Newsletters
November 2017-Day Lily, Phoebe, Local Problems
WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES !
NOVEMBER, 2017
“Democracy must be built through open societies that share information. When there is information, there is enlightenment. When there is debate, there are solutions. When there is no sharing of power, no rule of law, no accountability, there is abuse, corruption, subjugation and indignation.”
-Atifete Jahjaga
“The fight for justice against corruption is never easy. It never has been and never will be.”
-Frank Serpico
FROM OUR READERS FOR YOUR EDIFICATION
Searching for brook floater. http://www.recorder.com/Volunteers-survey-freshwater-mussels-12427912
Too many visitors. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/27/us/national-parks-overcrowding.html
Zinke falsehoods. https://medium.com/westwise/all-of-the-falsehoods-in-donald-trumps-secret-national-monuments-report-4f62904b9275
Bad idea. http://www.masslive.com/politics/index.ssf/2017/10/mohawk_trail_bill_pits_economi.html
War on the EPA. http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/frontline/film/war-on-the-epa/
Seems Massachusetts can't say “no” to biomass burning. http://www.recorder.com/Opposition-to-Rep-Kulik-forestry-bill-13075363
Global pollution. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/19/global-pollution-kills-millions-threatens-survival-human-societies
Wrecking the Antiquities Act. https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2017/oct/21/why-going-after-this-act-of-congress-could-wreck-americas-national-parks
EPA silences scientists. https://www.nytimes.com/2017/10/22/climate/epa-scientists.html
What climate change? https://www.thenation.com/article/interior-department-scrubs-climate-change-from-its-strategic-plan/
Why America needs the Antiquities Act. http://tucson.com/opinion/local/william-thornton-why-america-needs-the-antiquities-act/article_3d6efb9c-5933-522f-b6fa-ca8ca148a5eb.html
CORREIA CABAL CULPABLE AND COMPLICIT –
What other community would destroy a 5 month old multi-use rail trail and linear park that taxpayers paid $8 million dollars to construct?
Here we go again. Fall River can't catch a break. The city did better when it elected mayors that only had a sixth grade education. The last bunch have been college “educated” and apparently they all graduated summa cum stultitia and majored in government malfeasance.
The present mayor, to make things worse, also apparently feels transparency in government is not important.
Back in March, 2017, we received in the mail an envelope without return address. In that envelope was an engineering plan for construction of a two-lane road crossing and paralleling the almost completed Alfred J. Lima Quequechan River Rail Trail.
How could that be? The trail had not yet been officially opened and the construction crew was still paving and planting expensive large-caliper trees right where the “road” was shown on the plan.
Down to city hall we went. Most everyone we spoke to said they “knew nothing” about the plan. A couple of folks in hushed tones said they had heard about it, but that they were told by superiors that it wouldn't “be good” to talk about it since the developer involved in the “secret” plan was a large political contributor to the Mayor's election campaign fund.
No transparency at city hall, so off we went to the local newspaper. They weren't interested. Said our story didn't make sense because, “why would someone destroy a brand new rail trail to build a road?” So, we issued this INFO ALERT back on May 5, 2017.
INFO ALERT - CODE RED - Bicyclists, walkers and all Fall River residents who enjoy and support the Alfred J. Lima Quequechan River Rail Trail (AJLQRRT).
GET OUTRAGED AND STAY ALERT!!! Rumor has it that scheming developers and their political lackeys plan to trash a section of the Phase 3 section of the AJLQRRT and it isn't even officially open.
Remember Hogan's Sgt. Schultz? "I Know nothing, I see nothing, I hear nothing!" Ever wonder what happened to him after the Hogan's Heroes television sitcom went off the air? Well, we think we have the answer to that question. Sgt. Schultz was cloned and his clones now infest Fall River's Government Center.
