Bike Newton: Making Newton a Bicycle-safe City", sponsored by Green Decade Coalition Newton, will take place on May 18, 2008 (Sunday), 1 pm at Newton CIty Hall War Memorial steps. The main speaker will be Anne Lusk, PhD, Harvard School of Public Health. Some Newton Police officers will provide a demonstration of instructive and skillful bicycle maneuvers.
The purpose of the rally is to demonstrate substantial and serious grassroots support for improved bicycle safety in Newton. Of course, it will also be an entertaining and congenial event, with food, demonstrations, merchandise.
While safety should be pursued for its own sake, the sad fact is that many Newton residents have given up riding a bicycle in the city because of safety concerns, and many parents will not allow their children to bike to school for the same reason. There are some dedicated bicyclists here, but all of them have many stories to tell about being "doored", ignored, and sometimes harassed as the price to pay for choosing to ride a bicycle on our city's streets. Many small and large cities throughout the world now recognize that improved bicycle safety is the key to encouraging more bicycling by people of all ages and levels of ability, and that it is part of the solution to some serious environmental and public health problems.
Major US cities actively encouraging bicycling, and integrating it into all their short-term and long-range planning, include Washington, Chicago, NYC, San Francisco. Now Boston, thanks to a mayoral initiative, is involved in a big push for more and safer bicycling. Leadership from the mayor's office is often the spark that gets things moving. "Bicycle Friendly" is a term that is no longer reserved for university towns and a few special places. The American League of Bicyclists has explicit criteria that define (and offer official designation as) a "Bicycle Friendly Community". Countless European cities, and cities all over the world, such as Kyoto, Cape Town, Bogota, and Sydney, have taken steps to make bicycling safe, convenient, and universal. Sometimes the change from bicycle-hostile to bicycle-friendly occurs remarkably rapidly, as happened recently when many thousands of rental bicycles were placed on the streets of Paris.
Newton is behind the eight ball. We are a geographically well-situated and affluent city, surrounded by other communities that have been making significant strides in improving bicycling facilities for their residents. We should be right up front, visibly working to reduce dependence on the automobile by encouraging bicycling as a healthy and energy-saving behavior. We have lost many of our traditional ways of being active and interactive. Almost anyone can ride a bicycle. Two and three wheeled bicycles have even been adapted for people with many types of disabilities. Anyone who has traveled abroad has seen the many ingenious ways bicycles can be designed to haul goods and equipment.
Bicycle safety can be improved dramatically with little or no public funds: paint, pruning sheers, strategic signage, removing obstructions to public pathways (like Newton's aqueducts), curb cuts, relocating traffic signals at crosswalks where these are now separated, etc. Grants and private funds are available for more ambitious projects.
We are a city increasingly choking on auto and truck traffic, especially at commuter hours. Small steps to get more people on bicycles will have the potential over time to significantly reduce congestion created by local vehicular traffic. This will conserve energy, make our city more sustainable and livable, while offering significant health and social benefits. There are also indirect benefits. Getting more people onto bicycles will increase public consciousness about the problem of the excessive amount of through traffic on our streets and build support for more public transit, so that people in neighboring communities will have better commuting options.
Tuesday, November 27, 2007
EVENT: Bike Newton, May 18, 2008, 1:00PM Making Newton a Bicycle-Safe City
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Wednesday, April 11, 2007
Urban Sugaring
You can do this for under a nickel per tree (not counting the energy cost to run the stove), but first a word of caution. The growing and consumption of any urban plant foods raises concerns about soil contaminants. Heavy metals like lead and arsenic were used as pesticides in Newton's apple orchards long ago. Lead was also an ingredient in gasoline. We were proposing to get sap from big trees right on Watertown Street, aka Route 16. And just steps away from several houses, where lead was typically used in the paint. Heavy metals are elements so unlike DDT and most other synthetic chemicals they simply never break down. Recent research at Dartmouth has confirmed that old orchards now used as suburban housing tracts contain worrisome levels of these chemicals.
We found a local testing lab to analyze our saps and syrups for residues of these toxins. The results were favorable -- lead was detected, but far below Vermont's maximum permissible level in maple syrup. We broke out the pancake mix as soon as we opened the envelope from the lab! Our results should not be taken as a green light for all of Newton, however, since it is the exact location of orchards that determines the presence of lead in the soil today. Testing is essential.
Here are the steps involved in sugaring.
First, find a big sugar maple, using a field guide to trees. Norway maples will not do at all, and silver and red maples make a much less concentrated sap. Sugar maples are handsome trees with a distinctive leaf shape (think Canadian flag) and big, gray, platy bark. The leaves turn brilliant orange in the fall.
The author's son Eli Olson presents the two-spout sugar maple on Watertown Street, tapped by the family each spring
Next make a spile. Take a 3/4 inch dowel, drill a hole about 3 inches deep into one end with a 1/4 inch drill bit, then saw off the drilled piece. You should have a perfect little wooden tube that you must taper a bit at one end with a sharp knife. The whittled end must be perfectly round, so you may need to make a few of these before you get it right.
