AUDUBON, Pa. - Some Pennsylvania farm fields are a much-needed stopover site for thousands of birds flying thousands of miles as they get from Virginia and North Carolina to northern Alaska and Canada. The Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area is in the heart of southeastern Pennsylvania's Highlands Mega-Greenway, on the border of Lebanon and Lancaster counties.
Brian Byrnes with Audubon Pennsylvania says the Tundra Swan sees it, and the farms around it, as ideal places to rest and regroup.
"There are these shallow ponds that they can roost on at night, then nearby have agricultural lands to provide the kinds of food that they need to refuel and move on to the next stop."
Byrnes says there are pieces in place to make the concept more attractive to landowners.
"Many counties have agricultural preservation programs that compensate farmers for development rights that they're giving up through signing agricultural easements."
Byrnes says that without the rich, natural resources of the the Middle Creek area and the two-million-acre Pennsylvania Highlands, the Tundra Swan may be hard-pressed to find another suitable resting point in the constantly-developing Mid-Atlantic region. He says that's a point to drive home with landowners.
"They may not realize just how unique it is, that there really are just a handful of sites in the eastern U.S. that have that number of birds come through."
Byrnes says there's a blueprint in place, the Middle Creek Initiative, aimed at getting landowners to agree to let the birds make pit stops on their property. He hopes that will be made possible by farmers granting permission, and through county and possibly federal land programs.
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A new film documents the 2018 battle between Colorado environmentalists and the oil and gas industry over proposed fracking regulations.
The film also documents a grassroots effort by Colorado Rising to pass a ballot initiative which would create a 2,500-foot setback for all hydraulic fracturing wells in the state, particularly in disadvantaged neighborhoods.
Sarah Schulte, organizing committee member of GreenFaith Boulder County, which recently previewed the film for about 100 members, said the film has a strong message.
"What probably makes the film pretty dramatic and kind of shocking is the length to which oil and natural gas industries in Colorado set out to thwart them," Schulte pointed out. "Not only with some of the tactics you might expect, but also some kind of more nefarious tactics sabotaging their signature gathering, for example."
In the end, the petroleum industry defeated the measure after a $50 million campaign opposing it. Schulte acknowledged Colorado Rising raised only $1 million for its campaign. After the election, the state adopted a 1,000-foot drilling setback from schools and residential property lines.
Hydraulic fracturing, commonly called fracking, involves drillers injecting a mixture of chemicals underground to break up the shale and free the oil. The chemicals used in the process, which are sometimes toxic, can pollute groundwater and make the surrounding land unstable.
Schulte emphasized the movie had a powerful effect on the group's members.
"I think most people were pretty angry and maybe even a little sad after seeing how these kinds of politics play out in Colorado," Schulte observed. "They asked questions like what can we do next? How do you keep going when it's so difficult to fight such a big and powerful industry?"
The film, Fracking the System: Colorado's Oil and Gas Wars, is currently being previewed by select audiences. It has won the "Spirit of Activism" award at the Colorado Environmental Film Festival
and the "Environmental Award" at the 2024 DOCUTAH International Film Festival.
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As part of an effort to restore the Mississippi River delta, an organization is collaborating with nature to address environmental challenges.
The Big Muddy is the second-longest river in North America, flowing more than 2,300 miles.
Simone Maloz, campaign director for the group Restore the Mississippi River Delta, said the coalition uses nature-based solutions to help tackle some of the river's environmental problems in Louisiana and Mississippi.
"We use the power and the sediment the river provides to help us to put solutions into place," Maloz explained. "For example, we might have an area of wetlands that needs to be nourished with freshwater sediment, we can tap into that wonderful resource that we have."
Maloz pointed out some farmers are turning to nature-based solution, using cover crops like clover or other plants to protect the soil. Cover crops typically grow in between primary crops, or are planted in the offseason to help keep nutrients on the ground so they do not become toxic in the water as runoff.
Maloz emphasized nature-based solutions are key to building resilient communities, which she said are those communities thinking about how to plan for climate change, such as floods, droughts, and rising sea levels, wildfires, hurricanes and coastal threats.
"What we know about resilient communities, whether you're on the coast, or whether you're not on the coast, is about how you can brace yourself for these impacts and how you can more quickly recover," Maloz stressed. "We know that when you include nature in those plans, it helps you to better do that."
Maloz added her group is involved in various projects along the Mississippi River, using sediment to replenish marshes, rebuild ridges and barrier islands and create habitats for migratory birds.
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The Iowa Environmental Council has petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency to invoke emergency powers to protect sensitive soil and groundwater in northeast Iowa.
The council is holding a public webinar today and wants the EPA to address groundwater contamination in northeast Iowa's so-called Driftless region. The groundwater there has a well-documented history of nitrate contamination.
Alicia Vasto, director of water program for the council, said the highly porous and soluble karst soil prevalent in the region is susceptible to contamination from centralized animal feeding operations.
"We did some analyses of private well data and public water systems and found that there was a lot of contamination of nitrate in those drinking water sources," Vasto reported. "The state has really failed to take action meaningfully that would address those problems."
The state has said it is constantly working to upgrade groundwater quality standards and is in the process of taking public input on creating yet another set of rules.
Vasto emphasized since the state has failed to address the water safety concerns for decades, the council and a coalition of other environmental groups have, in effect, gone above the state's head to the EPA, asking the agency to implement an emergency stop gap on nitrate pollution the way the agency did in neighboring Minnesota last year.
"We're asking that at, at minimum, the EPA would require the state of Iowa to do what they required the state of Minnesota to do under the same petition," Vasto explained. "Because the geology of northeast Iowa is the same as of southeast Minnesota."
The council's recommendations include calling on the EPA to create a communications plan with residents whose water could be at risk, create a drinking water sampling plan, and establishing a thorough permitting process for centralized animal feeding operations.
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