EPA Launches Web Forum on How to Best Protect America’s Waters

 WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is seeking public input on how the agency can better protect and improve the health of our waters.  For a two- week period, EPA is holding a Web discussion forum on how the nation can better manage some of the most significant water pollution problems facing our nation. The feedback received on the online forum will help shape the discussion at EPA’s upcoming conference in April, Coming Together for Clean Water, where we will engage approximately 100 executive and local level water leads on  the agency’s clean water agenda.

 "We look forward to reviewing the ideas and feedback from the public,” said Peter S. Silva, assistant administrator EPA’s Office of Water.   “This online discussion is for anyone who wants to share their best solutions for restoring healthy waters and creating sustainable communities across the country."

 EPA wants to receive input from water professionals, advocates, and anyone interested in water quality issues about best solutions—from planning, scientific tools, low impact development, to green infrastructure and beyond—in controlling water pollution and how resources can be better focused to improve these efforts.

 To join the discussion: http://blog.epa.gov/waterforum/

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A Designer’s Short Guide to LED Lighting Technology

By Jonathan Walezak

Effective landscape illumination serves a multitude of purposes, from highlighting important architectural elements to casting light on a dark set of stairs. Traditionally, incandescent lamps have dominated the market, proving to be the least expensive and most readily available source of candle power. Low pressure Sodium, High Pressure Sodium and Metal Halogen based products were most effective for large area lighting. 

In more recent years, mainstream environmental awareness in an ailing economy (plagued by soaring fuel costs) has heightened the necessity for greater efficiency in lighting devices. The most buzz-worthy advancement to date has been the light-emitting diode.

A light-emitting diode (LED) is a solid-state device used for converting electrical current into visible light of a single color.

The first practical use for the LED was developed by Nick Holonyak, Jr., while working for General Electric in 1962. Developing the red LED allowed Holonyak to work within the visible spectrum of the human eye. Early uses of the device were rather expensive and primitive, illuminating simple displays and indicator lamps for various types of communication equipment. In more recent years, LED technology has grown and developed into more relevant forms, appealing to the everyday consumer at an affordable price point.

LED components are both decorative and functional, and readily available in most traditional types and styles. They are applicable for most residential, commercial and industrial uses. Fixtures are manufactured in both low (12v) and line (110v) voltage options, as well as with solar cells for maximum energy efficiency. Recent advances in light color/quality and available photometrics make LEDs a true competitor in a market dominated by aging technology.

Cost
Pricing for LED devices are initially more expensive than that of their more common incandescent/halogen counterparts. Lower energy consumption and a longer lamp life expectancy equates to greater savings over time. Low-voltage versions draw much less power (most can be powered using a simple 9v battery), using a finer gauge wire and a smaller transformer. 

Sustainability
On average, LED lamps last approximately 40,000 hours and are 80% more efficient than any other type. Such longevity cuts down on overall system maintenance and product waste, making LED components the best choice for the environmentally responsible designer/consumer.

Availability
From path lights to mast-mount street lights, LED fixtures are available in most traditional forms. Bulb types are available in a variety of strengths, colors and beam angles to maximize usability.

For more information on LED lighting, visit the Lighting Research Center (Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute) website or contact your local lighting representative. Visit the IALD (International Association of Lighting Designers) website for more information on lighting design and/or to contact a lighting design consultant.

Lighting Research Center
http://www.lrc.rpi.edu/

International Association of Lighting Designers
http://www.iald.org/

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Transportation Programs Update

For several months, Congress has been grappling with how to rewrite the federal transportation authorization bill, SAFETEA-LU. The law was originally written in 2005 to cover programs through FY 2009 (September 30, 2009). Since that date, Congress has extended SAFETEA-LU programs through a number of short-term authorizations.

Notable programs funded via SAFETEA-LU are Transportation Enhancements, the Safe Routes to School Program, and the Scenic Byways Program.

