Author: erika-howsare

Dear readers, this post is by Rose Brown, who heads up StreamWatch. As such, she’s well acquainted with some of the inhabitants of our landscape that may have escaped your notice. Here, she makes an introduction.

If you’re driving around the Rivanna watershed this spring, you might spot some StreamWatch volunteers monitoring our local streams. When you’re crossing a bridge, peek down at the stream and look for happy people in waders, holding a net or maybe some tweezers. They’re out there catching and counting the insects and other critters that live on the bottom of the streams because the bugs that we find help to tell the story of how healthy our streams are.

A lot of the bugs that we monitor live their larval stage in the stream and then emerge as flying adults—like dragonflies, damselflies, and mayflies. Another example is the caddisfly. Caddisfly larvae have been making their living on the bottom of the streams for almost 200 million years. Some caddisfly larvae walk around scraping food from the rocks, some shred leaves, some set up a net to catch food in the current, and others hunt smaller invertebrates.

Caddisflies do their best to blend into the bottom of the stream, to avoid becoming someone else’s meal. Some caddisflies even build tiny cases that they carry around as protection. Some make cases of rocks, sand, sticks, or pine needles. Some use leaves that they have cut into precise squares or circles with their mouths. Some cases are built like a horizontal tube-shaped log cabin, others are triangular in shape, and some are made with perfect tiny pieces of gravel that are glued so strongly together that you can’t smash them with your fingers or tweezers … not that you should try! It takes casemakers about a month to build their little homes, and they require constant upkeep.

Caddisflies, along with mayflies and stoneflies, are particularly sensitive to pollution in their environment, so they are our primary indicators of water quality. When we’re out sampling a stream, we’re always pleased when we find these delicate, complex, ancient critters.

To learn more about caddisflies and some of the other invertebrates that we monitor, visit our site.
 

Hi folks. Local author and dietician Wendy Vigdor-Hess has been writing in this space about the dilemma of genetically modified organisms (GMOs). This post gets to the nitty-gritty: what you can do to keep GMOs off your plate. Take it away, Wendy…

Having no guarantee that foods are free of GMOs without federally mandated labeling, we can still make educated choices based on what we know now. Here are some other labels I look for when choosing for our family:

• Organic. USDA organic standards prohibit the use of GMOs (though some loopholes may be present. Some researchers have found additives and other ingredients that are synthetic and out of integrity with the standards).
• Made with organic ingredients
• Non-GMO
• No rBGH or rBST
• Artificial hormone-free
• Non-GMO project certified

What else can we do? Here are some steps you can take:

• Focus on eating fresh, organic, no spray fruits and vegetables (Remember, processed foods contain GMOs in higher quantities).
• Sign petitions to label GMOs in our food. Start here.
• Spend your money on less processed foods; perhaps spend a little extra on those items labeled non-GMO project certified. This will limit the amount of processed foods you purchase, which is ultimately a win-win for your budget and your health.
• Choose “wild” fish versus “farm raised” fish.
• Call companies that make your favorite products and ask them if they participate in the non-GMO project. If not, why not? Are they willing to?
• Begin by eating only organic of the most GMO foods such as soy, corn, canola (rapeseed), sugar beets, alfalfa, Hawaiian papaya, some zucchini and yellow crookneck squash. Transition with one of these and then add more.
• Avoid artificial sweeteners. In addition to other non-green attributes, these sweeteners often contain genetically modified E. coli.
• Support your local CSAs that are GMO-free.
• Grow a garden of your own. Connect with friends who do the same and plant different foods and share your crops with each other. If you have less time, offer to plant some herbs while other more avid gardener friends plant the vegetables and help them tend their gardens, or purchase supplies or seeds.
• Choose eggs that are 100 percent organic (rather than saying only “cage free” or “free-range,” etc.) Perhaps your friends may have chickens laying “happy and healthy eggs.”
• Choose animal products (meat, poultry, dairy, etc.) that are fed organic feed.
• Check out the non-GMO Shopping Guide by responsibletechnology.org.

As an integrative dietitian, consumer and parent, I have experienced a range of emotions regarding this topic–from anger and rage to disbelief, sadness, overwhelm and hopelessness. My faith is restored through my passion for healing our amazing earth and finding the truth in our surroundings and ourselves. These practices are happening for us to look at rather than turn away. Amidst our busy lives, addressing these concerns in our own homes can ultimately simplify our lives and leave more time for what is really important to us.

