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Chesapeake Bay |
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Chesapeake Bay |
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SIERRAThe Newsletter Of | ||||||||||||
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It's hard to imagine such a naturally beautiful place in the North West corner of Portsmouth as the Hoffler Creek Wildlife Preserve. There is a nesting pair of eagles, some osprey, foxes, and all the other small creatures in this preserve. In addition, there is a great array of native plants. It is a place to visit and to experience. The Chesapeake Bay Group has been a frequent visitor and supporter of the preserve. We have installed an osprey platform, a couple of bat houses and a very large butterfly garden. We even assisted with the construction of a stairway for the on site office. One of the missions of the preserve is to expose school children to the outdoors. In support of this function the Virginia Chapter has made funding contributions. We are fortunate to have as our speaker the original executive director for the preserve to tell us of the future plans for the preserve and how volunteers can assist. Time is 7 PM, the place is the CHESAPEAKE Central Library and the date is Monday, 7 May. You'll be glad you came!!
 Map to the Chesapeake Central Library |
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A trip to First Landing State Park. Now we are either going to take a hike or do trail maintenance on our newly assigned trail. Since we visit the state park so often, we feel very much like we would like to help out with maintaining one of the trails. In addition, after our activity we are definitely going to have a picnic down by the Bay. This time of year will be ideal. So we will meet at the trails center, which is off of Shore Drive and going to the south. Inform the attendant you are there for trail maintenance. Bring appropriate clothing and your favorite picnic dish for the picnic. The Club will provide the drinks. The date is 19th of May and the time will be 9 AM. Any questions contact Fred at 467-2775.
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| Contact Nancy McAdoo (464-4483). |
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The air is filled with pollutants, the ground is filled with pollutants, so what is the quality of our drinking water. This was the issue addressed at our April meeting. The simple answer is if you live in Norfolk and Virginia Beach you are fortunate because the water is very good. All you have to do is to look at the annual "report card" on the water quality and you know we are in good shape. The water in Chesapeake is going to be very good. We had two excellent speakers, who provided an outstanding background on drinking water quality. The first speaker was Prof. Jim English ( head of the Department of Environmental Health). Jim presented an overview of the regulations, the specific chemicals addressed and specific examples of how well the Norfolk treatment facility does. This was very helpful because it indicated that the water quality in the area has little to no arsenic. The second speaker was Kimberly Butler from the state office of Health Department. Kimberly indicated what waters are regulated by the state, which by locality health departments and which waters are not regulated, which includes some private wells. These are at some risk, because in some cases there are high levels of chemicals like florine, that over long periods of time can be harmful. Water is probably the most important single item we consume. In a world where there are 70,000 or so chemicals and 50 new ones a week, what is in our drinking water should be of major concern. An interesting aside is recently the Norfolk facility has indicated the need for a rate increase. There has been considerable public resistance to this. We have established a special committee for monitoring local drinking water quality. If you would like to participate contact Fred at 467-2775.
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Approximately 400 eager, young scientists gathered at Heritage High School in Newport News on March 17, 2001 to exhibit their research at the 50th Annual Tidewater Science Fair. Sierra Club's commitment "... to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore quality of the natural and human
environment" was evident in its presentation of an award for the Best
Environmental Project. The Chesapeske Bay Group provided a $50.00 gift
certificate to Barnes & Noble Bookstore to accompany the award. The winner of our award was Katherine Holt of Bruton High School, York County. Her outstanding project, "A Study of Competition Between Native and Non-Native Oysters and Its Implications for the Chesapeake Bay" not only won her the Sierra Club award, but also First Grand Prize for the entire fair.
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Dr. Bill Shealy, a local Sierra Club member, has been concerned for the loss of grass strips along the tunnel islands of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge. Due to his efforts the bridge authority is happy to allow us to plant some grasses to replace those that disappeared during the construction of the new span. Finding the kind of grass that will survive the salt water and winds in the bay is not easy. Bill has uncovered a couple of species that might survive. As soon as we can locate a source for these species, we will contact the bridge authority to determine a location. These initial plantings will be more like experiments to determine the best species to use to cover more of the sandy areas. A number of the members have signed on to assist with this project. Those who do participate are going to have a great experience getting on the tunnel islands not open to the public. For further information contact Fred at 467-2775.
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We are continuing our efforts to insure that a comprehensive Environmental Impact Study is done for the proposed golf course at Fort Story. We have written Congressman Schrock a couple letters stating our position. He has responded essentially stating that the Army needs the land for training and not for a golf course. This was the same position that Owen Pickett had in 1996, but he did change his position to one of actively supporting the course. The Virginia Beach Development Authority has put up $50,000 to get the project going. This about half the funds needed to do a complete environmental study. Our concern is that the city will only do half the job, which is about as bad as no job at all. We will be participating in a neighborhood discussion at the "North End" toward the end of April on this issue. They aren't happy about the potential increase in traffic if the course is built. The traffic assessment should be a part of the study.
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We continue our efforts to assist the Refuge with the Black Bear Project. To date our effort has been to assist in putting up the strand of barred wire. This consisted of first hacking a path through the brush and than stringing the wire. The strand is about 11 miles long and was done at a rate of about .3 of a mile a day. This was slow work because the first step was taking a canoe across the canal. Only once did the crew role over and get cooled off (though it was cool enough at the time). The current task is walking the line to insure the proper height and to clear of any animal hair. We have observed frequent deer hair, some raccoon, a possum, and even maybe rabbit?? NO bear hair yet, though none is now expected. A number of you have expressed interest in helping. We are definitely working with the project biologist to get you out there.
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We urge you NOT to use pesticides with Dursban, which is sometimes sold as chlorpyrifos or Lorsban. The EPA has linked Dursban and another pesticide Diazinon to neurological problems such as blurred vision and memory loss especially in children. Accordingly, EPA last year banned the sale of Dursban for home use and ordered it off the shelves completely by year's end. However, a check in the garden department at Kmart shows that the shelves have recently been restocked with large supplies of these pesticides. Check the products you buy, these dangerous chemicals may still be available in other stores. You may be interested in writing the store and urging them to be good neighbors by removing these dangerous substances. Your actions would help improve the quality of our drinking water and protect wildlife in our wetlands and estuaries.
Thanks to Bill Pratt.
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You have heard of backyard wildlife habitats. Now there is one with the Chesapeake Bay in mind. There are guidelines for the best shrubs, trees, plants, food and arrangements with water that benefit wildlife and the Bay. The Virginia Institute of Marine Science is involved as well as the Alliance for the Chesapeake Bay and The
Elizabeth River Project. Go to the Bayscapes Homeowners' Guide.
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If you don't want [your lot] to be sprayed for mosquitoes, call your community's mosquito control office and ask them not to spray your lot. In addition, if you do need and want protection from mosquitoes there are some things you can eat that will deter them where ever you go. Eat Vitamin B Complex and or garlic, which you get in an odorless version. You need to take these items for a couple of days in order to get them into your system before venturing into the outdoors. An interesting aside is if mosquitoes do prefer you and are bothering you it is an indication that you are low in some vitamins.
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