CLEAR January 2014

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Riverkeepers & Clearwater Leaders Remember Pete Seeger (1919 - 2014)
by Duane 29 Jan '14

29 Jan '14

http://rye.dailyvoice.com/news/riverkeepers-clearwater-leaders-remember-fri… Riverkeepers & Clearwater Leaders Remember Pete Seeger (1919 - 2014) From Danny LoPriore, Rye Daily Voice, January 28, 2014 Beacon, N.Y. -- A true friend of the Hudson River and its valley where he lived for 70 years, legendary folk singer/songwriter and political and social activist Pete Seeger is being remembered for his many contributions to his nation after passing away at age 94. Seeger and his wife Toshi, who died in July 2013, founded Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, Inc., and the Great Hudson River Revival, the annual music and environmental festival that takes place at Croton Point Park in Croton. The Seegers lived in Beacon, New York, on the Hudson River for 40 years. The Hudson River Sloop Clearwater, the Beacon-based environmental group that shares its name with its sailing vessel, took a leading role in passage of the Clean Water Act, the fight to make General Electric Co. remove PCBs from the river mud and a number of other key chapters in the Hudson’s history. Clearwater Communications Director Julia Church said "Pete planted the seed that started Hudson River SloopClearwater with the belief that a majestic replica of the sloops that sailed the Hudson in the 18th and 19th centuries would bring people to the river where they could experience its beauty and be moved to preserve it." "The sloop Clearwater has become recognized for its role in the environmental movement," Church wrote. "And thanks to Pete Seeger, the over 12,000 school kids who sail each year will never see the river in the same way that they did before their voyage. Perhaps more importantly, they will be moved to protect the river every time they look at it." Leaders of the river’s other influential organizations — the state’s Hudson River Estuary Program, Ossining-based Riverkeeper, Scenic Hudson — got their start on board the Clearwater. Riverkeeper President Paul Gallay said the conservation organization is pledged to "carry on his work and make the most of the gifts he left us." "Pete Seeger was unique in that he was a musical genius, and courageous in his beliefs and a generous man with a heart as big as anyone's," Gallay said. "Pete will go on inspiring those who endeavor to heal us humans and our one lonely planet, long after we say our final goodbyes to the man himself." The Riverkeeper group conducts water quality studies aboard the "Riverkeeper" patrol boat. The primary goal of this ongoing project is to characterize and report on the highly variable conditions of the Hudson River Estuary through testing for sewage indicating microorganisms, oxygen and turbidity levels, and other indicators of water quality. - - - > See more at: http://www.riverkeeper.org/water-quality/hudson/#sthash.UTOYZJqo.dpuf "River Of My People" By Pete Seeger There's a river of my people And its flow is swift and strong, Flowing to some mighty ocean, Though its course is deep and long. Flowing to some mighty ocean, Though its course is deep and long. Many rocks and reefs and mountains Seek to bar it from its way. But relentlessly this river Seeks its brothers in the sea. But relentlessly this river Seeks its brothers in the sea. You will find us in the mainstream, Steering surely through the foam, Far beyond the raging waters We can see our certain home. Far beyond the raging waters We can see our certain home. For we have mapped this river And we know its mighty force And the courage that this gives us Will hold us to our course. And the courage that this gives us Will hold us to our course. Oh, river of my people, Together we must go, Hasten onward to that meeting Where my brothers wait I know. Hasten onward to that meeting Where my sisters wait I know.

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Geese can be trouble; how to deal with them? By Dave Milne
by Duane 27 Jan '14