With each of us choosing differently, we CAN make an impact.
 

Random notes from the last two springtime weeks:

1. I learned that I could (were I so motivated) make jelly or custard from the millions of violets blooming in the yard right now.

2. Our goats should be having their babies within the next couple of weeks.

3. A neighbor gave us some raspberry plants, and we bought a black currant from Edible Landscaping. Viva la lawn fruit!

4. Our asparagus patch has us worried. It sent up a couple of little shoots which then disappeared. It’s in an area riddled with mole tunnels. Hm.

5. Every year we learn something about the parade of blooms that defines Virginia spring. This year we figured out what sassafras looks like when it’s blooming. The trees are small and are covered in what seem to be spheres of new yellow-green leaves, but are actually flowers!

6. The goats love eating potato peels and carrots.

7. We were told that the reason the pawpaw trees have red-black blossoms is because they are trying to attract a certain fly by mimicking the appearance of meat.

8. My daughter and I got to touch frog eggs. They looked like a heavy slab of clear jelly, studded with green dots.

8. Once again, I feel too busy to try hunting morels.

Hi, folks. A couple of unrelated ways to help the planet right now (beyond everything I know you’re already doing–turning off the lights, etc.).

Number one, mark your calendar for a public meeting regarding the safety of uranium mining in Virginia. It’s happening Thursday, March 29, at 7pm in the main ballroom of the Boar’s Head Inn. Representatives from the National Academy of Sciences will be there to share results of the NAS report on uranium, which painted a none-too-rosy picture of what mining and milling could do to Virginia’s environment. (A longstanding ban on uranium activity was recently upheld through the end of 2012, but it’s still possible that proposed mining could go forward at some point in the next few years.)

Members of the public–that’s y’all–can ask questions about their findings, and about the recent news that Governor McDonnell created a Uranium Working Group to draft laws and regulations for uranium mining (just in case the longtime mining ban gets lifted, apparently). The group will be working without public scrutiny, and the PEC and other groups are worried about transparency.

Go to the meeting to learn more, and to register concern. Though the NAS isn’t calling the shots on whether mining will go forward, a good turnout can’t hurt the case in Richmond.

Number two, the Eco Fair (which happens this year exactly on Earth Day, April 22) needs volunteers to help plan the event. Contact volunteer@earthweek.org if you wanna lend a hand.

Over and out!

Folks, this post is by Mark Jones of Sharondale Farm, who explains where to look for wild morel mushrooms and what to do once you find some. He tells me that mid-April is the perfect time for them. By the way, I’ve seen morel-hunting lessons advertised. If you don’t have a friend who knows what to look for, maybe you can hire a guide.

The season of the morel mushrooms is here. I have to admit the morels, otherwise known in these parts as merkels or landfish, are not my favorite culinary mushroom, but with butter and garlic they are pretty tasty. Many people ask about finding them and possibly growing them. Morel hunting spots are like fishing holes. Not many folks reveal the exact spot they found the mother lode, and that huge mushroom found a few years ago always seems to grow a bit with each retelling. Growing morels involves a moderate level of skill. There is much information about cultivating them on the Internet.

I usually begin looking when the lilacs are beginning to bloom and the turkey hunt is on. There are a few places to look that seem to have higher rates of success, such as tulip poplar forests in flood plains, old apple orchards, and sites of recent forest fires–although I have found them on the spring run in the mixed hardwoods, and they are known to spring up in weird places.

There are several important things to know when harvesting these fungal delicacies. If you find them in the city, know that they are excellent bioaccumulators of lead and heavy metals. So, consider telling the tale rather than eating them if they are near the road, old painted buildings, or areas where pesticide has been applied in the past. If you are lucky and the mushrooms reveal themselves to you, you will want to keep them fresh (refrigerated in a paper bag works well) and cook them soon. Morels are poisonous until cooked thoroughly and the vapors while cooking are toxic, so beware and take care as you prepare your wild feast.

One other word of caution when eating wild mushrooms: always know what you are eating. Get a good field guide or two and hunt with a friend who knows mushrooms until you are familiar with the important identification features. If you are an accomplished or aspiring mushroom hunter, consider joining the new Mushroom Club that is forming in Charlottesville. The first organizational mushroom foray will be on Earth Day, April 22, at 10am at the Ivy Creek Natural Area.

