Help frogs, help the environment, one video view or photo click at a time!

Conserve It Forward is a Greening Forward Earth Savers Club partner, and they have issued a challenge to us to create campaigns that spread our environmental message. They are generously awarding prizes that range from $50-$300. If we win, it will go towards the Tampa area Save the Frogs Day (this is our 3rd year planning and running this event!).  There are 2 ways to help us win, and both are just a click away (Deadline is 9pm EST on 1/31/13)!

1) Watch our video where our 6 foot tall frog mascot Clover joins me in sharing our message!  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7omfBREEdl8   Each unique view counts, so please share the link with others!

2) Click the picture link below.  When it opens, click “Like” and that is a vote for us!  The “Like” has to be at this particular link, no where else on Facebook shares, to count!

Thank you to Greening Forward for giving youth driven organizations the opportunity to help fund our goals to help the environment!

You can learn more about what we are doing at www.ConserveItForward.org, and please do not forget to go “Like” us at Facebook at www.Facebook.com/ConserveItForwardWithAvalon

Say NO to Keystone XL

by Connie Chen

Yes, this is a very controversial topic, and yes, a lot of the debate is based on party affiliation.  However, setting bipartisan squabbles aside, Keystone XL is, in short, a bad idea.

For those who don’t know, Keystone XL is a pipeline that transports crude oil from Alberta, Canada to Texas at a refinery.

Environmentally, the pipeline seems harmless. The oil companies advertise that the US Energy Depa

rtment found that Keystone XL would “not appreciably increase” global life-cycle greenhouse gas emissions. Maybe in just a year, the emissions are like a drop in a bucket. Yet Keystone taps tar sands from Alberta, the world’s dirtiest fuel.  Many experts also believe “pollution from tar sands oil greatly eclipses that of conventional oil. During tar sands oil production alone, levels of carbon dioxide emissions are three times higher than those of conventional oil, due to more energy-intensive extraction and refining processes.” [1] Because of this, every day in the U.S. 900,000 barrels of dirty tar sands oil will flood down the pipeline, resulting in the equivalence of adding over six million cars in the US. This excess in crude oil will double our country’s reliance on it. Once we are done sucking up Canada’s resources, the pipeline’s damage is not merely just a drop in the bucket.

TransCanada, the company applying for this pipeline, argues the U.S. economy needs the oil. We may soak up gas like an alcoholic to his flask, but further feeding the addiction is not the way to go.

Investing in this pipeline is stunting our transition to clean energy. How many millions of gallons of tar sands can we replace with solar panels, which are getting cheaper by the day? How many CO2 emissions can we prevent by shelling out newer and cheaper hybrid and electric-model cars? By continuing our reliance on this poison, we are forgoing our intellectual potential in favor of instant, impulsive gratification.

But we need the jobs, the American people say. The pipeline will employ 50,000 Americans- a lot. However, most of these jobs are short-term construction jobs, where a worker will be employed for a year or two, then laid off again. If a worker is lucky, maybe he or she can work on maintenance for this pipeline, seeing as TransCanada’s last pipeline spilled 12 times in the last 12 months. Cornell University estimates Keystone XL will spill around 91 times in the next 50 years, spills which could be enormous as the pipeline is bigger and higher in pressure, and the tar sands oil is harder to clean up.

Lastly, there are actually people who live on the land, too. And they are not too happy about getting more of their land taken, some against their will. Cancer rates have skyrocketed a small aboriginal village downstream from the Canadian province’s massive oil sands plants [2], and other aboriginies and residents near the proposed pipeline’s line of fire are not eager to follow this trend. And because TransCanada has to cut down more (millions more) acres of boreal forests, the Canadian government has to ensure species populations stay in balance, planning to poison wolves in order to maintain harmony. [3] TransCanada, the company applying for this pipeline, argues the U.S. economy needs the oil. We may soak up gas like an alcoholic to his flask, but

Obama, thankfully, rejected TransCanada’s proposal in January. So why are we still talking about it? TransCanada plans to re-apply for the Presidential Permit in 2013.

