Plants should provide habitat, runoff absorption in future

January 11, 2015 | 8:02 pm

CEDAR RAPIDS An innovative program to plant native grasses in electric transmission line corridors in the Cedar Rapids area will help restore a dwindling Iowa resource native prairies.

Its a win for us, a win for wildlife and the environment and a win for the public, which owns the land, said Tom Petersen, communications director for ITC Midwest, the company whose electric transmission lines cross the properties.

Contractors for ITC Midwest earlier this month planted native prairie plants on 6 acres at Beverly Park, city property in southwest Cedar Rapids; on 30 acres of city property east of Cole Street SE near the Sac and Fox Trail; and on 6 acres near Squaw Creek Park, east of Highway 13, on land owned by the Linn County Conservation Department.

The plantings generally extend for several hundred yards along the 100-foot-wide easements allowing ITC transmission lines to cross the public properties.

We recognize that we have impacts on the environment and remain open to projects that help us improve that relationship, Petersen said.

The plantings, featuring native grasses, wildflowers and broad-leaved native plants, should take root next year and become more prominent with each succeeding year, he said.

The native vegetation will provide wildlife habitat, especially for ground-nesting birds, and make the land more absorbent to slow runoff from heavy rains, he said.

While he was watching the seeding contractors work on Dec. 6, Petersen said neighbors approached to thank the company for its consideration of the environment. It was cool to see the neighborhood appreciate the effort, he said.

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Company plants prairie grass to protect transmission lines

Question: I have noticed that some trees retain their brown leaves all winter. Why dont they fall off?

Answer: A majority of our deciduous trees shed their leaves in the fall. In late fall, the combination of cell changes and growth regulators form an abscission layer at the base of the leaf stalk or petiole to encourage leaf fall. However, as you have noted, some hardwoods retain their leaves throughout most of the winter season. To some, it is beautiful, while others hate the thought of raking leaves again in the spring. Our native American beech tree is the most common tree in our forest that retains its leaves throughout the winter. A forest full of American beech in winter is a beautiful sight to behold. Many young oak trees retain their leaves too. American beech and oak are related. They are in the Fagaceae family. It is only natural for family members to act the same way. The botanical term for winter leaf retention is called marcescence. The growth of new buds in the spring will push the old leaves off. I have noted that the leaves of American beech begin falling off the last week of February.

Question: All the leaves on my very expensive maple tree are brown and wilted. It has never done this before. Are they dead?

Answer: Japanese maples are slow to shed their leaves in the fall. It is not uncommon for the leaves to be green or red when we have our first hard frost. The damaged leaves will wilt and eventually turn brown. They will slowly fall off with winter rains and wind. I have one Bloodgood Japanese maple that finally shed its leaves during the week of Christmas. My green leaf Waterfall has yet to give up its dried leaves. I would call them tardily deciduous. You can use a leaf blower to hasten their departure.

Question: We planted beets this fall in our new garden. Why did so many of the leaves turn purple?

Answer: Purple leaves on beets and other vegetable plants usually indicate a low phosphorous level in the soil. Phosphorous is a major element in plant nutrition and is very low in our native soils. It plays a significant role in root development. Because phosphorous is very slow to move through the soil, it is important to till your fertilizer into the soil prior to planting. This spring use a fertilizer high in phosphorous such as 10-20-20 or 4-24-24. Apply 1 pound of this fertilizer per 100 square feet of garden and mix it thoroughly into the soil prior to planting. Return to your normal fertilizer schedule during the growing season. The purpling will soon disappear.

Question: I saw a landscape company sowing fescue last week. Isnt this a waste of money?

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Some trees retain their leaves all winter

IF you asked a cropper what their biggest issue was five to 10 years ago, they most likely would have pointed the finger at ryegrass.

However, the hot topic now at the forefront of many graingrowers' minds is how to tackle brome grass.

With brome grass a problem in many cropping areas, Mallee Sustainable Farming and the Vic Department of Environment and Primary Industries have teamed up to try and help farmers overcome the weed.

Vic DEPI's senior technical officer Mick Brady and technical officer Chris Davies are working in conjunction with MSF agronomist Michael Moodie to look at how the weed can best be managed.

"Work started this year as part of the GRDC-funded project Profitable Stubble Retention Systems in the Mallee," Mr Moodie said.

"We've been able to link in to another project that has been funded by the Mallee Catchment Management Authority that is aimed at demonstrating integrated weed management systems and how they can help tackle brome grass."

Mr Moodie said that as well as tackling a current problem, the projects were also aimed at avoiding future issues.

"At the moment, brome grass can only really be completely controlled with Clearfield varieties, which involves the use of a group B chemical," he said.

"Clearfield can be applied over wheat, canola, barley and lentils and it does offer good control.

"But, the problem with that is if chemicals are overused, it will lead to resistance issues pretty quickly."