For some reason, some of the people we know like to ask us how things are going on our "farm." This despite the fact that we make our living with computers, have never earned a dime by growing food, and do not own a tractor or overalls. When we get that question, we usually shuffle our feet and say "Well, it’s really a garden…"

But dang if it isn’t starting to feel kinda farmy around here.

For one thing, we’re getting the Garden of 2012 off to a lovely start, and we’re noticing how much better organized and equipped we are these days than in the past. We’ve got our seed-starting shelves, lights and homemade heat mats. We know how to mix up potting soil, and we have lists and records that tell us what to plant when. (The tomatoes and cabbages are already sprouting!)

Outside, we’re cleaning out garden beds and we’ve put down a couple of truckloads of horse manure. We got the poop from two different sources and, as I shoveled it into our beat-up garden cart, I found myself noting the subtle differences in texture, weight, composition…THAT definitely made me feel farmy.

Most importantly, though:

We are the delighted guardians of mammalian livestock!

As of last Saturday, our two wonderful goats are officially at work eating everything in sight. We are thrilled with their performance thus far, and we’re already quite fond of them. They eat malted barley out of our hands, and clamber around on brush piles in a most fetching manner.

To my mind, somehow, the electrical line running from the chicken area to the goat area (both are enclosed with electric fence) makes our place a farm. Or maybe we should say "homestead." Whatever the term, there’s infrastructure and intention and multiple systems working together. It all feels very exciting.

Plus, the chickens are laying again!

Folks, this post is by Mike McCoy, with Appalachian Voices. He explains the history of the proposed ODEC coal-fired power plant, a major current fight for Virginia environmental groups.

In December 2008, the Old Dominion Electric Cooperative (ODEC) proposed to build the largest coal plant in Virginia, across the river from Williamsburg in Surry County. It was to be 1,500 megawatts, in the small town of Dendron (pop. 272). With Surry County residents leading the way, and advocacy organizations like our Charlottesville-based Appalachian Voices and Southern Environmental Law Center backing them up, we have so far kept this project from moving ahead.

The regional opposition to the plant comes with good reason. In addition to adding to the demand for mountaintop removal coal, it has been predicted (using EPA approved methodologies) that this coal plant would cause serious health problems for those downwind over the course of its 60-year lifespan. Among other problems, analysts estimate that pollution from the plant would cause over 1,300 asthma ER visits and contribute to over 2,400 heart attacks and 200,000 lost workdays.

Locals were successful at delaying the initial local zoning approval for a year, but four out of seven members of the Dendron town council voted in early 2010 to approve the zoning. However, they rushed the process and failed to provide proper public notice, and a lawsuit from a local lawyer and blueberry farmer followed.

Over the last two years, during which ODEC tried to keep this suit from going to court, the opposition movement has grown significantly, with people from Richmond to Virginia Beach joining Surry County residents in the fight. The Town of Surry, Isle of Wight County and Southampton County have all come out opposed to the coal plant. Virginia Beach, Williamsburg and representative Bobby Scott have all officially expressed grave concern. Also opposed are the Norfolk-based Consortium for Infant and Child Health, The Virginia Asthma Coalition and the American Lung Association, as well as nearly every conservation organization in the region.

Recently, the judge ruled in favor of the blueberry farmer, and the Town of Dendron had to repeat the public hearing and vote for local zoning. Now, over three years after it proposed the plant, ODEC is just getting around to receiving local zoning approval – and the opposition just keeps growing. Of the more than 160 coal-fired power plant proposals that have been beaten across the country in the last few years, the vast majority had no opposition in the arena of local zoning. Most of those fights didn’t even begin until after local zoning was approved.

At previous public meetings, the members of the Dendron Town Council have failed to ask a single substantive question or to show anything but blind support for what could be the largest coal-fired power plant in the state. Also, at all five of the previous public hearings the predominantly local speakers have been overwhelmingly opposed to the plant. The meeting on March 5 was no different. Yet after the hearing the Dendron Town Council immediately began reading the motions from pre-printed scripts to approve the massive coal plant, which they did unanimously and without discussion.