Many people still believe this pipeline, first and foremost, will alleviate our unemployment issues and reliance on foreign oil. As stated before, it won’t.

We cannot keep sacrificing our precious environment for unreliable, short-term solutions for long term problems.

We need to

1. Invest in alternative energy. If possible, look into solar panels, support your state’s renewable energy bills or policies, and look into getting hybrid/electric cars. After crunching your numbers, it’s most likely very beneficial in the long run.   Petitions to sign: http://www.change.org/petitions/congress-show-your-support-for-wind-energy
2. Speak to your elected officials. Especially in the fall, it’s political crunch time. Go to a rally, write a letter, or meet with them in person. I had an enlightening talk with the state senator of my district this February, where I imparted my support on the wind bill. Imagine if individual citizens, especially young people, made appointments with their officials, and one-by-one, handed stacks of petitions in support of wind energy.
3. Say NO to Keystone South (basically a mini-Keystone XL). Find more about it here: http://m.keloland.com/detail.cfm?id=129437 and how TransCanada is taking land without permission here: http://standwithdavid.tumblr.com/
4. Either convince Mitt Romney/most Republicans to reject the Keystone XL, or re-elect Obama. (I am prepared to be castigated on this one)
5. Follow anti-Keystone groups on Facebook or Twitter to keep yourself informed:

https://www.facebook.com/TarSandsAction

https://www.facebook.com/notarsands

https://www.facebook.com/keystonepipeline

https://twitter.com/TarSandsAction

https://twitter.com/search/%23noKXL

[1] http://www.foe.org/projects/climate-and-energy/tar-sands/keystone-xl-pipeline

[2] http://www.reuters.com/article/2009/02/06/us-health-oilsands-idUSTRE51568020090206

[3] http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jeremy-symons/wolves-secretly-poisoned-_b_1268761.html

Edu-taining Youth to Reconnect Them with Nature

Totem Magic: Going MAD

Hello, my name is John Griffith. I’m the author of a multicultural eco-fantasy novel for tween readers titled Totem Magic: Going MAD. Totem Magic: Going MAD weaves a fast-paced and fun story around the grim phenomena of climate change, habitat destruction, and endangered species by edu-taining you with real and imaginary environmental solutions and attitudes in a fictional world where endangered species have their own magical protectors (totem mages).

I wrote this book after noticing that many of the youth I work with in the California Conservation Corps (CCC) aren’t connected to nature in a way that promotes compassion and stewardship. This “disconnected from nature” phenomenon was given a name by a sharp observer named Richard Louv. He called it nature deficient disorder (NDD). NDD is a modern affliction caused by the indoor childhood epidemic. In other words, kids are spending more time than ever indoors—in front of electronic screens—and less time outdoors exploring and playing in nature. The more I work with the victims of an indoor childhood, the more I want to inspire them to make discoveries in nature and enjoy free-play outdoors in a way similar to my own fun and adventurous childhood. So I decided to mitigate NDD by engaging youth out in nature through my work with the CCC and by doing some creative storytelling.

Another reason I wrote Totem Magic: Going MAD was because it became obvious to me that the “wildlife conservation community” is not nearly as ethnically and economically diverse as the neighborhood that I grew up in. ALL people should have access to and be engaged with nature! ALL people should be guardians of the wild! It will take ALL of us to save our planet from the catastrophic species extinction event that we are currently experiencing. The characters in Totem Magic: Going MAD look a lot like the diverse group of youth that I work with in the CCC. That’s what makes Totem Magic: Going MAD a multicultural eco-fantasy: the character makeup looks like ALL of us. ALL types of people in my story are fighting to save ALL of nature. But…unlike us, all my characters are using pretty bizarre magic to do it.

