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Road will be shut down as city works to address landslide issue – WLKY Louisville - December 4, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

Nearly six months after earth and debris began sliding onto St. Anthony Church Road in south Louisville, Louisville Metro is spending nearly $100,000 to figure out how to fix it. The landslide started in late April and continued into early June, eventually forcing the city to make the road one lane between St. Anthony Woods Court and Joe Don Court. "It's a major inconvenience, but second, it's a public safety issue, just being at one lane," said Metro Councilman David Yates who represents that area. Yates said the road, often referred to as "Hot Rod Haven," is used heavily by people who live and work in the area. "Now people are trying to find other alternative routes now with all the issues," he said. When the slide first began, Metro Public Works was regularly clearing off debris, according to assistant director Jeffrey Brown."There was mud and dirt and debris in the road," Brown said. The department soon realized the earth was not holding up and started looking for a permanent solution. The city hired a geotechnical company to assess the earth, but their work was delayed for nearly three months because the property owner would not allow workers on his land."It's frustrating when I know we have a public safety issue, and we're being slow-walked on the way to address it," Yates said. The company was eventually allowed access and is now drilling 20 holes into the ground to test soil conditions."As soon as they finish their surveys, we'll analyze the data and start designing a solution," Brown said. According to Brown, Metro Public Works is spending close to $92,984 to figure out a solution. That figure does not include the cost of making whatever repairs or modifications the city decides to do. Yates said he knows the issue has been costly and that any work to correct is will come with a hefty price tag, but he believes it's worth it. "The last thing I want to do is Public Works to go in and spend enormous amounts of money, and it not address the underlying issue," Yates said. St. Anthony Church Road will be closed on Dec. 5 and 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Nearly six months after earth and debris began sliding onto St. Anthony Church Road in south Louisville, Louisville Metro is spending nearly $100,000 to figure out how to fix it.

The landslide started in late April and continued into early June, eventually forcing the city to make the road one lane between St. Anthony Woods Court and Joe Don Court.

"It's a major inconvenience, but second, it's a public safety issue, just being at one lane," said Metro Councilman David Yates who represents that area.

Yates said the road, often referred to as "Hot Rod Haven," is used heavily by people who live and work in the area.

"Now people are trying to find other alternative routes now with all the issues," he said.

When the slide first began, Metro Public Works was regularly clearing off debris, according to assistant director Jeffrey Brown.

"There was mud and dirt and debris in the road," Brown said.

The department soon realized the earth was not holding up and started looking for a permanent solution. The city hired a geotechnical company to assess the earth, but their work was delayed for nearly three months because the property owner would not allow workers on his land.

"It's frustrating when I know we have a public safety issue, and we're being slow-walked on the way to address it," Yates said.

The company was eventually allowed access and is now drilling 20 holes into the ground to test soil conditions.

"As soon as they finish their surveys, we'll analyze the data and start designing a solution," Brown said.

According to Brown, Metro Public Works is spending close to $92,984 to figure out a solution. That figure does not include the cost of making whatever repairs or modifications the city decides to do.

Yates said he knows the issue has been costly and that any work to correct is will come with a hefty price tag, but he believes it's worth it.

"The last thing I want to do is Public Works to go in and spend enormous amounts of money, and it not address the underlying issue," Yates said.

St. Anthony Church Road will be closed on Dec. 5 and 6 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

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Grattan on Friday: Own goals and defeat of union legislation give Scott Morrison a horror week – The Conversation AU - December 4, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

The strange affair of Angus Taylor and the allegedly doctored document of dubious provenance he used to try to discredit Sydneys lord mayor Clover Moore and her council over climate change is replete with lessons for political players.

One: avoid gratuitous point scoring, but if you must do it, make sure your facts are correct.

Two: when you are caught out in a mistake, make a clean breast of things, and as quickly as possible dont dally with your apology.

Three: if you are the prime minister, and your embattled minister is facing a police investigation, do nothing that might suggest, even if wrongly, that you are intervening in the course of justice.

Four: when, as PM, you are defending your man or woman in parliament, make sure the material you use has been triple checked.

Failure to observe these obvious and sensible practices has created a distracting issue for the government and then damagingly escalated it. In the process, Taylor has been discredited, and Scott Morrison has been embroiled and embarrassed or embarrassed himself. Every twist and turn has been entirely self-created by the government. The whole thing was avoidable.

Taylors self-image and the political reality of his career have sharply diverged since he was elected to parliament in 2013, with the hope, indeed the expectation in his own mind, of eventually becoming prime minister.

Read more: Scott Morrison under fire for calling NSW police commissioner over Angus Taylor investigation

It did not seem at the time an unreasonable aspiration. A Rhodes scholar, a McKinsey man who became a director at Port Jackson Partners, Taylor presented well and looked the part.