The House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee, chaired by Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, released a blueprint of a new five-year bill last summer, but did not include specific funding levels for programs and projects. At the time, the Senate did not follow suit, leading to the series of short-term extensions. However, Sen. Barbara Boxer of California, the chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, indicated in a hearing on March 5, 2010 that her panel was going to start working on a new authorization bill, using the House version as a template.

The push to work on a larger authorization is largely based on a plan to extend SAFETEA-LU through December of 2010. This provision is contained in HR 2847, the Hiring Incentives to Restore Employment (HIRE) Act, a jobs measure that is now nearing final passage. This long-term extension would give transportation departments and programs authority to fully cover FY 2010 activities, give the congressional committees time to work on the larger bill, including the means of financing it, and stop the recent string of often-problematic month-long extensions. Transportation programs were shutdown for two days at the beginning of March when the Senate could not reach agreement on extending the programs until March 28. That agreement eventually passed and is currently in place.

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   Tracking Climate Change, Mapping Wildlife Habitat
In the southern Appalachians, the Open Space Institute is gathering information that could help land trusts and government agencies launch increasingly targeted and effective wildlife habitat protection efforts across a region that is rich in biodiversity.

Supported by a grant from the Wildlife Conservation Society, OSI has begun studying wildlife migration patterns throughout an 83,000-square-mile region that stretches across Alabama, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia. The data that OSI and its partners at the Southern Appalachians Forest Coalition gather will determine which geographic corridors animals travel along most often, in turn identifying the most critical lands to protect.
The seven-state region is considered one of the country’s hotspots for plant and animal life, supporting diverse flora and fauna over a variety of landscapes.

In addition, OSI’s findings—which will ultimately be presented in a series of multi-layered maps—will integrate sophisticated climate change data to help determine whether today’s most important corridors will still be viable tomorrow.
“The climate models show that increases in temperature and precipitation are likely to affect habitat in significant ways,” said Marc Hunt, OSI’s southern Appalachians field coordinator, “We want to understand what the biggest impacts might be and to adjust our conservation plans where needed to respond. What do the animals need to survive?”

As plant life dries up and dies, for instance, or as warmer temperatures dull the distinction between seasons, the effects of climate change can disrupt the interconnectedness of the natural world, leaving wildlife with decreased access to food, fewer sources of clean water and poor conditions for raising their young.

The brook trout, for example, has flourished in the southern Appalachians, where mountainous higher elevations provide the cool waters the trout needs. Scientists now worry that not only warmer temperatures but distressed forest cover and the resulting loss of shaded areas will adversely affect the habitat in which the trout has thrived.

Over time, such changing conditions could also have an equally harsh impact on water sources utilized by humans.
Almost a decade ago, the federal government asked each state to draft State Wildlife Action Plans (SWAPs) to guide and establish priorities for their land protection initiatives. Now, wildlife agencies in each of the seven states included in OSI’s study will have access to the very best science and maps that draw connections between imperiled lands across the region.

http://www.wildlifeactionplans.org/new_jersey.html

New Jersey Wildlife Action Plan
NEW-Climate Change Guidance Document

Voluntary Guidance for States to Incorporate Climate change into State Wildlife Action Plans & Other Management Plans
In fact, what makes OSI’s mapping work innovative is that it’s not restricted to any one state, so it will provide conservation groups and agency officials with big-picture analysis, showing which landscapes—whether they fall entirely within a single state or spread across multiple state lines—are the most important to native wildlife.

"OSI and other conservation groups, then, will have a strategic advantage in plotting future acquisition initiatives," said Darren Long, a program officer for the Wildlife Conservation Society’s Wildlife Action Opportunities Fund.
“Once this analysis is complete,” he said, “the information will feed into a lot of important activity to create and add to existing protected areas. This study will help create conservation incentives for private landowners, and will allow conservation organizations to be strategic with limited resources for maximum effectiveness and efficiency.”

Long said that OSI’s study is one of only three in the United States that is analyzing the connection between habitat corridors and climate change on a large landscape scale. Similar mapping work is being done in a 19-state region in the western U.S. and in the Northern Forest of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and New York.