Now locate a brace and bit (a kind of old drill). The bit diameter must be a little smaller than the wide end of the dowel, but a little larger than the tapered end. On an early spring day, sometimes as early as February, when the days are just above 32 F but the nights are still cold, drill a hole no more than three inches deep into the bark of the tree, pointing the bit slightly upwards as you go so that the sap drips out well. Pick out stray bits of sawdust and bark, and firmly tap in your wooden pipe, but not so hard that you split the bark. The spile must be snug or sap will leak out around it. About 1 inch of spile should go into the hole, with two inches protruding. If it’
s warm a few drops of sap will fall from the tube within minutes. Cut a hole in the side of an empty clean one-gallon plastic milk jug, set it on your spile, and secure it snugly with wire around the tree. Taste the cold sap, a slightly sweet refreshing drink.Finally, transfer your sap to pots on the stove and boil away for a long while. Check the Cornell University maple syrup website for details. It takes 40 cups of sap to make one cup of syrup. Watch closely once the sap boils down and starts to brown, so as not to fill your house with smoke and a charred sugar smell. Use a candy thermometer. When it’
s syrup, the boiling liquid will make a tan foam of very fine bubbles. If you boil too long at this point you will have maple sugar when it cools---you just need to experiment some.At best, we get a couple of quarts of syrup from our two weeks of urban sugaring, with two taps in each of those two big trees. Its not volume that counts, though, but the good fun of getting an amazing sweet food from nature at a time of year when our backyard garden plots are barely emerging from under crusty old snow.
Sugar maples are found only in the northeastern part of North America as far west as Minnesota, and their range will shift northwards as the planet warms, so enjoy this tradition while you can.
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Agriculture and Land Use
A “Sticky” Issue: No More Vermont Maple Syrup?
Much has been written about climate change caused by the build up of carbon dioxide and other “greenhouse” gases that are the by-products of burning fossil fuels such as oil and coal. Many of us have read about the melting of the polar ice caps, and the increasing incidence of insect-borne diseases and extreme weather-related events such as droughts, floods, fires and hurricanes that have been attributed to global warming. A less well known but important local by-product of global warming is the reduction in maple syrup production in New England due to the northern migration of forests.
Over the next thirty to fifty years, the optimal growing range for many tree species is expected to migrate northward by as much as 100 to 300 miles to higher altitudes in response to the predicted doubling of greenhouse gases. Trees can “migrate” to cooler, more tolerable growing climates when their seeds are spread by the wind or by animals. Trees that have seeds that are spread by birds, such as oak trees, are able to migrate northward at a faster rate than those trees whose seeds are spread by the wind, such as maples. Some tree species will have difficulty thriving in their current environment but may not be able to migrate quickly enough to survive, which will result in a reduction in biodiversity of both plants and animals.
In the Northeast, warmer, drier winters combined with other factors such as air pollution and pest infestations are putting stress on the sugar maple. The sugar maple is not able to migrate quickly to adapt to the warmer climate because its seeds are spread by the wind. Some scientists are hypothesizing that sugar maples may nearly die out in New England over the next century. This will not only affect the brilliant colors that we see on the mountains in northern New England in the Fall, but will also have consequences for one of America’s favorite foods: maple syrup.
We are already seeing the effects of global warming on maple syrup production. In the 1950’s, the U.S. produced 80% of the world’s maple syrup, and Canada produced the remaining 20%. Due to climate warming combined with technological changes in how syrup is collected, this ratio has reversed. Now Canada produces 80% of the world’s maple syrup, and the U.S., primarily New England and New York, produces only 20%. Vermont in particular has been affected, as it has a sizeable seasonal workforce devoted to syrup production and relies on the income from sales of syrup and related products.
An explanation of how maple syrup is produced helps to understand how climate change is affecting the syrup business here in the U.S. Maple syrup flows best when the temperature is below 25 degrees Fahrenheit at night, and above 40 degrees Fahrenheit during the day. As air temperatures drop below freezing, the sugar maple pulls sap out of its branches and into the roots. When temperatures move above freezing, the cycle is reversed, and sap flows out of the roots back into the branches, and out of any “wound” in the tree, such as the tap hole cut for syrup production. In order for the tree to convert stored starch to sugar in the sap, there needs to be an extended period of below freezing temperatures. As the climate in the Northeast has continued to warm, this has reduced the number of freeze-thaw cycles that are needed for sap to flow. When the transition from winter to spring is accelerated with early spring warming, this causes the sugar maple buds to open early, resulting in bitter sap, and less syrup production overall due to a shorter sugaring season.
It will be a pity if the sugar maples in New England die out because they are unable to adapt quickly enough to the warming climate. Hopefully the next time we pour syrup over our pancakes or waffles, we will be reminded of how easily climate change can affect our everyday lives and the “sweet” pleasures in life that we take for granted!
How to stop the spread of invasive plants
Many of Newton’s residents are not aware of the crisis threatening biodiversity in our parks and their own back yards. Although there is no easy solution to the problem of invasive plants, here are some things that citizens can do to help:
· Learn to identify invasive plant species and remove them from your property.
· If your property abuts a park or wooded area, be sure that your non-native landscaping materials don’t spread beyond your property line.
· Never dump yard waste into parks or conservation areas. Many common landscaping plants, especially ground covers such as English Ivy, Winter Creeper, Pachysandra and Vinca, reproduce vegetatively, so cuttings can root and spread aggressively. Walk along the boundaries of Newton’s conservation lands to see what happens when homeowner are careless about this.
· Learn about native plants and use them in your landscaping. Your yard can be part of the solution to ecosystem fragmentation.
· Encourage city officials to develop a plan to remove invasive plants and to reintroduce native plants on city property. Learn from other communities how they trained personnel, organized volunteer efforts, and obtained funding.