He identified with the conservative wing of the Liberals (later supporting Peter Duttons leadership bid and criticising Malcolm Turnbull), although certain people who knew him well and worked with him in his previous career are surprised at some of the positions he takes today including on issues related to climate change.

Belying his early promise, Taylor has been embroiled in controversies (including over his interest in a family company investigated about land clearing), and since becoming energy minister under Morrison he has performed poorly in whats admittedly a very challenging portfolio.

In general, Taylor has fallen victim to a combination of hubris and stubbornness.

His response to the City of Sydneys declaration of a climate emergency was to point to what he claimed were the councillors huge travel costs - and thus large carbon footprint - with the imputation of hypocrisy. His letter to Moore was given to the Daily Telegraph just to hype his attack.

But the figures he used were wrong so wrong it is amazing Taylor, with a background dealing with numbers, did not immediately spot a problem.

When the error was inevitably revealed, Taylor insisted the document providing the basis for his claim was drawn directly from the City of Sydney website. He said his office on September 9 accessed a report on that site. Taylor sticks by this story publicly, and reportedly says the same thing privately to Morrison.

But the council report on the site contained the correct figures, and the evidence so far notably the City of Sydney metadata - indicates that report was not altered.

Read more: Scott Morrison stands by energy minister Angus Taylor, who faces police probe

So where did Taylors allegedly doctored and certainly inaccurate document come from?

The most likely explanation appears to be the Taylor office somehow accessed a draft, and then a staffer misread that draft, inflating the very modest travel costs into the millions of dollars that Taylor claimed.

But why, if something like that is what happened, Taylor did not fess up with the full story immediately is inexplicable.

This weeks announcement of a NSW Police investigation took the affair to a new level, raising the question of whether Taylor should be stood aside while that proceeds. This can be argued both ways: in my view theres a reasonable case for not standing him aside. There are precedents, and anyway the probe will be finished quickly.

What was not reasonable was for Morrison to ring NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller to ask about the investigation. Not least because he and Fuller are well acquainted personally they previously lived near each other.

(As a side point, Fuller was caught out in relation to this neighbourliness. A while ago he told 2GB Morrison used to take in his, Fullers, rubbish bin. This week, playing down his closeness to Morrison, Fuller said that never happened.)

Apart from the proprieties, a leader with any appreciation of process should know that by directly contacting the commissioner he was opening himself to attack.

To do so was a misjudgement. Then Morrison added carelessness when, raising Labor examples of people not standing aside while under police investigation, he attributed the words of radio presenter Ben Fordham to a Victorian detective.

This was another instance of somebody being sloppy. While many journalists will identify with mixing up a quote there but for the grace of god, etc if youre a prime minister doing it in the middle of a stoush, the political fallout is nasty.

Read more: 'Louts, thugs, bullies': the myth that's driving Morrison's anti-union push

With one week of the parliamentary year remaining, Labor has decided to deny Taylor a pair next Wednesday and Thursday for him to go to the International Energy Agency conference in Paris. It could be another rough few days for the minister, unless he gets a very quick all-clear from the NSW police.

By late Thursday the government was hoping its very difficult week would finish with an important win the passage of its Ensuring Integrity legislation to crack down on recalcitrant unions and union officials. But there things went horribly wrong.

Pauline Hanson, despite securing concessions, voted with Labor and the legislation was lost on a tie.

The government was visibly shocked, with attorney-general Christian Porter saying it would seek to reintroduce the legislation at an appropriate time - whenever that might be.

Hanson said she was firing a warning shot across the bows of both union bosses and the government the former should get their act together and the latter should clean up white collar crime.

What I pick up from the public is a crystal-clear view that this government, and past governments, have one rule for white-collar crime and a much harsher rule for blue-collar crime, she had said earlier. The shocking revelations about Westpac came at a very bad time for a government pressing its case for action on unions.

As it looks to the final sitting week, the government is desperately trying to wrangle Jacqui Lambie, whos playing hardball, into voting for the repeal of medevac.

Another rebuff on what it regards as critical legislation would be deeply humiliating.

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Grattan on Friday: Own goals and defeat of union legislation give Scott Morrison a horror week - The Conversation AU

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MLB rumors: Anthony Rendon could be first big domino to fall; Zack Wheeler has offer exceeding $100 million – CBS Sports - December 4, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

With the Thanksgiving holiday in the rear-view mirror, teams and players are now free to get back to business ahead of next week's winter meetings. As such, don't be surprised if a few deals get done ahead of time so teams know where they stand entering the process.

Let's run down the latest from Tuesday's MLB rumor mill.