I am donating the profits from my book to groups that help the youth in their communities get access to organic food and playtime outdoors, to wildlife care centers, and to groups that promote ethnic/racial diversity within the conservation movement. It makes me very happy to do this, and these dedicated groups need lots of donations to keep doing their great work! There are a lot of ways you can help. One way that is really fun is to buy a copy of Totem Magic: Going MAD and become a member (a totem mage) of the Totem Magic Community. To learn more and to purchase your copy, visit TotemMagic.com.

You can also check out this review from Hiking Along, Inc   http://hikingalongtrails.blogspot.com/2012/08/finding-strength-as-environmental-hero.html and read the book back below.

About the Book

Enrique Salazar and Connie Ejeekwa seem like normal sixth-graders. They attend a regular public school, with the usual assortment of friends and bullies. But the two friends share a secret. They are members of Magic User families, which have been entrusted for generations to help the Earth’s endangered species without anybody else discovering their special role. These unusual “totem mages” embody the spirit of whatever animal they are born to represent and protect. Connie’s totem animal is the mountain lion, and Enrique’s is the common turkey vulture, which is not actually endangered—yet.

When Connie’s father, a leader in the Magic User community, is kidnapped by an evil witchdoctor, the two budding totem mages set out to rescue him, and possibly the entire planet. Their journey begins with a dreadlocked, high-spirited, taxi-driving witch who can be instantly summoned—at great risk—to provide a wild ride through a magical world at war.

Connie and Enrique will have to be brave and extremely clever if they hope to survive vicious attacks from the witchdoctor’s powerful gang members and the various monsters lurking in the dark corners of this supernatural world. It doesn’t help that the only two weapons they possess are Connie’s oversized, all-seeing glasses and Enrique’s magically malfunctioning flip-flops. Even worse, both are on the verge of an abrupt and mysterious preteen mental and physical change that the adult totem mages call going MAD…

John Griffith
Author of Totem Magic: Going MAD
TotemMage@aol.com
TotemMagic.com
facebook.com/TotemMagicGoingMAD
(707) 498-8317

Beauty in the Dark

As visual animals, we come pretty well hard wired to appreciate beauty. We are drawn to the colorful, the big-eyed, the cute, and the beautiful. We can see the brightly colored antics of birds and butterflies. Even in photos and film, we can look into the golden eyes of tigers and wolves and feel we understand the being that looks back. We empathize with the big sad eyes of sea turtles and adore the charms of the gentle, furry black and white pandas. We see these others, and therefore, in a sense, we feel we know them, and we care what happens to them.

But what of the things we don’t see or don’t know how to see? We tend to discount, misunderstand, or even fear the things we can’t see, but while the creatures of the night inhabit a darker world, they are no less beautiful.

As the sun drops below the horizon and sunset colors fade to blues and grays and we wander inside to our well-lit homes, an amazing dance starts. Outside, the crows settle into rookeries and start to mumble to each other, chimney swifts gather and circle and dive into their colonial roosts, and robins and doves settle onto nests, or later in summer, congregate in abundance in shelterwoods.  The day flyers settle down, and as they do the moths wake up. When the dusky, nocturnal cousins of butterflies flutter out into the open, they are swiftly followed by the russet-red silhouettes of red bats, which fly sweeping patterns in the last light of day. In the woodland clearings and along tree lines, tiny, fluttering tri-colored bats hug the darker shadows under the tree canopy chasing small woodland insects. As nocturnal beetles appear and bumble about the darkening sky, big brown bats hawk in open corridors and over meadows.

Just at full dark, as the Canada geese pass overhead, the myotis contingent comes out to hunt over meadows and open water, where they feast on small insects of all types. These tiny hunters include little brown bats, southeastern myotis, northern long-ear bats, and the endangered gray bats and Indiana bats.

