LANSING, MI-- The latest attempt to keep the peace between farmers and their neighbors is the recommendation that beehives be blocked from nearby properties by a solid 6-foot-high fence or hedge to redirect the flight path of the bees.

The Michigan Small Farm Council is crying foul at the suggested change to the 2015 state's Generally Accepted Agricultural Practices,the official guidelines to which commercial farmers must adhere to be assured protection from nuisance lawsuits under Michigan's Right to Farm law.

In an action alert to other council members, member Wendy Banka wrote: " This could be a very long fence indeed for someone with five acres and hives less than 200 feet from the property line. For someone in a residential area, it could mean complete enclosure of the yard with a solid 6-foot high fence."

The new rules state that hives that are less than 200 feet from a property line require the erection of a solid fence, wall, or dense vegetative barrier from the ground to at least 6 feet in height, that must extend from the line of sight of the hive to the neighboring property.

The GAAMPsare opened for tweaking every year, with public hearings to discuss changes recommended by the committees of experts who are assigned the task of making sure practices are kept up to date. Last year, changes stripped Right to Farm protection from farmers keeping animals in many suburban and urban areas, changes approved over vigorous protest from many of the affected farmers.

This year's public input meeting and review period has been scheduled for 9 a.m. Dec. 12 in order to gather comments on the 2015 drafts of the state's GAAMPs. The Council is urging its members to ask the Commissioners of Agriculture to reject the proposed changes to the Beekeeper portion of the Animal Care GAAMPs.

"We have searched requirements in other states and even in other countries and have found none that require this kind of barrier, even in urban areas," the Action Alert says. "Furthermore, the proposed changes are not accompanied by any evidence that the erection of such barriers are necessary or helpful to the farmer, the neighbor, or the bees."

Public comment will be taken on all of GAAMPs for which changes have been proposed: Manure Management and Utilization, the Care of Farm Animals, and Site Selection and Odor Control for New and Expanding Livestock Facilities.

The GAAMPs regarding Pesticide Utilization and Pest Control, Farm Markets, Nutrient Utilization, Cranberry Production, and Irrigation Water Use have no proposed changes for 2015.

The GAAMPs public input meeting will be held in the Lake Superior Conference Room at the State of Michigan Library and Historical Center, 702 West Kalamazoo Street, Lansing. Written comments may be submitted to MDARD's Environmental Stewardship Division, P.O. Box 30017, Lansing, MI 48909 and postmarked no later than Dec. 12, 2014, or sent via e-mail to WilcoxR2@michigan.gov by 5 p.m. on Dec. 12.

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Privacy fences around Michigan bee hives proposed by Department of Agriculture

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Frozen Fences Podcast: Episode 1
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Franklin Lakes The Borough Council last week turned down a proposal to allow eight-foot-high deer fences after debating over several months whether to introduce an ordinance adding them to its building code. Currently six-foot fences are allowed, but effective deer fences are two feet higher.

"I've decided it doesn't make sense," Mayor Frank Bivona said at the councils meeting Nov. 6. "First I was for it and now I'm against it."

Bivona said he had spoken with residents and the code official and determined the issue is better left alone.

"The fences work better where there are large lots," Bivona said. "I reviewed Alpine's ordinance and they have more property up there."

"I think you're right," Councilwoman Ann Swist said. "We don't have that kind of space here."

While the mayor and council agreed there is a deer problem in the borough, they worried about the appearance of such fences.

"These fences won't fix our deer problem," Bivona said.

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Council rejects proposal to permit 8-foot deer fencing

PHOENIX Sandy Alderson expects Citi Field to have "pretty close" to similar dimensions to Shea Stadium next season. The Mets have already begun work on moving in the walls in right-center and right field.

At Shea, right-center field ranged between 358 feet at its shallowest and 396 feet at its deepest. Right center-field was 390 feet from home plate at Citi Field this season.

"I don't think what we're doing should be that controversial," he said.

Alderson says that with the new fences the Mets would have hit 17 more home runs last year and given up 10 more, so a net gain of seven for the season. Alderson has said that Curtis Granderson would have netted seven more home runs in 2014 with the changes.

"Last year was an off year for David (Wright) so it's hard to make a measurement there," he explained. "Curtis will definitely be benefiting. Lucas (Duda) would be benefiting from it. And our goal on the pitching side is just to make sure that we got pitchers that strike people out and have a decent ground ball ratio and aren't at risk.:

The move was made, in part, Alderson said, because of aesthetics. He cited an appeal to see more scoring and runs.

"I actually have a preference for a little more offense in games," he said. "We do want to entertain people. At some point, 2-1 loses its cache, panache."

He added: "I think we're in the entertainment business. ...Those are great and I love those games but I like 10-8 too."

Alderson wanted Citi Field to become more of a "neutral" ballpark.

Mike Vorkunov may be reached at mvorkunov@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @Mike_Vorkunov. Find NJ.com Mets on Facebook.

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Citi Field to have Shea Stadium dimensions after fences moved in

To ease public access to gardens and maidans in Mumbai, the civic body has begun to remove the fences around them. This will also help monitor the maintenance of open spaces, the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation says.

The civic body on Tuesday removed the fencing around the one-acre garden beside Oval Maidan near Churchgate; and around a garden in Vikhroli East. "We have also started work on the garden north of Oval Maidan, facing the high court building, and should complete the work in the next two days," said a gardens department official, adding, "We will then move on to the other reserved grounds and play grounds in the city."