The Yankees have been expected to pursue Gerrit Cole all year long, but it looks like they intend to hedge their bets in case Cole ends up elsewhere. As such, the Yankees intend to meet with Cole and with Stephen Strasburg over the coming days, per Ken Rosenthal of The Athletic. Strasburg is a relative new addition to the free-agent market, having opted out of his deal shortly after the postseason ended.

The Yankees have an obvious desire to add an impact-level starter to their rotation, and both Cole and Strasburg would fit the bill. It is worth noting that the Yankees are not viewed as the favorite for either pitcher at this point, as reported by the New York Post. Those around the game believe the Angels will land Cole, while the Nationals are still expected to retain Strasburg.

Still, these things are fluid until a deal gets done, and the Yankees are at least doing their due diligence.

Third baseman Anthony Rendon could be the first major free agent to sign this winter, according to what ESPN's Buster Olney has heard from executives. Rendon is said to have already met with the Dodgers and Rangers, among others.

The Rangers were expected to show interest in Rendon, given their need for a third baseman and the opening of a new ballpark next spring. the Dodgers, however, are a slight surprise given Justin Turner is already in tow.

Obviously a meeting doesn't mean a deal is going to happen -- it does signify some interest, however.

Entering the offseason, we ranked Zack Wheeler as the seventh-best free agent available this winter, writing "This may seem like an overrank given Wheeler has a career 100 ERA+ and has never thrown 200 innings in a season. But teams believe there's more chicken left on the bone, and it shouldn't surprise anyone if his contract reflects as much."

That seems close to coming to fruition now, as he has an offer worth nine figures, according to Ken Rosenthal. Predictably, there's a fair chance Wheeler signs within the coming week, per Jon Heyman. The White Sox and Rangers are just two of the teams linked to Wheeler -- with Wheeler being identified as the White Sox's top target -- so far this winter. It appears we'll find out soon enough who wins the bidding.

The Giants have interest in free agent outfielder NicholasCastellanos, reports MLB.com's Jon Morosi. San Francisco recently named Scott Harris their general manager. Harris was an assistant general manager with the Cubs this past season, when they acquired Castellanos at the trade deadline.

Even with Mike Yastrzemski entrenched in the outfield, the Giants still have two open outfield spots after non-tendering Kevin Pillar earlier this week. Castellanos can not play center field, so he wouldn't replace Pillar, but he could fill the other corner spot. The Giants are short and outfielders and power in general. Castellanos would adress both needs.

The White Sox hope to add two veteran starting pitchers this offseason, reports ESPN's Buster Olney. Chicago kicked off what is expected to by a busy offseason by signing Yasmani Grandal to a four-year contract last month. They also signed Jose Abreu to a three-year extension after he accepted the qualifying offer.

At the moment only Lucas Giolito and Reynaldo Lopez are locks for Chicago's rotation. Top prospect Michael Kopech is due back from Tommy John surgery early next year, but the team won't push him aggressively. Dylan Cease and Carson Fulmer are depth options. Even if they don't land a big fish like Gerrit Cole or Stephen Strasburg, the free-agent class offers plenty of quality second tier starters.

The Dodgers aren't just interested in Rendon, but also Stephen Strasburg and new free agent Kevin Gausman, per Bob Nightengale of USA Today.

Strasburg is, of course, one of the top free-agent starters available. Gausman, meanwhile, has been a decent starter in the past. He spent the last part of this season in the Reds bullpen, where he reintroduced his slider. He could slot in as a back-end starter again.

Either way, it's clear the Dodgers want to upgrade their roster as they seek their first world title under Andrew Friedman's watch.

On Monday, the Phillies non-tendered infielders Maikel Franco and Cesar Hernandez. Consider it a clearing of the brush more so than an indication that the Phillies are content with their infield situation.

To wit, the Phillies have maintained contact with third baseman Josh Donaldson and shortstop Didi Gregorius, according to MLB Network's Jon Morosi.

Donaldson figures to be the higher-priced of the two, but Gregorius is perhaps more intriguing -- at least in the sense that the Phillies already have a shortstop, in Jean Segura. Segura had a down season last year, but won't turn 30 until March and has a track record of being an above-average talent. As such, a Gregorius signing would likely result in either a trade or a positional shuffling.

The Athletics have signed left-handed reliever Jake Diekman to a two-year deal with a club option, per the team. Diekman, 33 in January, appeared in 28 games for the A's last season. In those appearances, he fanned a batter per inning, but also walked more than seven batters per nine. That combination of bat- and zone-missing ability has been evident in his game throughout his career.

Still, the A's like Diekman enough to guarantee him more than $7 million over the course of his deal. That's a fairly trifling amount so far as big-league contracts go, but it's notable given the A's tendency to spend as little as possible.