Read more from the original source:
Getting the jump on brome grass

Two farmland owners in the Fraser Valley have conducted wide-ranging remediation work and a third is under a provincial order to do so following a lengthy Vancouver Sun investigation into the environmental impact of farming on fish streams.

The Suns Minding The Farm series, published in June, probed several cases in which farmers had altered important fish habitat, and it also exposed the B.C. governments lax laws on farm manure runoff into fish streams compared with neighbouring Washington state.

More than six months later, The Sun has confirmed the following developments in the story:

A nursery in Aldergrove has completed extensive remediation work at Bertrand Creek, a critical fish stream in the Fraser Valley.

Landowners in Abbotsford have also taken steps to undo damage to the headwaters of the Salmon River.

An Agassiz farm family is under a provincial Water Act order to restore aquatic habitat converted to blueberry crops.

Washington is planning ever-tougher restrictions on manure applications, while B.C. continues to talk to farmers about the issue.

In Aldergrove, JRT Nurseries has completed numerous measures on Bertrand Creek, including riprap rock along a stretch of exposed shoreline, grass seeding and tree planting, page-wire fencing, silt fencing, and an irrigation system. The Sun investigation exposed alteration of fish habitat on the creek, including removal of riparian areas and the dumping of concrete blocks and plastic planting pots into the creek.

Biologist and Fraser Valley fish expert Mike Pearson assisted in the investigation of Bertrand Creek, which is home to the Oregon spotted frog, Salish sucker and Nooksack dace all listed as endangered under the federal Species At Risk Act as well as coho salmon, steelhead and cutthroat trout.

During a recent revisit to the site, Pearson acknowledged JRTs measures to stabilize the banks and limit further erosion into the creek. It wouldnt have happened if The Sun hadnt shown interest in it, he said, emphasizing that many more such cases go unreported and without investigation.

See the article here:
Probe prompts some farmland owners to improve fish habitat (with video)

(Via @recordsANDradio)

Best and worst moments fromWashingtons 44-17 season-ending loss to the Cowboys at FedEx Field.

Worst embarrassment: The Cowboys were trying to run the clock out as the season expired. Instead they wound up with a 65-yard touchdown run from a backup running back as the visiting fans stood and cheered. Thats a rotten way to go.

Worst rut: The Redskins went 7-25 over the past two seasons. That equals their worst back-to-back stretch since the NFL schedule expanded to 16 games, a feat achieved just once, from 1993-1994.

Worst turnovers: Washington turned it over four times, and got one turnover back. For the season, Washington turned it over 31 times, and got 19 turnovers bad. Thats terrible.

Worst debut: Jay Gruden finished his first season 4-12. Thats worse than Mike Shanahan (6-10), worse than Jim Zorn (8-8), worse than Joe Gibbs II (6-10), worse than Steve Spurrier (7-9), and worse than Marty Schottenheimer (8-8). That makes this the worst coaching debut in the Dan Snyder era.

Worst quote: The first half was as bad as weve seen around here for a long time, Jay Gruden said, when asked about his defense.

Worst cheers: Probably those Lets Go Cowboys chants that were audible on Foxs broadcast several times on Sunday.

Worst stat: This one, from Boz:

Worst defense: The Cowboys had well over 200 yards of offense. In the first quarter. With virtually nothing to play for. Against a defensive coordinator that supposedly had their number. After the second quarter, they kind of stopped scoring, and the game was whatever, but when the Cowboys really wanted to score, the Redskins appeared helpless at best.

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DC Sports Bog: Redskins-Cowboys best and worst

23.12.2014 - (idw) Potsdam-Institut fr Klimafolgenforschung

Around the globe, forests are found to be undergoing strong changes due to human influence already today. Degradation of woods due to man-made climate change cannot be ruled out for the future, a Special Feature in the Journal of Ecology, led by a team of scientists of the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK), now shows. To understand and improve the resilience of forests, a combination of approaches from small-scale field experiments to large-scale computer simulations can help, according to the studies. Taking a risk perspective, the scientists caution that global warming puts additional pressure on some of the most valuable ecosystems on Earth. "Forests are probably more at risk than previously thought, says Christopher Reyer of PIK, coordinator of the Special Feature and lead-author of an overview article. The observed changes affect forests as important as the Amazon, but also forests on all continents, possibly pushing some of them towards tipping points.

Up to now, no example could be found where forests tipped into a state where no regrowth is possible due to man-made climate change. Yet the overview article identifies substantial research gaps. This is hardly good news, Reyer says. It is in fact scary how little we still know about the resilience of forests, despite all the scientific progress we present in this special issue. From a risk perspective, climate change puts additional pressure on an exceptionally valuable ecosystem whose stability up to now cannot be properly assessed.

