#coastal watersheds

[photoblogdujour]

Peruvian lily dancing in the heat. Climbing to Peruvian mountains by day, luxuriating in the day spas of coastal Peru by night, then traveling to the Amazonian watershed to pick up an extra shed or two.

[yesyoubelonghere]

More wildflowers from inside the fence line.

Black sage (I hope). This plant is one of the most abundant wildflowers I have found every year on my property. (FF)

Description from the Coastal Watershed Council page: "Black Sage is a perennial subshrub that is scientifically known as Salvia mellifera. Being the most common sage in California, this shrub is found in foothills, canyons, mesas, and chaparrals. Black Sage plants contain aromatic flowers that are white, blue, lavender, or occasionally a pale pink. Able to grow in a large variety of soils, they are very abundant and present all along the California coast. They can reach up to 6 ft tall and 10 ft wide. They are currently in bloom!

Black Sage is a significant native plant as its nectar is an important source of food for hummingbirds and butterflies. The vibrant and aromatic flowers attract pollinators, and its seeds are consumed by our state bird, the quail, as well as various species of birds. Furthermore, Black Sage plants are fairly susceptible to damage from air pollution. Specifically, sulfur dioxide and ozone: two serious air pollutants. Therefore, these shrubs are great monitors of air pollution levels in areas throughout California.

Black Sage is an angiosperm, a part of the mint family. Often, members of this family produce potent essential oils. These oils vary from scents of pleasant mint to very pungent and not so pleasant scents! "

[argyrocratie]

“In the mainstream conversation around climate change, the most optimistic proposal suggests achieving carbon neutral economies by 2050, which supposedly could keep the temperature from rising more than 2°C. What changes could we expect to see in that most optimistic scenario?

The millions of yearly deaths discussed above would increase as clean water becomes scarcer, droughts and extreme weather events multiply, and desertification spreads. Somewhere around 25 percent of species could go extinct.20 To name just one of the many precious ecosystems that will suffer collapse, 99 percent of coral reefs will die off, leading to the loss of 25 percent of marine species and the livelihoods of 500 million people.21

It will be a world rocked by extreme, deadly heat waves breaking all previous records. The land area subjected to extreme summer heat will quadruple.22 By 2050, the land that 150 million people live on will be reclaimed by the sea, and the land that 300 million people live on will be below the level of annual coastal floods, destroying coastal cities around the world.23 Further rises in sea level would probably be locked in over the following centuries.

This is by no means a rosy picture. Nonetheless, governments, NGOs, and scientific institutions around the world are banking on this scenario as an acceptable level of collateral damage. It is no wonder that the breathless chorus of mainstream voices cheerleading the optimistic goal of going “carbon neutral by 2050” rarely discuss the extreme suffering and devastation that actually accompany their chosen timeline. City governments around the world run web pages touting their “Smart City” plans for public transportation, ride shares, and green energy. Think tanks and NGOs try to whip up enthusiasm for the few politicians who have actually committed to the goal. And barely any of them mention what that rosy scenario means for the planet and its people.

Yet it’s even worse than that. There is no guarantee that going carbon neutral  by 2050 will actually function as the meager containment wall it is being sold as. Scientific predictions relating to climate have consistently underestimated the intensity and timeline of projected changes.24 To name just one example, a summer heatwave in Alaska in 2019 led to a massive salmon die-off. The science director for a local watershed non-profit spoke about a climate model they had prepared just three years earlier, that included moderate and pessimistic scenarios. “2019 exceeded the value we expected for the worst-case scenario in 2069,” she told the media.25

Runaway warming might be caused by a number of feedback loops that are already reaching their tipping point. When the IPCC first introduced the concept of climate tipping points two decades ago, they believed that no such tipping point would be triggered shy of 5°C of warming. Now they recognize that many tipping points can be triggered with just one or two degrees of warming, and there is in fact evidence that some have already begun.26 These include the collapse of ice sheets, which would substantially decrease the portion of the earth’s surface that reflects solar radiation back into space. As the polar regions warm at an accelerated rate, arctic permafrost is beginning to thaw. This has the potential to release a huge amount of methane, a greenhouse gas roughly thirty times more potent than carbon dioxide. Boreal forests in Siberia and North America are also falling victim to warming through more frequent forest fires and insect plagues. The massive tree and soil die-off means the release of more CO2.

The Amazon rainforest, currently home to one in ten species on the planet and absorbing 600 million metric tons of carbon a year,27 is in danger of turning into a giant savanna, or even a desert. Droughts caused by warming, together with deforestation for commercial agriculture, work together to take their toll. The estimate is that when the Amazon loses between 20 and 40 percent of its forest cover, the entire ecosystem will collapse.28

Warming in the oceans is causing the slowdown of Atlantic currents that are vital to the transfer of heat and nutrients that form the basis of marine ecosystems, as well as much of the planet’s weather. This could exacerbate droughts in Africa’s Sahel region and in the Amazon, and would even disrupt the East Asian monsoon, which means the collapse of more habitats, and more suffering for humans and other forms of life.29

The implication is that even if we stop all greenhouse gas emissions today, there may be natural processes under way that force a shift to a new dynamic equilibrium, a “hothouse” planet unlike anything nearly all species alive today have evolved to survive.

What might that look like? A 4.5°C rise in temperature could mean 50 percent of species would go extinct, and that’s only in a short-term analysis.30 By the end of the century, 1 billion people would be displaced and hundreds of millions would fall victim to famine. Fifty-five percent of the world’s human population would suffer more than 20 days of lethal heat a year; it’s more than a hundred days a year in the middle latitudes. Between scorching conditions and the collapse of insect populations, crop yields could decrease by a fifth or more.31 It’s no wonder that even the World Bank says that 4°C of warming might be “beyond adaptation” for human civilization.32 The hot period could easily last 200,000 years.33

As we shall see, the experts cannot solve this problem, and they have already wasted valuable decades. The subtext to the official conversation belies a staggering apathy. We will not be the ones to die. All those who disappear, human and otherwise, are an acceptable loss. We will come out on top.

For many people—especially among policy makers and experts—there is a truth to that mindset, at least for now. The millions of human deaths caused by the ecological crisis every year are not shared equally. Most of them occur in the Global South

However, while the semantic distinction between Global North and Global South is useful, many of the same processes occur in both places; the world is not as divided as those on top want to believe. For example, though the 60,000 people killed on average every year by extreme weather events mostly live in the Global South, so-called wealthy countries are not immune. The 2003 heat wave in Europe, for example, led to 70,000 excess deaths. Needless to say, few of them were living in the houses of the wealthy, with their high ceilings and air conditioning. And while 92 percent of pollution-related deaths occur in low- and middle-income countries, 800,000 people die every year from air pollution in Europe and 155,000 die every year in the US.34 Still, even these deaths are unevenly distributed. Not many rich people live near industrial parks and toxic waste dumps.