On thick muggy nights, heavy moist air keeps light bodied insects down low, and so too, the bats. If you stand quietly in a meadow or yard you can watch the show open right above your head. If you are very lucky, you will hear the soft flutter of webbed wings or the whisper quiet tick, tick, tick of echolocation calls as passing bats pick off insects down in the human realm. On warm dry nights, the bugs fly higher; stand on the edge of a woodlot or a parking lot in a city park and look over the treetops to watch the air show until it gets too dark to see.

It’s important to watch and learn this dance now, for it threatens to vanish in our lifetimes. White-nose syndrome (WNS), a fungal disease, is wiping out bats in the northeastern and mid-Atlantic US. From a single site in 2006, WNS has spread to 19 states and 4 Canadian provinces and threatens to cross the Rocky Mountains in a few short years. Attacking hibernating bats as they winter over in caves and mines, WNS has killed approximately 6 million bats in just 6 years. In fact, WNS is considered the most devastating wildlife disease to hit North America in recorded history. Hundreds of scientists, conservationists, students, and concerned citizens are struggling to find a way to slow or stop WNS, but more needs to be done. One of the most important things that anyone can do is to start caring about bats just because they are. We don’t ask tigers or pandas or sea turtles to provide a service in order to care about them. Yes, bats are harder to see than a tiger, but they are beautiful in their own right. They dance a joyous dance at dusk; please go see them.

For more information and to see bat faces and bats in action, please visit us at The Save Lucy Campaign www.saveLucytheBat.org.

Pictured to the right is a Northern Long-Ear, one of the species most affected by WNS.   The Save Lucy Campaign brought this one into rehab because it had an ear injury, but it recovered within a week and was released right back where it was found!  Photo by Rich Sturges

Where’s the water?

by Charles Orgbon

Ten steps. That’s probably about how long it would take most of us in America to find the nearest faucet. However, millions of women and children begin their daily trek with a 10,000 mile walk to the nearest source of clean water. In fact, 7 billion humans vie for their share of the more than 30 billion gallons of water that are consumed daily in a global system of increasing interdependent human and ecological activities.

Consequently, terms like “blue gold” and “water wars” have become associated with these activities because of water’s precious nature, but inevitable demand. Together, these characteristics of the life-giving covalent bonds between hydrogen and oxygen atoms have brought tensions between families, societies, governments, and capitalist interests.

In third grade, we all learned about the planet’s water and fact that there are 326 million cubic miles of water on our planet, but only 3% of it is freshwater and only 1% of freshwater is accessible. Just as in third grade, it still seems unreal how much water is here on our planet, but what may seem even more unreal is the possibility of it all going away. Yes, there was truth to how we learned in third grade that water will always be here and the same water we drink today is the same water that T-Rex and his mighty Mesozoic friends splashed in. However, if humans pollute all of our water or even displace the water of today, we become monumental catalysts in changing our water systems.

Just within the last century, humans have fueled and witnessed how water has become a commodity that could be bought and sold without considerations of our natural environment and public health. Trade agreements influenced by NAFTA, the World Bank, and the UN have all helped privatize water sources in both the industrialized and developing world, thereby, ushering in a sense of proprietary dominion over a natural resource that once could not be owned. Today, we now see the world’s largest freshwater water holdings are in the hands of corporate companies and out of the public’s control.

For example, the bottling of water poses a 21st century threat to global water systems. Water can be bought and sold in the United States either for $0.0005 for a pint of tap water or $2 or more for a pint of bottled water. Water bottling companies tell and sell stories that their water is healthy and convenient. Moreover, United States water bottlers do not have to abide by the same public health regulations required that water municipalities must meet as defined by the United States’ Safe Drinking Water Act because once processed by the bottler, the water is branded as that bottler’s “invention” and “product.” In fact, bottling water in plastics can be linked to leaching numerous carcinogens as seen in the case of bisphenol-A.

