Category: Newsletter

Planes Fly into Smoke to Figure Out What it’s Made Of

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 42

Wildfires produce large clouds of smoke. No one knows what the smoke clouds are made of unless a sample is taken directly from the cloud and tested. This is exactly what was done during the Rim Fire in Yosemite. A NASA DC-8 passenger plane and an Alpha fighter jet each flew through the plume with in-flight labs, that scientists created to measure exactly what the fire was producing.

Though the obvious answer is that fire creates smoke, not all smoke is made up of the same gases. The only way to tell the difference is to study the particles they ferry along. “That’s what you’re actually seeing when you see a smoke plume, you know the big white smoke plume. That’s sunlight bouncing off the little particles,” says Bob Yokelson, an atmospheric chemist at the University of Montana. What makes up smoke matters to human lungs and the climate—which is why Yokelson’s team and NASA’s Alpha jet crew are busy planning their next flights for late summer.

It is not easy to make a lab fly. It can take over a year for teams of scientists to design and assemble custom gas and particle measurement systems. Not only does to these finicky, temperamental machines have to work at a range of temperatures and pressures, they also need to neatly replace a row of plane seats or get even smaller.

The Alpha jet was converted from a fighter jet in 2010. Before this could happen, it had to be quieted down for civilian airspace, and equipped with sensors to measure trace gases in the atmosphere: ozone, carbon dioxide, methane, and formaldehyde. As its two pilots follow a fire’s smoke, the sensors continuously measure the air, according to Laura Iraci, the NASA chemist who runs the experiments. After a two or three hour flight, they land back at the airstrip with data cards full of numbers to analyze.

When Yokelson and his team outfit a jetliner like the DC-8 that flew to the Rim Fire, they get to renovate the plane’s interior. “We’ll take out every other row of seats, and bolt down instruments in their place, so now you have the scientist sitting in front of an instrument and they can monitor the data as we’re sampling the atmosphere,” he says. This summer, their team is getting a C-130 jet ready for its close-up–test flights, set for September.

Airborne studies like these have highlighted that wildfires burn dirtier than the ones that are carefully lit and contained in the forest. More particulate matter is produced by the bigger logs and wetter material. Also as fires smolder longer, they can actually start to release a serious amount of methane, which traps more heat in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

Both Yokelson and Iraci have lots more questions about what else fires dump into the atmosphere, and how the airspace changes throughout the course of a fire. Once the planes are ready again, they are headed for more smoke. The accurate field measurements are the key to good air quality and climate change models. The EPA would love to predict how wildfire pollutants might descend on neighboring cities and states. “We’re really optimistic that our data can provide sort of truth, so they can continue improving their models,” says Iraci. It may take a season or two to pump new data in, but predicting air quality around wildfires could get a lot better in the next few years.

Source: Wilhelm, Menaka. “The Tricked-Out Research Planes That Fly Through Wildfires.” Wired. Conde Nast, 25 July 2017. Web. 31 July 2017.

WOTUS Repeal Could Devastate Pocosin Wetlands

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 41

As the Trump administration moves forward with an executive order repealing the Obama-era Waters of the United Sates (WOTUS) rule, which clarified and expanded the kinds of bodies of water the federal government is responsible for protecting from pollution, a unique yet little known wetland habitat may be endangered of being eradicated.

Pocosins, meaning “swamp on a hill” in the indigenous Algonquin language, are found from northern Florida to Virginia, though they are particularly concentrated in North Carolina. Unusual compared to other wetlands in that they are not connected to larger bodies of water and are often less than a square acre in size, pocosins are essentially peat bogs elevated on hills above the water table of surrounding ecosystems in the coastal plains of the southeast. Ecologically, they serve as refuges for endangered flora and fauna, such as white-tailed deer, black bears, and alligators, and provide a number of ecosystem services including regulation of the salinity of coastal waters, aquifer recharging, flood and erosion control, and carbon sequestration.

They are also coveted by farmers for their incredibly fertile soil, and as such have been drained to make way for farming and development since the 19th century, resulting in the loss of 70% of North Carolina’s pocosins until state legislation was enacted to protect them in 2001. Since Republicans won a supermajority of the North Carolina legislature in 2012, however, wetlands protections have been largely rolled back in response to the oil and gas, agribusiness, and real estate sectors complaints that compliance with such restrictions unfairly burdens their businesses.

