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Water, earth and skyBy Rusty Dennen
Something fishy in the Potomac Nov. 11, 2009 12:25 pm The Potomac Conservancy today released its annual State of the Nation's River report, focusing on chemicals that appear to be causing fish kills and fish with altered gender characteristics. It's an issue that's gotten a lot of attention due to kills and altered fish found in the Potomac, Shenandoah and Monocacy rivers. For more, see my story in tomorrow's Free Lance-Star. Read the report here.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1257960330
Oct. 28, 2009 3:00 pm The Environmental Protection Agency is working on a "pollution diet" for the Chesapeake Bay, aiming to control harmful chemicals, sediment and toxic compounds that run into tidal rivers, and into the bay. For more on the total maximum daily load, or TMDL process, and an upcoming public information meeting here, see my story in tomorrow's Free Lance-Star.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1256756410
Oct. 26, 2009 2:18 pm
It's been described as an environmental jewel for good reason. The Crow's Nest peninsula along Aquia and Accokeek creeks in Stafford, has pristine tidal marshes, abundant widlife and the most extensive mature coastal plain hardwood forest in the mid-Atlantic region. Efforts to preserve the land have been in the news for decades, but here's your chance to see what the fuss is all about. There's a field day Saturday, Nov. 7, at what is now the state's Crow's Nest Natural Area Preserve. Hosted by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation, it will include hikes and natural history interpretation. It's from 9:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., with hiking trips leaving at 9:30 a.m. and 1 p.m. Call 804 786-7951 to reserve a spot. Below is a file picture taken along the shoreline after a dusting of snow in March. For more details on the preserve, click here.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1256581135
Oct. 16, 2009 5:10 pm OK, it's official. If you are a tree hugger, tomorrow's your day. National Tree Hugger Day is at the Jefferson Memorial in D.C., from noon to 3 p.m. American Forests, known for its "Global ReLeaf" restoration projects, is putting it on, and thanking IKEA for its contributions that made it possible to plant a million trees. Along with music, food and crafts, a "Community Tree Hug" will take place at 1:30. Huggers will also gather in Chicago and Los Angeles. For more details click here.
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Sep. 22, 2009 2:22 pm
If you've paddled or fished the Rappahannock above Fredericksburg recently, you've noticed a sea of green in spots along the shore. (Staff Photographer Mike Morones snapped this picture of me and John Tippett, executive director of Friends of the Rappahannock, knee-deep in the stuff last week.) Submerged aquatic vegetation is a good thing, but this grass is closely related to invasive hydrilla that has made a home in the Potomac and area streams and lakes. For more details, and an assessment of whether it's good or bad, see tomorrow's Free Lance-Star.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1253643773
Sep. 18, 2009 3:27 pm
Northern snakeheads, the toothy, voracious pedators that invaded the Potomac River five years ago below Washington, D.C., are heading down river. Aquia Creek is one of the latest hot spots, where a Spotsylvania boy recently caught a really big one. See my story in tomorrow's Free Lance-Star.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1253302044
Sep. 17, 2009 3:27 pm
If you've driven over the Blue and Gray Parkway Bridge, you've seen it: a white cylinder with an antenna and small solar panel on the west side of the span. (Free Lance-Star Photographer Mike Morones snapped this photo.) It's not a home for wildlife or an alien homing beacon. It's a component of the National Weather Service Integrated Flood Observing and Warning System (IFLOWS). Unlike some government programs with long acronyms, this one is actually useful to the rest of us as well. The gauge, installed a few years ago with a grant, records near real-time data on the river's rise and rainfall. That's particularly useful when the Rappahannock watershed gets whacked by heavy rain from late summer and early fall tropical storms. To check the gauge, click here. The city used to check the rising river with the decidedly low-tech ruler gauge at City Dock Another gauge helpful to paddlers is the red, yellow, green ruler visible on the Stafford shore, across from Normandy Village along Fall Hill Avenue. More information about that, and paddling safety is available on the Friends of the Rappahannock site here. And yes, there's a third river gauge, operated by the U.S. Geological Survey, below Mott's Run. Click here for information on flow, temperature and other technical stuff.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1253215635
Sep. 16, 2009 3:56 pm
There's a Clean Energy, Bright Future rally tomorrow night at Hurkamp Park in Fredericksburg, beginning at 6:30 p.m. There will be local speakers, along with representatives of the Rappahannock Group of the Sierra Club and the University of Mary Washington Ecology Club and other conservation organizations. For more background, click here, and see story in tomorrow's Free Lance-Star.
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Sep. 16, 2009 3:45 pm
After my story Tuesday about a bountiful harvest of planted oysters off Colonial Beach, Dudley Biddlecomb of Fair Port, near Reedville on the Chesapeake Bay, e-mailed to tell me that he and his brother had an equally surprising experience. He says naturally reproducing native oysters produced larvae that attached in great numbers to oyster shells planted in cages on a creek bottom. "Last year, with the help of Mother Nature, two dozen bottom cages and 200 [bushels] of shells we produced 480,000 spat [baby oysters].
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1253130311
Sep. 11, 2009 2:24 pm
Another swimming advisory was posted at Fairview Beach this week, the sixth advisory of the swimming season which is drawing to a close. The beach, along the Potomac River in King George, is one of 44 Virginia beaches where water samples are taken weekly from Memorial Day to early September. The monitoring results, and more information about the program, are posted on the Virginia Department of Health site here.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1252693461
Sep. 9, 2009 3:55 pm Look for EPA and other federal agencies tomorrow afternoon to discuss their plans for cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay. The seven draft reports required by President Obama's executive order on the Bay were to have been released today. Check for details, local reaction in Friday's Free Lance-Star.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1252526108
Sep. 3, 2009 3:24 pm
A swimming advisory at Fairview Beach has been lifted. Water samples taken earlier this week showed bacterial levels in excess of safe limits. With Labor Day weekend looming, the results of follow-up tests released this afternoon showed that the water is once again safe for swimming.
Perma-link: http://www.fredericksburg.com/blogs/view?blogger_id=61&p=1252005849
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Contact This blog expands upon environmental coverage in The Free Lance-Star. |
Rusty Dennen writes about military affairs and the environment for The Free Lance-Star.
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