· Be aware that cautious and strategic use of herbicides may sometimes be necessary. Many species resprout with renewed vigor even when they are cut down to ground level. Removal of root systems can be impractical and destructive to soil structure and other organisms, and soil disturbance usually increases germination of invasive plant seeds. There is a small risk of unwanted side effects in the use of herbicides, but the alternative may be a devastating and irreversible loss of species. Check the National Park Service’s Fact Sheets (nps.gov/plants/alien) and The Nature Conservancy’s “Weed Control Methods Handbook” (tncweeds.ucdavis.edu)
Listen to the howl: Mexican gray wolf reintroduced in the Southwest
The howl of the Mexican gray wolf has not been heard in more than 30 years in the forests and fields of the Southwest. Once common throughout western Texas, southern New Mexico, central Arizona and northern Mexico, the Mexican gray wolf, the rarest and most genetically distinct subspecies of the North American gray wolf, was completely eliminated from the wild, surviving in only small captive populations.
Thanks to successful conservation programs throughout the past 27 years, a brighter future has been procured for these wolves, and their howl is beginning to be heard once again.
Zoo New England began participating in the Mexican Wolf Species Survival Plan (SSP) in 1998. The SSP is a consortium of institutions working together to breed captive Mexican wolves for reintroduction and recovery in the Southwest. Last year, a pair at Stone Zoo in Stoneham produced eight pups, all of which are thriving. The SSP has now reached its captive population goals, and soon Zoo New England will be translocating some members of its pack to other zoos.
In captivity, close bonds between wolves and keepers are avoided because of the reintroduction program. Their survival ultimately depends on active avoidance of human contact. The animals cannot become reliant on people for food. While in captivity, the wolves do not lose their natural instincts, but hunting skills need to be honed before being released into the wild. Wolves that are slated for release are sent to large pre-release centers with native prey. Typically, these wolves and their offspring are released into the wild together as a pack.
In 1976, the Mexican gray wolf was listed as endangered under the Endangered Species Act. Today, there are approximately 300 Mexican gray wolves in existence. Most were born in zoos and wildlife sanctuaries in the US and Mexico, and more are being born in the wild each year. The recovery of these animals has been given the highest priority.
Based on experience gained from other wolf recovery programs, scientists are optimistic about the program’s eventual success. Captive-reared wolves have learned to survive after release and successfully form groups, reproduce and raise their pups. They are also forming new pairs on their own, indicating a healthy wolf population.
There are still challenges. At the 2006 Mexican Gray Wolf SSP Annual meeting held in Alpine, Ariz., the heart of the wolf release area, attendees discussed the opposition to the reintroduction program by some area residents, particularly ranchers concerned that the program will increase predation on livestock and family pets.
The task of locating the radio-collared wolves is daunting. Biologists track the wolves in rugged, often steep, terrain. U.S. Fish and Wildlife agents must deal with wolves that leave the approved recovery areas, which do not have fenced boundaries. Sometimes it is possible to recapture and return the animals to the recovery area, but lethal removal is sometimes necessary to ensure the species’survival in the wild.
The Mexican gray wolf’s role in the ecosystem is filled by no other predators. Black bears and cougars roam these areas of the Southwest, but they don’t fill the wolf’s niche. Elk are a major source of food for the Mexican gray wolf. As the wolves disappeared, some areas suffered from an overabundance of elk, which led to environmental degradation. Keeping a balance between elk and wolves is crucial to the environmental health of those areas.
Mexican gray wolves weigh between 50-80 pounds and are about 5-feet long with a relatively large head. The coat is often mottled or patchy and varies from gray and black to brown and buff. They have complex social behavior, living in tightly organized packs and communicating through howling vocalizations, body posturing and scent marking. These animals work effectively together to adapt to most environments where there is prey, which includes deer, jackrabbit, mice and peccary.
As a critical predator, wolves have a profound effect on the ecosystem. When an ecosystem is out of balance there are a host of negative effects. Returning the wolves to their natural habitat helps to restore the environmental health of these areas.
Wednesday, March 7, 2007
Natural Disasters are on the Rise
This past decade, natural disasters have become more frequent and devastating, and they are setting new records. In 2002, natural disasters caused $85 billion in economic losses worldwide, an increase of 36 per cent from 2001. During the summer of 2002, Western Canada suffered its worst drought ever recorded. In 2003, earthquakes, volcanoes, floods, droughts, storms, fires and landslides killed about 83,000 people, 30,000 more than the number of deaths 13 years earlier. There were 337 natural disasters in 2003, 76 more than in 1990, according to the International Strategy for Disaster Reduction. In 2003, I stood on the picturesque shoreline of Phi-Phi Island off the coast of Thailand. In 2004, the Indian Ocean Tsunami completed decimated the region with the longest reported undersea faulting ever observed.
Global warming, or the average increase in temperature in the atmosphere near the earth’s surface, involves severe disruption of the complex global climate system. We now know that this is because human activity has led to dramatically increased concentrations of CO2 in our atmosphere. According to Scientific American, seven billion tons of carbon are released into the atmosphere each year. By 2056, unless we make some dramatic changes, population growth and corresponding consumption of energy will double the emission of carbon into the atmosphere, placing it at 14 billion tons each year. There is almost unanimous agreement in the scientific community of the direct relationship between the growth of greenhouse gas emissions and the dramatic rise in average temperature that has occurred over the past several decades. Al Gore recently presented data that “2005 was the hottest year ever measured, and the 12 months ending this past summer, June of 2006, was the hottest 12-month period ever measured in the United States of America.”
The exponential increase in the average temperature of the earth’s surface is having devastating effects. The retreat of glaciers, thinning of Arctic ice, and in turn, rise in sea levels, is increasing the threat of damaging floods to humans and wildlife. Skiers and others are at increasing risk of avalanches, as rising temperatures release giant blocks of snow and ice in mountainous regions. Rising temperatures are increasing the rate of droughts and causing famines, the most recent being the 2005 famine in southern Niger. Wildfires are increasing in hot and dry regions across North America, Australia, and southern Europe.