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MLB rumors: Anthony Rendon could be first big domino to fall; Zack Wheeler has offer exceeding $100 million - CBS Sports

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Angus Taylor and defeat of union legislation give Scott Morrison a horror week – ABC News - December 4, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

Updated November 29, 2019 18:22:40

The strange affair of Angus Taylor and the allegedly doctored document of dubious provenance he used to try to discredit Sydney's Lord Mayor Clover Moore and her council over climate change is replete with lessons for political players.

One: Avoid gratuitous point scoring, but if you must do it, make sure your facts are correct.

Two: When you are caught out in a mistake, make a clean breast of things, and as quickly as possible. Don't dally with your apology.

Three: If you are the Prime Minister, and your embattled minister is facing a police investigation, do nothing that might suggest, even if wrongly, that you are intervening in the course of justice.

Four: When, as PM, you are defending your man or woman in Parliament, make sure the material you use has been triple checked.

Failure to observe these obvious and sensible practices has created a distracting issue for the Government and then damagingly escalated it.

In the process, Taylor has been discredited, and Scott Morrison has been embroiled and embarrassed, or embarrassed himself.

Every twist and turn has been entirely self-created by the Government. The whole thing was avoidable.

Taylor's self-image and the political reality of his career have sharply diverged since he was elected to Parliament in 2013, with the hope, indeed the expectation in his own mind, of eventually becoming prime minister.

It did not seem at the time an unreasonable aspiration.

A Rhodes scholar, a McKinsey man who became a director at Port Jackson Partners, Taylor presented well and looked the part.

He identified with the conservative wing of the Liberals (later supporting Peter Dutton's leadership bid and criticising Malcolm Turnbull), although certain people who knew him well and worked with him in his previous career are surprised at some of the positions he takes today, including on issues related to climate change.

Belying his early promise, Taylor has been embroiled in controversies (including over his interest in a family company investigated about land clearing), and since becoming Energy Minister under Morrison he has performed poorly in what is admittedly a very challenging portfolio.

In general, Taylor has fallen victim to a combination of hubris and stubbornness.

His response to the City of Sydney's declaration of a climate emergency was to point to what he claimed were the councillors' huge travel costs, and thus large carbon footprint, with the imputation of hypocrisy.

His letter to Moore was given to the Daily Telegraph just to hype his attack.

But the figures he used were wrong, so wrong it is amazing Taylor, with a background dealing with numbers, did not immediately spot a problem.

When the error was inevitably revealed, Taylor insisted the document providing the basis for his claim "was drawn directly from the City of Sydney website".

He said his office on September 9 accessed a report on that site. Taylor sticks by this story publicly, and reportedly says the same thing privately to Morrison.

But the council report on the site contained the correct figures, and the evidence so far, notably the City of Sydney metadata, indicates that report was not altered.

So where did Taylor's allegedly doctored and certainly inaccurate document come from?

But why, if something like that is what happened, Taylor did not 'fess up with the full story immediately is inexplicable.

This week's announcement of a NSW Police investigation took the affair to a new level, raising the question of whether Taylor should stand aside while that proceeds.

This can be argued both ways: in my view there's a reasonable case for not standing him aside. There are precedents, and anyway the probe will be finished quickly.

What was not reasonable was for Morrison to ring NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller to ask about the investigation.

Not least because he and Fuller are well acquainted personally they previously lived near each other.

(As a side point, Fuller was caught out in relation to this neighbourliness. A while ago he told 2GB Morrison used to take in his rubbish bin for him. This week, playing down his closeness to Morrison, Fuller said that never happened.)

Apart from the proprieties, a leader with any appreciation of process should know, by directly contacting the commissioner, he was opening himself to attack.

This was another instance of somebody being sloppy.

While many journalists will identify with mixing up a quote, there but for the grace of god etc, if you're a prime minister doing it in the middle of a stoush, the political fallout is nasty.

With one week of the parliamentary year remaining, Labor has decided to deny Taylor a pair next Wednesday and Thursday for him to go to the International Energy Agency conference in Paris.

It could be another rough few days for the minister, unless he gets a very quick all-clear from NSW Police.

By late Thursday, the Government was hoping its very difficult week would finish with an important win, the passage of its Ensuring Integrity legislation to crack down on recalcitrant unions and union officials. But there things went horribly wrong.

Pauline Hanson, despite securing concessions, voted with Labor and the legislation was lost on a tie.

The Government was visibly shocked, with Attorney-General Christian Porter saying it would seek to reintroduce the legislation "at an appropriate time", whenever that might be.

Hanson said she was firing a warning shot across the bows of both union bosses and the Government, saying the former should get their act together and the latter should clean up white-collar crime.