Bottling companies come into communities and drain their water sources and take the water elsewhere. Citizens fearing a collapse of local water systems like the Michigan Citizens for Water Conservation are fighting to oust bottlers like Nestlé from their communities. “It has been seven years since the residents of Mecosta County, Michigan were made aware of Nestlé’s plans to pump over 210 million gallons of spring water per year from a private hunting preserve, divert it through a 12 mile pipeline that crosses streams and wetlands to its plant, bottle it, and then truck it outside the Muskegon River Watershed and Great Lakes Basin under the brand name Ice Mountain. As Nestlé moved into Michigan to privatize our water for its own profit, it announced there would be no adverse resource impact to the natural resources,” Terrill Sweir said in a public testimony against Nestle’s bottling operations in Mecosta County the United States Congress’s Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. Sweir went on to claim that Nestle’s bottling operations have led to severe lake and stream drainage of waters that used to provide recreational opportunities for locals and habitats for native wildlife.

Wherever there is water, there seems to be some corporate interests taking advantage of our planet’s natural resources without regard to public health. In 1998, the water in Sydney, was contaminated with high levels of giardia and cryptosporidium shortly after it was overtaken by Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux, a water powerhouse based in France. Without an explanation, the shear name of these two microorganisms send a message that they do not belong in on our water. Moreover, water became inaccessible, unaffordable, and unsafe after the water supply was privatized by Suez Lyonnaise des Eaux in Johannesburg. Cholera infections became widespread and thousands of people were disconnected from their supply of water.

Commercial interests have indeed found their way into the more vulnerable developing world. Cochabamba lies in a semidesert region of Bolivia, making water a scarce and precious resource. However, in 1999 the World Bank released recommendations calling for privatization of Cochambamba’s municipal water supply company. World Bank officials directly threatened to withhold $600 million in international debt relief if Bolivia didn’t privatize Cochabamba’s public water system. Thereafter, International Water took over the water services in Cochabamba, and the monthly water bill reached $20 in a city where the minimum wage is less than $100 a month. These increases forced some of the poorest families to literally choose between food and water. Consequently, an alliance of the citizens of Cochabamba called La Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida (The Coalition in Defense of Water and Life) was formed in January 2000.

La Coordinadora de Defensa del Agua y de la Vida is a shining example of citizen-activists overcoming the far-reaching influential power of global water capitalists. Through mass mobilization, the alliance shut down the city for four days. Within a month of this, millions of Bolivians marched to Cochabamba and held a held a general strike, stopping all transportation. The protesters then issued the Cochabamba Declaration, which called for the protection of universal water rights for all citizens.

Consumers also can tip the scale in these matters. Think of how each product assembled or grown today has a water footprint. The average car takes 350,000 gallons of water to create, a microchip take 32 liters, and one barrel of oil takes 7-10 barrels of water. Nonetheless, most apples in the United States are grown in China, a nation where water is low and so are public health standards. Consider these factors when making purchasing decisions.

Simply put, the answer to the water wars is to keep as much water in the ground, keep waters publicly held by the citizens who depend on them, and restrict transporting water outside of local communities. Some argue that perhaps we should start looking to desalination of our oceans. Although, there is so much more salt water available on our planet, desalination does not solve the root problem. Instead, it offers another opportunity for companies to claim their desalinated water is a “product.”

The planet’s dynamic and global-reaching food systems show the industrialized world that water problems are more than just a local and regional issue. “It truly does not have to be this way,” said Stephanie Watson, Greening Forward vice-president who has led the international organization’s youth-driven water quality and conservation efforts. “Everyday choices such as choosing a reusable bottle filled with tap water versus bottled water with a fancy label allow citizens to become heroes for water conservation around the world,” Watson added. Additionally, the rise of suburbia has given a claim to fame for the homeowners that can produce the greenest grass. “If citizens asked themselves whether they want the green grass, or be a part of the problematic puzzle that drains their limited regional water resources, hopefully they would choose the latter,” Watson continued. In fact, other simple changes to how we use water such as installing low-flow fixtures and low-flow toilets can reduce the United States’ water consumption by 20-30% easily according to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

In all optimism, Watson believes in the best of individuals and believes that the stories of blue gold’s consequential deaths, corporate vs. citizen feuds, and global connectedness leave individuals with a reminder that we all can either change this system in the positive or the negative every time we use water.