Global warming will very likely lead to a rise in the number of hurricanes, which are formed in warm waters. Although land heats up more quickly, water requires longer periods to cool down. The combination of warm water and water vapor can create a grouping of thunderclouds that are set spinning by the rotation of the earth and polar winds. 2005 saw record average sea temperatures in the tropical Atlantic. The 140 mph winds of Hurricane Katrina in 2005 grew in strength over warmer waters, creating a storm surge that was the most destructive and expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.
Of course, understanding the workings of the climate system is only the prelude to finding solutions to global warming and addressing the rise in natural disasters. Some problems must be addressed quickly, such as the lack of efficient communications and disaster warning systems in undeveloped and other areas of the world. When the Indian Ocean Tsunami struck in 2004, no warning system in the Indian Ocean was in place. Thousands of deaths could have been prevented if people had had even a few minutes of advance warning. Much work still needs to be done to develop better emergency response systems, community disaster relief programs, government risk reduction programs, and a global tsunami warning system.
We cannot prevent the occurrence of natural disasters that are due to changes that have already been set in motion. But we can begin to alter the adverse imprint that the human population has on nature. In the meantime, we will be coping with more and more severe floods, droughts, and storms. Even as the number of humans on the planet continues to increase, we can modify coastal development projects, reduce energy consumption and pollution, and make our coastal areas less vulnerable. After all, we humans have only one life-sustaining planet.
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Improving Our Parklands-- a Democratic Tradition
In 2006, Massachusetts was ranked 48th out of 50 states in per capita spending on parks and recreation. After adjusting for inflation there has been a 33% decline in the urban parks budget since 2001, and the Department of Conservation and Recreation has been forced to cut 20% of its staff in the last five years. Funding and performance go hand-in-hand, and due to fiscal constraints, state parks have suffered serious problems concerning the upkeep of what is becoming a decrepit infrastructure.
Our state parks serve as the wellsprings of a healthy, active community and are a physical embodiment of democratic ideals. Newton residents’ lives are enriched by the recreational and aesthetic benefits offered by Hemlock Gorge, Hammond Pond, the Upper Charles, and the Chestnut Hill Reservoir. Parks offer many environmental benefits, including encouraging biodiversity and mitigating the effects of pollution and climate change. Parks also help protect water quality, particularly by reducing stormwater runoff and limiting the quantity of harmful fertilizers that run into streams from suburban lawns. Massachusetts has long been at the vanguard of land protection and conservation, and state government has a duty to protect and improve green spaces throughout the Commonwealth.
In 2003 Governor Romney decided to merge two existing agencies to create the DCR, thereby consolidating Massachusetts’ state park administration under one umbrella. Unfortunately, since then, there has been a steady trend of reduced funding. Advocacy groups have attempted to bridge fiscal gaps and have played an important role in publicizing the need for increased park funding and environmental stewardship, but these efforts, while commendable, cannot stand alone: without an active citizenry and government support, the efforts of advocacy groups can only serve as stop-gaps. As in any democratic process, active citizen participation is crucial. One important resource available to citizens who want to protect and improve our state parks is the DCR Stewardship Council.
The Stewardship Council is a 13-member citizen advisory council appointed by the Governor to oversee the DCR and work with the agency to provide well-maintained and well-managed parks. It is composed of environmental advocates, business leaders, and academics working to provide accountability in agency oversight and to set up long term goals in the fields of resource management planning, capital planning, and policy development. They work as impartial advisors. Recognizing that the current DCR budget is “bare-boned” the Council has acknowledged the need for better planning and more fiscal discipline. It examines budget allocations, and has applauded some decisions, such as the allotment of 1.5 million dollars for stormwater management remediation, while criticizing other decisions, such as the idea of giving the Urban Parks and Recreation the responsibility of maintaining 166 new acres (the Central Artery/Tunnel Parks and Spectacle Island) with no increase in budgeting. The latter decision was revised by the DCR due in part to the council’s criticisms.
The DCR Stewardship Council is truly democratic. All of the meetings are attended by DCR Commissioner Priscilla Geigis and are open to the public, giving an invaluable forum for citizens and advocacy groups to voice their opinions directly to the government administrators on policy issues that shape our parks. Public comments are welcomed and recorded.
In addition to participating in the Stewardship Council, there are many opportunities for citizens to become active stewards for our parks, by volunteering with local advocacy groups, including the Charles River Conservancy, which has a large Volunteer corps. CRC volunteers have been improving the riverbanks through shoreline restoration, invasive species removal, and overall park maintenance. Charles River Watershed Association volunteers are working to improve water quality in the watershed. The Friends of the Hemlock Gorge and the Conservation and Recreation Campaign are other groups that welcome volunteers. All of us should let our local officials know that we feel that parks are important and should be adequately funded. It is up to us as citizens to take part - to “check back in”, as Governor Deval Patrick says - in the great democratic process of taking responsibility for our parks and finding viable solutions to their problems.
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The importance of removing invasive plants
By Florrie Funk
An invasive plant is a non-native species capable of spreading aggressively and monopolizing essential habitat resources–
light, nutrients, water, and space, to the detriment of other species.Our planet's life forms co-evolved over millions of years as complex, interdependent communities of organisms called ecosystems. Each species within an ecosystem depends on other species to provide nutrients, circumstances necessary for reproduction, and limits to its expansion.
