and tools affecting the fields of ecological restoration, conservation planning and regenerative design? Can GIS facilitate interdisciplinary approaches and lead to new solutions? Can it allow us to do and depict things we never thought possible? Or does it just further complicate everything? Join us as we explore these questions and more.

For starters, we’ll talk with Patrick J. Crist, a man who spent most of his professional career applying GIS technology and tools toward the protection and conservation of natural resources. In his current role as Director of Conservation Planning and Ecosystem Management for NatureServe, he has a lot of wisdom – and resources - to share.

What do your peers have to say about GIS and its application to our work? Find out by reading the results of our reader survey.

In her article When Bad Data Happens To Good Models, Biohabitats' own GIS guru, Christine Mielnicki reminds us of four fundamental principles we should keep in mind when using GIS.

In addition to its many applications to conservation planning, ecological restoration and regenerative design, GIS can be downright entertaining. You need not be a geek to enjoy some of the fun things we found.

Check out the links we’ve provided in the resources section of this issue. Whether you’re looking for data sources, new toolkits, educational resources, or general information, you’ll find something to help you better understand and use GIS.

Finally, catch up on the latest at Biohabitats and learn how we are applying GIS as we help towns and universities plan for growth and development while maximizing the value of their natural resources.

As always, we want to know what you think. Share your comments by contacting our editor.

Thoughts on the Ohio River Bioregion

Biohabitats’ Leaf Litter
Vol. 5 Number 5
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.24/

Few can debate the historical and cultural significance of the Ohio River and its surrounding landscape. The land along the 981 mile river served as home to numerous Native American tribes. The river itself was a primary route for westward traveling pioneers and later became a major corridor for the transport of goods. It is now one of the most populated and industrialized regions of the U.S. ... but how significant is the Ohio River watershed ecologically?

We define the Ohio River bioregion as the area that drains into the Ohio River, from the convergence of the Allegheny & Monongahela rivers in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to Cairo, Illinois, where the Ohio River flows into Mississippi River. The Ohio River bioregion happens to include some of the world's richest assemblages of freshwater mussels, as well as some of the best examples of eastern deciduous forests around. An area that includes two climate zones and follows the course of the glacial ice margin, the Ohio River Basin is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna.

Join us as we examine the ecology of the Ohio River Bioregion.

We'll talk with Dr. William H. Martin, who once served as commissioner of the Kentucky Department of Natural Resources and worked to pass the 1998 Kentucky Forest Conservation Act. A 30-year veteran professor of Biology at Eastern Kentucky University, and former co-chair of the Kentucky Biodiversity Task Force, Dr. Martin tell us about the rich biodiversity of the region's forests, waterways and caves.

Take a look at what Leaf Litter readers have to say about this bioregion. You shared some thoughtful opinions, as well as lots of links and references.

Peek inside the doors of our Ohio River Bioregional (ORB) office and get to know Mike Lighthiser and Suzanne Hoehne. Read Mike's article "Lost and Found River" as he looks within and outside of the Ohio River Bioregion for inspiration on keeping the River and its Basin on everyone's radar screen.

The resources section of this issue is loaded with links and material to explore for more information on the Ohio River Bioregion.

Check out some of the exciting work we're doing the Ohio River Bioregion, meet some new team members, and catch up on the latest Biohabitats happenings.

As always, we want to know what you think. Share your thoughts on Leaf Litter by contacting our editor.

Thoughts on Ecological Restoration and Climate Change

Biohabitats’ Leaf Litter
Vol. 5 Number 4
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.23/

European Heat Wave“Have Doubled”Early 2007 Saw Record-Breaking Extreme WeatherArtic Sea Ice is Expected to Retreat to a Record LowGreenhouse Gases Hit New High, Rise Accelerates

You’d have to be on a solo trip to the most remote regions of Antarctica to miss the hundreds of global warming headlines that appear weekly in our news outlets. Then again, with the ice melting beneath your feet, perhaps you’d still have a notion that the topic of climate change is heating up - fast.

Whether you credit the UN, Al Gore or the growing legions of global warming organizations, climate change is top of mind worldwide. To some, it connotes a dreadful, apocalyptic future. To others, it presents an unprecedented opportunity to dramatically change the way we operate on our planet. But what does it mean to those of us involved in ecological restoration?