Charles invites readers to connect with Greening Forward on Facebook and with him personally on Twitter @corgbon.

Acid Rain

by Ann Troung

Acid Rain has been a continual issue in our environment. It has damaging effects to many aspects of our world; it harms our bodies of water, plants, animals, buildings, and forests. Acid rain is created by sulfur dioxide (SO2) and nitrogen oxides (NO2) reacting with water in the atmosphere to create this acidic substance (pH less than 7). These emissions come from power plants, factories that rely on burning fossil fuels such as coal, and cars. The compounds can be blown across many borders, reaching over hundreds of miles and damaging a wider spectrum of our planet. Most of the acid rain originates in industrialized areas where many factories prevail like China and Russia. Acid rain has become more of an issue as industrialization and population grew. While acid rain can be created naturally by things like volcanic activity and lightning, its main cause is from manmade activity. With the rise in industrialization paired with the upsurge in population on our planet, acid rain is becoming even more widespread and dangerous to our environment.

The damage that acid rain has brought to our society can be evident in the erosion of our stone buildings or paint-peeled structures, but there is a lot of damage brought by acid rain that may not be as clear to our eyes. This is the destruction brought to our plants and animals. For example, birds who nest in trees suffer from defective eggs due to this rain. Snails and clams are sensitive to acid rain. Amphibians have to live in acidified ponds which affect their eggs and young. Fish have suffered many deformities like reduced growth rates and reproductive failures. Aside from damages to animals, other living things such as plants have suffered from acid rain as well. Acid rain has caused injury and sometimes even death to some forests. Tree leaves are susceptible to acid rain, tree nutrients become limited, and their soil is exposed to toxic substances released from the rain. In addition to damages to our ecosystem, acid rain even affects our own health. The pollutants can be inhaled deep into our lungs causing diseases like asthma or bronchitis. These particles could be carried everywhere including indoors.

Although acid rain was discovered in the mid-1800s, scientists did not start observing it until the 1960s. Awareness for this phenomenon did not begin until the 1970s. Many organizations such as the EPA have taken steps to reduce acid rain emissions into the environment. The use of “cleaner” coal containing less amounts of sulfur has been tried. Use of natural gas which contains less sulfur than coal can help reduce these emissions. A better idea than the last two suggestions would be to use alternative energy sources! Many scientists are looking to this solution in which we could use solar energy, geothermal energy, wind energy, etc. to replace the harmful fossil fuels. Batteries and natural gas are now available to power automobiles. Limestone, a basic substance, has been used in lakes to restore neutrality.

But not only can governmental agencies help, but you can also help reduce this harmful substance in our environment either by taking your own action or spreading awareness for it by word of mouth. Although your contribution to stop acid rain may be small compared to what has preexisted in our environment, every little bit counts. Riding your bike instead of driving your car can help to reduce some amounts released into the air that day. Suggesting your parents to switch to a battery power car, using energy efficient appliances, carpooling – are all some ways to reduce amounts of acidity in our atmosphere. Even the smallest amounts of reduction can make the biggest changes. Imagine if everyone contributed – our rain would become more neutral and less polluted, creating a cleaner and healthier environment!

