The month of April has special meaning for Texans. It's when many groups - like Adopt-a-Highway and Keep Texas Beautiful affiliates - participate in the statewide "Don't mess with Texas Trash-Off."

This year, to work around inclement weather, cleanup events are being held all month instead of just one day.

In last year's Trash-Off, volunteers collected more than one million pounds of litter across the state. Becky Ozuna, the campaign coordinator, said even if you can't physically participate, you can be helpful.

"If they are driving and they do see a group out collecting trash on the side of the road," said Ozuna, "to please slow down and just be aware that there may be more of their neighbors and friends and family on the side of the road, picking up trash."

She added these annual trash pickups save taxpayer dollars. The Texas Department of Transportation spent over $50 million on litter pickup in the last year - money that could be used elsewhere to enhance the state.

When waste isn't properly disposed of, Ozuna pointed out, it ends up in water systems, is ingested by wildlife, and reduces both water and air quality. It can also facilitate the spread of disease, by providing places for pests to live and breed.

She said being part of a cleanup crew has a side benefit for the volunteers.

"If you've actually been out there yourself and you have experienced trash pickup firsthand, you're way more less likely to litter," said Ozuna. "So, we do encourage everybody to get their kids involved at an early age."

And if you're caught littering in Texas, you can be fined up to $2,000.

The most common types of litter found are cigarette butts, face masks and other personal protective gear and fast-food wrappers, tossed along roads by motorists and pedestrians.

Beyond the April events, Keep Texas Beautiful affiliates hold trash pickups year-round to keep their communities clean. Lenora Tollefson, director of operations with Keep Pearland Beautiful, said anyone can do their part.

"You know, if you see it, try your best to pick it up and throw it in the trash," said Tollefson. "Take a trash bag with you, leave one in your vehicle, so that you can put it in there."

The campaign has been around since 1986 as a call to action to remind Texans not to litter.

The Conservation Fund, which works to protect land and nature across the U.S. has announced it has protected more than 1 million acres of working forests lands across the country, including in Oregon.

The organization's milestone comes as forests are rapidly disappearing -- as many as 13 million acres in the next few decades.

Brian Dangler, director of the Working Forest Fund with The Conservation Fund, said valuable work continues on the protected land which adds to the nearby economy.

"The beauty of these projects is that the receipts from the timber, the sustainable management of forests, timber harvest really helps local folks to keep the schools going, the fire department, the local services," he explained.

He added The Conservation Fund has helped protect forestland in the Columbia River Gorge near Hood River and Deep River Woods near Astoria. Nationwide, it's secured forests in 21 states. The organization uses community and private partnerships to protect nature.

Dangler said large, intact forests support jobs in rural communities, through logging, trucking, building roads and other activities.

"And, of course, the wildlife habitat that goes along with it. Good forest management usually improves wildlife habitat for lots of different species," he continued.

Dangler noted development is one of the biggest threats to forests, and said it's important to keep forestlands as units rather than smaller parcels.

"Eventually more and more development just nibbles away at these large, intact forests. It's very important for them to be large in landscape," he said. "It's like Humpty Dumpty -- you can't put it back together again when it gets fragmented so much."

Summer in Indiana produces a variety of festivals, outdoor concerts, and athletic competitions.

These attractions produce large crowds and hundreds of pounds of trash and food containers which could end up in a landfill.

"The Indianapolis Event Waste Guide" is an environmentally-focused publication with resources and contact information for nonprofits and vendors wanting to reduce waste.

Ecosystems Events Owner Julia Spangler said the publication is for events attended by a dozen or thousands of people.

"Bringing people together, especially if you're feeding them or decorating, often generates waste," said Spangler. "So, this guide is all about first, how to reduce the amount of waste generated in the first place, and then how to keep that waste out of the landfill."

Spangler described the publication as a "one-stop shop starting point" for recycling or composting food, waste, leftover lanyards, or banners.

In 2021, Indiana collected more than nine million tons of garbage, refuse, office waste and other similar materials.

The Indianapolis Event Waste Guide was released to coincide with the U.S. Olympic swimming trials held in Indianapolis last month.

As the state continues to draw large crowds at amateur and professional athletic competitions, event planners are looking for ways to reduce their carbon footprint.

Sustain Indy Community Manager, and City of Indianapolis Office of Sustainability Community Engagement Manager Lyndsay Trameri noted the guide is intended for local residents and out-of-town organizers.

"Just because you're planning an event in the town you live in," said Trameri, "that doesn't mean you're aware of all the different contacts and organizations that are local that can help you decrease your footprint."

Trameri added that city leaders have a plan for Indianapolis to be net zero emissions by 2050. Trameri said you can download the free guide on the Visit Indy website.

Weather researchers at Iowa State University say a shifting climate and warmer ocean temperatures are partially responsible for a record number of tornadoes this spring.

More than 100 were reported in Iowa, in May alone.

Eleven hundred tornadoes were reported regionwide in May -- from Texas to Minnesota, and from West Virginia to Georgia. That's more than twice the 30 year average.

One of the fiercest killed five people and injured dozens in rural Greenfield, Iowa.

ISU Severe Weather Meteorologist and Professor of Meteorology William Gallus said extreme heat from a changing climate has increased ocean temperatures, and is one contributing factor to this year's storms.

"Mexico and Texas were having record high temperatures," said Gallus. "That was allowing the Gulf of Mexico to rapidly warm up, get much warmer than normal, which means that is our main source of energy."

Gallus said the weather pattern known as El Niño -- characterized by warmer ocean temperatures that prompt more precipitation and provide fuel for severe weather -- is now shifting to La Niña, marked by cooler seas and drier weather.

That could cause the rest of the tornado season to be less active.

Gallus said the high number of tornadoes in the region was unusual, since climate change models predict Iowa and neighboring states west of the Mississippi should being seeing below average numbers, which they have in recent years.

"The long-term trend has been for tornadoes to be hitting more places east of the Mississippi River," said Gallus.

Gallus said data show tornadoes occurring on fewer days each year, but coming in clusters and with greater intensity.

He says some storms that have been listed as Category F3 are probably F5's, but measurement methods in some areas are not adequate to gauge the storms' intensity.




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