In settler states like the US, Canada, Australia, and Argentina, class is largely inscribed by the historical legacy of colonialism, with the descendants of enslaved Africans and Indigenous peoples subjected to conditions that the global distribution of wealth and power usually reserves for the Global South. When Hurricane Katrina descended on New Orleans in 2005, killing 1,800 people, anyone paying attention saw that the way infrastructure was built in poor and Black neighborhoods left people vulnerable, whereas infrastructure in wealthy white neighborhoods was designed to protect people. And contrary to the spontaneous initiatives of mutual aid that constituted the primary life saver, with neighbors helping neighbors survive the storm, and ex-Black Panthers and anarchists setting up the first on-site clinic,35 government responses focused on shooting neighbors trying to take clean water or diapers from supermarkets, and then making sure that only middle-class and wealthy residents could return to the city, “gentrification by God.” As Neil Smith wrote in the aftermath of that storm, “there is no such thing as a natural disaster.”36 The disaster was produced and directed by economic and political structures.

Those who currently hold power in our society, those who have failed us tragically, do not have our interests at heart, nor those of the planet. And in fact, our interests and the interests of the earth are one and the same. We do not know how disastrous these next decades will be. But there is one certainty that can give us hope and courage: there is not a single scenario in which taking action, in defense of ourselves, in defense of one another, in defense of all the interconnected life on this planet, will not make things better.”

- Peter Gelderloos, “ The Solutions are Already Here”

[plethoraworldatlas]

Ten conservation groups today sent a letter calling on Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek and the Board of Forestry to protect additional acres of forest lands in the proposed Western Oregon State Forest Habitat Conservation Plan. Their proposed increase in protected mature and old-growth forest land would help safeguard imperiled species like the threatened Oregon Coast coho salmon and marbled murrelet.

Specifically, today’s letter seeks to protect forests older than 80 years in the Tillamook and Clatsop state forests and the Cook Creek watershed because of their ecological value for coastal communities and wildlife. The draft conservation plan is now in the process of being finalized by the Board of Forestry.

“Protecting more mature and old-growth coastal forests would benefit Oregon’s treasured wildlife and sustain coastal communities,” said Meg Townsend, senior freshwater attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity. “We need to protect Cook Creek to safeguard critical spawning habitat for Oregon Coast coho and make sure coastal residents have safe drinking water and recreational opportunities.”

Intact mature and old-growth forests provide important habitat corridors and refuges for wildlife including at-risk species like the marbled murrelet. They also help moderate flooding and runoff occurring more frequently in a changing climate while ensuring water quantity and quality to downstream communities. Older forests are the most resistant and resilient to climate change impacts like wildfire.

Across Oregon, only about 10% of mature and old-growth forests remain, and much less than that remains on the North Coast.

Clearcut logging and related activities like road building and aerial pesticide spraying increase sediment and other pollutants flowing into streams and drinking water sources. No-logging buffers around streams have increased under a settlement agreement with the Center for Biological Diversity and other groups. But communities remain concerned about the extent of clearcutting in their drinking watersheds and the short-term and cumulative harms of industrial logging.

This summer, Oregon Wild co-developed a project with NASA to map the extent of logging across watersheds on the North Coast. The analysis revealed that the forested areas many Oregon coastal communities rely on for safe and clean drinking water have been more than 50% clearcut over the past 20 years.

[mariacallous]

Two consecutive summers of brutal heat and drought have left some parts of Texas with notably low water supplies going into 2024.

A wet year or a well-placed hurricane could quickly pull these regions back from the brink. But winter rains have disappointed so far. Last week’s downpours are the first in weeks for parts of the state and they won’t hit the watersheds that need them most.

Looking ahead, forecasters increasingly expect another scorching summer here this year.

That’s bad news for places like far-south Texas, where big reservoirs on the Lower Rio Grande fell from 33 percent to 23 percent full over the past 12 months. A repeat of similar conditions would leave the reservoirs far lower than they’ve ever been, triggering an emergency response and an international crisis.

“Pretty scary times,” said Jim Darling, president of the Rio Grande Regional Water Authority and former mayor of the city of McAllen. “We’ll see what happens.”

Worries stretch beyond the Rio Grande. In Corpus Christi, on the south Texas coast, authorities last month stopped releasing water aimed at maintaining minimum viable ecology in the coastal wetlands, even as oil refineries and chemical plants remain exempt from water use restrictions during drought.

Also last month, in the sprawling suburbs of Central Texas, between Austin and San Antonio, one groundwater district declared stage 4 drought for the first time in its 36-year history.

Texans don’t usually talk about drought in the winter. Damp soil and green grass may conceal the impending predicament today, but water planners in regions with low reserves nervously await what summer may bring.

“Signs are not favorable,” said Greg Waller, a coordinating hydrologist with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration in Fort Worth. “Expect warmer and drier, again.”

Winter and spring rains offer the best hope for relief, he said, but weather patterns so far haven’t produced the sustained downpours needed to refill reservoirs.

Drought conditions in 2022 and 2023 struck with markedly acute severity. Last year was the hottest on record for Texas—and the Earth, according to NOAA—after a global heat wave shattered temperature records around the world.

These patterns, Waller said, are consistent with scientific understanding of climate change caused by carbon emissions.

“Climate change means the extremes are going to get more extreme,” he said. “The heat waves are going to get more heat. The droughts are going to get droughty-er and the floods are going to get floody-er.”

Texas rainfall typically peaks in May. If relief doesn’t come by then, some places will need to start bracing for impact.

Corpus Christi: Wetlands and Refineries

Corpus Christi, with 421,000 people in its two-county metro area, sits where the Gulf Coast marshes meet the semi-arid South Texas plains. The region’s combined reservoirs dropped from 53.7 percent full in 2022 to 43.6 percent in 2023 to 30.5 percent this month.

The city announced in December that it would no longer release water from its reservoir system to support basic ecology in coastal bays and estuaries.

“Due to the ongoing drought in our water supply,” wrote a city spokesperson in a statement. “NO water is being released from Lake Corpus Christi to the Bays and Estuaries.”

Wherever Texas rivers join the sea, these once-vast wetlands host critical reproductive cycles of many aquatic species, and they depend on freshwater inflows for their characteristically half-salty, nutrient-rich systems. When water supply gets tight, the bays and estuaries typically are first to see their allocations revoked while cities keep dam gates closed.

These ecosystems, which once benefited from all the water from the formerly undammed rivers of Texas, have adapted to natural droughts. Dry years severely decrease the amount of species reproduction, but when wet weather returns, the system can usually recover within a year, according to Paul Montagna, endowed chair of hydroecology at Harte Research Institute for Gulf of Mexico Studies in Corpus Christi.

“However, if a system is permanently impaired it is also possible that recovery will not reach former levels,” Montagna said.

Studies suggest that systems around Corpus Christi may already be “permanently impaired,” Montagna said, largely due to a sustained lack of fresh water.

Similar problems span the lower Texas coast. The Rio Grande hasn’t flowed consistently into the Gulf of Mexico since the early 2000s. On the Colorado River, which runs through Austin, authorities have kept water releases to the coastal wetlands at a bare minimum in recent years. Jennifer Walker, director of the National Wildlife Foundation’s Texas Coast and Water Program, called it “critical life support.”

“Water to meet environmental needs is frequently the first to be negotiated away,” Walker said. “Our bays and estuaries are a hugely important part of Texas and they’re not something that would be easy to go back and fix.”