Young Environmentalists Network

By Charles Orgbon

I am a junior at Mill Creek High School in Dacula, Georgia (just 35 miles northeast of Atlanta). Originally from Florence, South Carolina, I grew up in a rural community where I spent much of my time on my family’s farm until I moved to the suburban community of Gwinnett County. However, I brought much of my appreciation for nature with me during this move. Troubled by my school’s littering problem and lack of environmental concern, I formed a student action team. Eventually, I wanted to empower other youth groups to start their own groups. Consequently, I created Greening Forward, which would offer mini-grants, recognition, civic engagement curricula, skill-building workshops, and an online platform for idea sharing for other young environmental changemakers. Today, the network has grown to over 500 youth in three countries who have recycled over 20 tons of waste, saved 86,000 gallons of water, and planted 72 trees thanks to Greening Forward’s help.

Our latest project involves creating the Young Environmentalists Network on Facebook. The Young Environmentalists Network shows how young people’s (ages 5-25) captivating energy and intrinsic creativity power movements for environmental protection. As these young environmental leaders connect with one another and create an online network full of professional and personal resources. This networking allows youth to develop connections, explore opportunities, reflect on experiences, and spread new ideas that each member can add to their arsenal of changemaking resources. Moreover, all of these great discussions are with members who are interested in similar topics.

The Young Environmentalists Network especially highlights the unique challenges that the 21st century environmentalist has to face. Unlike many sectors, environmentalism is an interdisciplinary field. The Young Environmentalists Network combines people from all of these areas in the environmental sector into one forum. The experts in policy, education, science, and communications come together to learn how can we support the global environmental movement together. That’s what’s most inspiring about the network.

I invite you to join the conversation and connect with me on Twitter @corgbon.

http://www.facebook.com/groups/youngenvironmentalistsnetwork/

Avalon is the Founder of Conserve It Forward which can be followed on Twitter @conserveitforwa or Facebook at www.facebook.com/ConserveItForwardWithAvalon

They’re fuzzy, they’re cute, they’re cuddly.  Today we’re talking cats.  Yes, they are one of the most popular pets and for many good reasons.  Cats have even been worshiped in the past, like in Ancient Egypt.  We find cats in the oddest places such as on top of kitchen cabinets, on favorite bed pillows and sometimes even under a lamp!  I remember once when a cat got into a holiday tree and popped its head out like an ornament.  Cats are really clever and that is why they can cause a lot of problems when they are outside.

Prowling and pouncing are cat specialties.  Unfortunately, they cause a lot of harm to frogs, birds, snakes, fish and other small animals.  All of these are part of our ecosystem.  Frogs are an indicator species, which means they are one of the first to give us a clue if something is not right in their environment.  Birds help keep the insect population down and also sing really pretty.  It is much better to wake up to birds singing than to an alarm clock!  Snakes eat rodents and other pests.  Every living thing plays a great part in the world, but it is usually only a good part played if the animal naturally belongs there.  The reason cats are outside is usually because of humans.  Maybe they just think their cat would enjoy some fresh air.  If your cat enjoys being outside, make sure it is on a leash, in a pet stroller or in your arms.  Some cats are let outside because their owners can no longer take care of them, or just do not want them anymore.  There are many people who would like to adopt a cat and there are many organizations that help with this.  Just search online for your local animal shelter to help you get started.

Resource: http://www.humanesociety.org/

Today, we are learning about a challenge that faces the only turtle in the world that lives exclusively in brackish water:  the imperiled diamondback terrapin.  The challenge we are talking about isn’t habit loss or destruction, it’s not live predators, and it’s not boats!  We are going to talk about crab pots and the lethal trap they can be for diamondback terrapins.

A crab pot is a cage like box with an opening that crabs go into, but can’t get out of.  They can’t get out because the metal wires on the opening face inwards.  Crabbers throw crab pots into the water where they sit until they are checked about 24 hours later.  A buoy is attached to the top of the line so the crab pots can be found again (because it would be really hard to have to snorkel around to try to find them!).

The problem for the diamondback terrapins is that the openings on most of the crab pots that are used in the same brackish water where they live are too big!  The large openings allow both female and male diamondback terrapins to pass through, and when high tide comes, they are trapped!  Diamondback terrapins are sexually dimorphic, which means the females are larger than the males.  So when females go into a crab pot to get food, the males follow them, and then they can all get trapped and drown.