**Forests preserve biodiversity, provide timber, store CO2**

Besides being home to a large part of the worlds plants and animals, hence preserving biodiversity, forests are also of great economic relevance. They provide timber in many countries, as well as game and fruit. Some tropical forests, such as the Amazon, are also key for regional water cycles, says Milena Holmgren of the University of Wageningen in the Netherlands. "How dense these forests are, affects the amount of rainfall that is recycled and also the amount of water that is retained. When forests become less dense, a smaller amount of water is recycled as rain and also less water is retained in the soil. Less dense forests facilitate also the growth of grass which burns easily in dry seasons. Fire can change the rules of the game drastically because grass burns easily and recovers fast whereas trees are very sensitive and need more time. So once a forest has been opened and starts burning, the end result can be a system that resembles a savanna with much grass and fewer trees. This changes the habitat for plants, animals and people.

The fate of forests is important also because they store huge amounts of the greenhouse gas CO2, adds Holmgren. Loosing forests and releasing carbon to the atmosphere contributes to climate warming and to the impacts we start to see in many regions of the world.

**"Alleviating the negative effects of climate change on reforestation efforts" **

To assess the resilience of forests, long time scales are important. Over 2000 years, tropical peat swamp forests from Malaysian Borneo showed to be resilient even under disturbances such as fire or climate variability related to the El Nio weather phenomenon. Recent burning and agricultural expansion however clearly changed the landscape by replacing tropical peat swamp forests with open or even no forest. Still, things are not straightforward. Drought, on the other hand, is found to have variable effects on different tree species in different regions, and seasons, one of the new studies shows. In the end, it is a complex combination of stress factors that is likely to impact forests resilience.

Article: Reyer, C., Brouwers, N., Rammig, A., Brook, B., Epila, J., Grant, R.F., Holmgren, M., Langerwisch, F., Leuzinger, S., Lucht, W., Medlyn, B., Pfeiffer, M., Steinkamp, J., Vanderwel, M., Verbeeck, H., Villela, D. (2014): Forest resilience and tipping points at different spatio-temporal scales: approaches and challenges. Journal of Ecology (online) [DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.12337]

Article: Reyer, C., Rammig, A., Brouwers, N., Langerwisch, F. (2014): Forest resilience, tipping points and global change processes. Journal of Ecology (online) [DOI:10.1111/1365-2745.12342]

Read more here:
Forests around the world affected by climate change

Playing pain-free tennis for the first time since Wimbledon, Nick Kyrgios is refusing to place a limit on how far he can go at next month's Australian Open.

The teenage ace says he's ready to carry the hopes of a nation as he looks to kick on from his spectacular 2014 season with a hot run at the Open.

Feeling physically stronger and mentally tougher after mixing daily four-hour on-court sessions with cross training and basketball, Kyrgios believes there's no reason why he can't go deep into the year's first grand slam.

"I'm not going to put a round on it or say where I think I can get to, but I definitely think I can make an impact at the Australian Open," Kyrgios told AAP after joining forces with Malaysian Airlines on Monday.

"If I'm playing my game and I'm serving well, and playing aggressive, there's a good chance that I can do really well."

Struggling with a left-arm injury, as well as a sore right elbow, Kyrgios called a premature end to his first full season in the professional ranks in October before teaming with Lleyton Hewitt in the inaugural non-sanctioned Indian league.

As well as "learning a lot" from the likes of Hewitt and grand slam veteran Tomas Berdych during the ITPL, the Wimbledon quarter-finalist said he played without pain for the first time in months.

"I'm hitting normal again, back to 100 per cent with both of my arms," he said.

"I was always battling some sort of injury throughout the year. I always had a bit of a niggle.

"But I think that's normal transitioning into the senior game.

Go here to see the original:
Nick Kyrgios declares Open season

Published: Sunday, December 21, 2014, 10:04 p.m.

Things were going that well for the Seahawks, who dominated the Arizona Cardinals in a 35-6 victory that not only put Seattle in first place, but put them in control of their destiny for the No. 1 seed in the NFC unless Green Bay and Detroit tie next week.

The Seahawks gained a team-record 596 yards, held the Cardinals to just 216 and a pair of field goal, and well, were in a position to empty the bench late in a very important game against a team that came into the game unbeaten at home and with an 11-3 record overall.

Well that was about as much fun as you can have playing football in the regular season, Seahawks coach Pete Carroll said in his postgame press conference. Thats as much fun as you can have in football.

Here are five takeaways from one of Seattles most impressive wins of the season:

1. Russell Wilson was spectacular

Considering the limitations of Arizonas offense and the dangers the Cardinals defense presents, the Seahawks probably could have won this game with a conservative effort from their quarterback as long as Wilson didnt turn the ball over. Instead Wilson made big play after big playwithout giving the ball away, mind youpassing for 339 yards and two touchdowns while running for 88 more, including a career-long 55-yarder, and an ankle-breaking touchdown run. Wilson said earlier in the week that he likes it when teams pressure him because it leaves a lot of green grass behind the defense, and on Sunday the Seahawks found it.