"What I pick up from the public is a crystal-clear view that this Government, and past governments, have one rule for white-collar crime and a much harsher rule for blue-collar crime," she had said earlier.

The shocking revelations about Westpac came at a very bad time for a Government pressing its case for action on unions.

As it looks to the final sitting week, the Government is desperately trying to wrangle Jacqui Lambie, who's playing hardball, into voting for the repeal of medevac.

Another rebuff on what it regards as critical legislation would be deeply humiliating.

Michelle Grattan is a professorial fellow at the University of Canberra and chief political correspondent at The Conversation, where this article first appeared.

Topics:government-and-politics,politics-and-government,federal-government,federal-parliament,unions,australia

First posted November 29, 2019 09:42:40

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Angus Taylor and defeat of union legislation give Scott Morrison a horror week - ABC News

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Difficult but rewarding work: Planting trees to aid climate – New Canaan Advertiser - December 4, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

Difficult but rewarding work: Planting trees to aid climate

MADRE DE DIOS, Peru (AP) Destruction of the forests can be swift. Regrowth is much, much slower.

But around the world, people are putting shovels to ground to help it happen.

In a corner of the Peruvian Amazon, where illegal gold mining has scarred forests and poisoned ground, scientists work to change wasteland back to wilderness. More than 3,000 miles to the north, on former coal mining land across Appalachia, workers rip out old trees that never put down deep roots and make the soil more suitable to regrow native tree species.

In Brazil, a nursery owner grows different kinds of seedlings to help reconnect forests along the country's Atlantic coast, benefiting endangered species like the golden lion tamarin.

They labor amid spectacular recent losses the Amazon jungle and the Congo basin ablaze, smoke from Indonesian rainforests wafting over Malaysia and Singapore, fires set mostly to make way for cattle pastures and farm fields. Between 2014 and 2018, a new report says, an area the size of the United Kingdom was stripped of forest each year.

Rebuilding woodland is slow and often difficult work. And it requires patience: It can take several decades or longer for forests to regrow as viable habitats, and to absorb the same amount of carbon lost when trees are cut and burned. "Planting a tree is only one step in the process," says Christopher Barton, a professor of forest hydrology at the Appalachian Center of the University of Kentucky.

And yet, there is urgency to that work forests are one of the planet's first lines of defense against climate change, absorbing as much as a quarter of man-made carbon emissions each year.

Through photosynthesis, trees and other plants use carbon dioxide, water and sunlight to produce chemical energy to fuel their growth; oxygen is released as a byproduct. As forests have shrunk, however, so has an already overloaded Earth's capacity to cope with carbon emissions.

Successful reforestation programs take into account native plant species. They are managed by groups with a sustained commitment to monitoring forests, not just one-off tree planting events. And usually, they economically benefit the people who live nearby for instance, by creating jobs, or reducing erosion that damages homes or crops.

The impact could be great: A recent study in the journal Science projected that if 0.9 billion hectares (2.2 billion acres) of new trees were planted around 500 billion saplings they could absorb 205 gigatonnes (220 gigatons) of carbon once they reached maturity. The Swiss researchers estimated this would be equivalent to about two-thirds of man-made carbon emissions since the start of the Industrial Revolution.

Other scientists dispute those calculations, while some fear the theoretical promise of tree-planting as an easy solution to climate changes could distract people from the range and scope of the responses needed.

But all agree: Trees matter.

___

On a spring morning, forestry researcher Jhon Farfan steered a motorcycle through the dense Peruvian jungle, his tires churning up red mud. He was following a narrow path cut by illegal gold miners in the heart of the Amazon, but he was not seeking treasure. Instead, he was on a quest to reforest abandoned gold mines within the world's largest tropical forest.

After three hours of difficult travel, he reached a broad clearing where knee-high saplings stood in rows, their yellow-green leaves straining for the sun. Farfan whipped out a clipboard with a diagram of the saplings planted months earlier, much like a teacher checking attendance.

"The goal is to look for the survivors," he said.

Within the thick jungle, only a sliver of light escapes to the forest floor. Often more can be heard than seen: a chorus of howler monkeys, the chatter of red-crowned parakeets reminders that the Amazon is home to more species diversity than anywhere on the planet.

But the rainforest is under increasing threat from illicit logging, mining and ranching. In a region of southeastern Peru called Madre de Dios, Farfan's job involves inspecting lands where the forest has already been lost to illegal mining spurred by the spike in gold prices following the 2008 global financial crash.

To recover the gold, the floor of the jungle was turned upside down. There are no gold seams in the lowland areas of the Amazon, but only flakes of gold washed down from the Andes mountains by ancient rivers, buried beneath the soil.