Many plants rely on fungi and other soil organisms to decompose dead plants and animals, thereby releasing nitrogen and other nutrients into the soil. Specific plants often depend on specific insect species to pollinate their flowers so that they produce seeds, and they depend on other animals to help disperse those seeds. The community of organisms that make up an ecosystem includes of a variety of herbivores, predators, fungi, bacteria and other pathogens that help an ecosystem stay in balance by preventing one species from increasing to the point of extirpating others. When biodiversity (the number of different species) is reduced, this compromises the ability of an ecosystem to withstand drought, blights and other environmental stresses.
The introduction of alien organisms has seriously compounded this problem. Some alien species were introduced intentionally by horticulturalists and others arrived by accident in soil or imported products. Some of these species do not survive; others persist as benign members of the community. But others grow and reproduce rapidly, displacing whole communities of native plants, sometimes causing rapid reductions in biodiversity and the extinction of other species.
Worldwide, invasive alien species are the second leading cause of species extinction. (The leading cause is habitat destruction.) More than 28% of the world’
s native species are threatened or endangered. There are 4000 non-native species grown outside of cultivation in the US (including 200 species in MA). The economic cost is estimated at $137 billion dollars annually (mostly from lost crops) and has led to a decline of 42% of endangered and threatened species nationwide.
In the past, conservation areas were purchased and left alone, and nature took care of itself. No longer. Due to the proliferation of invasive species most forests and conservation areas must now be actively managed. If invasive species are not controlled, overall species diversity will decline, and the loss will be irreversible.
The MA Department of Agricultural Resources "Massachusetts Prohibited Plant List" designates 141 plants, including many popular ornamentals that are now prohibited from being imported, sold or propagated. This ban may help reduce the spread of invasive species, but in many cases the horse is already out of the barn.
Promising research is being done on biological controls, such as a beetle species that eats Purple Loosestrife (a highly invasive plant found in wetlands throughout North America), but these methods are still experimental and may entail ecological risks. To learn what you can do to help to limit the spread of invasive species, visit: newfs.org (New England Wildflower Society), tncweeds.ucdavis.edu (Nature Conservancy), nps.gov/plants/alien (National Parks Service) and www.newtonconservators.org (Newton Conservators).
Wednesday, February 7, 2007
Burn Fat, Not Fuel!
Cycling 6 miles to and from work instead of driving could burn 15 to 20 lbs. of fat each year.
Pollution Facts:
· 60% of car emissions pollution occurs in the first few minutes, before pollution control devices can work effectively.
· Approximately 40% of all car trips are less than 2 miles. Biking (10 minutes) or walking (30 minutes) instead of driving, would keep about 15 pounds of pollutants out of the air. (World Watch Institute)
· Motor vehicle emissions represent 31% of total carbon dioxide, 81% of carbon monoxide, and 49% of nitrogen oxides released in the U.S.
Fat Facts:
· In the U.S. 16% of children ages 6 to 19 years are overweight.
· In Holland 11% of children ages 7 to 11 years and 8% ages 13 to 17 years old are overweight.
· 64.5% of U.S. adults, age 20+ years old, are overweight and 30.5% are obese.
As a bicycle commuter and member of the Newton Bicycle Pedestrian Task Force, I have a strong personal interest in making Newton more "bicycle friendly". My co-workers echo the findings of a 1995 Rodale Press survey, which found that 40% of U.S. adults said they would commute by bike if safe facilities were available.
Recently I talked with Anne C. Lusk, Ph.D., Visiting Scientist at Harvard’s School of Public Health, with 25 years of experience working with communities to create bicycle paths, including the Stowe (VT) Recreation path. She once bicycled 1000 miles from Boston to Washington, D.C. to explore the route for the East Coast Greenway. Dr. Lusk is writing a book, "Designing a Healthy America: Bicycle Paths, Parks, and Streets".
Dr. Lusk maintains that American communities should provide European Cycle Tracks so that cycling and walking could be part of the solution to the growing American obesity crisis. By separating vehicular traffic from pedestrian and bicycle traffic (and from other wheeled, non-motorized traffic such as in line skating), walking and cycling become safer and, therefore, viable, options for the entire community.
By building safer cycling facilities alongside, but separate from, roads, bicyclist fatalities were reduced by 64% in Germany and by 57% in Holland between 1975 and 2001. In the U.S. today, a bicyclist is twice as likely to be killed as a German bicyclist and over three times as likely to be killed as a Dutch bicyclist
Dr. Lusk maintains that American communities should provide European Cycle Tracks so that cycling and walking could be part of the solution to the growing American obesity crisis. By separating vehicular traffic from pedestrian and bicycle traffic (and from other wheeled, non-motorized traffic such as in line skating), walking and cycling become safer and, therefore, viable, options for the entire community.Today children no longer ride bikes or walk to school and adults spend hard-earned money on memberships to gyms they drive to where they spend scarce time exercising instead of incorporating exercise into their daily routines. We drive everywhere and make many highly polluting short trips. Then we complain about the traffic. Many European countries explicitly chose to create and improve mobility opportunities for children and seniors in the 1970s. During the same time, the U.S. chose, instead, to provide more facilities for cars and trucks.
The development of bike paths does not happen spontaneously in an urbanized environment. It needs catalysts. The extremely popular Minuteman Bikeway from Cambridge to Bedford was a government project. It connects several local communities on an old railway bed that leads to a national park. In many communities, citizens have to organize at the grassroots level or local politicians have to lead the way to get things started.
In Newton, we already have a bike path along the Charles River. However, there are no safe connector paths to it, so cyclists need to ride in the street to get there, making it inaccessible to the vast majority of cyclists (children, senior citizens, occasional cyclists, those with impaired mobility) who are unable or afraid to ride on the road.
