Say It To My Facebook: Using Social Media for Public Involvement | Plannovation. The NASA Twitter Bird. Even NASA uses social media websites. Ryan Link, a Planner with Michael Baker Jr. Inc’s (Baker) Richmond, Virginia office, got hooked on social media over a year ago when working with the non-profit Athletes for a Cure. He immediately made the connection that sites such as Twitter and Facebook could increase public engagement, involvement and outreach for NEPA and just about any planning project. Recently, Baker has had the opportunity to use these social media sites for the Loop 1604 EIS in San Antonio, TX. Facebook is the most popular social networking site in the world, boasting 300 million users. The “More for 1604” page Facebook page invites visitors to “Become a Fan”, and join 257 other fans. Scrolling down the news feed, I can find pictures of the meetings or submit my own photos. Twitter is another successful free social networking site that provides a mini-blogging service.
Public Scoping Meeting from More for 1604 Flickr website So, Is It Working? Ryan Link. Rhizome | Biohabitats Blog. Strip of wetlands found on portion of St. Bernard Parish mixed-income housing site. The Corps of Engineers on Thursday announced it has found wetlands on a section of land where a controversial St. Bernard Parish multifamily housing complex is under construction. Times-Picayune archiveSwaths of St.
Bernard's storm-ravaged landscape were -- and still are -- ripe for planning, rebuilding, molding and reimagining the future of the parish. These rebuilt houses next to vacant lots were photographed in 2008. The corps issued a cease-and-desist order for construction the portion of wetlands on the site south of West Judge Perez Drive and west of Lafitte Parkway. Ricky Boyett, a spokesman for the corps, explained that construction can continue on all others parts of the site that are not wetlands. While Boyett on Thursday was unable to provide the exact size of the wetland, he said it runs in a straight line along most of the eastern side of that site.
St. The project's developer, Provident Realty Advisors, can apply for a permit to mitigate the wetlands. St. The U.S. Commentary: Conservation pays. H. Dale Hall Former head of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in the Bush administration takes House Republicans to task for proposed budget cutting measures *This op-ed piece originally appeared in the Atlanta Journal Constitution.
By H. The Congress and Administration began in earnest their jousting over the budget last week when the president submitted his fiscal year 2012 proposal and the House of Representatives debated HR1, the bill to fund the remainder of fiscal year 2011. I am extremely disappointed with the approach taken in HR1 to eliminate conservation programs, such as the North American Wetland Conservation Act (NAWCA) grants, that have proven successful at every level of analysis, including the amount of money returned to the federal treasury through taxes each year. In addition, every year hunters, shooters, anglers and boaters pay special federal taxes that are returned to the federal treasury for specific conservation use. H. Like this: Like Loading... Grant Issued for Wetland-Based Wastewater Treatment System - Industry News - EDC Magazine. The Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association announced that the Rita Allen Foundation has provided the first wave of funding to create an innovative wetland-based wastewater treatment system at the association’s Watershed Reserve in Hopewell, N.J.
Under the plan supported by the Rita Allen Foundation, the Watershed Association will be building a new wetlands-based wastewater treatment system at its 860-acre Watershed Reserve to show that there is a more effective, more energy efficient and less resource-intensive alternative to the traditional wastewater treatment system. This system will be unique in its design to address the climate, hydrology and soil types of the Mid-Atlantic region, combining three distinct wetlands systems to cleanse wastewater more thoroughly than its predecessors.
The project will be the first of its kind permitted in New Jersey. “Traditional approaches to processing wastewater are allowing high levels of nutrients to move into our waterways. The Daily Reflector. Misguidedly, N.C. Rep. Leo Daughtry of Johnston County has introduced H.B. 116, “Delineate Coastal Wetlands Riparian Buffers.” In 2000, after years of study, negotiation and compromise as to how best to improve and protect the Tar-Pamlico River from the nutrient overload, a buffer rule was passed, requiring a vegetated buffer of 50 feet along the shoreline of all bodies of water entering and including the river itself. This was similar to a temporary buffer rule enacted earlier to deal with the pollution in the Neuse River basin. Marshlands and wetlands, because of their direct interaction with the rivers/estuaries themselves were not be counted as part of the 50-foot buffer zone.