After cutting and burning centuries-old trees, miners used diesel pumps to suck up deep layers of the earth, then pushed the soil through filters to separate out gold particles. To turn gold dust into nuggets, they stirred in mercury, which binds the gold together but also poisons the land.

Left behind are patches of desert-like land dry, sandy, stripped of topsoil and ringed by trunks of dead trees.

Last December, Farfan and other scientists with the Peru-based nonprofit CINCIA planted more than 6,000 saplings of various species native to this part of the Amazon, including the giant shihuahuaco, and tested different fertilizers.

"Most tree deaths happen in the first year," Farfan added. "If the trees make it to year five, typically they're going to be there a long time."

A study of former gold mines in Peru by scientists at CINCIA and Wake Forest University several years ago found that seedlings transplanted with soil were more likely to survive than "bare-root seedlings," and the use of special fertilizers also helped growth. Some of the trees tested had absorbed trace amounts of mercury through contaminated soil, but it's not clear yet how this will affect them.

Since the project began three years ago, the team has planted more than 42 hectares (115 acres) with native seedlings, the largest reforestation effort in the Peruvian Amazon to date. The group is in discussion with Peru's government to expand their efforts.

"It's very hard to stop mining in Madre de Dios, since it's a major activity," said Farfan. The challenge now: to plant a tree that can grow in this soil.

___

While scientists struggle with tainted landscapes in the Amazon, activists a continent away are reckoning with flawed past attempts to heal the land.

After miners left West Virginia's Cheat Mountain in the 1980s, there was an effort to green the coal mining sites to comply with federal law. The companies used heavy machinery to push upturned soil back into place, compacting the mountainside with bulldozers. The result was soil so packed in that rainwater couldn't seep down, and tree roots couldn't expand.

Companies planted "desperation species" grasses with shallow roots or non-native trees that could endure, but wouldn't reach their full height or restore the forest as it had been. On Cheat Mountain and at other former mining sites across Appalachia, more than a million acres of former forests are in similar arrested development.

"It was like trees trying to grow in a parking lot not many could make it," said Michael French, director of operations for the Kentucky-based nonprofit Green Forests Work.

The Appalachian highlands once supported a large and unique ecosystem, dominated by 500,000 acres of red spruce forest a century and a half ago. But commercial logging in the late 1800s and later coal mining in the 20th century stripped the landscape, leaving less than a tenth of the red spruce forests intact.

Now French and colleagues at Green Forests Work are collaborating with the U.S. Forest Service to restore native Appalachian forests and the rare species they support by first tearing down other trees.

"We literally go in with a giant plow-like machine and rip the guts out of the soil," by dragging a 4-foot ripping shank behind a bulldozer, said Barton, the University of Kentucky professor and founder of Green Forests Work. "Sometimes we call it ugly."

This "deep ripping," as it's known, gives rainwater and tree roots a better chance to push down into the soil. A 2008 study found that disrupting the soil on U.S. brownfield sites through this method helped tree growth. After five growing seasons, trees planted on "ripped" sites had more roots compared to those where deep ripping didn't occur. Trees also grew taller.

The idea of ripping up the ground seemed startling at first.

"When we first started, a lot of our colleagues thought we were crazy. But 10 years later, we're well on our way," said Shane Jones, a wildlife biologist for the U.S. Forest Service.

Earlier efforts at reforesting old mining sites within West Virginia's Monongahela National Forest hadn't fared so well; sometimes, the majority of seedlings died. But in areas where the team has deep-ripped over the last decade, the survival rate of saplings has been around 90%.

Green Forests Work has now reforested around 800 acres within the Monongahela, and it is taking a similar approach to other former mining sites across Appalachia, having reforested around 4,500 total acres since 2009. Their ultimate goal is to restart the natural cycle of the forest so that scientists' work becomes invisible again.

___

Other reforestation crusades are more personal.

Maria Coelho da Fonseca Machado Moraes, nicknamed Dona Graa, runs a tree nursery that grows seedlings of species native to Brazil's lesser-known jungle the Atlantic coastal rainforest.

She collaborates with a nonprofit group called Save the Golden Lion Tamarin, which works to protect and restore the forest habitat of the endangered namesake monkey. "The Atlantic rainforest is one of the planet's most threatened biomes, more than 90% of it was deforested," said Luis Paulo Ferraz, the nonprofit's executive secretary. "What is left is very fragmented."

As she nears 50, Dona Graa says she is furious at what has happened to the forest, which was whittled down to allow for the urban expansion of Rio de Janeiro and other cities.

She deplores "the stupidity and ignorance" of people who have "destroyed most of the trees and continue destroying them. So I'm trying. I can't do too much, but the little I can do, I try to do it properly to rescue those trees."