Dr. Lusk indicated that funding is available for creating cycling facilities, but that first there should be a consensus about what needs to be built, and where. She said: "The most far reaching thing would be to build European Cycle Tracks in Newton. You can't have a system with short sections of paths that aren't connected. You need an interconnected system for all people, not just fearless road cyclists. Pedestrians, vehicles and bikes should be separated."
How do we get started? According to Dr. Lusk, “It's easy to come together for a common cause, but people need to know that they can effect change. Even in Chicago and New York they're doing bike things. Boston isn't doing 1/10th as much as Chicago.”
I can imagine European Style Cycle Tracks connecting Newton's Village Centers, the Charles River Bike Path, MBTA stations, schools, and on Beacon Street leading into Boston. Please share your ideas about this with the Task Force.
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Phthalates: Should You Be Concerned?
If you own anything that’s plastic and flexible, chances are likely that you own something containing phthalates. Phthalates, also known as phthalate esters, were first introduced in the 1920s and are a group of compounds added to plastics to convert them from a hard to a flexible plastic. When added to a hard plastic substance, phthalates react with the polyvinyl molecules, disrupting the rigidity of their interactions and allowing them to slide over one another more easily. Different types of phthalates are found in products as diverse as flooring material, PVC pipes, perfumes, pesticides, children’s toys, nail polish, adhesives, cars, medical devices and caulk. Debates in the health literature about the potential harms of phthalates are ongoing, but worth examining. In this article, I will present some basic information on current knowledge about phthalates’effects on human health and argue that the U.S. should regulate the manufacture of phthalates.In the body, phthalates are fat soluble, so when ingested, will tend to accumulate in areas of the body with a high fat concentration. A National Health and Nutrition Examination survey conducted in 2003 found that most of the U.S. population had some measurable exposure to various phthalates. In high doses, several phthalates have been shown to stimulate hormonal activity in rodent models. One particular phthalate, DEHP, has been recognized as a testicular toxicant and an androgen disruptor, leading to malformation of male genitalia and death of testicular germ cells. At even low exposures, another type of phthalate, DBP, has been shown to act as an endocrine disruptor and damage the reproductive system in male rats. Some phthalates are also thought to be estrogen imitators, potentially causing infant boys to display an increase in female sexual characteristics. In 2005, a study conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia showed that infant boys born to mothers with high phthalates urine concentrations displayed a significant shortening of the anogenital distance (AGD), a smaller penis size, and were more likely to have non-descended testes. The National Toxicology Program, however, has criticized this study for its use of a small sample population from a homogenous area. Further studies are currently underway to provide more conclusive data.
Despite all this literature on the harmful effects of phthalates, research indicating the contrary – that there are no harmful effects of phthalates on human health – also exists. A study conducted by the Children’
s National Medical Center showed no conclusive adverse physical or chemical effects in adolescent children who were exposed to phthalates as neonates. Additionally, a study conducted in September of this year showed that high levels of DEHP phthalate caused no adverse effect on the development of sex organs in male marmosets.Given that there is some uncertainty about the dangers of phthalates, what should we as consumers do to protect ourselves from possible adverse effects? The European Union has already banned the use of six phthalates in the production of children’
s toys as a precautionary measure against potential harms. The regulation of phthalates is an excellent illustration of the Precautionary Principle at work. That is, even in the absence of definitive data concerning the harms of phthalates, those who create public policy have an obligation to take precautionary measures and ensure public safety by enacting policies that mandate safer alternatives-- unless and until phthalates are proven to be safe.Manufacturers and lobbyists may insist that a switch from phthalates to other substances will be expensive, but these costs are often exaggerated. Even if the costs are substantial, they would diminish over time after the switchover. From a public health perspective, the public has a right to insist on safer alternatives, even if the risks of phthalates and the costs involved in restricting or banning them are controversial. The FDA does not mandate manufacturers to investigate the risks of their products before marketing; thus, the burden of investigations falls upon scientists and public health officials –
a process that may take years to complete. A responsible approach in the meantime would be to restrict the use of phthalates until more conclusive data is available.For additional information on phthalate safety, see the U.S. EPA website, the Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition website of the FDA, the Official Journal of the European Union (with a recently published commission recommendation on risk reduction measures), and the website of the CDC. The Phthalate Information Center (www.phthalate.org) of the American Chemistry Council provides the perspective of phthalate manufacturers.
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Waste
The Wonder of Green Roofs
The term green roof refers to a roof that is partially or completely covered with vegetation, usually with special membranes to protect the rooftop and hold the plants and growing media in place. Green roofs are a proven technology with significant potential to stabilize our climate by cleaning and cooling our air and reducing stormwater runoff.
Green roofs date back at least to 600 BC, to the Hanging Gardens of Babylon, one of the Seven Wonders of the World. These were terraced structures that were built over arched stone beams, waterproofed with layers of reeds and tar, covered with soil and planted with trees and plants. There are houses in the Orkney Isles of Scotland from 3600-2500 BC that appear to have had turf roofs. In Iceland, sod homes with grassy roofs were constructed hundreds of years ago. The idea spread throughout Scandinavia and other parts of Europe. There is a green roof that was planted in 1914 in Switzerland on which an orchid (Orchis morio) thrives today that is otherwise extinct in the region, The Rockefeller Center in New York City has several green roofs that were installed in the 1930s.
Germany has been perfecting modern green roof technology since the early 1970s when the first complete green roof systems were developed and marketed. These intensive systems require thick planting media of 8 inches or more to support a variety of plants and trees and can add upwards of 54 pounds per square foot. In the late 1980s many green roof systems were developed for large flat roofs; these lighter and cheaper versions were designed to be self-irrigating and require minimal maintenance. These systems are generally 3-5 inches in depth, weigh around 20-34 pounds per square foot and utilize various species of sedums, which are hardy succulent plants.