Phase 3 of the Alfred J. Lima Quequechan River Rail Trail, the section from Quequechan Street to Brayton Avenue, is nearing completion. We have heard rumors that a nefarious plan has been made to ram a new road parallel to the AJLQRRT and then crossing the trail to connect Brayton Avenue to Father DeValles Boulevard.
Not rumor, but fact, is that the Brayton Avenue median strip, adjacent to the new bike path crossing, has been cut and the ends capped creating an entrance and exit from Brayton Avenue to the rumored new road. None of the clones at Government Center seem to know anything about this.
The scant information we've received is that MassDOT and Lynch construction are following the Phase 3 plan. The Phase 3 plan includes road-wide removal of the Brayton Avenue median? We don't think so and if it does, then why? Who ordered it and who payed for it?
City officials queried have either gone mute or said no new construction can occur in that area without coming before the Conservation Commission. There's little comfort in that remark since the city does not have a conservation agent and the Con Com has been known to fold like a cheap suit when developers challenge wetland regulations.
The AJLQRRT is one of the best things to happen in Fall River in the past 50 years. People from outside the city who have experienced the trail are amazed that Fall River has such a fabulous civic amenity. Who would have thought it?
Take a look at the photos, below. Visit the area and view where the strip of Brayton Avenue median used to be. Call your local and state elected officials and see if you can find out what is going on. If you discover anything, please let us know.
Since Phase 3 of the AJLQRRT is so new we doubt it will be attacked immediately. It may be a year or more away ...or if we stay alert it may not happen at all. The Brayton Avenue median disappeared for a reason. Keep a close watch. Forewarned is forearmed.
Little did we know the, “It may be a year or more away” in yellow, above, would happen in September, 2017, when Green Futures' Director of Special Projects Joe Carvalho noticed surveyors from Sitec Engineering delineating the path of the proposed road right at the bike/pedestrian trail.
With proof of the secret plan now revealed, the Mayor, at a meeting called by “Bike, Fall River,” https://www.facebook.com/fallriverbikecommittee/ said, “If you don't want the path to be crossed by the road, then we'll not do it.”
We are holding the Mayor to his promise. Of course, he has yet to say why he kept the ill-conceived plan for a road secret or why no one in his administration along with department heads and others at city hall were allowed to speak about it. Stayed tuned. Trust, but verify.
Wait, more…. This same mayor and same contributor to the Mayor's campaign also lost the last chance for the city to have a working farm for children and agricultural education in Fall River. Read about it here: http://www.heraldnews.com/opinion/20171025/letter-to-editor-some-parts-of-fall-river-shouldnt-be-developed
NO TRANSPARENCY HERE EITHER AND NO ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERN –Sell them water, screw Burrillville
A giant fracked gas and diesel electrical generating facility, Invenergy, has been proposed for construction in Burrillville, Rhode Island. This fossil fuel fired power plant will not only add carbon and other more dangerous pollutants to our air, but will fragment one of the few intact forests, a scarce environment, in tiny Rhode Island. According to energy insiders, the generating facility is really not necessary.
Invenergy needs a source of water to cool its turbines and attract investors and to receive permission to move ahead with their plan from state and federal regulatory agencies. Providence, with its huge Scituate Reservoir and then Woonsocket and now just about everyone else, has turned them down on their water requests. Guess who decided to sell them water? Yep, you guessed correctly.
Fortunately the Conservation Law Foundation and others are involved in this fracked gas and diesel fueled debacle. Hopefully the end of Invenergy is near.
It is sad, however, that once again the Mayor of Fall River has decided to aid in environmental destruction and ignore valid concerns and opposition to the plan by the residents of Burrillville.