We’ll talk with Richard J. Hobbs, an Australian environmental science professor who co-authored an article on the topic of ecological restoration and global climate change for the journal Restoration Ecology. Take a look at your responses to our reader survey.

Ever wondered how ecological succession and infrastructure deterioration would progress if we humans suddenly disappeared?Kevin Heatley of Biohabitats Invasive Species Management reviews Alan Weisman’s “The World Without Us,” a book which does just that.

The resources section of this issue is loaded with links to explore for more information on global warming and ecological restoration. You'll definitely want to take a look at one of the most sizzling topics of our time and examine how it affects our work in ecological restoration. Finally, catch up on the latest at Biohabitats.

As always, we want to know what you think. Share your thoughts on Leaf Litter by contacting our editor.

Thoughts on Ecologically Sustainable Travel and Vacation

Biohabitats’ Leaf Litter
Vol. 5 Number 3
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.21/

For many of us in the Northern Hemisphere, this is vacation season – a time to take a break, go on holiday, have some fun or just relax. But can we escape to the sea, dessert, mountains or even neighboring towns without leaving a trail of waste and carbon emissions? Is there such a thing as ecologically sustainable leisure travel? The signs for such a possibility are encouraging: options and resources for these getaways are expanding faster than ever.

Travel-related businesses are beginning to realize that shortsighted tourism development can result in pollution, loss of natural resources and irreparably damaged ecosystems. All of these ultimately affect tourism. Travelers are catching on as well: in a recent survey conducted by TripAdvisor, a company that provides on-line travel recommendations, nearly 40% of travelers said that environmentally-friendly tourism is a consideration when traveling. The same survey revealed that 34% of travelers are willing to pay more to stay in an environmentally-friendly.
Join us as we explore the topic of ecologically sustainable travel and vacation. We begin by chatting with Brian Mullis, president and co-founder of Sustainable Travel International (STI). Brian provides information and a hearty heaping of hope for the future of eco-friendly, sustainable travel.

Next, we’ll take a look at what you and other Leaf Litter readers said in response to our reader survey on ecologically sustainable travel and vacation.

Biohabitats team members Arjun Dongre, Stephanie Klein and Joey Weidle contributed to this issue by sharing travel stories involving sustainability and discovery.

Are you curious about how deep a carbon footprint your summer vacation will leave? Figure it out in advance with a carbon calculator. Traveling with the kids? Turn off the portable DVD player for a while and let them broaden their minds with some eco-friendly games.

The resources section of this issue is loaded with links to help you plan an ecologically sustainable vacation and find environmentally responsible lodging, transportation and travel services.

Finally, learn how we incorporated ecological restoration in an eco-tourism plan for Delaware City, Delaware and catch up on the latest at Biohabitats.As always, we want to know what you think. Share your thoughts on Leaf Litter (or life in general) by contacting our editor.

Ecological Restoration: In the year...

Thursday June 7, 2006


Where are you going to be in 2050? How will you Restore the Future?



Society for Ecological Restoration International
http://www.ser.org/

I just returned from visiting my grandchild Anya in South Carolina. She just received her Masters of Restoration Ecology from Clemson University and is contemplating her next move. I was hoping that she would go to school up north but instead Anya decided that the Southern Atlantic Coastal Plain bioregion was where she wanted to study and work. I took the HSHP (High Speed Hydrogen Powered) express train to Charlotte then transferred on to the intermoldal Solbus. You know those new solar powered buses. It is amazing how far they have come with harnessing the power of the sun. Heck, I remember when I used to make this same trip with my wife and young children. We would hop into our gasoline engine car (remember those?), travel more than 400 miles over a series of highways, fight the traffic gridlock around Washington, D.C., and arrive at our destination 9 hours later. Now the trip takes less than four hours, traffic gridlock is a thing of the past, and I can relax and catch-up on my reading or stare out the window at the diversity of landscapes that passes me by.