Green roof systems can be incorporated into new construction or retrofitted onto existing buildings.
They are usually found on commercial and public buildings, although they can be installed on smaller residential surfaces. Green roofs, unlike roof gardens, are applied as part of the roofing system and can be installed on a pitched roof. The components include the roof structure, a waterproofing membrane, a root barrier, a drainage system and/or water retention system, filter cloth to maintain the integrity of the green roof layers, a specially engineered lightweight growing medium, and plants. The cost of greening a roof starts at $11 per square foot, not including the structural analysis to determine the roof’s load capacity.
Green roofs serve many environmental functions. They absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere in exchange for life-giving oxygen, they cool the air and they retain stormwater. That means that once installed, they immediately reduce the urban heat island effect, reduce energy costs and reduce stormwater runoff. According to Prof. Brad Bass of University of Toronto, when a city installs enough green roofs to achieve a 1ºC drop in temperature, this will result in a 10% reduction in energy use. Green roofs also provide environmental services by creating new space for biodiversity to thrive, reducing allergens and asthma, diminishing air and noise pollution, and increasing roof longevity (which reduces the need for disposal of old roof membranes).
Nearly 10% of Germany’s building surfaces have green roofs, covering 50 square miles, and is currently adding 5 square miles of green roofs per year. North America lags far behind, with slightly more than 2 million square feet of green roofed space. Green roof installation is costly in the US, so the economic benefits are not always sufficient to motivate consumers. Our local, state and federal governments need to provide incentives to accelerate the process. In Toronto, the city subsidizes green roof installation by $2 per square foot. Germany offered large incentives during the initial years. Tokyo passed a law in 2001 to require new buildings to green at least a fifth of their rooftops. Chicago, a city with a celebrated green roof on its City Hall, has more than 200 green roofs, and is perhaps the greenest city in the US. It is now requiring developers to green all buildings that undergo city review.
When we cool our coastal cities with sufficient numbers of green roofs, we may even begin to cool our oceans by limiting freshwater runoff, and thereby slowing the rate at which coastal waters are being reduced in salinity due to human activity. Some advocates feel that green roofs have the potential to keep the Atlantic’s thermohaline pump performing properly.
Green roofs limit greenhouse gas emissions, and therefore can help to slow global warming. The northeast corridor, from Boston to Washington, DC is contributing an enormous burden of CO2 to the atmosphere. Policymakers have an opportunity to turn our urban corridor into the Eighth Wonder of the World, a carpet of green roofs, and help preserve a livable world.
Wednesday, January 3, 2007
Protecting Plants from Winter Injury
Trees and shrubs, whether native or naturalized to our region (zone 6; -10 to 0F), can succumb to cold temperature injury if the natural dormancy or hardening-off process is incomplete. Mild fall and winter temperatures, where day and night temperatures do not go below 35 F for extended periods of time, contribute to incomplete plant dormancy.
When woody plants in this condition are subjected to a sudden large drop in temperature, injury or even death of plants or plant parts can occur. This phenomenon is usually called winter kill. You can limit the damage or even prevent this from happening if you take protective action now.
This is how plants protect themselves from freezing. Generally, from late August to mid- December light levels and air temperatures gradually decrease, inducing hormonal changes in plant cells to enable them to adapt to the oncoming freezing winter temperatures. Plant growth slows down considerably and the cells of different plant parts reduce their water content by osmotic pressure; water inside the cell travels to the outside of the cell and between all cells. The cellular contents left inside cells become more concentrated allowing the reduction of ice crystal formation (supercooling).
This supercooling process protects plants from being killed at freezing temperatures. Water outside of cells freeze, but contents inside the cell, including traces of remaining water, do not freeze. This remarkable environmental adaptation ensures that plant cells won't burst from ice crystal formation.
Sometimes certain plant species, both woody and herbaceous, contain specific plant pathogenic bacteria in their cells that act as ice nuclei for ice crystal formation. For example, the bacterial plant pathogen, Pseudomonas syringae, is a gram-negative, rod-shaped bacterium that kills infected plant tissues. The black-brown colored twig tips of Japanese red maple that you see in spring may be a direct result of this bacterial-induced cold injury.
Winter winds also cause winter injury to plants. The action of drying, cold wind on evergreen foliage draws water out of the leaf stomates faster than the plant can replace water from the roots. Newly transplanted trees and shrubs, young seedlings, broad-leaved evergreens (such as rhododendrons, boxwoods, mountain laurels, and hollies) are especially vulnerable. Even the needle-leaved evergreens such as pines, hemlocks, spruce and firs can be affected. The cold wind dries out leaf tissues and partially or completely kills them. Rhododendron and boxwood leaves in spring may show leaf margin browning or completely brown leaves.
Here’s how to protect your trees and shrubs from cold and drying.
1. Water the roots of all woody plants until the first hard freeze, one inch per week.
2. After the soil freezes, mulch the roots of small trees, shrubs, and newly planted and transplanted trees and shrubs with salt marsh hay or leaves. Apply at least three to four inches of mulch around the roots. This will moderate the freezing and thawing action (frost heaving) in the root zone and help to conserve soil moisture.
3. Wrap evergreens with burlap. This will help reduce the wind speed on the foliage. Better yet, put four wooden stakes around each small tree and shrub that you want to protect and tie burlap to the stakes forming a "room". Fill this room or enclosure to the top with leaves. The protected plant should be a minimum of six inches from the burlap.