Additional municipal commissioner SVR Srinivas, who is in charge of open spaces and gardens, said, "It is important that all open spaces remain open to people. The fences around open spaces were not only making them inaccessible to people, but also blocking the view."

He added that with fences removed, the BMC can monitor the maintenance of the open spaces more more effectively. "We can check if the contractors responsible are cleaning up the garden regularly," he added.

The civic body owns 1052 vacant open spaces in the city, and has already awarded to private contractors the maintenance contracts for around 700 of these.

The removal of fences around open spaces comes at a time when the BMC's comprehensive policy on open spaces is pending with the group leaders of the BMC for almost eight months. It is yet to be sent to the state government.

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Walk right in: BMC removing fences around gardens to ease public access

SIERRA VISTA, Ariz. The U.S. government now patrols nearly half the Mexican border by drones alone in a largely unheralded shift to control desolate stretches where there are no agents, camera towers, ground sensors or fences, and it plans to expand the strategy to the Canadian border.

It represents a significant departure from a decades-old approach that emphasizes boots on the ground and fences. Since 2000, the number of Border Patrol agents on the 1,954-mile border more than doubled to surpass 18,000 and fencing multiplied nine times to 700 miles.

Under the new approach, Predator Bs sweep remote mountains, canyons and rivers with a high-resolution video camera and return within three days for another video in the same spot, according to two officials with direct knowledge of the effort on condition of anonymity because details have not been made public.

The two videos are then overlaid for analysts who use sophisticated software to identify tiny changes perhaps the tracks of a farmer or cows, perhaps those of immigrants who entered the country illegally or a drug-laden Hummer, they said.

About 92 percent of drone missions have shown no change in terrain, but the others raised enough questions to dispatch agents to determine if someone got away, sometimes by helicopter because the area is so remote. The agents look for any sign of human activity footprints, broken twigs, trash.

About 4 percent of missions have been false alarms, like tracks of livestock or farmers, and about 2 percent are inconclusive. The remaining 2 percent offer evidence of illegal crossings from Mexico, which typically results in ground sensors being planted for closer monitoring.

The government has operated about 10,000 drone flights under the strategy, known internally as "change detection," since it began in March 2013. The flights currently cover about 900 miles, much of it in Texas, and are expected to expand to the Canadian border by the end of 2015.

The purpose is to assign agents where illegal activity is highest, said R. Gil Kerlikowske, commissioner of Customs and Border Protection, the Border Patrol's parent agency, which operates nine unmanned aircraft across the country.

"You have finite resources," he said in an interview. "If you can look at some very rugged terrain (and) you can see there's not traffic, whether it's tire tracks or clothing being abandoned or anything else, you want to deploy your resources to where you have a greater risk, a greater threat."

If the video shows the terrain unchanged, Border Patrol Chief Michael Fisher calls it "proving the negative" showing there isn't anything illegal happening there and therefore no need for agents and fences.

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Drones patrol half of Mexico border

Swinging for the Fences --- Learn How to Position Your Portfolio for a Market Rally
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Hundreds of police are warned to expect an "unpredictable" G20 as Premier Campbell Newman says "I am apprehensive".

Security barricades have gone up around four key locations in inner-city Brisbane overnight ahead of the G20 summit.

They are the foundations of what will be the G20 city's fortress.

Roads are being progressively closed, with lanes blocked at the Fortitude Valley end of Adelaide Street, at Macrossan Street and at Grey Street at South Brisbane.

Brisbane visitors Karen and George Goodman outside the Marriott Hotel. Photo: Tony Moore

Further road closures come into effect in the cityand for South Brisbanefrom Wednesday, Thursday and then for the weekend.

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The heaviest security appears to be around the Marriott Hotel at the top end of Adelaide Street near Petrie Bight, where traffic comes in from the Ivory Street road tunnel.

At the Marriott Hotel, on the corner of Adelaide and Queen streets, there is a two-metre high reinforced steel barricade outside the hotel's front door.

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Fortress mode as G20 fences up

HI GEORGE, whose one and only outing over fences saw him gain a notable success at Catterick last season, makes his eagerly awaited reappearance at Sedgefield today.

Trained at Norton by Malcolm Jefferson, the gelding gained a narrow success at Catterick over Holywell, who went on to become one of the best novice chasers of the season and is now among the favourites for the Cheltenham Gold Cup.

While beating Holywell, who took a while to get the hang of jumping fences, may well have flattered Hi George, there is no doubt that he's an exciting horse.

He should be a tough but to crack in the featured Hellens Group Handicap Chase. Brian Hughes has the mount.

Distime, trained by John Quinn - Jefferson's neighbour - should be hard to beat in the Nortonthorpe Industrial Estate Huddersfield Novices' Limited Handicap Chase.

Restricted to only two outings last season, the eight-year-old returned from a lengthy absence to finish second at Aintree a couple of weeks ago to Baileys Concerto, who has been in unstoppable form lately and who has won again since at Musselburgh.

Distime should have benefited from his comeback outing and is napped to go one better this afternoon, despite having top weight to carry.

The opening Newcastle Flooring Novices' Hurdle is the target of Irish raider Balbriggan.

Trained by Gordon Elliott, whose horses are always to be feared in Britain, Balbriggan successfully mixes chasing and hurdling. The seven-year-old is already twice a winner this season. He can make it three.

Recent winners Accordingtoscript (2.50) and Agent Fedora (3.50) are also worth considering.

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Exciting Ryedale hopeful Hi George to hit ground running