Each study, he said, has the potential to create momentum for “smart conservation” in places with significant but threatened wildlife habitat.

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Cooper River Rain Garden Design and Build Contest

The Rutgers Cooperative Extension Water Resources Program and the Camden County Soil Conservation District have partnered together for the Cooper River Rain Garden Design and Build Contest.  Graduates of the North and South Jersey Landscaper Training program (class years 2008 - 2010) are invited to submit a Rain Garden Design and Build Contest Application.  Five (5) designs will be selected anonymously by the jurors to receive up to $2,000 worth of rain garden materials to implement their rain garden design in the Cooper River Watershed.

Contest applications must be postmarked by Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Click here for the Rain Garden Design and Build Contest Guidelines

Click here for the Rain Garden Design and Build Contest Application

Please email questions to rce.water.resources.program@gmail.com by March 15, 2010.  Answers will be posted on this webpage by April 1, 2010. 

No phone calls will be accepted.
This program is being sponsored by a New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection 319 (h) grant.  Program partners include:
  

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Click Here for Full Details

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Obama's Budget Calls for More Investments In Programs Funding Open Space and Recreation

WASHINGTON, D.C. 2/1/2010: The budget proposed by President Barack Obama on Monday proposes to invest almost $620 million in outdoor recreation and strategic land investments through the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the federal government's primary program to protect America's irreplaceable natural, historic, recreational, and other treasured landscapes.
 
For the traditional LWCF programs, the President proposes $50 million for matching grants to states and local governments for outdoor recreation projects and $384 million for strategic land protection by the Department of the Interior and the US Forest Service. The remaining $185 million will go towards complementary grant programs that further wildlife habitat and forest protection.
Here is a recap of the Obama administration's FY 2010 request:

STATE LWCF: $50 million (compared to a FY 2010 appropriation of $40 million) for matching grants to states and local governments for outdoor recreation projects;
FEDERAL LWCF: $384.1 million (compared to a FY 2010 appropriation of $265 million) for strategic land protection by the Department of the Interior and the US Forest Service;
FOREST LEGACY PROGRAM: $100.1 million (compared to a FY 2010 appropriation of $76.5 million);
COOPERATIVE ENDANGERED SPECIES FUND (SEC. 6): $85 Million (an increase of $9.5 million over last year's enacted);
STATE WILDLIFE GRANTS: $90 million (same as FY 2010 enacted);
COASTAL AND ESTUARINE LAND CONSERVATION FUND: $25 million (an increase of $10 million over FY 2010 enacted);
URBAN PARKS AND RECREATION RECOVERY: no money (same as FY 2010);
FRPP: $160 million (a $10 million increase over last year but a $15 m cut from the level authorized in the Farm Bill); and
NAWCA: $42.65 (a reduction of $5 million from FY 2010 enacted).

The LWCF, created by Congress in 1965, is authorized to receive $900 million annually in federal revenues from oil and gas leasing. But the LWCF program has been chronically underfunded. It has received full funding only once in its history.  In recent years has steadily declined to a low of $155 million in 2008. The President's budget reflects the importance of fulfilling the promise to reinvest a small fraction of federal leasing revenues - which in 2008 reached $17 billion-- in permanent natural resource protection.

Federal and state public lands as well as local parks and outdoor recreation sites greatly enhance communities' quality of life, which in turn helps large cities and small towns attract new residents and businesses and to generate tourism-related jobs and revenues. Outdoor recreation including hunting, fishing, camping, climbing, hiking, paddling, backcountry skiing, mountain biking, wildlife viewing, and other activities contributes a total of $730 billion annually to the economy, supporting 6.5 million jobs (1 of every 20 jobs in the U.S.) and stimulates 8 percent of all consumer spending, according to the Outdoor Industry Association (OIA).  Recreational tourism also plays a huge role in boosting local economies.

The program includes grants to support state and local parks. Those grants help develop park facilities and recreational amenities - creating jobs and supporting the quality-of-life factors that allow communities to attract employers and a strong work force.

With the budget being released, congressional hearings are now underway.

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