And so, between feeding her chickens and raking the leaves, she grows seedlings of rare species pau pereira, peroba, "trees that people have damaged already, they don't exist anymore." She mixes limestone and clay, places it in plastic nursery bags and plants seeds in them; she irrigates them with water and cow urine.

Local replanting efforts which aim to reconnect fragmented parcels of forest often use the seedlings from Dona Graa's nursery, which gives her both income and great satisfaction.

She does this, she said, for posterity. "In the future when I pass away ... that memory I tried to leave for the people is: It's worth it to plant, to build," she said.

___

Federica Narancio contributed to this report from Peru and West Virginia, and Yesica Fisch reported from Brazil.

___

This Associated Press series was produced in partnership with the Howard Hughes Medical Institute's Department of Science Education. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

EDITOR'S NOTE: Heroic efforts to revive ecosystems and save species are being waged worldwide, aimed at reversing some of humankind's most destructive effects on the planet. "What Can Be Saved?," a weekly AP series, chronicles the ordinary people and scientists fighting for change against enormous odds and forging paths that others may follow

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Difficult but rewarding work: Planting trees to aid climate - New Canaan Advertiser

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Are koalas ‘functionally extinct?’ Not so fast, say experts – The Weather Network - December 4, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

Wednesday, November 27th 2019, 12:57 pm - The claim has been making the rounds again this week in the wake of Australia's devastating bushfires, but experts are pushing back.

With climate change accelerating, stories about the latest extinction are increasingly commonplace, but there's one that particularly jerked the world's heartstrings this week: A report from Australia that suggested the koala, already under dire threat, is "functionally extinct" after bushfires devastated its already shrinking habitat.

It's quite the eyebrow-raiser, given how much of a beloved icon the little marsupials are worldwide, and the claim centres on the apparent loss of around 80 per cent of the species' range along with reports that approximately 1,000 individual koalas may have been killed during the bushfires.

But though it's making the rounds again this week, it's actually a months-old claim -- we'll come to that in a minute -- and, according to experts, not only is it likely not true, it wouldn't be possible to tell one way or another given what we know, and don't know.

"Theres every possibility that over the whole range, they may eventually become functionally extinct, but we certainly couldnt say that yet. Theres a long way to go," Dr. Christine Hosking of Australia's University of Queensland told The Weather Network.

Several media outlets repeated the 'functionally extinct' claim over the past couple of days after it resurfaced, including Forbes, but it was actually made earlier this year in May, by the Australian Koala Foundation (AKF), which claimed there were no more than 80,000 of the creatures left in Australia.

The 'functionally extinct' wording appears in the release at the time, and it raised some hackles even then, with pushback from several quarters, including Hosking, who penned a column debunking the claim.

Though koalas' are listed as a 'vulnerable' species by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature, Hosking says there's just not enough information on the koalas' remaining numbers and range to say whether the bushfires have pushed them to functional extinction.

For one thing, Hosking says the animals' plight varies from area to area, such that though they are certainly locally extinct in some areas, in others they're still doing well, such that they're actually locally overabundant.

Another challenge: Their range is enormous, sprawling across four of Australia's states, making it hard to get an accurate population count.

Until we can come up with some amazing drone technology or something that can go up and down in strips across that whole area and count them all, its just impossible to say," Hosking says. Even with the bushfires, we dont even know how many koalas have been affected there yet. We only know the ones whove been rescued."

As such, estimates vary as to just how many koalas there still are in the wild.

Dr. Stuart Blanch, Forest and Woodland Policy Manager for WWF-Australia, says estimates range from a high of 330,000 in 2012, to as low as 50,000, while WWF-Australia relies on expert advice suggesting the number is around 200,000 in the wild.

WWF-Australia doesn't agree with the 'functionally extinct' label, but what isn't in dispute, Blanch says, is that the numbers have likely plummetted some 95 per cent since British colonization, and there isn't much information on the genetic diversity of those that remain.

Blanch said they could be extinct in the wild in eastern Australia within 30 years, due to a combination of man-made factors such as tree-clearing for farming and urban development, and climate change. The bushfires which have been raging in the region may hasten that extinction.

"Unfortunately it is still too early to adequately assess the full damage to koala populations and their habitats, but there is little doubt that the damage is very significant," Blanch says. "Koala groups estimate the fires have killed hundreds of koalas in New South Wales and Queensland, a serious blow for a species in decline."

Claims about functional extinction can hurt conservation efforts, Blanch says, by eroding hope for the koalas' future and desensitizing not only the public but also decision-makers who can actually bring in policies that would help the marsupials.

Blanch says more needs to be done to halt the koalas' decline, a full spectrum that runs from stopping and reversing habitat loss while expanding protected areas, to increasing funding for landowners who protect koala habitats, to reintroducing Aboriginal fire management techniques to mitigate future bushfires.