27 Jan '14

Publication: Page Number:8-C The Dominion Post; Date:Jan 26, 2014; Section:Mountain State Outdoors; Geese can be trouble; how to deal with them? WHEN YOU MENTION Canada geese to someone, you’ll usually get one of two reactions: People either love them or hate them. We haven’t always had the huge numbers of geese we do now. In the early 1940s, the Canada goose was nearing extinction due to overhunting. Sound familiar? Remember the buffalo? Hunting is the best wildlife management tool we have, but if it gets out of hand, the wildlife numbers will suffer. It wasn’t until the early ’50s that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) began to trap and distribute the geese to states that wanted them. This began as an accident. President Dwight D. Eisenhower was playing golf and stepped in goose dung while wearing his white golf shoes. He asked one of his aids what could be done about this. After a few meetings, the trapping and moving began. The rest is history. There are basically three problems with the Canada goose: The defecation, their feeding habits, and their attitude. The good things are that they are pretty, and it’s nice to see them flying over in a V and honking. I watch them from my office window flying over the Monongahela River. Anyone who plays golf or swims in a lake that has geese living there knows the amount of defecation there is. It’s horrible. Contrary to what some people think, goose dung does not spread any disease that the experts have been able to find. A former director of the Wildlife Research Center Water Fowl Disease USFWS said, “On occasion, we have been wading in that stuff and dead birds up to our elbows and there is not a single documented case of us coming down with any kind of disease problem. We do not have a human health situation in the urban geese, the wild geese, nor the captive geese that we have worked with.” On the other hand, there are those who say that when captive geese are force-fed and slaughtered for their livers, the pate de foie gras made from the liver can cause Creutzfeldt-Jakob Syndrome, or mad cow disease, in humans. Goose poop in lakes is a large contributing factor to algal blooms and excessive plant growth. One goose will add a half pound of phosphorous to a lake every year. Geese will clip off new grass right down to the root. They love a newly planted field of oats, wheat or rye. When they move in by the hundreds, the crop will suffer. Geese may look pretty, but they can be mean. They’ll hiss and charge you if you invade their territory. Three ways you can get rid of geese are using a repellant, scaring them, or capturing and euthanizing them. I only know of one repellant you can use: Methyl anthranilate. It’s found in Concord grapes and is used to flavor grape chewing gum, but geese hate the taste and won’t eat anything treated with it. It’s available in spray form. Chasing or scaring them can be entertaining both for you and a dog. Border collies or any other herding dog will do. Geese don’t like to be herded and will leave. If you would not mind another type of bird around, get a pair or two of swans. A few geese will stay, but most will leave. Plastic swans will also work. Killing the geese is often very controversial with the public. Capture and euthanasia will get rid of the geese for a while, but more will take their place. This method can be expensive. It’s usually done in the early summer, when the birds molt or lose their flight feathers. They are rounded up and then asphyxiated. Where laws and public sentiment will permit, the geese can be hunted. Keep in mind that geese are federally protected. Only resident geese can be killed when the migratory birds are not present. DAVE MILNE serves on the state Natural Resources Commission.

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FERC approved sale of Cheat Lake Hydrodam in November 2013. (aka Lake Lynn Hydrodam)
by Duane 20 Jan '14

20 Jan '14

FirstEnergy Subsidiaries Apply for Authorization to Sell Eleven Hydroelectric Power Stations to Harbor Hydro Holdings, LLC AKRON, Ohio, Sept. 4, 2013 -- FirstEnergy Corp. (NYSE: FE) subsidiaries have applied for authorization from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) to sell 11 hydroelectric power stations in Pennsylvania, Virginia and West Virginia to Harbor Hydro Holdings, LLC, a subsidiary of LS Power Equity Partners II, LP. A sales agreement was reached on August 23, and if approved, the proposed transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter of 2013. The agreement is subject to customary and other closing conditions, including FERC, the Commonwealth of Virginia's State Corporation Commission and various other approvals. The hydroelectric power stations included in this proposed sale are owned by FirstEnergy Generation, LLC, Allegheny Energy Supply Company, LLC and Green Valley Hydro, LLC and have a total capacity of 527 megawatts, which represents less than 3 percent of FirstEnergy's generation fleet output. The sale includes: Seneca Pumped Storage (451 MW) in Warren, Pa.; Allegheny Lock & Dam 5 (6 MW) in Schenley, Pa.; Allegheny Lock & Dam 6 (7 MW) in Ford City, Pa.; Lake Lynn (52 MW) in Lake Lynn, Pa.; Millville (3 MW) in Millville, W. Va.; Dam 4 (2 MW) in Shepherdstown, W. Va.; Dam 5 (1.2 MW) in Falling Waters, W.Va.; Warren (750 kW) in Front Royal, Va.; Luray (1.6 MW) in Luray, Va.; and Shenandoah and Newport (860 kW and 1.4 MW, respectively) in Shenandoah, Va. Resolution of a potential competing license application and other claims related to the Seneca facility also is a condition to closing the proposed transaction. The 35 current employees at these power stations are expected to be retained by the new owner. FirstEnergy subsidiary Allegheny Generating Company will continue to own 1,200 MW of the 3,000 MW Bath County Pumped-Storage Hydro facility in Warm Springs, Va. In addition, FirstEnergy subsidiary Jersey Central Power & Light (JCP&L) will continue to own 200 MW of the 400 MW Yards Creek Pumped-Storage Hydro facility in Blairstown, N.J. FirstEnergy operates one of the nation's largest, cleanest and most diverse generating fleets, with 60 percent coal, 20 percent nuclear, 11 percent hydro and other renewables, and 9 percent gas/oil. FirstEnergy is a diversified energy company dedicated to safety, reliability and operational excellence. Its 10 electric distribution companies form one of the nation's largest investor-owned electric systems, serving customers in Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, West Virginia, Maryland and New York. Its generation subsidiaries currently control more than 20,000 megawatts of capacity from a diversified mix of scrubbed coal, non-emitting nuclear, natural gas, hydro, pumped-storage hydro and other renewables. LS Power, an employee-owned, independent power company with offices in New York, New Jersey, Missouri and California, is a developer, owner, operator and investor in power generation and electric transmission infrastructure throughout the United States. Duane Nichols, Cell- 304-216-5535. www.FrackCheckWV.net