You see, it was only about 15 years ago that most of the major highways were dismantled and replaced with forested green corridors under the Ecological Corridors and Working Landscape Act passed by the Green Party administration in the White House. What was most impressive in along the east coast of the US is that these corridors are permanently linked through a network of auxiliary green corridors to large patches of forest habitat along the Allegheny Mountains and Atlantic seaboard. In fact, my oldest daughter Caroline was in charge of one of the design teams that oversaw the ecological restoration program for these areas. She modestly declares that she really wasn’t in charge; she just facilitated a community by community process of engaging people all along the planned greenway corridors in a collaborative and integrative design process. She keeps reminding me that they were the ones that developed the ecological restoration framework using the 7 th edition of the SER Primer, made the strategic decisions on the restoration process, and helped set up the institutional and governance structures that gave them life.

This process also galvanized efforts by towns to establish an interwoven network of working landscapes that surrounds and weaves through the urban heart of these communities. Now these working landscapes, set aside for local organic food production, wastewater treatment, urban habitat, and recreation, are ecologically connected to the larger corridor links as part of the overall ecological restoration program.

What was the most rewarding part, she says, is the amount of jobs that the project created and how it helped revitalize many smaller communities that were feeling the effects of both the collapse of fossil fuels and climate change, not to mention all of the side effects that went along with urban sprawl. From what I hear, many people that were instrumental in the design process are now employed to manage these greenways to ensure their long term resiliency. Hopefully their jobs will get easier now that greenhouse gas emissions have essentially been eliminated throughout the world and climate change is predicted to level off to background rates in about 50 years.

I have to remember to send Caroline the front page article in the newspaper, right net to the W/H (Wellness and Happiness) and the Biodiversity Indices, about the recent sighting of a male wolf using the Patuxent CL (Corridor Link) greenway in Maryland. This is great news! The restoration process of reintroducing wolves to the Allegheny Mountain corridor has proven wildly successful while the reintroduction process along the Atlantic Coast corridor has been adequate. But up until now there hasn’t been much evidence that the two populations were commingling. Maybe this sighting will be one of many in the future. This issue of wolf reintroduction was extremely controversial in the beginning, but using the resources from the GRN, the Bioregional Department of Ecology and Community came to the conclusion that in order to facilitate whole-scale ecological restoration of the landscape, that all of the trophic levels needed to be represented. It took a lot of hard work and persistence to make this happen, but once communities began to realize the social, economic, and health benefits of an ecologically healthy, in-tact, whole landscape, the decision to move forward with the reintroductions became much easier.

I need to go. I still take a daily walk out to visit the community volunteer restoration corps. They like to ask me questions about how Anya is doing and what restoration was like back in the ‘stone ages’ of 2007. Those were the years!

Where are you going to be in 2050? How will you Restore the Future? Send in your 2050 Restore the Future stories (www.info@ser.org) and we will post them on the GRN (http://www.globalrestorationnetwork.org/). Keith Bowers, Chair Society for Ecological Restoration International

As always, let us know what you think.







posted by Biohabitats, Inc. at 3:46 PM

Thoughts On Earth Day

Biohabitats’ Leaf Litter
Vol. 5 Number 2
http://www.biohabitats.com/ndg_newsite/newsletter/number.20/

Earth Day Blues
By Joseph Wiedle

I come from a region in Pennsylvania where the environment is a rather poignant issue. A few miles down the road, through mountains ravaged by the anthracite coal companies that took the precious, hard, and black fuel from under my ancestors, there is Centralia, PA. It is burning. On the side of the road, on colder autumn or winter days you can literally see steam and smoke rising and curling out of cracks in the ground. A fire started in one of the mineshafts, and raged out of control before the miners could quell it. So they left it. The fire found one of the largest veins of coal, and started in on it. It has been burning ever since. This is just the start of it.

I grew up in row homes that the mining companies threw up quickly to house the immigrants arriving from Staten Island, who were then sent sliding down dark, freezing holes underneath the mountains with little more than a canary and a lantern to help them see to their work. The steel factories in Allentown and Bethlehem needed heat. The workers and the environment paid pretty dearly supplying that heat.