Hosking, meanwhile, says there's been some progress, in the form of research into prioritizing areas to be protected, and the koala was included in Australia's equivalent of the Species at Risk Act as a 'vulnerable' species earlier in the decade. However, she says habitat loss due to land clearing continues apace, with little action.

Its in writing, it's great, but nothing happens on the ground in reality to protect the koalas, she says.

And though she, like most other conservationists who've been asked in the media this week, thinks the 'functionally extinct' claim is overblown, she says the flipside is that it's got more people talking about the koalas' plight. They're especially useful as a kind of 'canary in the coalmine' species, given their sensitivity to changes in their environment.

"If we look at the koala being a victim of climate change and land clearing and all these things, then the koala is the person to say 'hey, look, what's happening to me, everyone sit up and take notice of what were doing to our environment everywhere', she says.

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Are koalas 'functionally extinct?' Not so fast, say experts - The Weather Network

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Land Clearing and Mulching oklahoma contractors - October 14, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

MD Land Clearingspecializes in mulching and cedar, mesquitetree clearing, serving Oklahoma and North Texas. Our equipment has a special mulching head which will complete difficult tree and vegetation clearing easily. Whethermulching is required for trees, shrubs, overgrown section of land or to clear trails and hunting lanes. Our mulching services can be used for small and large vegetation clearing projects, domestic, commercial, rural or around suburban housing. We can use our mulching equipment to clear around or behind buildings as well in open spaces or forestry. Roads, highways, pipelines and other utilitys benefitfrom asingle machine that can remove overhanging branches, stumps & free standing trees. No need to get your hands dirty anymore, leave it to us.

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Land Clearing and Mulching oklahoma contractors

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Williams Land Clearing Grading & Timber Logger LLC – Raleigh … - October 14, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

Grading should be done by experts when the job is extensive. It is the process of adjusting the elevation and slope of land around a home or commercial property. When construction is imminent, grading must first take place to provide a solid foundation for a structure. Grading, for existing buildings, can also be applied to help improve drainage and to improve the propertys appearance.

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We provide the excavators and bulldozers, or demolition equipment depending on the nature of the job. We invite you to call us today for an estimate. Call and ask about earthwork excavation. We are the experts and will be glad to answer any questions. Seniors and military discounts are available.

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what is a good per acre price for a land clearing? | LawnSite - October 14, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

It's hard to say from the picture but that field look like it's timothy and alfalfa. There is value to that as hay. That's where the money is to be made.

If that's the case here is how I would quote it.

My Costs @ my billing rate for a 50hp Utility tractor & OperatorCutting25 Acres @ 3.0 Acres per Hour8.33 Hours X $75/Hour = $624.75(Cutting with a Sickle then a quick pass with a BushHog after Bailing)

Bailing25 Acres @ 1.5 Acres per hour16.66 Hours X $75/Hour = $1249.50

Loading6 hours @ $75/hour = $450

Hauling $300

Costs $2624.25Quote to customer$2624.25 X 1.5 = $3936.38

Cost to Customer $157.45 Per AcreThe key to making money on this is YOU keep the hayA conservative estimate is 2tons of Hay per Acre.Hay Yield 50 Tons50 Tons = 100 Large round bales @ $85/Bale (Current price here for mixed forage around here) = $8500 PROFIT !

Profit for the jobWhen factoring in Labour & Equipment costs I am making $26/hour for the operations.

30.99 hours @ $26/hour = $805.74 (and this is paying a operator $22 a hour) If I'm doing it myself I'm making $48 /HourValue of Hay $8500

Total Profit for the job $9305.74

When pricing a job keep in mind all sources of possible revenue.

I think the prices you are seeing of $3000-$5000 a acre have to be for clearing heavily forested area. Even that seems high, Around here you can get heavy bush cleared for about $700 a Acre.

Maybe I should move down that way.

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what is a good per acre price for a land clearing? | LawnSite

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Germany, Berlin and Western Eruope Escorted Tours | smarTours - October 2, 2019 by Mr HomeBuilder

Germany, Berlin and Western Eruope Escorted Tours | smarTours

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Explore the very best of Bavaria & Berlin on this exciting 12-day adventure! Based on your feedback weve crafted this tour to maximize your comfort and make sure you wont miss a thing: youll overnight in Berlin, Nuremberg, and Munich with daytime excursions to some of Bavarias most popular towns. Youll visit fairy-tale towns like the quintessential Rothenburg ob der Tauber with its medieval old town, beautiful Regensburg with its 12th-century Stone Bridge, Neuschwanstein Castle with its storybook facade, and more; all from your comfortable home base so you wont have to pack your bags each night.

Activity Level: Explorer*