Newsletters
April 2015 - PAYT, Coltsfoot, Gray Fox
WELCOME TO GREEN FUTURES!
APRIL, 2015
“The first of April is the day we remember what we are the other 364 days of the year.” -Mark Twain “April come she will When streams are ripe and swelled with rain May, she will stay Resting in my arms again.” -Paul Simon (Simon and Garfunkel) - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUkL5YQJfEo Big Green national and state organizations eager to please and compromise turning into cheerful collaborators with those destroying the environment. http://www.counterpunch.org/2015/03/13/garden-variety-environmentalism/ As David Brower said, “The extractive industries only have to win once. We have to win every time.” --------- Turning our oceans into dumps. Every fall there are coastal cleanups that pick up trash on the beach and record the amount. Makes people feel good ...but does little to solve the worldwide problem killing marine wildlife and polluting the oceans. Watch this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LtoGdrkt9EY --------- Interesting stuff going on just up the road in Wellesley, Framingham and other nearby locations by the Ecological Landscape Alliance. Check out recent offerings here:http://www.ecolandscaping.org/events/ --------- Another alliance with an interesting mission. The Southeastern Massachusetts Pine Barrens Alliance (SEMPBA) is working to preserve and protect what remains of the Massachusetts coastal pine barrens, an extremely rare and unique ecosystem just a few miles away in Plymouth, Barnstable, Dukes and Nantucket Counties. Wouldn't it be wonderful to have a great greenway across southeastern Massachusetts from Narragansett Bay to Cape Cod Bay ...from the Bristol-Narragansett Coastal Forest Ecoregion to the Atlantic Coastal Pine Barrens Ecoregion? Return the heath hen and imperial moth? We dream big! Take a look: http://www.pinebarrensalliance.org/ Recently a caller on a talk show said, “Green Futures does not support Fall River's pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) program.” To set the record straight, we do support PAYT if implemented for the right reasons and if done the right way as one method of dealing with Fall River's solid waste. It appears the present city administration is as befuddled as the last one. Considering each new administration keeps recycling (pun intended) the same old tired former elected officials and bureaucrats ...is it any wonder? Whatever the plan, education and outreach, conducted for at least a year, is vital. You don't build community consensus by blustering, bluffing and bullying. There are loads of ways to access information on how to get people to reduce waste, recycle, conserve, use less energy, save money by recycling, etc. Don't any of our city councilors have computers? Can't they take the time to do a little research? The U.S. EPA has a website loaded with information on PAYT, start here: http://www.epa.gov/osw/conserve/tools/payt/top9.htm Single stream recycling means a lot of the stuff in those plastic bins is not recyclable, just trash heading for some polluting dump. Read an interesting single-stream vs. multi-stream article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/bill-chameides/single-stream-recycling_b_3955323.html We wrote this last summer. Has anything changed? All we've seen is just twaddle and more twaddle. Fall River gets pay-as-you-throw (PAYT) …to make money? Huh? Yep, the city says they’ll make 3.5 million dollars off PAYT. We’ll see. Some years back we had a meeting with then newly elected Fall River Mayor Flanagan on environmental issues and suggested Fall River would be better served by implementing PAYT rather than continuing to host and rely on the largest dump in Massachusetts to dispose of the city’s solid waste. We were told by the Mayor that PAYT would be too controversial and he would never, ever, consider that program for reducing the amount of solid waste headed to the dump, a dump perched within a quarter mile of the watershed of the municipal water supply. Bringing in PAYT to up Fall River’s abysmal recycling rate didn’t seem to interest him either. Well, well, well!!! Due to multiple blunders, one being an inability of the present city administration to control and cover expenses, Mayor Flanagan has done a total flip-flop and has decided to implement PAYT. Not because PAYT is good for the environment and good for city residents, but because money is needed to fund the city budget. The Mayor is using PAYT, which the city won’t be handling but has farmed out to private company WasteZero, because the city is drowning in a sea of red ink. This is a desperate move to keep the city afloat. This from Wikipedia, “Many variations of the PAYT concept