In Corpus Christi, a major refining and export hub for Texas shale oil and gas, city authorities have imposed water use restrictions on residents, with more to come if reservoir levels fall below 30 percent. But the region’s largest industrial water consumers operate unabated, thanks to a purchasable exemption from drought restrictions for industrial users—$0.25 per 1,000 gallons—passed by the city council in 2018.

That includes users like ExxonMobil’s massive new plastics plant, which is authorized to use up to 25 million gallons of water per day—a quarter of the regional summertime water demand.

“Industry can continue full bore through all of these drought stages and the estuary gets cut off early,” said a water resource consultant from Corpus Christi who requested anonymity to preserve his business relationship with the city. “I think it’s a looming disaster. They are still trying to recruit all these water-intensive industries along the coast.”

Proceeds from the exemption program were supposed to fund development of seawater desalination plants that would expand the regional water supply and meet demands of a booming industrial buildout. The first plant was initially planned to begin operations early last year, but it remains mired in challenges and years away from breaking ground. Meanwhile, the industrial buildout continues.

Central Texas: People and Grass

Two hundred miles inland, the five-county region surrounding Austin, Texas’ high-tech capital city, has grown faster than any US metro area for 12 straight years. Its water supplies haven’t.

In 2022, less water flowed into City of Austin reservoirs than ever before, city staff said at a public water task force meeting on Tuesday. Last year was only slightly better. The largest reservoir serving Austin, Lake Travis, fell from about 80 percent full in January 2022 to 38 percent full at the start of this year.

Even in another extreme drought year, Austin can avoid heightened water use restrictions, which take effect when reservoirs fall below 30 percent full, until at least July, according to a water supply outlook presented at the meeting. But the outlook stopped short of August and September, the region’s hottest and (recently) driest months.

“It’s not looking good,” said Robert Mace, director of the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment at Texas State University and a member of the water task force.

Even if levels fall below 30 percent, water users in Austin will face only minor restrictions, focused mostly on car washing and lawn irrigation. During the summer in Texas, when water consumption can double or triple over wintertime use, major cities spray most of their treated drinking water onto grass.

The problem worsens as more land converts to suburban subdivisions amid a homebuilding boom, said Todd Votteler, a water dispute consultant and editor of the Texas Water Journal, a peer-reviewed journal focused on water management and research. Texas gained more residents and built more homes than any state in recent years.

“One of the challenges is the idea for home builders and the real estate industry that all these new houses need to have beautiful green lawns,” said Votteler, who has worked at groundwater and river authorities in Central Texas since 1994. “People moving here from some place else have not lived in a region with a limited water supply.”

Around the city of Austin, a patchwork of authorities manages various aquifers and reservoirs. Last month, the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Groundwater Conservation District declared stage four drought restrictions for the first time in its 36-year history. That required the oldest communities and major companies in the district to reduce water use by 40 percent, while 16 newer permit holders were cut off entirely.

The district’s customers include the small city of Kyle, the third-fastest growing US city in 2022, plus dozens of small water companies and utility districts.

“We’ve been concerned for years. We’ve been in one stage of drought or another for well over a year and a half now,” said Tim Loftus, general manager of the Barton Springs/Edwards Aquifer Groundwater Conservation District. “We just really need rain.”

Loftus said his customers have “risen to the occasion” and complied with cuts. Another district hasn’t been as lucky.

The neighboring Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District has fought for two years with a local subsidiary of a national investor-owned water supply company over violations of permit pumping limits, even as severe drought conditions have continued to deepen.

The company, Aqua Texas, has taken almost twice its permitted allotment for two consecutive years and has declined to abide by drought restrictions, according to Charlie Flatten, general manager of the Hays Trinity Groundwater Conservation District. This month, Aqua sued the conservation district in federal court. Its legal brief didn’t address whether Aqua had overpumped, but accused the groundwater district of violating due process and of “unequal application of its penalty policy.” It added that “Aqua Texas has voluntarily spent millions of dollars in water conservation.” The groundwater district, in legal documents, has denied Aqua’s allegations.

“We’re already seeing wells drying up, not just in specific sections but across the district,” Flatten said. “As we continue to use water and there continues to be no recharge, more and more wells will be affected.”

Another major nearby water source, the Canyon Lake reservoir, started last year 80 percent full, surpassed its record low of 68 percent in August, and is 60 percent full today.

The Lower Rio Grande: Texas and Mexico

The biggest water problems in Texas lie along its southern border, where some 6 million people in two countries depend on the dwindling Lower Rio Grande system.

At the river’s end, amid the irrigated fields of the fertile Rio Grande Valley, farmers have lost crops midseason in recent years due to water shortages. This year, many won’t plant at all, worried they will lose the investment to another summer drought, said Darling, the Rio Grande Regional Water Authority president.

That creates a spiraling conundrum for the flourishing cities of the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, home to more than a million people, he said. The once-prosperous agricultural sector historically accounts for more than 80 percent of water demand here. Without its vast volumes flowing for irrigation, the region’s network of canals would almost dry up. Cities would lose more than half their water supply to evaporation and soil absorption along its 70-mile journey from the nearest reservoir.

There are two possible temporary remedies to this problem, Darling said.

One is the weather. The only other time the Rio Grande reservoirs fell as low as they have today, around 2000, a hurricane soon hit and refilled them almost entirely. A Pacific storm could also bring relief to the bulk of the Rio Grande watershed, which covers the mountains of northwestern Mexico.

Another is international politics. Because most of the water used by Texas farmers on the Lower Rio Grande originates as rainfall in Northern Mexico, a binational treaty governs water sharing between the countries.

Northern Mexico has experienced its own water crises lately, including a deadly riot at a reservoir dam in 2020 and months of water rationing in 2022 in one of the country’s largest cities. So, it’s been reluctant to release water for Texas farmers, contributing to low levels in the downstream reservoirs.

Since 2020, Mexico has fallen sharply behind on its schedule of water releases to Texas under the treaty, which was ratified in 1944. It has until the end of 2025 before it faces delinquency. But the Rio Grande Valley of Texas might not have another two years to wait, Darling said.

The political situation is managed primarily by the International Boundary and Water Commission, a small agency operated by the US and Mexico.

“We are negotiating an agreement with Mexico intended to improve the predictability and reliability of Rio Grande water deliveries,” said an agency spokesperson, Frank Fisher. “We hope this agreement will provide tools that will help users affected by supply shortages.”

North of the border, Fisher said, water restrictions will be managed by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.

A TCEQ spokesperson, Victoria Cann, said the agency “has warned users about declining storage and encouraged users to plan for water shortages.”

“TCEQ continues to advocate for water users on the Rio Grande by communicating to IBWC the need for Mexico to deliver on their water obligations under the 1944 Water Treaty,” Cann said.

[wayti-blog]

""The amount of kelp on the reef changes through time in a way where the peaks and low points in abundance across several kelp forests are matched together," said lead author Jonathan Walter, a senior researcher at the University of California, Davis, and its Center for Watershed Sciences. "That's what we refer to as synchrony. It is related to the ability of systems to persist in the face of changing environmental conditions. A little asynchrony allows systems to be resistant to fluctuations and therefore more stable."

