Julie Buntjer: Minnesota Governor Dayton Talks about Buffer Initiative→

Governor Dayton at Worthington

“An estimated 200 people, including farmers from more than a 12-county area of southern and western Minnesota, packed inside the Worthington Fire Hall Thursday morning to ask questions and voice concerns about Gov. Mark Dayton’s proposal seeking to require 50-foot buffer strips along all lakes, rivers and streams across the state.

Arriving a few minutes behind schedule to a standing-room-only audience, Dayton acknowledged immediately that there will be disagreements and everyone is entitled to an opinion. He listened to question after question and occasionally offered responses on his bipartisan bill (HF1534/SF1537) for nearly two hours.

Dayton’s proposal seeks to create an additional 125,000 acres of water quality buffer strips statewide, and he wants to see the initiative under way before his term expires in another three and a half years.

The idea for added buffers came from the governor’s first-ever Minnesota Pheasant Summit late last year. Since then, it has evolved to focus not only on additional habitat and space for pollinators, but also on improving water quality.”

More Information

Nadia Prupis: EPA Restricts Some Pesticide Use→

CommonDreams:

“The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday announced restrictions on new or expanded uses of harmful neonicotinoid pesticides that may pose risks to honey bees and other pollinators, but environmental groups say the moratorium—while welcome—does not go far enough...

The EPA told companies using neonicotinoids that the agency will halt granting permits for those pesticides until it can assess the threats they pose to pollinators. The widespread use of certain herbicides and pesticides has come under increased scrutiny in recent years after a noted decline in bee populations, which play a crucial part in food production.

But a number of national and state-based environmental groups have called on the EPA to expand its protection of pollinators to include a ban on products already on the market.

”It’s welcome news that EPA is finally beginning to address the threat that neonics pose to the nation’s bees and other pollinators, but given the threats to the nation’s food and farming system, more is needed,” Kristin Schafer, policy director at Pesticide Action Network North America, said in a press release. “Numerous bee-harming neonics and their cousin products are already on the market, and seed coatings in particular have led to a dramatic surge in use over the last few years. EPA should go further to place a moratorium on existing products.””

EPA Announcement and EPA Letter

Monica Millsap Rasmussen: Why not Transit?→

Streets.mn:

“At first glance, the question “What’s stopping others from using transit more regularly” seems to be an easy answer. Convenience. After all, a popular saying in the US used to be, “this is the best thing since sliced bread.” But is the answer more complicated than that?

Listening more deeply, and if one had the ability to converse with people who have made these statements, would we find that another theme is actually freedom to choose? After all, many people who cannot afford a car or are in a situation where they cannot obtain a driver’s license also face many of these obstacles, but due to their circumstances must face them on transit. Making mass transit more convenient would certainly improve the quality of life for users who need to take transit, but would the others take transit or still choose to drive? And would those who are currently without a car still choose to buy a car once they could afford one or obtain a license?”

Monica gets at another issue of regarding mass transit -- the need for high quality options that push out current users. In many cities mass transit is designed for those who can't afford a car. For mass transit to be more popular to the middle class and thus most politicians, it will require rail and bus use to be dominated by the non-poor. We now subsidize roads for the middle class, likely at a higher cost ($/mile) than rail, bus, or streetcar. Why? Because the preference for suburban (i.e., low-density village of our distant past) life-styles?

Matthew Fitzmaurice: Only Capitalism Can Save the Planet→

From Ensia:

“To say the world has changed a lot in the last century is a huge understatement. Industrial, medical and social progress has resulted in unprecedented growth in the world’s population and economy, and that growth has placed tremendous burdens on the planet’s resources. These burdens create problems — perhaps the most substantive problems we have faced as a species: from water scarcity and pollution to climate change, reliable access to nourishing food, and affordable energy.

Here’s the thing, though: where there are problems to be solved, there’s money to be made. And where there’s money to be made, we awaken one of the world’s most powerful forces for change: capitalism. ”

In Lakeshore Living, we write about the benefits of reconfiguring capitalism and expanding markets. We have failed to effectively price public goods, such as clean air and water. Capitalism currently does not value these goods that we all value. Reconfiguring and expanding our capitalistic economic system with price signals for ecosystem services is consistent with our values and traditions. Everybody should pay the full cost of his or her activities, and we should have markets for natural services on private property that include water filtration and purification, soil formation, nutrient capture and recycling, and flood reduction. 