exist, and all require that residents pay for trash collection based on how much trash they throw away (as opposed to all households paying the same flat fee or property tax for the service). Whoa! Fall River residents are going to pay twice? Shouldn’t the city be reducing property taxes with PAYT coming to town? Nope, they are raising them! Community sustainability and waste disposal equity are two good reasons for initiating PAYT, but those are only mentioned as afterthoughts. Quite simply, the present city administration dug themselves a hole and desperately needs money. That’s a sure way to poison residents’ thinking about a worthwhile, beneficial program. Yes, we are pleased the city is taking our suggestion to go to PAYT to handle our municipal solid waste. We are not pleased the way it was done nor the reason for doing it. Here’s what we had to say about the dump, PAYT and zero waste back in April: http://www.greenfutures.org/?content=jehpD03KTpePVxHQ Early March may still officially be winter and the ground may still be frozen in spots and soil that is thawing is turning to mud, but March flowers aren't wasting any time waiting around for winter to leave or for sunnier and warmer weather to arrive. Native skunk cabbage is the first to emerge pushing up out of the mud of area swamps with its purple and green flower spathe which shelters the spadix, the delicate skunk cabbage flower. Following the skunk cabbage comes the first sign of spring for many folks, the flowering of pussy willows. A native New England favorite, one can find soft and furry pussy willows blooming along open wetland edges and by sunny pond shores. If you don't want to hazard wet feet to pick a few pussies to take home the less adventurous can find pussy willows for sale in area markets and florist shops. Our third early spring flowering plant in the SMB blooming in March is coltsfoot, an alien species that was brought to North America by early Europeans who highly valued it medicinal properties. The bright yellow flowers are one to two inches in diameter and emerge and open before their leaves appear. The flower stems are thick, three to twelve inches in length and covered in woolly hairs. Walking along one may glimpse coltsfoot flowers and dismiss them, misidentifying them as common dandelion blossoms. Although a brief look may lead one to believe that, a closer viewing shows a much more robust flower with a richer, golden-yellow color than that of the common dandelion. And, in our neck of the woods dandelions usually don't start blooming until mid to late April. Coltsfoot flowers are pollinated by bees and other small insects. After pollination small seeds form with hairy tufts on top that act as tiny parachutes, similar to the seeds of dandelions, and are dispersed by the wind. Upon landing, if the soil moisture level is suitable, the seeds sprout and if the location receives full sunlight a new generation of coltsfoot begins to grow. Coltsfoot gets its name from the shape of its leaves which are large and roughly heart-shaped, supposedly resembling a colt's foot. The upper leaf surface is green, smooth, while the underside of the leaf is pale green and hairy. Coltsfoot is a temperate zone species native to Europe and Asia as far west as eastern Siberia. It is now found on every continent except Australia. In North America its range includes all of the states and provinces east of Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois and Tennessee and north of Tennessee and North Carolina east to the Atlantic coast. It also is found in parts of Washington and neighboring British Columbia. Coltsfoot does particularly well colonizing disturbed areas such as fallow fields, vacant lots, railroad easements, eroded hillsides, road edges, utility corridors and old waste dumping sites. Coltsfoot's medicinal uses have fallen out of favor since modern medical science discovered coltsfoot contains pyrrolizidine alkaloids which are toxic to the liver. Despite this modern concern some still use coltsfoot flowers and leaves to make teas and tonics to treat coughs, bronchitis and other respiratory problems and disorders. Like sassafras and many other plant medicinals, consuming large quantities over extended periods is probably not a good idea. For the cautious there is now a form of coltsfoot, developed in Austria and Germany, that does not contain detectable levels of pyrrolizidine alkaloids. Take a look around for coltsfoot. It should be flowering right now. Gray fox is one of three species in the Canidae family living in the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve (SMB). The other two are the coyote and the red fox. To read about our coyote go here, . For red fox, here