Under the Obama-era WOTUS rule, which has not yet been implemented due to a stay imposed by federal courts, the federal government would have the authority to prevent “navigable waters”, as stipulated by the 1972 Clean Water Act, from being polluted in addition to head waters, tributaries, and certain wetlands, potentially including pocosins.

The rule was intended to clarify the federal government’s authority over certain bodies of water after two Supreme Court decisions regarding water protection in 2001 and 2006 created legal confusion over the jurisdiction afforded by the Clean Water Act’s “navigable waters” clause. The 2006 decision by Justice Anthony Kennedy, favored by the Water of the United States rule, found that any wetlands sharing a “significant nexus” with navigable waters were covered by the Clean Water Act, while a 2001 ruling by late Justice Antonin Scalia determined that the act’s scope only covers “relatively permanent” wetlands.

Opponents of the WOTUS rule argue that it represents an overreach of federal power into the affairs of private landowners, who would be constrained by what they could and could not do on their own property if it happens to contain a wetland covered by Justice Kennedy’s reading of the Clean Water Act. Yet if Scalia’s interpretation is implemented by the Trump administration, not only will a variety of unique wetlands lose federal protection, such as pocosins and many ephemeral streams in western states, but so will a number of tributaries and headwaters that provide drinking water to as many as one in three Americans.

As it currently stands, Mr. Trump’s executive order will not have an immediate legal effect as the WOTUS rule makes its way through the court system, a process that could take longer than Mr. Trump’s first term in office. Yet with its federal protection in legal limbo and minimal protections from the state legislature, it is unclear whether North Carolina’s remaining pocosins will be around long enough to be impacted by the courts’ decisions.

Sources:

  1. Davenport, Coral. “E.P.A. Moves to Rescind Contested Water Pollution Regulation.” The New York Times. The New York Times, 27 June 2017. Web. 4 October 2017.
  2. Richardson, Curtis J. “Pocosins: Vanishing Wastelands or Valuable Wetlands?” BioScience. Nov. 1983. Web. 6 October 2017
  3. Wittenberg, Ariel. “Clean Water Rule: WOTUS rollback seen as death blow for ‘very unique habitat.’ Greenwire. E&E News, 2 October 2017. Web. 3 October 2017.

Wetlands Mitigate Property Damage from Hurricanes and Flooding

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 40

As the devastation wrought by this year’s hurricanes continues to be felt in the Caribbean and the Gulf states, a recent study finds that coastal wetlands have the capacity to substantially mitigate property damage due to flooding and storms, saving taxpayers millions of dollars annually in averted losses.

The study, jointly conducted by researchers from the University of California Santa Cruz and scientists from private insurance, conservation and engineering groups, assessed the value of the ecosystem services provided by wetlands to mitigate flood damage in the northeastern United States caused by hurricane Sandy in 2012. Through the use of advanced computer modeling of storm surge flooding and a vast database of properties damaged, the researchers estimated that $625 million worth of property damage was averted due to the presence of coastal wetlands from Maine to North Carolina, with a 22% average reduction of damages for each of the 707 zip-code areas assessed in the study.

Their findings established a clear positive correlation between the presence of wetlands and the value of nearby properties, as well as between wetland area and averted losses due to flooding. This was true even in heavily urbanized coastal areas that had lost most of its wetlands, such as New York, where wetlands cover only 2% of the land yet still saved the state $140 million.

Wetlands are able to provide this service by acting like a buffer between the ocean and inland properties. As the storm surge produced by a hurricane moves onto the land, wetland vegetation significantly reduces the wave energy and height, with some wetlands attenuating surge action by up to 70 centimeters per kilometer.

Despite the profound ecosystem service value provided by coastal wetlands, only about 3% of private and public monies spent on coastal infrastructure are invested in wetland restoration while the rest is spent on “grey” infrastructure, such as concrete seawalls that can be expensive to maintain and often only redirect flood water to other areas, potentially exacerbating the damages to life and property.

Aside from damages caused exclusively by hurricanes, the researchers also measured the annual flood mitigating benefits derived from salt marshes in Barnegat Bay in Ocean County, New Jersey. They found that properties buffered by wetlands experienced an average of 16% fewer losses than those not buffered from the ocean by wetlands, suggesting that wetland restoration is a good investment even if few hurricanes make landfall in the region.