Nowadays, all that is left of the dirty industry that berthed the first labor unions are the rusted, hollow, and ominous breakers dotting the landscape. There are huge mounds of slag, a mixture of coal particles and dirt, sitting next to the road just a half of a mile from my high school football field. Recently, a new burning method was devised, and the buzzard of industry landed on the mountain above my town in the form of a Coal Generation Plant. It can burn the slag at higher heats, and can squeeze what little energy there is left out of the slag, leaving behind a useless, ultra fine, red dust, which very large trucks place where the large piles of slag used to sit. Then, they level it off and plant sod over it. Virgin Pennsylvania forest replaced with bland, unnaturally flat, green fields, under which may or may not be a new environmental hazard. The townsfolk were complaining about having to wash the red dust off of their siding, while I was finishing up high school.

I had a Huck Finn-esque childhood. I was always in the woods with a pocket knife, fishing rod, and then later a shotgun. I love the outdoors. I camped. Just not near my house. We had to drive to places where Pennsylvania wasn't so scarred. So we did. My family would discuss the landscape, but in a shrugging way. "The coal companies came, and when the coal ran out, they left," my father would tell me. "Didn't anyone fight against the pollution?" I used to ask. "No," my father would say, "Things were different back then."

After leaving Pennsylvania, I was fortunate enough to travel quite a bit. I lived in Massachusetts, where it is very progressive, yet there still were not recycle bins on every block. Then I lived in France, where I saw that there were recycle bins everywhere. I saw lots of solar paneled stoplights, and intense pubic transportation. After France, I moved to California, and have eventually settled in Baltimore. This is funny, because the steel that was made in Allentown and Bethlehem was trucked down to Baltimore's harbor to leave the country on boats. The industry destroyed the bay. I have stood on Federal Hill and at Fort McHenry, and looked at the beautiful bay. I just won't dare swim in it.

Earth Day just passed. I recently read that John McConnell, founder of Earth Day, and his cohorts decided on March 21st, because it is the Spring Equinox, the day when night and day are equal. The earth's cycles are in balance. The first Earth Day was in 1970! That is less than 40 years ago. Has the earth only been important since then? Congress needed 5 more years to deliberate before they decided the earth was important enough to have its own holiday. Scary. I can see how naïve I was when asking my father about why no one punished the coal companies for polluting.

I am older now. I find myself with an environmental job, making schematic drawings that aid in the restoration and conservation of the environment. I am answering that question from my coal dusty childhood. I recycle. I compost. I recently (and only partially willingly) went carless. Still, however, I work with people at our firm who constantly are challenging me regarding what I eat, where it comes from, what I buy, where it comes from. I am learning to question these things myself. I must admit I have fallen into the humdrum of consuming without consequences at points in my life. I welcome the constructive criticism of my coworkers. I can always do more.

Earth Day passing reminded me of my torn up stomping grounds in Pennsylvania. No one does much about it. They just drive past it. That kind of gets to me, and it has since I was a boy. Perhaps in the future I can learn more about restoration efforts, and eventually make a difference back there. It is a goal of mine. Earth Day passing encourages me to be part of the solution, instead of the problem. It reinforces my decisions to work for the environment. It is an idealist's holiday, and I am an idealist with coal dirt under the skin of my knees and elbows.

(Click here for more information about the Centralia Mine Fire)

Is Earth Day Just Another One Of Those "Days?"
By Suzanne Hoehne

Googling Earth Day" now results in about 1.98 million hits. According to the U.S. government, "Earth Day is a time to celebrate gains we have made and create new visions to accelerate environmental progress. Earth Day is a time to unite around new actions. Earth Day and every day is a time to act to protect our planet." www.earthday.gov.

When Earth Day approaches, people plant trees, pick up trash, and do activities that "help" the earth. However, if most people were asked, on any other day, what they have done the past year to help the earth, they'd probably say, "I went to that event on Earth Day. . ." Is Earth Day becoming like other "days?" Is Earth Day becoming like Thanksgiving, where people only go serve dinner at a homeless shelter on that day? Is it now the norm to only do things to help the earth on one day?

Let's not forget that - matter how busy our lives get - to take the time and practice all that we preach on Earth Day everyday. For as the U.S. Government Says, "Every Day is a time to act to protect our planet." It will take all of us working together everyday to protect and restore the third rock from the sun, Earth.