Thursday, October 22, 2009

Ungreeness In My Neighborhood




Why would a city grind up trees into big piles of mulch, disturb topsoil, build an artificial pond in a floodplain and yet be called a "Tree City" “Trees are vital to our environment,” say Garland Park Superintendent Barry Swisher. “They produce life-giving oxygen, help clean the air, provide habitat for wildlife and much more. At the same time they increase property values and help beautify the community.” so how do they explain these big piles of mulched trees! The above scenes are near Naaman Forest High School in Garland, Texas where a new retirement community will be built near a pristine floodplain forest called Spring Creek Forest Preserve.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Blog Action Day




Spring Creek Forest (http://www.springcreekforest.org) is a minute floodplain forest and remnant prairie in a the vast concrete jungle known as the Dallas Metroplex......so how does a small tract of forest enter into the overall equation of climate change? Well, in a small way it helps maintain local climate with its trees, shrubs, and grasses.

One acre of trees provide enough oxygen for 18 people daily, absorbs enough carbon dioxide over a year to equal that produced from driving a car 26,000 miles, removes and store 2.6 tons of carbon from the atmosphere, and removes several tons of ozone, sulfur dioxide, nitrogen dioxide, and particles 10 microns or smaller that pollute our skies. Trees benefit local climate by reducing urban temperatures (much needed in a heat island like Dallas, Texas) 10-20 degrees during summer. Source: U.S.Forest Service, TCU, American Forests & Texas Forest Service

Natural areas such as forests and grasslands also help conserve water in a number of ways so preserve
them! They reduce landslides, erosion, and sediment; improve water purity by filtering pollutants;
and, in some cases, capture and store water. This is a cost-effective way to provide clean
drinking water in many places around the world.

With vast acres of forest clearing and conversion to agriculture, urban development, landfills, and
transportation corridors, the planet is losing all the benefits of trees (forests), grasslands, and open
spaces, so do what you can to preserve what's left and try to restore what you can through nonprofit
organizations and local goverment.




Monday, August 17, 2009

Look what they did to Spring Creek Forest.....



Oh lets protect the forest trees in the Spring Creek Forest, say the city officials, and instead of putting the sewer pipe above ground we will put it underground through the Forest property. Sooo, to do this they put in a 35 foot road and another road, 15 feet wide to bring in big equipment to the edge of Spring Creek Forest to begin their "tread lightly" pipeline.......hmmmm something doesn't add up here. Carbon footprints, forest destruction, opening up the forest to more unauthorized trail traffic (motorized and by foot), inviting a host of invasive species to fill in the denuded landscape, welcoming feral cats and trashbirds, and fragmenting an already endangered bottomland hardwood habitat in North Central Texas. Cheers to the brainless mindset of urbanization and poor planning. On another note, the local "wildlife" group couldn't take time to come see the devastation although they were only 500 feet away and had to be kept "on schedule" with their dog walk, being social butterflies..... No one cared enough to walk over an see it. As for volunteer projects like controlling nuisance vegetation...its looking like a waste of time. Heck this reminds me of a typical major logging operation on a National Forest. ( I should know I used to work for them).

Ironically, the City of Garland was given the status of "Tree City". In order to qualify for Tree City USA status, a town or city must meet standards established by The Arbor Day Foundation and the National Association of State Foresters. These standards were established to ensure that every qualifying community would have a viable tree management plan and program. The fox is in the henhouse.


Wednesday, November 19, 2008

The Three Lost Tributaries...




Today I stumbled upon three forgotten tributaries to Spring Creek located between Holford Road and North Garland Avenue......it was completed by accident as I was looking for Michael's, The Arts and Crafts Store locations on their mapper. I wondered why the gravel company had been allowed in the past to destroy these drainages which technically were Waters of the United States and protected by Section 404 of the Clean Water Act. This area is full of springs and seepage areas, hence the name for Spring Creek and surrounding communities such as Big Springs and Shiloh Springs. Further investigations may reveal more but I'm just amazed these creeks were not mapped on most maps nor detectable on Google Earth. I'm not sure how many years ago Chambers Construction Company was allowed to destroy these natural features...but I will investigate further....

Thursday, June 26, 2008

Exxon Valdez Oil Spill? no problemo


Well, the Supreme Court decided that ExxonMobil won't have to pay $2,000,000,000 in punitive damages for the IMFAMOUS 1989 Exxon Valdez Oil Spill. Guess they figure out of sight out of mind....just remember that when you fill up with Exxon or Mobil.

Wednesday, October 24, 2007

What next?


Update May 2008...This year's tornado season is bad, statistically speaking. Earthquakes have been active offshore (they couldn't explain the thousands of oceanic quakes off the northwest coast recently), and now we learn China had a 7.9 quake which tops the 7.5 they had in 1975.

As California burns, the Southeast dries up, and more severe global weather patterns are reported , you must be asking yourself by now, are these just weather anomalies or is it part of global warming. If you're still not convinced research it, "think" for yourself, and take some kind of action to make a difference. There are many ways to take action through environmental organizations, elected officials, state and federal environmental agencies, blogging, and networking. When Katrina hit, federal and other "scientists" blew it off as unrelated to global warming as talking heads like Rush Limpdog and others try to convince us there is no problem. You decide.

Tuesday, October 23, 2007

Planet in Peril

Helping CNN advertise the premier of "Planet In Peril" Oct. 23rd and 24th.

http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/2007/planet.in.peril/