If the opening of the crab pots were just a little smaller, at least the large female diamondback terrapins that carry the eggs would not be able to pass through.  They could still lay their eggs and repopulate!  Of course, some males would still go into the crab pots and drown, but at least the eggs would be saved.

So you might ask, why doesn’t the manufacturer of crab pots just make the crab pot openings smaller.  The reason is probably because the crabbers are worried that a slightly smaller opening will prevent them from getting as many crabs.  However, this is not true, and there is another way to minimize the size of a crab pot opening in existing crab pots.  That solution is a Bycatch Reduction Device (BRD).  BRDs are plastic and rectangular, and can be attached to crab pot openings quickly and easily.  You can see one in the picture to the right on this blog post.

BRDs do not change the amount of crabs you catch, and better yet, they save 73.2% of Diamondback Terrapins that could have gotten trapped in your pot.  How do we know this?  In 2003-2005, Dr. Joseph A. Butler and George L. Heinrich did a study about how BRDs on crab pots reduced how many diamondback terrapins were captured or killed.  Their paper was published in 2007.  Their results showed that BRDs help save diamondback terrapins but did not hurt the amount of crabs caught!

So now crabbers have a way to be heroes in the conservation world by using BRDs!  So where can crabbers get BRDs?  Well, if they are in Florida, recreational and commercial crabbers can get them for free from the Florida Turtle Conservation Trust (http://www.ftct.org) with the funding from the Tampa Bay Estuary Program.  I got to go to a workshop they organized called “Management and Conservation of Diamondback Terrapins in Tampa Bay:  A Symposium for Environmental Professionals” a couple of months ago, and it was great learning a lot of this information!

One more thing!  Sadly, some crab pots get lost and turn into ghosts.  Not the type that you might see in a haunted house, but the type that is called a ghost pot, or ghost crab pot.  There are many different reasons this happens, like if the buoy breaks off or a strong storm moves it, but basically they are called ghost pots because they are no longer being checked.  Since they don’t get checked, the animals that get inside of them do not get released so they drown.  Diamondback terrapins are just one of those animals.

I hope you have learned something new.  If you know a crabber that crabs in brackish water, please tell him or her about how they can help be conservation heroes of diamondback terrapins!

Resources:
Diamondback Terrapins of Tampa Bay: an Educator’s Guide developed by George L. Heinrich, Timothy J. Walsh and Dr. Joseph A. Butler
Florida Turtle Conservation Trust (http://www.ftct.org)

Photos:
Me with a diamondback terrapin
With a BRD
With Dr. Joseph A. Butler and George L. Heinrich

Last semester, I took an awesome class called Herpetology 2.  My final assignment was to do a presentation about a wildlife conservation organization.   I chose The Orianne Society.

If you’re going to be learning about The Orianne Society, you should know how it got started. The Orianne Society began when a young girl had the amazing chance to hold an Eastern Indigo Snake.  She fell in love with the snake, and knew that it was in trouble.  So, she asked her father to help her save the snake’s species…The Orianne Society was born!  This non-profit organization not only helps the threatened Eastern Indigo Snake, but it also helps other species like the desert tortoise and monkeys.

So how does The Orianne Society help the Eastern Indigo Snake?  They do research.  Sometimes that research involves a really cool survey tool.  Can you guess what that might be?  It’s dogs!  Well, one special dog named CJ.  They trained him in 2009 to locate Eastern Indigo Snakes and their sheds.  Why would they need to know this?  Eastern Indigo Snakes love being underground in burrows where it is very hard to see them.  Using CJ’s great skills, researchers can find Eastern Indigo Snakes much faster and more accurately.  That makes CJ the top dog!

To learn more about The Orianne Society and CJ, please visit www.OrianneSociety.org.