H.B. 116 will do away with this requirement and allow development, including hog and poultry farms and their waste lagoons, to be situated adjacent to coastal waters as long as there is still 50 feet of coastal wetlands or marshland between them and the actual water body. Commentary: Conservation pays. Federal Environmental Laws Violated | Forests and Wetlands | Blog| Gulf Restoration Network. Gulfport, MS- The U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi ruled that Hancock County Development, LLC violated the federal Clean Water Act when it began construction of a large residential and commercial development in approximately 700 acres of wetlands near Bay St. Louis. The company violated the law by discharging storm water from its project to area streams without an EPA permit, and also by conducting “dredge and fill” activities in wetlands without a permit from the U.S.
Army Corps of Engineers. The Court also found that Hancock’s violations have caused flooding of neighboring property. The Gulf Restoration Network brought the lawsuit to protect its members’ interests in protecting clean water and in Gulf area wetlands. Elizabeth Livingston de Calderon, a supervising attorney with the Tulane Environmental Law Clinic said “We are very happy for our client and proud of the student attorneys who worked on this case.” Habitat program on endangered list. A federal program that preserves Midlands wildlife habitat from the banks of the North Platte River in western Nebraska to the Owego Wetlands of western Iowa faces possible extinction. Conservationists, birdwatchers, hunters, anglers, landowners, even city dwellers, are banding together to stop — or at least deflect — the budget ax. The would-be executioners say they are sympathetic but have a job to do.
All spending is under scrutiny in these tough budgetary times, said Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., a hunter whose state welcomed now-threatened federal funds to enhance wetlands when he was Nebraska's governor in the 1990s. “There will be cuts, some of them painful, to bring down our national debt,” Nelson said. At risk is the North American Wetlands Conservation Act. The $47.6 million program provides grants to restore and renovate wildlife habitat nationwide. But cut federal waste while leaving the good alone, said H. “These are the finest projects. Contact the writer: New report calls for greater urgency, tough decisions in saving wetlands | wwltv.com | Local News. Maya Rodriguez / Eyewitness News NEW ORLEANS -- They are the fragile wetlands on which the future of southeast Louisiana rests. "This is not a question of, 'Can you save a piece of it?
'" said King Milling, chairman of The America's Wetland Foundation. "If this thing goes, we all lose everything. " Large swaths of the coastline, with its patchwork of wetlands and bays, along with the Mississippi River delta, are in the midst of fading away according to a report released by the America's Wetland Foundation on Tuesday. In the report, there is a satellite map that shows how southeast Louisiana looked in 2009. "It is within our reach that water has moved up, right south of New Orleans, in places that no one thought possible," said Val Marmillion, managing director of the America's Wetland Foundation. The migration, whether intentional or not, is well underway in certain communities like in the town of Leeville in Lafourche Parish.
Climate-smart agriculture is needed. China faces up to 'terrible' state of its ecosystems. Streamside Forest Buffers: Improving Water Quality. Wetlands. Constructed Wetlands. Sandy River Flood. Vcstar. After being notified in March that he faced a lawsuit from two environmental groups over violations of the Clean Water Act, John Scheck of Standard Industries, a metal recycling company in Saticoy, consulted with his partners in the family business. Instead of sending his attorney into legal battle, he decided to meet with the groups who were suing him. Scheck gave Mati Waiya, the executive director of the Wishtoyo Foundation, and Jason Weiner, the director of the Ventura Coastkeeper group, a tour of Standard’s 8-acre scrap yard in Saticoy, which is visible from Highway 118.
That meeting set in motion a settlement announced Tuesday at a news conference in Ventura in which the lawsuit was dropped after Standard agreed to improve its storm water treatment infrastructure so discharges comply with the Clean Water Act. Standard also will fund a study of contaminants in the Ventura estuary. “I met Mati right after we got the intent to sue notice, within a week I think, ” Scheck aid. UCSB RIVRLab | Home. Nitrogen Footprint Calculator.