The study uncovers the role of synchrony in the beach food web, with broader implications as the climate shifts in ways that might change how linked ecosystems perform their functions.

Revealing synchrony's role in these ecosystems fills a key knowledge gap in our understanding of the connection of reef and beach.

"The kelp forest and the beach are both highly dynamic ecosystems," said co-author Jenny Dugan, a coastal marine ecologist at UC Santa Barbara. "How the dynamics of those two ecosystems interact and behave is the key question here, especially with the beach system so dependent on the kelp forest.""

"Though a natural and ubiquitous phenomenon, synchrony and its implications are not yet fully understood."

continue reading article

[harrypottiarthemes]

Rainbows end Aplacas Tours & Yarn Shop

 Rainbows end Aplacas Tours & Yarn Shop, Norway, MI Upper Peninsula

Rainbows end Aplacas Tours & Yarn Shop, Norway, MI Upper Peninsula

A French ship had been wrecked there several years earlier. The Patuxet Indians imprisoned a few survivors. One of them supposedly learned enough of the local language to inform his captors that God would destroy them for their misdeeds. The Patuxet scoffed at the threat. But the Europeans carried a disease, and they bequeathed it to their jailers. The epidemic (probably of viral hepatitis, according to a study by Arthur E. Spiess, an archaeologist at the Maine Historic Preservation Commission, and Bruce D. Spiess, the director of clinical research at the Medical College of Virginia) took years to exhaust itself and may have killed 90 percent of the people in coastal New England. It made a huge difference to American history. By the time my ancestor set sail on the Mayflower, Europeans had been visiting New England for more than a hundred years. English, French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese mariners regularly plied the coastline, trading what they could, occasionally kidnapping the inhabitants for slaves.

Environmentalists and ecologists vigorously attacked the anti-wilderness scenario, which they described as infected by postmodern philosophy. A small academic brouhaha ensued, complete with hundreds of footnotes. It precipitated Reinventing Nature? 1995), one of the few academic critiques of postmodernist philosophy written largely by biologists. It is easy to tweak academics for opaque, self-protective language like this. Nonetheless, their concerns were quite justified. Crediting Indians with the role of keystone species has implications for the way the current Euro-American members of that keystone species manage the forests, watersheds, and endangered species of America. Because a third of the United States is owned by the federal government, the issue inevitably has political ramifications. In Amazonia, fabled storehouse of biodiversity, the stakes are global. Guided by the pristine myth, mainstream environmentalists want to preserve as much of the world's land as possible in a putatively intact state. But "intact," if the new research is correct, means "run by human beings for human purposes." Environmentalists dislike this, because it seems to mean that anything goes. In a sense they are correct. Native Americans managed the continent as they saw fit. Modern nations must do the same. If they want to return as much of the landscape as possible to its 1491 state, they will have to find it within themselves to create the world's largest garden. When you buy a book using a link on this page, we receive a commission. Thank you for supporting The Atlantic.

Featuring a ribbed texture, undersized fit, and turn up - these classic beanies for men are the perfect way to put a lid on your look. When it comes to outerwear built specifically to stand up to the harshest of conditions, few are better known than Canada Goose. The company’s beanies for men may be a bit over budget for some, but if you want to stay toasty in sub-zero conditions, it’s well worth splurging the extra cash. Think superior protection from the cold, rugged build quality and iconic Canada Goose badge branding. California-based outdoor specialist The North Face has kitted out many a polar expedition, so you can put your full trust in the brand when it comes to keeping your head warm when winter bites outside the Arctic Circle. The bonus with North Face gear is that it looks great too. So, even if the only expedition you have planned is to walk the dog, a beanie from this legendary label will still be more than suitable.

The indexing of the textile journeys is thus extremely complex. In sustainability, there is no such thing as a single-frame approach. Issues dealt with in single frames will almost by definition lead to unwanted and unforeseen effects elsewhere. Overall, diversity in the overall fiber mix is needed; in 2013 cotton and polyester accounted for almost 85% of all fibers, and thus their impacts were, and continue to be, disproportionately magnified. Also, many fibers in the finished garments are mixed to acquire desired drape, flexibility or stretch, thus affecting both care and the possibility to recycle the material in the end. Natural fibers are fibers which are found in nature and are not petroleum-based. Natural fibers can be categorized into two main groups, cellulose or plant fiber and protein or animal fiber. Uses of these fibers can be anything from buttons to eyewear such as sunglasses. Other than cotton, the most common plant-based fiber, cellulose fibers include: jute, flax, hemp, ramie, abaca, bamboo (used for viscose), soy, corn, banana, pineapple, beechwood (used for rayon).

In comparison, four goats are needed to produce enough wool for just one sweater per year! Everything you need to know about the Alpaca and Llama products you can find in Peru. What kind of products can I buy? Many clothing and accessory items, blankets, and even cuddly toys. The most popular items are sweaters and ponchos. They come in a variety of sizes, qualities and colours. They make great souvenirs to bring back home. Where can I buy them? Head to any Artisan Peruvian or Bolivian market and you’ll come across Llama and Alpaca products. There is a market in Pisac (about one hour from Cusco) frequented by indigenous folk who sell their wares. If you’re in Lima, visit the Inka Market (Av. The products don’t come cheap, but buying from a store guarantees their quality. Look out for sales! What should I expect to pay? For a blended Alpaca product (ie. Look to pay from 10 USD upwards for scarfs and sweaters.

[americangeophysicalunion]

Doñana Wetlands: Disappearing Despite 50 Years of Protection…

Dear AGU,

It is April 2022, and we are on a field trip with students of the Master in Techniques and Sciences of Water Quality (University of Granada) at Doñana wetlands (SW Spain). Doñana, established as a National Park by Spanish Government (1969), and recognized as a Biosphere Reserve (1980) and World Heritage Site (1994) by UNESCO, enjoys a high level of protection. Doñana National Park is the culmination of efforts of visionary scientists and renowned naturalists (such as José Antonio Valverde or Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente featured in the bust here).

However, despite >50 years of protection, our students identified and discussed a wide range of threats on this “jewel in the crown” of biodiversity, such as the establishment of invasive species, the increasing risk of forest fires linked to droughts and global warming, or new menaces linked to intended projects as the reopening of the Aznalcóllar pyrite mine with planned discharges to the Guadalquivir river, or the projects of extraction and storage of natural gas in Doñana subsoil, with risks of rupture and spill on the main aquifer that nourishes Doñana. Of these, the most alarming current threat on the Doñana ecosystem (as identified by the students), is habitat loss –by drying out– and deterioration –by eutrophication– of its aquatic ecosystems (seasonal ponds, lagoons, and marshlands) due to intensive agriculture in the surrounding watershed. Chief among the solutions proposed by the students is enforcing water withdrawal legal regulations in combination with improving water use and conservation in the watershed. Through raising awareness of the problem and improved environmental education –leading to the recognition that water is the lifeblood of wetlands– and appealing to UNESCO to add Doñana to the List of World Heritage in Danger, we hope wetland biodiversity hot-spots like Doñana can be saved for future generations.