In an affiliated report by Lloyd’s Tercentenary Research Foundation, who provided funding for the wetlands ecosystem service study, strategies for funding wetlands restoration based off of the latter study’s findings were assessed.

Such strategies included investing in flood mitigating wetland restoration and conservation before a catastrophic weather event, which would reduce the price of insurance premiums and securities, allowing the resulting savings to pay for the initial costs of restoration. Then, after a natural disaster does occur, a portion of the public and private recovery and rebuilding funds would be allocated towards further wetland restoration efforts, making the coasts even more resilient and reducing flood insurance premiums further.

By quantifying the monetary value of the ecosystem services provided by wetlands, wetland conservation is made legible to politicians, investors and laypeople, increasing the likelihood that these areas will be managed responsibly both for the benefit of humans and for the benefit of the ecosystems themselves.

Sources: Narayan, Siddarth et al. “The Value of Coastal Wetland for Flood Reduction in the Northeastern USA.” Scientific Reports. 31 August 2017. Web. 26 September 2017.

Stephens, Tim. “Coastal wetlands dramatically reduce property losses during hurricanes.” University of California Santa Cruz Newscenter. 31 August 2017. Web. 25 September 2017.

A Green and Leafy Economy: UNC Students Propose Seaweed Aquaculture for Sustainable Coastal Development

The Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 39

A team of undergraduates from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill are working on a proposal to build a more resilient economy and ecology on the coast of North Carolina using a versatile yet humble marine organism; macro-algae, also known as seaweed. Their plan involves starting a seaweed aquaculture farm near the Duke University Marine Laboratory in Beaufort, North Carolina, that would grow seaweed in the shallow waters off the coast using a low cost system of ropes, scaffolding and buoys that can be hoisted from the ocean to harvest the crop when it is mature.

 

Eliza Harrison, one of the four members of the team, said that the project aims to address multiple problems simultaneously. Chief among these is how to feed a growing planet with fewer resources; experts say that by midcentury, the planet’s human population could reach nine to ten billion people who will have to be fed using less agricultural land, water, fertilizers and pesticides than in the past if we are to avoid a dramatic increase in the degradation of earth’s already besieged natural areas.

 

Seaweed poses a unique solution to this problem in that it requires virtually no inputs to grow, does not take up space on land that could be used for other purposes, and is nutritionally rich in protein, vitamins A and B-12, calcium and iodine, among others. “So much of the ocean is underutilized” said Harrison in an interview, “seems like a no-brainer to waste all that space, it has such potential.” While it may seem odd to many Westerners unaccustomed to the marine vegetable to propose seaweed as a solution to global hunger, the reality is that it is already used in a variety of products that we use daily, from toothpaste to cosmetic products to pharmaceuticals to, of course, sushi.

 

Which points to the second issue the project aims to address, that of bringing jobs and a vibrant economy via seaweed aquaculture to the towns and cities of North Carolina that have historically relied upon fishing as a primary economic activity. As fishing stocks the world over have been overharvested and in some cases collapsed, fishing communities have felt the pinch as formerly stable jobs in the industry have shriveled up.

 

The seaweed market, however, is vast and in demand as an important ingredient in beauty products, in medicine as a potential anti-inflammatory agent, in grocery stores and restaurants as food items, in the renewable energy sector as a biofuel, and as a methane reducing feed for livestock. Given Harrison’s estimate that one aquaculture farm could provide four permanent and five to eight seasonal jobs, if scaled up, seaweed production could represent a sustainable boom for North Carolina’s economy.

 

Finally, seaweed serves multiple ecological functions including providing habitat for small fish and crustaceans, reducing the severity of wave action and storm surge during hurricanes, and sequestering carbon dioxide from the atmosphere via photosynthesis. Indeed, a study found that if scaled up, seaweed aquaculture could have the capacity to absorb 1,500 tons of CO2 km2 year, enough to absorb the annual carbon emissions of 300 Chinese citizens.

 

Harrison and her team’s project, which was a finalist in this year’s National Geographic Chasing Genius contest for innovative ideas to address global problems, is currently pursuing funding for the project from the UNC School of Public Health, among other sources.

