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Editors
Note
In
the words of Jerry Garcia, "Reach out your hand if your cup be empty;
if your cup is full, may it be again." From all of us at F. X. Browne,
Inc., here's hoping that your cup is overflowing and your heart as well!
Happy Holidays!
Topic of
the Month
It's holiday time and in keeping with tradition,
our annual F. X. Browne, Inc. Lake and Watershed News holiday poem (if you
can call it that) can be viewed here.
This year, we mutilate the traditional German carol, O Christmas Tree, to
create what will surely become a classic, O Stormwater!
Above: mistletoe berries provide food for
birds and other animals, courtesy USGS;
Right: mistletoe bunches provide animal habitat, courtesy Walnut
Creek Open Space Foundation
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Mistletoe is
Good For More Than Just Kissing
The next time you
pucker up under the mistletoe, consider this: mistletoe also provides
essential food, cover, and nesting sites for an amazing number of
birds, butterflies, and mammals, according to the United State Geological Survey (USGS).
The common name
mistletoe is derived from early observations that mistletoe would
often appear in places where birds had left their droppings. "Mistel"
is the Anglo-Saxon word for "dung," and "tan" is
the word for "twig." Thus, mistletoe means
"dung-on-a-twig." Even though bird droppings do not really generate mistletoe plants, birds are an important part of mistletoe
life. Birds find mistletoe a great place for nesting, and many birds
eat mistletoe berries, including grouse, mourning doves, bluebirds,
evening grosbeaks, robins and pigeons. http://www.usgs.gov/mistletoe/index.html
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News Clips
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New Equations Benefit Stream
Restoration Efforts
Stream restoration efforts in Pennsylvania
and Maryland will benefit from the results of a newly-released report
by the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS). More...
Chesapeake Bay Region Leads Nation
in Dam Removals
A newly established fish passage goal
for the Chesapeake Bay watershed favors dam
removals over structural passages, where practical. More...
PA Growing Greener Grants Awarded;
Watershed Restoration Grants Announced
The PA DEP recently announced
the award of $14.4 million in Watershed Restoration Grants for 129
projects, with more grants to come. More...
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Policy Update
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Are There Such
Things As REAL Reindeer?
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Reindeer - Photo © The
Reindeer Company Limited
Caribou -Photo ©
Stephen Loring
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Reindeer
have come to be associated with Christmas; as Santa is believed to have
come from the far North, a reindeer drawn sled is most
appropriate. But are there still wild reindeer about? The
reindeer is man's most ancient herd animal. Up until about
12,000 years ago, reindeer grazed over a vast area of Europe. Rock
paintings by primitive peoples featuring reindeer are widespread, as are
discoveries of tools made from reindeer horn. Today, reindeer are herded
by many Arctic peoples in Europe and Asia including the Sami in Lapland
and the Nenets, Chukchi, and others in Russia. These peoples depend on
the reindeer for almost everything in their economy including food,
clothing and shelter. And although they can't fly, the reindeer ARE used to pull heavily laden
sleds!
Caribou, the name by which the Americans are more familiar with
reindeer, comes from an Indian word. Reindeer and Caribou look
different, but they probably are the same species. Caribou can be found
above the tree-line in arctic North America and Greenland.
http://www.mnh.si.edu/arctic/html/caribou_reindeer.html
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Want
to Start Celebrating the Winter Holidays Early?
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St. Lucia's Day -
December 13
Throughout Sweden the
feast day of Lucia is celebrated as a festival of lights. For the people
of Sweden and Norway, Lucia, or Lucy, was the great "light
saint" who turned the tides of their long winter and brought the
light of the day to renewed victory. On December 13 young women dressed
in a white gown and wearing a red sash and a crown of lingonberry twigs
and blazing candles (battery-operated candles nowadays) wake their families with
coffee and buns baked with saffron. Many villages choose a Lucia to
represent their town in parades and processions on Lucia Day. http://www.post-gazette.com/food/20011206saintlucia1206fnp2.asp
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http://www.hemslojd.com
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St. Nicholas Day -
December 6
In Germany, legend has it
that St. Nicholas
takes to the skies on a white horse on the eve of December 6. He is said to jump from roof to roof and down the chimney of each house.
There he finds children's shoes or baskets filled with hay for his
horse. He exchanges the hay for candy and toys and gold chocolate coins.