If you want more info on this, poke around here: https://www.clf.org/blog/open-letter-mayor-elorza-re-invenergy/
Watch Fall River's Watuppa Water Board stumble their way through the meeting where they okayed this cockamamie water trucking plan even though it was not on their official agenda. Is that legal? Once again, last minute decisions, public not informed about the issue, complete lack of transparency. http://www.rifuture.org/fall-river-invenergy/
MORE NO TRANSPARENCY -
Mayor allows destruction of 300 acres of mature carbon sequestering forest and soil
As we've done with previous mayors, we met with Mayor Correia right after his election. We congratulated him on winning and introduced ourselves. We offered our assistance, knowledge on environmental issues and cooperation. Apparently he doesn't like to share, so here's another environmental issue we first heard about from a former city hall employee, not from the Mayor.
The same water board that flub-a-dubbed the selling of city water to Invenergy also recently voted to allow destruction of a portion of the city owned Watuppa Reservation, possibly Article 97 land, for yet another cockamamie scheme.
This one to allow access for the destruction of 230+- forested acres for a huge, by Massachusetts standards, solar array.
The owner of this parcel tried for years to develop the property, but couldn't because he lacked access and the city refused to sell him the Watuppa Reservation land that he needed for that access. His past plans for the land have included a huge housing development, a commercial casino, shopping mall, etc.
This property's highest and most valuable function is as conservation land, but the owner has refused to sell his land only to benefit, as he once said, “weasels and chipmunks.” Actually, the 230+- acres would benefit many more species. This property contains the headwaters of Bread and Cheese Brook, a registered cold water habitat area increasingly rare in Massachusetts, home to native brook trout and other fish and wildlife species dependent on these cold water ecologically sensitive areas. Remove the forest for a solar array and that ends the cold water habitat and kills its dependent species. Bread and Cheese Brook is also a major tributary to the East Branch of the Westport River.
In the race and scramble for alternative energy generation what is appropriate for locating solar arrays and what is not is rather fluid. Common sense tells us they shouldn't be sited on valuable forest or agriculture land ...but then we know common sense isn't really common. The Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources (DOER) has timid and tepid guidance on where these arrays shouldn't be sited.
Read them here: http://www.mass.gov/eea/docs/doer/rps-aps/solar-land-use-guidance-and-information.pdf
We support solar arrays properly sited. Such sites include brownfields and other industrially contaminated areas, capped landfills like Republic's Mount Trashmore in Fall River, the roof of the gigantic Amazon warehouse, bridge superstructures, highway medians, parking lot solar canopies, etc., etc.
Concerned about this? Interested in Westport and their river? Maybe Westport Land Conservation Trust (WLCT) and/or Westport River Watershed Alliance (WRWA) has something to say about this plan. Here for WRWA, http://westportwatershed.org/ Here for WLCT, https://westportlandtrust.org/
BIORESERVE FLORA OF THE MONTH – Day lily (Hemerocallis fulva)
Daylilies gone wild. Have you noticed?
The daylily is aptly named. The showy flowers last one day. Fortunately for those who enjoy looking at this plant in blossom, the shriveled flower of the previous day is replaced, sequentially, by another one from the cluster of flower buds at the top of the flower stalk. So, although each flower only lasts one day, the plant is continuously in bloom for a number of weeks.
Hemerocallis fulva is a tough and resilient perennial often growing in large colonies along roadsides, railroad tracks and even in deep woods where an early homestead once was. Each individual daylily plant has a crown surrounded by long, sword-like leaves. When growing in a colony they are often so thickly massed together that it is difficult to find where one plant ends and another begins.
Daylilies are originally from eastern China and Japan. In our neck of the woods daylilies arrived with the Pilgrims and Puritans during the 17th century. Due to their hardiness and adaptation to different soil types and weather conditions they are now found worldwide.
Each individual trumpet-shaped, orange daylily flower has a yellow center and three petals and three sepals each with a central rib. Each flower contains six stamens. Today, through artificial selection and hybridization of various Hemerocallis species a home gardener can purchase daylily varieties in just about any color imaginable. The original import and one found growing wild is the orange flowered fulva species.
