Environment
Among other things on the County Commissioners agenda tonight the siting of the proposed waste transfer station. John Rees, an avid cyclist who lives in Dogwood Acres, is there and posting updates via Twitter. Here are his updated posts in reverse chronological order (newest to oldest):
From OCOC press release as printed in News of Orange County:
County-wide grassroots effort will hold Dec. 7
meeting
On Sunday, Dec. 7, 300 leaders from 23 faith-based
institutions in Chapel Hill, Carrboro and Hillsborough will gather at 5 p.m. at
Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in Chapel Hill to launch a new agenda called "One
County for All." The Church is located at 300 E. Rosemary Street in Chapel
Hill.
The event is viewed as a new model for multi-ethnic interfaith
collaboration in Orange County. The Orange County Organizing Committee (OCOC)
seeks to bring about change on affordable housing, living wages, environmental
justice, education, healthcare, and quality of life for immigrant families.
A blog post over at the News and Observer site highlights the requests made by citizens in Carrboro and Pittsboro to allow bow hunting in the city limits to help control the deer population. Having lived for a bit in the Chicago area where deer started depleting the forest preserves of all sensitive plant species in the 1980's, I'm particularly sensitive to the effects of deer on sensitive ecosystems. I also know that the deer population, without natural predators, continues to put more and more pressure on plants as time goes by in our area. Bolin Creek spring wildflowers are particularly sensitive to deer overpopulation since they green up before other plants leaf on and they provide sustenance for the herds at their hungriest time. If the population was at a normal rate of 15-20 per square mile instead of ~80 per square mile then this would not be a problem.
I spent Saturday raking leaves and noticed that this year, unlike past years, there were no acorns hitting me on the head. There were no acorns buried under the fallen leaves. There were no acorns!
Today's Washington Post confirms that it's not just my yard.
The idea seemed too crazy to Rod Simmons, a measured, careful field botanist. Naturalists in Arlington County
couldn't find any acorns. None. No hickory nuts, either. Then he went
out to look for himself. He came up with nothing. Nothing crunched
underfoot. Nothing hit him on the head.
Last year was a bumper crop in my yard and the plump squirrels attest to that. But this winter they are going to be in trouble. Are others also missing their annual acorn crop?
I was in my house a couple Saturdays ago and I heard something outside and I assumed it was the mailman putting mail in the box. Then a bit later I heard something again. Why would the mailman come twice? So I went out and looked and in addition to the mail in the mailbox there was a nearly 1,200 page phone book on my stoop.
And then again the other day I came home from work and there was another phone book on my stoop, this one over 1,200 pages.
How can it be legal for people to come to your house and put a big, heavy thing that you didn't ask for on your doorstep? Can I get rid of it by putting it on someone elses doorstep?
I can see getting one phonebook a year, although that probably wouldn't be necessary for many people if it all is online somewhere. But I've gotten four phonebooks in the last 15 months and most of them will go straight into the recycle pile. It seems like it would save everyone a lot of trouble if they wouldn't bring them in the first place.
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