Photos, starting from the upper left and going clock-wise, represent the University of Granada group studying eutrophication of Rocina stream in the Doñana watershed; in a visitable part of the coastal dunes of Doñana; under an impressive millennial olive tree at El Rocío village; alongside the bust of Félix Rodríguez de la Fuente near Palacio del Acebrón visitors center; marshland vegetation within National Park; adjacent unprotected and water-exploited area.

– Juanma Medina-Sánchez, Mani Villar-Argaiz, Pre Carrillo (Departamento de Ecología and Instituto del Agua, Universidad de Granada, Spain) and Bopi Biddanda (Annis Water Resources Institute, Grand Valley State University, Michigan) https://ecologia.ugr.es, http://www.institutodelagua.es, https://www.gvsu.edu/wri/

[blsahoo]

Harvesting Sustainability: Achieving Net Zero Water in Indian Industries

The concept of net zero water is gaining significant traction within the industrial sector. It signifies a paradigm shift towards water stewardship, aiming to minimize water withdrawal and maximize reuse and recycling within an industrial facility. By achieving a net zero water balance, industries contribute to water security, environmental sustainability, and cost reduction.

How to Achieve Net Zero Water:

Reaching net zero water requires a multifaceted approach, encompassing various strategies:

Water Use Reduction:

Implementing water-efficient technologies in processes and equipment.

Optimizing production processes to minimize water consumption.

Practicing leak detection and repair programs to prevent water losses.

2. Water Reuse and Recycling:

Treating wastewater to a suitable quality for reuse within the facility.

Employing rainwater harvesting and greywater recycling systems.

Utilizing innovative desalination technologies for specific applications.

3. Alternative Water Sources:

Exploring the use of treated wastewater for non-potable applications.

Utilizing harvested rainwater for irrigation and other non-critical tasks.

Implementing seawater desalination for industrial processes in coastal regions.

Case Studies:

1. Interface, Inc., a leading carpet tile manufacturer:

Achieved net zero water status in 2010 through a multi-pronged approach.

Reduced water use by 90% through process optimization and water-efficient equipment.

Implemented a closed-loop recycling system that reuses 98% of process water.

Utilized rainwater harvesting and a sophisticated water treatment system.

2. The Coca-Cola Company:

Has set ambitious water stewardship goals, aiming to return 100% of the water used in its beverages back to communities and nature.

Implemented water-efficient technologies in its bottling plants.

Collaborates with farmers to promote sustainable water-saving practices in agriculture.

3. The Dow Chemical Company:

Reduced its water footprint by 50% since 2005.

Implemented innovative water reuse and recycling technologies across its global operations.

Invests in research and development of sustainable water management solutions.

4. ITC Limited:

A leading Indian conglomerate, has made significant strides in achieving Net Zero Water in several of its manufacturing facilities. 

Through rainwater harvesting, efficient water recycling, and community-based watershed development initiatives, ITC has not only achieved water sustainability but has also positively impacted the communities surrounding its operations.

5.  Bhadrachalam:

The company's paper manufacturing unit in Telangana, serves as a notable example. 

Through extensive water conservation efforts, the unit has achieved Net Zero Water, balancing its water use with replenishment measures.

Conclusion:

Achieving net zero water in industries is a continuous process requiring commitment, collaboration, and innovation. By adopting this approach, industries can contribute significantly to water security, environmental sustainability, and cost reduction, ensuring a more responsible and resilient future.

[retaswatersolutions]

Why is restoring watersheds important for everyone?

When it comes to watershed restoration, you will have different objectives to think about. Restoring watersheds helps in improving water quality. A healthy watershed offers habitat for wildlife and clean drinking water. It also supports resilient coastal fisheries and communities. If any damage is done to our environment, it becomes essential to restore watersheds to promote healthy living.

[suhailmajeed]

A Looming Crisis: The Unfolding Reality of Climate Change

In an era of unprecedented technological advancement and global connectivity, it is paradoxical that humanity finds itself standing on the precipice of a catastrophe of its own making – climate change. As the world grapples with the escalating effects of rising temperatures, melting ice caps, and extreme weather events, the urgency of addressing this issue cannot be overstated. This article delves into the harrowing reality of climate change, emphasizing the need for immediate and concerted action on a global scale.

The Unmistakable Signs

The signs of climate change are glaringly evident, painting a stark portrait of the impending crisis. Glaciers that have stood sentinel for centuries are retreating at an alarming rate, leading to rising sea levels that threaten coastal communities worldwide. Devastating wildfires, fueled by prolonged droughts and soaring temperatures, have become a regular occurrence, laying waste to vast swathes of land and leaving a trail of destruction in their wake.

Changing weather patterns have disrupted agricultural cycles, plunging millions into food insecurity. Unprecedented heatwaves have claimed lives and pushed infrastructure to its limits. The increasing frequency and intensity of hurricanes and typhoons have shattered records, leaving communities shattered and economies reeling.

Humanity's Footprint

The root of this crisis lies in human activity, particularly the emission of greenhouse gases. The burning of fossil fuels for energy, deforestation, and industrial processes have propelled carbon dioxide levels to unprecedented heights. These gases create a heat-trapping blanket around the Earth, exacerbating the natural greenhouse effect and causing temperatures to rise.

The consequences are dire. Coral reefs, vibrant ecosystems teeming with life, are bleaching and dying as ocean temperatures climb. Species that have evolved over millennia are struggling to adapt or face extinction. The delicate balance that sustains life on our planet is under threat, and the clock is ticking.

A Call for Global Unity

The fight against climate change demands a united front. Nations must set aside political differences and collaborate on solutions that transcend borders. The Paris Agreement, a watershed moment in international cooperation, strives to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels. While progress has been made, there is an urgent need to expedite efforts and hold nations accountable for their commitments.

Transitioning to renewable energy sources is paramount. Solar, wind, hydroelectric, and other sustainable alternatives offer a pathway to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and curb the relentless march of climate change. Investment in clean energy technologies and the implementation of eco-friendly policies can pave the way for a greener, more sustainable future.

Individual Responsibility

The responsibility to combat climate change is not limited to governments and industries. Every individual plays a crucial role in shaping the trajectory of our planet. Simple changes in daily habits, such as reducing meat consumption, using public transportation, and minimizing plastic usage, can collectively have a significant impact.

Education also plays a pivotal role. Raising awareness about climate change and its consequences empowers communities to make informed choices and demand action from their leaders. The youth, with their boundless passion and determination, have emerged as a formidable force in the fight against climate change, inspiring movements and driving change at a grassroots level.

The unfolding reality of climate change demands immediate attention and unwavering resolve. As temperatures continue to rise and the consequences become more pronounced, the time for half-measures has passed. The future of our planet hinges on our ability to transcend political, economic, and social barriers, and address this crisis as a united global community.

From the melting ice caps to the scorched landscapes, the signs are ominous. But within the challenge lies an opportunity – an opportunity to reshape our relationship with the planet, to adopt sustainable practices, and to forge a more harmonious existence with nature. The choice is ours to make, and the time to act is now.