James J. Krupa: Teaching Evolution→

James J. Krupa, writing for Slate:

melfoody, Flickr

“We live in a nation where public acceptance of evolution is the second lowest of 34 developed countries, just ahead of Turkey. Roughly half of Americans reject some aspect of evolution, believe the Earth is less than 10,000 years old, and that humans coexisted with dinosaurs. Where I live, many believe evolution to be synonymous with atheism, and there are those who strongly feel I am teaching heresy to thousands of students. A local pastor, whom I’ve never met, wrote an article in the University Christian complaining that, not only was I teaching evolution and ignoring creationism, I was teaching it as a non-Christian, alternative religion.

There are students who enroll in my courses and already accept evolution. Although not yet particularly knowledgeable on the subject, they are eager to learn more. Then there are the students whose minds are already sealed shut to the possibility that evolution exists, but need to take my class to fulfill a college requirement. And then there are the students who have no opinion one way or the other but are open-minded. These are the students I most hope to reach by presenting them with convincing and overwhelming evidence without offending or alienating them.”

"It ain’t what you don’t know that gets you into trouble. It’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so." ― Charles F. Kettering

“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.” ― Daniel J. Boorstin

"The trouble with the world is not that people know too little, it’s that they know so many things that just aren't so." ― Mark Twain (?)

"The greatest obstacle to discovery is not ignorance - it is the illusion of knowledge." ― Daniel J. Boorstin 

Dunning–Kruger effect and We are All Confident Idiots

Angelina Davydova: Lake Baikal Water Levels at 30 Year Low→

Angelina Davydova, reporting for Reuters:

Délirante bestiole, Flickr

“In Russia’s Siberian south, near the border of Mongolia, the world’s largest freshwater lake is shrinking. The surrounding communities depend on Lake Baikal, which contains about one-fifth of the earth’s unfrozen freshwater reserves, for their power, water and livelihoods.

But in the past four months the lake’s water level has dropped so low that experts are calling it a crisis – one they warn could lead to conflicts in Russia over water. The lake is now at its lowest level in over 30 years and experts predict it will keep dropping until melting mountain snow and spring rains begin to recharge the lake around late April or mid-May...

For now, the government is allowing the Irkutsk hydroelectric power station to continue drawing river water that might otherwise have supplied the lake in order to keep the region supplied with heat, power and clean water.”

NASA; Irkutsk Dam on the lake's southeast outlet, the Angara River

Wendell Berry: As Farmers Fade, Who Will Care for the American Landscape?→

Wendy Berry, writing for the Atlantic:

CJ Buckwalker, Flickr

“The landscapes of our country are now virtually deserted. In the vast, relatively flat acreage of the Midwest now given over exclusively to the production of corn and soybeans, the number of farmers is lower than it has ever been. I don’t know what the average number of acres per farmer now is, but I do know that you often can drive for hours through those corn-and-bean deserts without seeing a human being beyond the road ditches, or any green plant other than corn and soybeans. Any people you may see at work, if you see any at work anywhere, almost certainly will be inside the temperature-controlled cabs of large tractors, the connection between the human organism and the soil organism perfectly interrupted by the machine. Thus we have transposed our culture, our cultural goal, of sedentary, indoor work to the fields. Some of the “field work,” unsurprisingly, is now done by airplanes.

This contact, such as it is, between land and people is now brief and infrequent, occurring mainly at the times of planting and harvest. The speed and scale of this work have increased until it is impossible to give close attention to anything beyond the performance of the equipment. The condition of the crop of course is of concern and is observed, but not the condition of the land. And so the technological focus of industrial agriculture by which species diversity has been reduced to one or two crops is reducing human participation ever nearer to zero. Under the preponderant rule of “labor-saving,” the worker’s attention to the work place has been effectively nullified even when the worker is present. The “farming” of corn-and-bean farmers—and of others as fully industrialized—has been brought down from the complex arts of tending or husbanding the land to the application of purchased inputs according to the instructions conveyed by labels and operators’ manuals.”

Read more. If you read anything today read this, then read more from Wendell Berry... 

Joe Fellegy: A Look at Lakeshore and Fish Issues with Biologist-Author Paul Radomski

Joe Fellegy

Joe Fellegy, reporting for Outdoor News:

“After three decades with the Minnesota DNR, Paul Radomski can boast a longtime deep immersion into Minnesota’s diverse lake scenes, from fish and fisheries management to related aquatic and shoreland habitats.”