http://www.greenfutures.org/?content=seUqhJ9Cmpiz1IKL Of SMB's two foxes the gray is the more dominant species. Unlike its red cousin that prefers living in more open country and is common in suburban and even urban settings, the gray fox seeks out thick brushy cover and dense woodlands and is more secretive than the red fox, rarely seen out and about until after the sun has set. The gray fox wears a “salt and pepper” gray coat with long black guard hairs that protect the underfur. They have a white lower chest area and belly. Gray fox show varying amounts of red on their sides, inside leg area, chest, neck and back of ears. Many folks only get a quick look at the gray fox as it darts across the road, at night, in front of their car or a brief glimpse of one ghosting through the brush. Seeing some red they immediately identify the critter as a red fox. Not so. Our red fox, whatever color or combination of colors its coat might be, always has a white tip on its bushy tail. The gray fox has an equally bushy tail that is the same color as its gray coat and the tail sports a black stripe along its top. No white tip on the tail. Grays average three and a half feet in length and can weigh twenty pounds. Males are generally larger than females. Gray fox have dark eyes, a pointy muzzle, shorter legs than the red fox and slightly hooked claws that enable them to scramble up trees to feed on fruit or to escape predators. The gray fox ranges from extreme southern Canada south through the United States, except for Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, to extreme northern South America. During the day gray fox den in rock piles, in old woodchuck burrows beneath stone walls and in brush and hollow logs. On sunny days they may lay about in brier patches. When night falls they go hunting. They eat a wide variety of animals and plants. They actively hunt mice, voles, chipmunks, squirrels, rabbits and hares. They also raid the nests of ground nesting birds and eat insects, wild grapes, blueberries, wild cherries, acorns and beechnuts. Mating takes place in late January and February. Gray fox barking is often heard at this time of the year. They also give out a loud, raspy squall that many mistake for the call of the fisher. Although they don't pal around with each other when not breeding gray fox are monogamous, often hooking-up with the same partner they were with the year before. Three to five pups are born about two months after mating. Both parents take care of the young. By August the pups are hunting with their parents and by late autumn they separate to find a territory of their own. Gray fox have few natural enemies. An occasional pup may be snatched by a great horned owl, eagle or fisher. Coyotes will prey on adults and young. Where coyotes are abundant both gray fox and red fox are scarce. Gray fox are susceptible to dog diseases such as parvo virus, canine distemper and rabies. Sarcoptic mange can decimate red fox populations. Gray fox have a natural resistance to that disease. We have gone “on the road” with our PowerPoint presentation on why the Southeastern Massachusetts Bioreserve was created, what lives there, some history of the area and how a portion of it is not getting the care and management it deserves. We had four showings so far and it has been well received. Here is the condensed video version: http://youtu.be/UB-sc2Q4Qqc Really didn't snow until the end of January ...and then it wouldn't stop. Snowiest February since records have been kept in our neck of the woods. Wondering how those species on the northern edge of their range, here in New England, made out this winter. Sweetly singing, though loud for such a tiny bird, Carolina wrens may have taken a big hit. Wasn't like winter in Carolina around here this year. How many opossums will we see scurrying about on spring nights in 2015? Even in a mild winter 'possums often lose part of their tail and/or ears to frostbite. They have a warm and woolly coat, but evolution forgot to adapt their ears and tails to northern winters. At least not yet. We have seen a few waterfowl that have not survived the winter. Have been wondering about the wild turkeys and deer. Tough to scratch out an acorn through three feet of snow. Member Jeff found one that almost made it through 'til spring. We'll have a better idea of how local critters have fared once the snow is gone. Interesting Stuff EMailed in from Members and Others
We Support PAYT ...but NOT as done in Our UNfair City!
Bioreserve Flora of the Month – Coltsfoot (Tussilago farfara)
Bioreserve Fauna of the Month – Gray Fox (Urocyon cinereoargenteus)
Photo – Gary M. Stolz, U.S. Fish and Wildlife ServiceOur Not Yet Award Winning Power Point Presentation
Snow, Snow, Snow This Winter
<Back
Social