Daylily pollination is accomplished by foraging butterflies and bumblebees attracted by the large, showy flowers and their plentiful nectar. Once pollinated, a large, green, three chambered seed capsule forms. When mature it splits open dropping numerous large, shiny black seeds. Daylilies also reproduce asexually by root sprouting.
Daylilies are edible and found in many Asian recipes. The fresh and dried flowers are used in soups and stews for color and as a thickener, young leaf shoots in salad or as a cooked green and the tuberous roots can be boiled, roasted or eaten raw.
Here are some daylily recipes from the Internet ...yum, yum!!!
http://www.pbs.org/food/kitchen-vignettes/daylily-fritters-edible-flowers/
https://honest-food.net/dining-on-daylilies/
http://cookforgood.com/blog/2012/6/18/eating-daylilies.html
– Bioreserve daylilies with hungry spicebush swallowtail butterfly.
BIORESERVE FAUNA OF THE MONTH – Phoebe (Sayornis phoebe)
Photo – Courtesy John Benson, Wikimedia Commons
Returning phoebes are a sign that spring has arrived to those who live in areas sufficiently wooded to attract this sprightly bird. It is one of our earliest migrants often nesting around houses, garages, barns and other outbuildings.
The phoebe is in the flycatcher family and by its territorial “fee-bee” song it tells everyone its name. Being a flycatcher means it often perches conspicuously on a tree branch, often flicking its tail up and down in anticipation and then making short sorties to snap flies and other insects out of the air. In early spring and late fall, during migration, they will also feed on fruits and berries if insects are hard to find.
The phoebe is brownish-gray above and off-white below. When excited it can raise the feathers on its head into a small crest. It is one of our smaller flycatchers only 5½ to 6½ inches in length.
During the summer the phoebe can be found breeding from the southwest corner of the Northwest Territories across central Canada to New England, the Midwestern States and down the eastern side of Mexico.
Phoebes are monogamous during the breeding season and will often have two broods a summer. Similar to the familiar robin nest the phoebe nest is made of grass, moss and other plant material bonded together with mud. The nest is usually completed by April and the female phoebe soon has a clutch of 2 to 6 eggs, white with reddish-brown dots, to incubate.
Sixteen days later the chicks hatch. Both parents feed the hatchlings and the chicks fledge and are able to forage on their own when only three weeks old, although they will still occasionally beg for food from their parents.
Small forests birds such as our phoebe have to be alert at all times. Cowbirds frequently parasitize phoebe nests throwing the phoebe's eggs and chicks out and replacing them with their own eggs. Sharp-shinned hawks, Cooper's hawks, barred owls and screech owls will prey on adults. Blue jays, crows and ravens will raid phoebe nests eating eggs and hatchlings and so will forest mammals such as raccoons, opossums, weasels and fishers.
Despite all this predation the phoebe is one of the few forest birds holding its own and even modestly increasing in number.
NOVEMBER - 9th Month of the Roman Calendar
In our neck of the woods ...and most of the world ... November is the 11th month of Pope Gregory XIII's Calendar, the Gregorian Calendar.
Since it is the 11th month of the year, rather than the 9th, it means that winter is approaching New England ...and in New England ...even with increasing global warming ...winter lasts a long time.
But, with the winter clothing available today, if you embrace the season and spend some time outdoors in your natural environment, before you know it spring will be here. The Winter Solstice is December 21 at 11:28 a.m. On that day sunset will occur at 4:19 p.m. and from that day on the days begin to get longer as old Mr. Sun slowly begins to head north again.
So, from then until spring, what can you do out in Nature? Maybe some winter activity you haven't tried before? Maybe cross-country skiing, ice skating, winter hiking, wildlife tracking, snowshoeing, sledding, ice fishing, winter photography, winter birding, snowmobiling, nature drawing/painting, winter camping, build a campfire and sing winter songs, build an igloo, or just a simple walk around a park, beach or open space area near where you live are great ways to enjoy this unique season.
Check our calendar. It may have other things to do that interest you.
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