 

Source: Duarte, Carlos M. et al. “Can Seaweed Farming Play a Role in Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation?” Frontiers in Marine Science. 12 April 2017. Web. 18 September 2017.

Beavers Helpful Rebuilding Wetlands

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 38

A new study researched in Scotland reveals beavers’ ability to engineer desolate land into thriving wetlands.

Four beavers were re-introduced to the land and observed for a decade. The observations found that the beavers created almost 200m of dams, 500m of canals and an acre of ponds. The landscape was “almost unrecognizable” from the original field, which now includes an increase plant species of almost 50% and richly varied habitats established across the 30 acre site.

The researchers say that their study is solid evidence that beavers can be a low-cost option in restoring wetlands, an important and biodiverse habitat that has lost two-thirds of its worldwide extent since 1900.

“Wetlands also serve to store water and improve its quality – they are the ‘kidneys of the landscape’,” said Professor Nigel Willby, at Stirling University and one of the study team. Earlier research by the team showed how beaver dams can slow water flows, reducing downstream flood risk and water pollution.

Beavers build dams in order to create pools in which they can shelter from their biggest predators, besides humans. These predators are bears, wolves and wolverines. The research was published in the journal Science of the Total Environment. The site was regularly surveyed and located near Blairgowrie in Tayside where two beavers were released in 2002 and began to breed in 2006. The lifespan of beavers is 10-15 years in the wild and the average number of beavers around during the study was four.

“After 12 years of habitat engineering by beaver, the study site was almost unrecognisable from its initial state,” the scientists concluded: “The reintroduction of such species may yet prove to be the missing ingredient in successful and sustainable long-term restoration of wetland landscapes.”

Alan Law, another member of the team from Stirling University, said: “We know lots about the benefits of beavers in natural settings, but until now we did not know the full extent of what they can achieve in present-day landscapes where restoration is most needed.”

He said wetland restoration usually involves ditch blocking and mowing or grazing to maintain diversity: “Beavers offer an innovative, more hands-off, solution to the problem of wetland loss. Seeing what beavers can do for our wetlands and countryside highlights the diverse landscape we have been missing for the last 400 years.”

The downside to using beavers to revitalize landscapes is that it has to be carefully managed to deal with the potential impacts on farmers, who fear crops being raided by beavers and damage to embankments that protect low-lying fields and other areas from floods.

“Any species introduction, particularly if it has not been in this country for hundreds of years, can have a massive impact on the many benefits that the countryside delivers,” said Mark Pope, chair of the National Farmers Union’s environment forum. “The impact of beavers is assessed across the whole landscape considering the impacts on all land uses. This study is just one piece of that big jigsaw. We need to learn from Scotland’s experiences before any decisions are taken on the future status of beavers.”

There is also concern about the impact of beaver dams on salmon and other fish. The fear is that beavers might block migration upstream. But Wilby said: “The main conclusions from recent studies were that the overall effect of beavers was positive.” This is because greater biodiversity provides more food for the fish and the deeper pools maintain stable cool water temperatures, even as the climate warms.

“I think as long as beavers have plenty of space to form a decent number of territories, there are enormous potential benefits,” said Wliby. “Sometimes the negative views of farmers can dominate.”

Source: Carrington, Damian. “Eager Beavers Experts at Recreating Wildlife-rich Wetlands, Study Reveals.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 19 July 2017. Web. 19 July 2017.

Water on Moon Plentiful According to New Study

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 37

Future exploration of the moon seems even more likely now that new evidence was provided that a large amount of water is trapped beneath the surface of the moon.

This brings back the question of whether a moon colony could be possible now that water has been discovered on the moon.

“A study of satellite data found ancient volcanic deposits strewn across the moon’s surface contain higher amounts of trapped water compared with surrounding areas” (Gutierrez).

The study “bolsters the idea that the lunar mantle is surprisingly water-rich,” scientists from Brown University say in a press release.

The research conducted by scientists from Brown University was published on Monday, July 24, 2017 in Nature Geoscience. They studied data from India’s Chandrayaan-1 lunar orbiter.

The Apollo 15 and 17 missions in the early 1970s collected volcanic glass beads from the moon and brought them back to Earth, according to Newsweek. A study in 2011 of these glass beads suggested that they contained water.