[mariacallous]

For the first time in four centuries, it’s good to be a beaver. Long persecuted for their pelts and reviled as pests, the dam-building rodents are today hailed by scientists as ecological saviors. Their ponds and wetlands store water in the face of drought, filter out pollutants, furnish habitat for endangered species, and fight wildfires. In California, Castor canadensis is so prized that the state recently committed millions to its restoration.

While beavers’ benefits are indisputable, however, our knowledge remains riddled with gaps. We don’t know how many are out there, or which direction their populations are trending, or which watersheds most desperately need a beaver infusion. Few states have systematically surveyed them; moreover, many beaver ponds are tucked into remote streams far from human settlements, where they’re near-impossible to count. “There’s so much we don’t understand about beavers, in part because we don’t have a baseline of where they are,” says Emily Fairfax, a beaver researcher at the University of Minnesota.

But that’s starting to change. Over the past several years, a team of beaver scientists and Google engineers have been teaching an algorithm to spot the rodents’ infrastructure on satellite images. Their creation has the potential to transform our understanding of these paddle-tailed engineers—and help climate-stressed states like California aid their comeback. And while the model hasn’t yet gone public, researchers are already salivating over its potential. “All of our efforts in the state should be taking advantage of this powerful mapping tool,” says Kristen Wilson, the lead forest scientist at the conservation organization the Nature Conservancy. “It’s really exciting.”

The beaver-mapping model is the brainchild of Eddie Corwin, a former member of Google’s real-estate sustainability group. Around 2018, Corwin began to contemplate how his company might become a better steward of water, particularly the many coastal creeks that run past its Bay Area offices. In the course of his research, Corwin read Water: A Natural History, by an author aptly named Alice Outwater. One chapter dealt with beavers, whose bountiful wetlands, Outwater wrote, “can hold millions of gallons of water” and “reduce flooding and erosion downstream.” Corwin, captivated, devoured other beaver books and articles, and soon started proselytizing to his friend Dan Ackerstein, a sustainability consultant who works with Google. “We both fell in love with beavers,” Corwin says.

Corwin’s beaver obsession met a receptive corporate culture. Google’s employees are famously encouraged to devote time to passion projects, the policy that produced Gmail; Corwin decided his passion was beavers. But how best to assist the buck-toothed architects? Corwin knew that beaver infrastructure—their sinuous dams, sprawling ponds, and spidery canals—is often so epic it can be seen from space. In 2010, a Canadian researcher discovered the world’s longest beaver dam, a stick-and-mud bulwark that stretches more than a half-mile across an Alberta park, by perusing Google Earth. Corwin and Ackerstein began to wonder whether they could contribute to beaver research by training a machine-learning algorithm to automatically detect beaver dams and ponds on satellite imagery—not one by one, but thousands at a time, across the surface of an entire state.

After discussing the concept with Google’s engineers and programmers, Corwin and Ackerstein decided it was technically feasible. They reached out next to Fairfax, who’d gained renown for a landmark 2020 study showing that beaver ponds provide damp, fire-proof refuges in which other species can shelter during wildfires. In some cases, Fairfax found, beaver wetlands even stopped blazes in their tracks. The critters were such talented firefighters that she’d half-jokingly proposed that the US Forest Service change its mammal mascot—farewell, Smoky Bear, and hello, Smoky Beaver.

Fairfax was enthusiastic about the pond-mapping idea. She and her students already used Google Earth to find beaver dams to study within burned areas. But it was a laborious process, one that demanded endless hours of tracing alpine streams across screens in search of the bulbous signature of a beaver pond. An automated beaver-finding tool, she says, could “increase the number of fires I can analyze by an order of magnitude.”

With Fairfax’s blessing, Corwin, Ackerstein, and a team of programmers set about creating their model. The task, they decided, was best suited to a convolutional neural network, a type of algorithm that essentially tries to figure out whether a given chunk of geospatial data includes a particular object—whether a stretch of mountain stream contains a beaver dam, say. Fairfax and some obliging beaverologists from Utah State University submitted thousands of coordinates for confirmed dams, ponds, and canals, which the Googlers matched up with their own high-resolution images to teach the model to recognize the distinctive appearance of beaverworks. The team also fed the algorithm negative data—images of beaverless streams and wetlands—so that it would know what it wasn’t looking for. They dubbed their model the Earth Engine Automated Geospatial Elements Recognition, or EEAGER—yes, as in “eager beaver.”

Training EEAGER to pick out beaver ponds wasn’t easy. The American West was rife with human-built features that seemed practically designed to fool a beaver-seeking model. Curving roads reminded EEAGER of winding dams; the edges of man-made reservoirs registered as beaver-built ponds. Most confounding, weirdly, were neighborhood cul-de-sacs, whose asphalt circles, surrounded by gray strips of sidewalk, bore an uncanny resemblance to a beaver pond fringed by a dam. “I don’t think anybody anticipated that suburban America was full of what a computer would think were beaver dams,” Ackerstein says.

As the researchers pumped more data into EEAGER, it got better at distinguishing beaver ponds from impostors. In May 2023, the Google team, along with beaver researchers Fairfax, Joe Wheaton, and Wally Macfarlane, published a paper in the Journal of Geophysical Research Biogeosciences demonstrating the model’s efficacy. The group fed EEAGER more than 13,000 landscape images with beaver dams from seven western states, along with some 56,000 dam-less locations. The model categorized the landscape accurately—beaver dammed or not—98.5 percent of the time.

That statistic, granted, oversells EEAGER’s perfection. The Google team opted to make the model fairly liberal, meaning that, when it predicts whether or not a pixel of satellite imagery contains a beaver dam, it’s more likely to err on the side of spitting out a false positive. EEAGER still requires a human to check its answers, in other words—but it can dramatically expedite the work of scientists like Fairfax by pointing them to thousands of probable beaver sites.

“We’re not going to replace the expertise of biologists,” Ackerstein says. “But the model’s success is making human identification much more efficient.”

According to Fairfax, EEAGER’s use cases are many. The model could be used to estimate beaver numbers, monitor population trends, and calculate beaver-provided ecosystem services like water storage and fire prevention. It could help states figure out where to reintroduce beavers, where to target stream and wetland restoration, and where to create conservation areas. It could allow researchers to track beavers’ spread in the Arctic as the rodents move north with climate change; or their movements in South America, where beavers were introduced in the 1940s and have since proliferated. “We literally cannot handle all the requests we’re getting,” says Fairfax, who serves as EEAGER’s scientific adviser.

The algorithm’s most promising application might be in California. The Golden State has a tortured relationship with beavers: For decades, the state generally denied that the species was native, the byproduct of an industrial-scale fur trade that wiped beavers from the West Coast before biologists could properly survey them. Although recent historical research proved that beavers belong virtually everywhere in California, many water managers and farmers still perceive them as nuisances, and frequently have them killed for plugging up road culverts and meddling with irrigation infrastructure.

Yet those deeply entrenched attitudes are changing. After all, no state is in more dire need of beavers’ water-storage services than flammable, drought-stricken, flood-prone California. In recent years, thanks to tireless lobbying by a campaign called Bring Back the Beaver, the California Department of Fish and Wildlife has begun to overhaul its outdated beaver policies. In 2022, the state budgeted more than $1.5 million for beaver restoration, and announced it would hire five scientists to study and support the rodents. It also revised its official approach to beaver conflict to prioritize coexistence over lethal trapping. And, this fall, the wildlife department relocated a family of seven beavers onto the ancestral lands of the Mountain Maidu people—the state’s first beaver release in almost 75 years.