So, after a three-year delay, ODEC has achieved their very first, very minor step toward permitting the plant. The broader opposition, already strong across Hampton Roads, just keeps gaining strength, and Appalachian Voices and our partners will ensure that this project never breaks ground. 

Folks, this post is by Rob Tilghman, a volunteer for StreamWatch. He explains why it matters where a stream has been.

Here’s a funny thing about rivers: Because the water is always flowing, the river you see one minute is gone the next. It’s just like that old saying: you will never, ever step into the same river twice. So when I visit Ivy Creek twice a year, I have to remind myself that it’s not the same stream from a few months ago. In fact, it’s not even the same stream from five minutes ago.

I am a volunteer for StreamWatch, a nonprofit organization that monitors the health of local streams and rivers. We do this by collecting samples of the small invertebrate animals that live under the rocks at the bottom of the stream, such as mayfly and stonefly larvae, beetles, clams, and snails. Like canaries in a coal mine, the relative numbers of these little creatures act like a warning system that tells us how impaired the stream is.

This is important because we use this same water for drinking, irrigation, and recreation, and streams are constantly moving through areas that make them prone to pollution with things like sediment (from bank erosion), chemicals, fertilizer, or anything else that might find its way into the water.

One of the things I’ve learned since joining StreamWatch is that every river or stream has its own history, which may or may not include sources of pollution. For example, Ivy Creek starts in Ivy (naturally), about 10 or 11 miles west of Charlottesville. From there, it slowly gathers water from tributaries and meanders northeastward, flowing under Highways 64 and 250, cutting across farms, wandering through residential areas, glancing off a golf course, and passing beneath Garth Road (where we collect our sample) before emptying into the South Fork Rivanna Reservoir—a primary source of water for the Charlottesville area. Like Ivy Creek, each stream we monitor has a unique history, and our sample tells us how clean that stream’s past was.

So as we visit our local rivers and streams, I think it’s important to think about the water that continually runs through them: where it is coming from, what it has seen, and where it is going. And we can be thankful for the little guys—the tiny creatures that call the water their home—for letting us know if the stream needs our help to keep it clean.
 

Dear readers, here’s the inspiring Rose Brown on what it’s like to shop for food when you intend to create no garbage.

When I started living without garbage in 2009, a trip to the grocery store could be a serious commitment. It would take me hours to shop each week. I wandered the aisles trying to determine which products might have hidden packaging. I searched numerous stores to find zero garbage alternatives for the products that I used to buy. I saw everything with the fresh eyes of a consumer who does not want to consume most of what is offered. I wrestled with almost every eating and shopping habit that I had grown up with.

I’m happy to say that since then, with practice and time, shopping has become much easier–even pleasant!

Like most shoppers, I make lists of the products that I need from each store. But my lists are probably more vague than yours. I just write “fruit” or “veggies” because I can’t buy the produce that comes in non-recyclable packaging like plastic wrap or plastic twist-tie labels. I don’t shop according to recipes. Instead, I buy the produce that is available to me each week and cook according to what I have in the fridge.

A typical shopping trip takes me to Integral Yoga or Rebecca’s Natural Foods… and occasionally Whole Foods. I get other miscellaneous items from Reid Market. When I get to the parking lot, I grab my reusable cloth bags and other containers from the trunk of the car. Once inside the store, I stop at customer service to get a tare weight on the containers that I brought from home. I grind some peanut butter into a container, and when I check out, they will reduce the tare weight.

I head to the bulk section to fill my reusable cloth bags: lentils, almonds, chocolate chips, salt, tea, and dog food. In the produce section, I use similar cloth bags to grab loose carrots, kale, and green beans. I don’t even bother using bags for the apples, potatoes, garlic, onion, and ginger.

I make a quick stop in the canned veggie aisle for some tomatoes and garbanzos. Otherwise, the middle of the store is generally off-limits because of the vast amounts of non-recyclable packaging.

I head next to the dairy section, where I can find butter and eggs. If I want to buy cheese, I go to the deli counter and ask them to put the sliced cheese into the bag that I brought from home. Or into foil or waxed paper, if they have it. Most of the time, they are happy to comply.

At the check-out counter, I always receive a pleasant comment about my cloth bags. When I get home, I empty all of my bulk goodies into jars and my produce goes into produce bags in the fridge. Since I compost all of my food scraps, I can be happy about another shopping outing that will result in no garbage output.