The purpose of the new study was to figure out if the beads were anomalies or representative of how much water might exist on the moon, Newsweek reports.

“By looking at the orbital data, we can examine the large pyroclastic (volcanic rock fragment) deposits on the moon that were never sampled by the Apollo or Luna missions,” Ralph Milliken, Brown University associate professor and lead author of the new study, said in a news release.

“The fact that nearly all of them exhibit signatures of water suggests that the Apollo samples are not anomalous, so it may be that the bulk interior of the moon is wet.”

Though the volcanic glass beads only contained a few hundred parts per million, if that, there is a lot of volcanic material to work with, Milliken told CNN.

Some fields of the volcanic remains cover thousands of square kilometers and could be several kilometers deep, Milliken said. “It’s more water than previously recognized,” he told CNN.

A newfound source of water on the moon could “bode well for our long-held visions of a lunar base,” notes Eric Mack for CNET.

“A source of water on the moon could add to a growing undercurrent of renewed excitement about returning to the moon. Besides Moon Express, Japan, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin and even (Elon) Musk are among the other big names tossing out new lunar visions.”

The private company, Moon Express’ “first prospecting efforts will be studying pyroclastic deposits on the moon, which hold unique clues to potential deposits of lunar water and other resources,” the company’s founder and CEO, Bob Richards, told Phys.org.

“Our baseline landing site for our maiden lunar expedition is an equatorial region of the moon high in pyroclastic deposits.”

The pyroclastic deposits in the study might be easier to access than previously thought, the study’s co-author, Shuai Li, told CNET.

“Anything that helps save future lunar explorers from having to bring lots of water from home is a big step forward, and our results suggest a new alternative,” he said.

The last time man walked on the moon was in December 1972 during the Apollo 17 mission.

Source: Gutierrez, Lisa. “Moon Could Contain Lots of Water, Study Suggests, Bolstering Visions of a Lunar Colony.” The Kansas City Star. The Kansas City Star, 24 July 2017. Web. 24 July 2017.

$5.7 Million Given by EPA to NY to Improve Water Quality

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 36

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation received a Performance Partnership grant worth $5.7 million to administer water quality programs from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

“The EPA is protecting the environment by engaging our state partners,” said Administrator Scott Pruitt. “This grant should help New York meet their local environmental needs.”

“EPA has no more basic responsibility than to help states secure and protect our nation’s water,” said Acting EPA Regional Administrator Catherine McCabe. “This grant allows New York to conduct the day-to-day work necessary to run its water programs.”

The funds will help the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation’s continuing environmental programs function while also allowing for greater flexibility to address its highest environmental priorities, improve environmental performance and strengthen its partnership with EPA.  This agreement will help statewide programs to protect and improve water quality. When the water in our rivers, lakes, and oceans become polluted, it can have a great impact on not just humans but also wildlife. It can endanger wildlife, make our drinking water unsafe and threaten the waters in which we swim and fish. EPA supports these efforts under the Clean Water Act and Safe Drinking Water Act.

Performance Partnership grants are tools that allow the EPA to provide financial assistance to states and tribes. “These grants allow recipients to use EPA awards with greater flexibility for priority environmental problems or program needs, streamline paperwork and accounting procedures to reduce administrative costs, and try cross-program initiatives and approaches that were difficult to fund under traditional grant approaches” (Rodriguez).

Source: Rodriguez, Elias. “EPA Provides Environmental Programs in N.Y. with $5.7 Million to Improve Water Quality.” EPA. Environmental Protection Agency, 20 June 2017. Web. 27 July 2017.

What is the New “Waters of the US” rule going to look like?

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 35

There are two things going on with the “Waters of the US” rule in the next few weeks.  First, the EPA, U.S. Army Move to Rescind 2015 “Waters of the U.S.”  Comments on this rule have been extended until September 27, 2017.  If this rule is finalized the old “Waters of the US” will recodified.  Meaning, the 1986 definition will be used until it is replaced with a new definition.

Speaking of new definitions, the second item on the agenda is that EPA and the Army are seeking public input in the review of the “Waters of the U.S. Rule.”  They are holding online and limited in-person stakeholder meetings from September to November to discuss what is and what is not a “Waters of the US.”  The stakeholders are divided into interest groups and you can register for an opportunity to speak your mind.  We at the Swamp School highly recommend that you consider attending one of these meetings as the future of what will and what will not be regulated is on the table.