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Preserving an Appalachian Treasure: American Ginseng | EcoWatch
by Duane 18 Jan '14

18 Jan '14

http://ecowatch.com/2014/01/16/appalachian-treasure-american-ginseng/ Preserving an Appalachian Treasure: American Ginseng Dr. Randi Pokladnik | January 16, 2014 [Note: This article has been going viral on EcoWatch for days and has been very popular over the last many months. The article is from the 2009 August issue of EcoWatch Journal.] American Ginseng, Panax Quinquefolius, is a long-lived understory herb found in the mesophytic forests of Appalachia. Ginseng was once native to China but over-harvesting of its species, Panax Ginseng, extirpated the populations. The Chinese have used the roots of the plants in medicinal preparations for thousands of years. Soon after the species was discovered in North America in the 1700s, the Chinese relied heavily on exports of American Ginseng. In the late 1700s, residents established a significant trade chain with the Orient and exported tremendous amounts of ginseng roots. More than 750,000 pounds of wild ginseng roots were exported in 1822 and ginseng sold for 42 cents a pound. It still remains an important component of the informal economy in Appalachia and prices of ginseng today range from $200 to a high of $1,500 a dried pound for the wild roots. American Ginseng is still in need of protection in order to prevent over-harvesting and continue the economic value it has for the Appalachian region. In the early 1900s, the ginseng community recognized the need to protect wild populations and enlisted two practices: laws and cultivation. Ginseng can be cultivated under shade cloth or wooded canopies. Northeastern Ohio had several ginseng farms in the early 1900s. The plant was so popular that a national and several state ginseng organizations were created to assist growers. Ohio passed House Bill 9 in 1915 that levied a penalty for the destruction or theft of ginseng. Today, wild ginseng is listed under Appendix II of the Convention of International Trade of Endangered Species and ginseng trade is monitored by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. Legislation and cultivation have not been totally effective in protecting wild populations. Poaching has become very problematic for both ginseng growers and public land managers trying to secure wild ginseng. Harvesters are urged to abide by sustainable harvesting practices such as taking only mature plants (5 years or older), replanting the ripe berries in the forest, and abiding by harvest seasons. In an effort to protect cultivated ginseng, growers in Ohio have recently begun to seek state certification for Ohio growers. Currently two states have certification—Wisconsin and West Virginia. Certification means that cultivated plants could be distinguished from wild plants and would become exempt from regulations. It may also provide legal means for growers to access crop insurance for roots that are destroyed or stolen. Ultimately, the long-term survival of this economically important and culturally significant Appalachian species and the future of ginseng trade is dependent on teaching harvesters sustainable practices and encouraging continued cultivation of the roots. Certification of growers is an important step. For more information about sustainable harvesting techniques or certification efforts, contact Roots of Appalachia Growers Association.

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CLEAR January 2014