4. If you don't want to wrap your plants you can apply anti-desiccant or anti-transpirant products to the evergreen foliage, particularly for plants in exposed sites and new plantings. According to Brian Hanson, Plant Health Care Manager, Cedar Lawn Tree Service, these compounds are primarily used on the foliage of evergreens, especially the broadleaf evergreens, to reduce transpiration water loss that naturally occurs through the stomata in plant tissues. A possible side benefit for some plants is better foliage color retention. Hanson suggests several applications in late fall and winter depending on weather conditions. Unfortunately, these products provide only limited protection from cold temperature injury.
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Education
Surveying Newton’s Nature
“I first came to Newton with preconceived ideas regarding the quality of urban-centered conservation areas…I did not really think that I would find much of interest…how terribly wrong I was. Newton’s conservation areas are rich in beauty and wildlife,” said consultant John Richardson in his 1996 report to the Board of Aldermen.
Ten years later, a group of volunteers from the non-profit Newton Conservators have been out walking once a week to document the current status of Newton’s natural open spaces. They are carefully noting every type of tree, shrub, fern, wildflower, and wildlife they encounter. They are particularly noting invasive species that may be crowding out native plants. And they are noting where illegal dumping may be endangering these environments.
Where Richardson looked closely at seven areas, the Conservators have tackled over 30 sites, as part of their mission to preserve and maintain open spaces in Newton for public use and enjoyment.
“We wanted to do something outdoors, hands-on to preserve these places,” says Beth Schroeder, co-chair of this land management committee with Cris Criscitiello. “We didn’t even know where all these open spaces were until we met with Martha Horne of the Newton Planning Department. My interest came from enjoying my own garden, doing landscape design for clients, and wanting to know more about which plants are native to this area.”
Says Criscitiello, a retired physician, “We initially intended a survey of what’s growing in the different conservation habitats in Newton, in the wetlands and elevated hillsides, the sunny areas and shady areas. We wanted people to have a good time walking around and really seeing things.”
Florrie Funk, a member of the committee notes that “it’s hard to appreciate what’s here if all you do is look around and see green stuff. If you can identify trees and shrubs, it becomes more exciting and you’re more likely to be interested in protecting good native plants.”
Funk is particularly interested in identifying and preventing the spread of invasive species. Plants like Japanese knotweed, goutweed, garlic mustard, purple loosestrife and Oriental bittersweet tend to crowd out native plants. Even though some invasives may be attractive plants, they are tending to endanger rare and beautiful native species, such as gentians and cardinal flowers.
The volunteer group has a fern expert, bird experts, people particularly interested in wildflowers and mushrooms, even a research botanist who is an expert in plant classifications. They are waiting for their vernal pool expert to have time to help identify amphibians. When an expert cannot immediately identify something, they turn to their Field Guides and even take photos to match up on internet sites.
The group intends to keep up their weekly survey trips all winter long. “Even in the snow and ice, we can identify trees and bushes by their structure, the shape of their leaf buds and whether the leaves grow opposite each other or in an alternating pattern,” says Schroeder.
Thus far the group has produced extensive spreadsheets with checkmarks indicating every time any of hundreds of species has been found in each of the 30 Newton conservation sites. “This document establishes a baseline of existing species, which allows us to detect changes over time,” Schroeder notes.
“As we get the information we compare it with the 1996 Richardson report,” says Criscitiello. “We would also like to track the species during different seasons and make all the information available for educational purposes on our website (NewtonConservators.org), at the library, in the Newton Planning Department, and in an episode of the Environmental Show on NewTV.”
“We could use an insect expert in our group,” he says. Funk adds that it would also be nice to have someone who knows grasses and sedges. “To identify sedges, you have to look at the seeds under a microscope,” she notes.
Has the group identified anything surprising thus far? “We have found over twenty types of ferns, Jack-in-the-pulpit, pink lady’s slipper, trout lily, bloodroot, trillium and huge sassafras trees,” says Schroeder. “There are a lot of things you wouldn’t see unless you look carefully. Our group has located many of the plants listed in Richardson’s 1996 report and quite a few new ones.”
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Natural Areas
Doing the right thing with lovely lumber
The idea of paying a bit more for products that help us live healthier lives is no longer foreign to most people. As proof we need only look to the growing interest in fresh, locally produced fruits and vegetables and the rise in sales of organic milk. Some people take the next step and choose products that do not yield personal benefits so directly, but do favor producers over middlemen (Fair Trade coffee) or are considered better for the environment (recycled paper). How about wood used in furniture and construction? Are there ways to encourage logging companies to minimize harm to both local and tropical forests?
Roberta Durschlag of Waban asked just this question recently when she and her husband, Mark, set out to remodel their back porch. They hoped to use a beautiful tropical wood called Honduran Mahogany but hoped not to support companies that are cutting forests willy nilly. So they did some research and found that there is indeed such a thing as “sustainably harvested” wood. In a sustainable logging operation, trees must be cut and processed in such a way that a forest’s soils, wildlife, waterways, and other essential features are only temporarily disturbed by selective cutting and carefully constructed logging trails. Trees are big plants, of course, so any logging operation results in some damage. But by inviting foresters and ecologists from the Forest Stewardship Council and other groups to observe a logging operation, companies can prove that they are following best-practice rules. For this whole notion to work, of course, homeowners and businesses must then favor these firms with their purchasing decisions.
Consulting the Green Decade Coalition/Newton, Ms Durschlag learned several dealers of certified wood in this region, but it turned out that only one – Sterritt Lumber of Watertown – was willing to deal with a residential customer. Though it cost significantly more than standard lumber, the Durschlags chose the certified product. Knowing that their wood came from a certified forest should lend it a special glow as they enjoy their porch for years to come.
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Agriculture and Land Use