Early on the morning of the sixth, children awake to search eagerly for
their baskets and to enjoy the treasures the good saint has left. http://www.twilightbridge.com/hobbies/festivals/christmas/nicholas/netherlands.htm
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Link Of
The Month
Sediment Assessment Methods Web Site Completed
The
EPA's Office of Water recently finalized a new technical methods website designed
to help watershed managers assess and restore waters with suspended or
bedded sediment problems. The centerpiece of the Watershed
Assessment of River Stability and Sediment Supply (WARSSS) website is a step-by-step,
three-phase assessment methodology developed by Dr. David L. Rosgen for
detecting sediment problems and source areas, estimating excessive sediment
loads, and planning to restore normal sediment dynamics in streams and
rivers. Besides the WARSSS methodology, the site also contains the entire
sediment model WRENSS, a stream classification tutorial, and a large
collection of links to clean sediment information and tools. http://www.epa.gov/warsss
For
help with streambank assessment, streambank restoration, natural channel
design, or bioengineering projects, please contact F. X. Browne, Inc. at info@fxbrowne.com.
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Interesting Christmas
Tree Facts
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The
first retail Christmas stand was set up in New York
City in 1851
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Franklin
Pierce was the first president to introduce the Christmas tree to
the White House in 1856 for a group of Washington Sunday School
children
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The
first public lighted Christmas tree was in Boston in 1912
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The
first National Christmas Tree was lighted in the year 1923 on the
White House lawn by President Calvin Coolidge
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http://users.rcn.com/tlclcms/chrtree.htm
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New
Tools and Publications
CWP Small Urban Watershed Restoration Manual
Released
The Center
For Watershed Protection (CWP) recently released Manual 2: Methods to Develop
Restoration Plans for Small Urban Watersheds. Joining Manuals 1, 4, 8,
10, and 11 in the Urban Subwatershed Restoration Series, Manual 2 helps tie the others together and provides a
step-by-step approach to developing a restoration plan. http://www.cwp.org/PublicationStore/USRM.htm
Past EPA Watershed Academy Webcasts Available
Online
EPA’s Watershed Academy has begun holding
monthly Webcast seminars. For those who are not able to register for a Webcast,
the audio version of Webcasts, as well as PowerPoint versions of the seminars,
are available on EPA's website. The following Webcasts are currently posted:
- "Low Impact Development Strategies, Tools, and Techniques for Sustainable
Watersheds," by Neil Weinstein, Executive Director, Low Impact Development Center,
Beltsville, MD; broadcast on October 19, 2005
-
"Phase II Stormwater," by Nikos Singelis, Office of Wastewater Management, U.S. EPA, Washington,
DC; broadcast on November 16, 2005
Please visit http://www.epa.gov/owow/watershed/wacademy/webcasts/
to listen to or view past Webcasts or to sign up for future Webcasts. The next
Webcast will be held on December 14, titled "Introduction to Trading for
Water Quality Protection" by Lynda Hall, Office of Wetlands, Oceans and
Watersheds, U.S. EPA, Washington, DC and Sonya Biorn-Hansen, Oregon Department
of Environmental Quality.
Annual Chesapeake State of the Bay Report Released
The Chesapeake Bay Foundation released its annual State of the Bay Report,
giving the Bay’s health a grade of “D.” The health index rating
of 27 is unchanged for the third year in a row. The State of the Bay Report is
a comprehensive measure of the Bay's health. For the report, CBF evaluates 13 indicators: oysters, shad, crabs, striped
bass (rockfish), underwater grasses, wetlands, forested buffers, resource lands,
toxics, water clarity, dissolved oxygen, and phosphorus and nitrogen pollution.
CBF scientists compile and examine the best available historical and up-to-date
information for each indicator and assign it an index score and letter grade. http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=sotb_2005_index
New Jersey Environmental Primer Created
The New Jersey Environmental Primer is a booklet
produced by the New Jersey Commission on Environmental Education and the
Interagency Work Group on Environmental Education, in partnership with the New
Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (DEP). The
primer can help New Jersey residents understand environmental terms that are
either a high priority for government and environmental leaders or are commonly
used in environmental literature and media reports. The primer explains these
terms with simple definitions or descriptions. Web site links follow each term
so that readers can learn more. http://www.state.nj.us/dep/seeds/njcee/njprimerWeb.pdf
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