It’s only appropriate, then, that California is where EEAGER is going to get its first major test. The Nature Conservancy and Google plan to run the model across the state sometime in 2024, a comprehensive search for every last beaver dam and pond. That should give the state’s wildlife department a good sense of where its beavers are living, roughly how many it has, and where it could use more. The model will also provide California with solid baseline data against which it can compare future populations, to see whether its new policies are helping beavers recover. “When you have imagery that’s repeated frequently, that gives you the opportunity to understand change through time,” says the Conservancy’s Kristen Wilson.

What’s next for EEAGER after its California trial? The main thing, Ackerstein says, is to train it to identify beaverworks in new places. (Although beaver dams and ponds present as fairly similar in every state, the model also relies on context clues from the surrounding landscape, and a sagebrush plateau in Wyoming looks very different from a deciduous forest in Massachusetts.) The team also has to figure out EEAGER’s long-term fate: Will it remain a tool hosted by Google? Spin off into a stand-alone product? Become a service operated by a university or nonprofit?

“That’s the challenge for the future—how do we make this more universally accessible and usable?” Corwin says. The beaver revolution may not be televised, but it will definitely be documented by satellite.

[danielleverboski76431]

Danielle Verboski Realtor Mystic CT

The estate's closing date is nearly approaching after three weeks of multiple postponements. The icing on the cake is a day of rejuvenation and relaxation at the spa before your procedure. The purchase of this seaside property in Connecticut may have been a watershed moment in this real estate agent's career. You can move forward with assurance now that you have this up-to-date information. Building management is only one of the numerous services we provide danielle verboski real estate agent The majority of first dates that take place in public places, such plazas or malls, wind up being successful. Everything would be perfect if the lights were turned down. Because we are not rushing, we can enjoy the journey to the fullest.

The majority of the population resides in suburban areas or smaller coastal towns.

Inspiring other people to take action on issues they care about can set off a chain reaction that benefits everyone.

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Real estate agents and brokers could provide you with a treasure trove of information. Put this information to use when the time is appropriate. Because of everything we've been through together, I can say with certainty that they are unique. After we've tried everything else, we should allow ourselves to be innovative. This was never communicated to us. Seizing a ship triggers an instantaneous start of a new round.

I grew up in this building, so I recognize it to a certain extent. My eleven years of labor looked to have been for naught. Your present customers are counting on you to be more sympathetic and understanding. The foundation of our firm's success is our steadfast dedication to comprehending and accomplishing the objectives of our clients.

How challenging was it to conquer your fear of public speaking? Anyone in need of a real estate agent has my enthusiastic recommendation of Remax. A great deal of irrationality permeates each of them. Just give me a ring and swing by whenever you're free and in the area. Because of your consistent support throughout the years, we will be eternally thankful. If you have any thoughts or comments about our team, we would much appreciate hearing them.

We recommend Heritage and Remax as two local realty companies. We are able to alert our clients to newly listed properties in Connecticut before anybody else thanks to our vast realty industry network. When you work with the real estate professionals at RE/MAX®, you can have faith in their expertise. Before all property showings and sales are finalized, access will not be provided. Please be informed of this. It is very remarkable how calm they appear to be. At long last, everyone may relax. Whatever happens, it makes no difference. A strategy is not required to purchase and sell real estate. A lot of work and time has been invested by all of us. Be very careful with it. If the property sale had not gone through, what then? It may have altered the result. If we wish to remain competitive, we must constantly generate new ideas. You can access this data whenever you want.

You may get a good indication of your home's value by looking at recent sales of homes like yours that have closed in the neighborhood. According to your estimation, given the present state of the market, how much do you think this house may fetch? If you want an unbiased opinion on a house, asking individuals you know for suggestions is your best bet. They were pleased with the result, as were their bosses. The "SOLD" message will be swiftly removed as we receive the sale confirmation.

The people of Mystic, Connecticut will be forever indebted to you for everything that you have done. You inspire me with your dedication to self-improvement.  Among them is Danielle Verbleski. The housing markets in Stonington and Waterford have experienced phenomenal growth in the past few decades. You can trust agent Danielle Verboski. You may see Danielle's schedule at the link we provided. Even if she's broke, she'll treat you like royalty. The towns of Stonington and Waterford in Connecticut hold Danielle in the highest regard. Do not hesitate to contact Realtor Danielle if you are interested in purchasing or selling a property and would need more comprehensive market information. Her response will be prompt. Any time you're in a jam, you can count on her to help you out. Even while the wealthy knew the "American Dream" was really a pipe dream, they maintained that deserving people could still attain it. You helped ease her mind when she read your analysis on the real estate market. You shouldn't hurry through a real estate deal because of how long and complicated they may be. Weigh all of the possible results before settling on a final decision. We have tried and failed to pursue every possible diplomatic avenue. Can anyone recommend a reliable real estate agent in the Waterford/Stonington, CT region? Its impact on me would be significant. Please, I implore you, be generous; it would mean the world to me. If you need any assistance, please do not hesitate to inform us.  When you need assistance, please don't hesitate to ask; we're here to help. Is Danielle Verboski the person you would rather not hear from? No obstacle is too great for us to overcome. Conversations, no matter how short, can teach us a lot about the people we meet.  

[danielleverboskirealtor]

Danielle Verboski Realtor

The closing date of the property is drawing near, even though there have been numerous delays over the last three weeks. Before your treatment, spend a day relaxing and rejuvenating at the spa for the ultimate indulgence. The purchase of this Connecticut beachfront property by this real estate agent may have been a watershed moment in his life. You can proceed with confidence now that you have these updated details buy your home in eastern ct Among our various services, building management is one of our many offers. Their first encounter in a public setting, such as a plaza or mall, was likely a smashing success. Reducing the lights would make everything ideal. Due to the lack of urgency, we may relish every moment of the voyage.

Most individuals call one of the numerous small coastal or suburban towns their home.

Witnessing the positive influence others are exerting on causes they care about inspires them to do the same.

It was my sacred responsibility to help the oppressed. Being timid causes me to repress my feelings. Helping others less fortunate than you could end up benefiting you in ways you didn't anticipate. The key to your success is lightning-fast thinking and pinpoint accuracy.

You could find a wealth of information from real estate brokers and agents. Apply this information when the moment is right. I can state without a doubt that they are special because of all that we have been through together. After we've exhausted all other options, we must begin to think creatively. Nobody ever told us about this. Once a ship is taken over, a new round must be started without delay.

Because this is the place where I spent my formative years, I know its layout inside and out. It seemed like all eleven years of my hard work had been in vain. People who are already doing business with you are counting on you to show more empathy and compassion. Our firm's success is built on our unwavering commitment to understanding and achieving our clients' goals.

Is getting over your fear of public speaking something you're struggling with? If you are in the market for a real estate agent, I highly recommend Remax. In all of them, irrationality is rampant. If you chance to be in the area, feel free to drop by anytime it's convenient for you. Your unwavering support throughout the years is greatly appreciated, and we will be forever thankful. We value the comments you have made about our team.