More information and instructions on how to register to speak can be found in the following EPA/USACOE press release dated August 25, 2017.

EPA and the Army Seek Input in the Review of the Waters of the U.S. Rule

Stakeholder sessions will be held weekly between September and November

08/25/2017

Contact Information:

(press@epa.gov)

WASHINGTON – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and U.S. Department of the Army (the agencies) will hold 11 sessions to give stakeholders an opportunity to provide recommendations on a revised definition of “waters of the United States.” The agencies will hold nine two-hour long teleconferences that will be tailored for specific sectors, plus one that will be open to the general public. The agencies will also hold one in-person session for small entities.

“EPA is committed to an open and transparent process for reviewing the definition of ‘waters of the United States,’” said EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt. “Receiving input from across the country will help us make informed decisions as we move through our two-step process that will return power to the states and to provide regulatory certainty to our nation’s farmers and businesses.”

These sessions follow the February 28, 2017, Presidential Executive Order on “Restoring the Rule of Law, Federalism, and Economic Growth by Reviewing the ‘Waters of the United States’ Rule.” The February Order states that it is in the national interest to ensure that the Nation’s navigable waters are kept free from pollution, while at the same time promoting economic growth, minimizing regulatory uncertainty, and showing due regard for the roles of Congress and the States under the Constitution.

To meet these objectives, the agencies are following an expeditious, two-step rulemaking process. The recommendations gathered through these stakeholder sessions, in addition to the feedback the agencies are hearing through ongoing outreach to state, local and tribal governments, will help inform the step two rulemaking, which would revise the definition of “waters of the United States” under the Clean Water Act.

The stakeholder sessions will be held on a weekly basis beginning September 19 and will continue each Tuesday thereafter for ten weeks.  Each will run from 1:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. eastern time. Information on how to register for each of these meetings is available on the EPA website.  Registration for each webinar will close a week prior. Those wishing to provide verbal recommendations during the teleconference will be selected on a first-come, first-serve basis. Due to the expected volume of participants, individuals will be asked to limit their oral presentation to three minutes.

Stakeholder Sessions Schedule

  • September 19, 2017 –  small entities (small businesses, small organizations and small governmental jurisdictions)
  • September 26, 2017 – environment and public advocacy
  • October 3, 2017 – conservation, e.g., hunters and anglers
  • October 10, 2017 – construction and transportation
  • October 17, 2017 – agriculture
  • October 24, 2017 – industry
  • October 31, 2017 – mining
  • November 7, 2017 – scientific organizations and academia
  • November 14, 2017 –  stormwater, wastewater management and drinking water agencies
  • November 21, 2017 –  general public

The agencies are also planning an in-person meeting with small entities, which will be held on Monday, October 23, 2017, from 9:00 to 11:00 a.m. Eastern Time at the U.S. EPA’s Headquarters.

The agencies will also be accepting written recommendations on the step two rulemaking effort through a non-regulatory docket (EPA-HQ-OW-2017-0480), which will be available when the notice is published in the Federal Register. The agencies ask that this information be submitted on or before November 28, 2017.

Additional information: www.epa.gov/wotus-rule

Source:  https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-and-army-seek-input-review-waters-us-rule

 

Microsoft Co-Founder Using Tech to Fight Poachers

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 34

Paul Allen, one of the co-founders of Microsoft, wants to cover 90,000 square miles of African territory with smart sensors and drones before this year ends. He wants to do this in order to be able to know what is going on in Africa’s most remote, wildlife-packed corners. There is no larger tech-focused conservation project as of right now that utilizes a command-and-control system so that rangers can record and respond to poaching threats all the way from Kenya to Tanzania.

The project is called the Domain Awareness System (DAS) and is being funded by Allen through his company Vulcan. Though it is a very simple concept, it is much more complex in execution. Though the software is not flashy, it is likely the key to one of most important philanthropic causes of our time.

What DAS wants to accomplish is to study the movement of endangered animals so that rangers can understand where the main poacher threat is going to be and then get ahead of them on a scale that allows Big Data to predict threats across entire regions.