Russell was just ridiculous tonight, Carroll said. He was so good tonight.

2. Marshawn Lynch continues to amaze

Youd think by now, after nearly five seasons in Seattle, Marshawn Lynch would have a hard time surprising anybody, and then he does something like what he did in the fourth quarter, ripping off a career-long 79-yard touchdown run that rivaled his famous Beastquake run from the 2010 postseasons right down to the PG-13 finish to the run. At an age when many running backs start to slow down, Lynch, who finished with 113 yards on 10 carries after missing the first quarter with an upset stomach, legitimately looks better at 28 than he ever has since joining the Seahawks in 2010.

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Five takeaways from Seahawks 35, Cardinals 6

Plymouth Township, Luzerne County -- The area known as Curry Hill-Avondale in Plymouth Township is a reflection of what was once the rich mining history of the 20th century. The coal company that strip mined it eventually pulled out and left behind essentially a dangerous, unusable site. "It's such a huge chunk of land and it's sad for it to just to sit there," said Kristin Cole of Plymouth Township.

That's about to change thanks to a nearly $2.7 million project funded by the Abandoned Mine Reclamation Trust Fund. "This grant money is going to go a long way toward fixing up that area," said DEP spokesperson Colleen Connolly.

A cavernous space at the abandoned mine site is the result of strip mining done decades ago. The newly approved project will involve backfilling and grading more than 6,000 feet of dangerous high wall at heights of between 25 and 100 feet. In its present state, those high walls present a serious safety hazard to unsuspecting walkers, bicyclists and ATV riders. The site also took on another danger which Michael Oktisuk witnessed while living on Avondale Hill Road for 40 years. "At least for 35 of it, there was an an awful lot of dumping going on up there." He is glad the old Avondale mine will have new purpose. "I know it will sure help the hunting because like I say a lot of the neighbors hunt up there so... and it's good for the wildlife," said Mr. Oktisuk.

Ms. Cole, who lives next door to Mr. Oktisuk, is eager to see the third and final mine reclamation phase eventually finished. "I do welcome it. We walk our dogs up there now. We have been since we moved in here. It's beautiful up there." The DEP plan should give the community a place of recreation for years to come. "It's a beautiful, spectacular view and a place to go to hike or bike," said Ms. Connoly.

The final phase of the Avondale Mine reclamation project is set to begin in February. The project allows for construction of drainage ditches and ten acres of wetlands besides some grass seeding and tree planting. It hopefully will be finished later in 2015.

The rest is here:
DEP Approves Final Phase of Avondale Mine Reclamation Project

Lawrence city government news Have a story idea? Contact Journal-World reporter Chad Lawhorn:

Lawrence officials have shed more light on how they have evaluated whether taxpayers got a good deal on about $11 million worth of infrastructure work at Rock Chalk Park that did not go through the citys normal bid process.

The new report paints a mixed picture, with some costs coming in below similar work elsewhere in the city that was bid, and other costs at Rock Chalk Park significantly higher. But Chuck Soules, the citys director of public works, said the numbers give him confidence the city was charged a fair price for the work.

The costs for infrastructure at Rock Chalk Park are generally found to be in line with other projects bid by the city, Soules wrote in the report, which looked at items like the cost of concrete, waterlines, sewer lines, light poles and other such items.

The report comes as city commissioners have opened the door to hiring an outside auditor to examine the costs of the infrastructure work, which was built by a firm led by Lawrence businessman Thomas Fritzel, who is the key private partner in the public-private partnership that built Rock Chalk Park.

The new report provides a glimpse at the difficulty an auditor might have in comparing costs for the project and others that were bid. The report calculated that the cost to build roads at Rock Chalk Park was about $151 per lane mile. It then compared that to the costs to build roads at VenturePark, the new industrial park on the east edge of Lawrence. That construction, which was similar in nature and was bid through the citys normal process, cost $160 per lane mile.

But upon closer review, Soules said the VenturePark figures include work to install storm sewers and also includes the contractors costs to mobilize equipment on the job site. The Rock Chalk Park project does not have those costs included. It wasnt clear what the comparable VenturePark number would be if the storm sewer and mobilization costs were removed from the total.

Soules department was responsible for reviewing many of the costs at Rock Chalk. He said his department sought to ensure that the city was getting a fair price based on what his engineers know about bid prices that are coming in for projects throughout the city. But he said the process is an inexact science because no two projects are exactly alike.

It is not meant to be apples to apples, Soules said. It is meant to give you a ballpark feel.

Heres a look at several of the figures included in the report:

Go here to read the rest:
New report attempts to compare costs of Rock Chalk Park with other city projects