Two of the best local realty firms, in our opinion, are Heritage and Remax. Our extensive realty industry network allows us to notify our clients of freshly listed properties in Connecticut ahead of the competition. Contact trustworthy real estate agents through RE/MAX® at any hour of the day or night. We will not unlock the property until all sales and showings have concluded. It is astonishing how calm they appear to be. Finally, everyone can unwind. It doesn't matter what occurs. To buy and sell property, a plan is not necessary. A lot of work has been put in by everyone. Use it with extreme caution. The result might have been different if the real estate deal hadn't fallen through. Coming up with new ideas is crucial if we want to keep ahead of the competition. Whenever you need to, you can access this information.

An excellent way to estimate your home's value is to research recent sales of similar properties in your neighborhood. Where do you think the house's value is at the moment? Getting references from individuals you know is the best way to get an objective assessment of a property. The outcome met with the approval of both their superiors and themselves. Once we get confirmation of the sale, we will swiftly remove the "SOLD" notification.

Thanks to all you've done, everyone in Mystic, CT is overjoyed. Your commitment to bettering yourself is an inspiration to me.  Members of this group include Danielle Verbleski. Over the last several decades, the housing markets in Waterford and Stonington have experienced tremendous growth. Agent Danielle Verboski is reliable. At the link we provided, you may view Danielle's schedule. In times of financial constraint, she will devote her complete focus to you. Danielle is highly esteemed by the Connecticut municipalities of Stonington and Waterford. If you would want more detailed market information and are interested in buying or selling a property, don't hesitate to contact Realtor Danielle. She will respond quickly. She can be convinced simply by pleading for assistance. The rich held fast to the "American Dream" in the hope that any decent person might achieve it, even though this idea was widely discredited. When she read your appraisal of the real estate market, she felt better. Real estate deals are lengthy and tedious, so it's best not to rush through them. Before you make a decision, consider all of the possible outcomes. Despite our best diplomatic efforts, nothing has materialized. Anyone know of a real estate agent in the Waterford or Stonington areas of Connecticut? I would be eternally grateful. We are reaching out to you for help.  Please do not hesitate to let us know if you need any additional help. Danielle Verboski can be contacted if you would want to speak with her. Even the smallest of interactions can teach us something about the people we meet.

[ainews]

Recent years have seen an increase in the popularity of bogs, the small, ancient wetlands of low-nutrient, tea-colored water. This surge in interest in bog ecology can be attributed to the realization of the important role these habitats play in our environment, from harboring unique plant and animal species to the critical role they can play in regulating our climate.

With the newfound appreciation of bogs, municipalities throughout the country are beginning to recognize their importance and are taking steps to protect their establishment and activity. In some cases, the preservation of bogs has become a county milestone, with counties committing to protecting in-land and coastal bogs.

In Essex County, Massachusetts, the county's Culture and Heritage Commission established the Bog Milestone to monitor and preserve the bogs in the county. This milestone serves as an official recognition of the importance of bogs and their presence in the county. It also provides support for local organizations and agencies to carry out ecological management and restoration of critical bog habitats.

Bogs play an important role in providing a wide range of services to people and nature. They are carbon sinks – meaning they absorb carbon dioxide – making them important for mitigating climate change. They provide essential habitat for many unique plants and animals, providing important resting and feeding grounds for birds and other species. Bogs can also provide essential water filtration services, purifying water entering local systems, and can be a source of food and medicinal plants.

Bogs are also essential watershed features for many areas of the country and provide important resources for subsistence and recreation activities. Having a countywide milestone, such as that implemented in Essex County, is a great way to recognize the importance of bogs and commit to protecting them as a vital natural resource.

[hardynwa]

NCF warns against encroachment of Magodo wetland

The Nigerian Conservation Foundation has warned against encroachment of Magodo wetlands, adding that the development would lead to immeasurable loss of biodiversity. This is contained in a statement signed by Oladapo Soneye, Communications Manager at NCF and made available to newsmen on Thursday in Lagos. Soneye described Wetlands as dynamic aquatic ecosystem found all over the world. He said that Lagos State, the land of aquatic splendour, has wetlands all over its five divisions in the State. "Recently, there has been an allegation that some people are making efforts to clear off the Magodo wetlands. "NCF considers this as insensitive and lack of understanding of the important role that wetlands play and we call on the agency of government responsible for protecting the wetlands to swing into action to stop the destruction. "We therefore make an appeal to the Ministry of Environment and Water Resources as an organ of government with professional and experienced individuals in conservation and ecology to advice the concerned on the dangers inherent in destroying or degrading wetlands in our environment," Soneye said. He quotes the Director -General of NCF, Dr Joseph Onoja as saying: “Urgent intervention such as awareness creation, habitat restoration, and livelihood improvement are part of the solutions to stop further degradation of wetlands and help in their restoration.” Soneye said that Wetland iis an area of land that is saturated with water either permanently or seasonally; and can be freshwater, brackish, or saline. "Wetlands can be thought of as biological supermarkets that provide great volume of food which attract many animal species. "These animals use wetlands for part of or all their life cycle. It provides values that no other ecosystem can. "These include natural water quality improvement, flood protection, shoreline, erosion control, opportunities for recreation and aesthetic appreciation and natural products for our use at no cost," Soneye said. He noted that Wetlands contribute immensely to tackling climate change challenges by enhancing the adaptation and resilience capacity of the ecosystems, provide nature-based climate solutions and address socio-economic challenges such as water pollution, erosion, food security and human health, and disaster risk management by restoring water catchments. He listed some of the benefits of Wetlands to include capturing and storing of rainwater; replenishing ground water aquifers; regulating water quantity and supply by releasing water at the right time to the right place in the right amounts. Others included improving water quality by removing and absorbing pollutants. He stressed that Wetlands in Nigeria were highly valuable as they contain a variety of reptiles, mammals, amphibians, and bird’s species. "Wetlands sustain life and keep us healthy. Healthy watersheds provide natural, safe drinking water and support food production. "Wetlands give us much of the fish we eat and are used in cultivating rice for 3.5 billion people globally. "Wetlands are important for biodiversity as 40 per cent of the world’s species live in wetlands, with new fish species discovered in freshwater wetlands annually. In considering the economic importance of wetlands, they play a vital role in addressing socio-economic challenges through multi-sectoral job creation for people in sectors such as forestry, fisheries, agriculture, and tourism. "Unfortunately, these rich ecosystems are being threatened and lost at an alarming rate due to population pressure; poverty; deforestation; intensive cultivation; oil and gas exploration, industrial waste pollution; coastal and marine erosion; overgrazing as well as climate change," Soneye said. He noted that World Wetlands Day is commemorated globally on Feb. 2, annually to harp on the vital role of wetlands for people and our planet, with the need to preserve and conserve. Soneye said that NCF had been playing a leading role in mobilizing support, attracting attention, and influencing decisions in favour of wetlands protection and conservation in Nigeria. He added that the foundation continues to intensify drastic efforts in ensuring that wetlands are not being considered as waste land. Read the full article