This technology would allow for less of a foot traffic presence which is the current way elephants and rhinos are protected. Anytime one of the sensors were tripped, nearby rangers will be notified about the threat as well as being notified of any microchipped animals in the area.

When asked why Allen wanted to get involved helping to fix this problem, he said that “By nature, I am attracted to tough problems—problems that, by definition, require innovative and dramatic solutions. The DAS project is the ideal combination of two of my interests—technology and the preservation of [the savannah elephant,] one of Africa’s most iconic species.”

Completely accurate data from conservationists cannot be gathered for two to five years, but so far DAS looks to be working well. As of yet, there have not been any animals saved as a direct result of DAS, but there have been two separate cases of rangers using DAS alerts to apprehend poachers who had already made a kill.

There are other significant threats to the African wildlife besides. The system has allowed rangers in Kenya to prevent human-wildlife conflict by understanding which farms’ cattle are most likely to wander into conservation areas. The rangers have worked with locals to keep the livestock out of conservation areas. This allows rangers prevent retaliatory killings by farmers. This happens when wildlife preys on wandering livestock.

The next step is bringing the system to places that still do not have it, such as the jungles and forests of Congo. Enhancing connectivity where it is low will also be key because it will allow DAS to show alerts in real-time instead of on a delay.

Allen is happy to let his team run wild. “I’ve spent time with these park rangers, so I’m familiar with how difficult their work is. Providing this kind of tool to help them defend endangered species is incredibly fulfilling.”

Do you think this could be the answer to helping catch poachers? What else do you think should be done to prevent poachers from harming and killing elephants and rhinos?

Source: Ekstein, Nikki. “Paul Allen Is Using Technology To Save The African Elephant.” Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 09 May 2017. Web. 10 May 2017.

Bald Eagles Coming Back to New York

Swamp Stomp

Volume 17, Issue 33

According to the New York state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), a new study shows that the number of nesting pairs of bald eagles is bouncing back from their decline in the 1990s.

The study found that there are approximately 323 breeding pairs in New York, which is a record.

“New York state has been a leader in the restoration and recovery of the bald eagle in the northeastern United States,” DEC Commissioner Basil Seggos said in a statement, “and this news confirms that our rivers, lakes and forests are capable of supporting our nation’s symbol for generations to come.”

To show just how much these numbers have grown, the DEC estimates that there were only 70 nesting pairs through the early 1900s.

By 1960, there was just one pair left due to indiscriminate killing, competition for habitat and the impact of insecticides such as DDT. Eagles would get infected with DDT when they ate prey contaminated with the chemical. DDT caused their egg shells to become so thin, they would not survive incubation.

DDT was banned in 1972. The federal Endangered Species Act was enacted in 1973 and bald eagles were on the list.

In 1976, the DEC started a program to repopulate the bird in New York. Young birds were imported from other states and hand-reared by biologists to independence.

The following 12 years saw 198 eagles that were not quite old enough to leave the nest collected. The majority were from Alaska.

“The eaglets were moved to suitable habitats, fed while they became accustomed to their new homes and released once they could fly. The process is called hacking” (Ferro).

The hacking program reached its goal of 10 breeding pairs by 1989, so it was ended.

Since the end of the program, the numbers have increased steadily. Of the 442 territories in the state were a nesting pair is known to have bred at least once in recent years, 180 are found in the local DEC region, which includes Dutchess, Orange, Putnam, Rockland, Sullivan, Ulster and Westchester counties.

The bald eagle was taken off the federal endangered species list on Aug. 9, 2007.

New York’s own Endangered Species Program changed the bird’s status from endangered to threatened.

It is still against federal law to take; possess; sell; purchase; barter; offer to sell, purchase or barter; transport; export or import any bald or golden eagle whether they are alive or dead.

Bald Eagle numbers did not just drop because of DDT. Deforestation in order to support agriculture also played a role.

“They typically don’t nest in the middle of farm fields,” Scott Crocoll, a DEC biologist, said in an interview.

In the last 100 years, the forests have returned in abundance.

“We were extremely successful” with the restoration program, Crocoll said, “but a lot of the credit has to do with the change in habitat and the birds themselves. They have exploded.”

Source: Ferro, John. “Bald Eagles Thriving in Record Numbers in NY.” The Poughkeepsie Journal. Poughkeepsie Journal, 06 July 2017. Web. 10 Aug. 2017.