Read more

MN DNR: Governor's Buffer Initative

Minnesota DNR:

ScootterFllix, Filckr

“Governor Mark Dayton has proposed an initiative aimed at protecting Minnesota’s waters from erosion and runoff pollution.

Known as the Buffer Initiative, the legislation requires at least 50 feet of perennial vegetation around Minnesota’s waters. Buffers help filter out phosphorus, nitrogen, and sediment by slowing runoff, trapping sediment with these pollutants and allowing vegetation to absorb them.”

Good summary of riparian conditions across Minnesota, a collection of shoreline buffer reports, a review of the Governor's proposal, and links to the buffer bills currently being debated.

Aggressive Plan Aims to Separate Crops from Waterways→

Elizabeth Dunbar, reporting for MPR:

“That the governor and members of both parties are pushing a law requiring buffers is significant, say those who have advocated buffers for years. It’s galvanized members of conservation groups like the Izaak Walton League of America. Don Arnosti, who represents the group, called it “one of the strongest initiatives that could be in the broadest public interest in pursuit of clean water.”

The bill would require buffers in place by September 2016. Current law mandates buffers along about 36 percent of the waterways in the state, according to a state agency analysis, so the change would be significant.

Republican Rep. Denny McNamara, who chairs the House Environment and Natural Resources Policy and Finance Committee, said it faces an uphill battle at the Legislature.”

Minnesota Buffer Legislation→

Dave Orrick, writing for the St. Paul Pioneer Press:

“Gov. Mark Dayton’s vision to use wildlife habitat to protect Minnesota waters from pollution runoff and erosion is ready for action at the state Capitol.

In January, the Democratic-Farmer-Labor governor delighted and surprised conservationists by announcing he would push for a 50-foot buffer strip of vegetation along every stream, drainage ditch and river in the state. On Tuesday, a bill containing that vision — and with at least some Republican support — will be heard by an environmental committee of the Republican-controlled House.

Development of the plan, inspired by pheasant hunters seeking ways to boost the state’s declining bird numbers, is being closely watched by environmentalists and farmers alike. The plan would strengthen and close loopholes in existing state law and, at least as initially envisioned by Dayton, create some 125,000 acres of wildlife habitat along waterways that often are failing the state’s water-quality goals.

Among the beneficiaries, supporters believe, would be butterflies; pollinators, such as bees; songbirds; waterfowl; fish and other aquatic life; and degraded waters, especially in farm country. But the expense could be borne by farmers, who might be forced to take cash- producing corn and soybean rows out of production in favor of other plantings.”

Governor Dayton's quotes

Why are Developers Still Building Sprawl?→

Alana Semuels, writing for the Atlantic:

MyBiggestFan, Flickr

“LAS VEGAS—A decade ago, home builders put up thousands of new spacious stucco homes in the desert here, with marble countertops, ample square footage, and walk-in kitchen cupboards.

Then the recession hit, the values of these homes plummeted, and economists talked of the overbuilding of Las Vegas.

Now, though, developers are building once again, on projects derailed during the recession, including master-planned communities such as the 1,700-acre Skye Canyon, the 2,700-acre Park Highlands, the 1,900-acre Inspirada, and 555 acres of luxury living in an area called Summerlin.

The homes being built here and in many cities across the country look very similar to the ones built during the boom. Some, in fact, are even bigger. The average single-family home built in 2013 was 2,598 square feet, 80 feet larger than the average single-family house built in 2008, and 843 feet larger than homes built in 1978, according to Census Bureau data...

It may be surprising to hear that so little has changed in the homebuilding industry since the recession, especially in Las Vegas, one of the epicenters of the housing bust. After all, low gas prices aside, surveys suggest that both Boomers and younger generations are interested in living in more urban places where they don’t have to spend so much time in the car getting to and from work. They also don’t mind smaller homes, especially if they’re close to public transit or retail or restaurants. And studies have shown that sprawl has negative health impacts: People who live in far-out suburbs walk less, eat more, and exercise less than those who live in urban environments.”

Minnesota Shoreland Buffer Laws Inconsistently Enforced→

Doug Smith, reporting for the Star Tribune:

Dakota County Photo

“Farmer Ken Betzold has planted 50-foot-wide buffer strips on more than 1½ miles of riverland he owns in Dakota County.

And not entirely for charitable reasons. A state law requires such buffers along some lakes, rivers and streams in agricultural areas. And unlike some Minnesota counties, Dakota County strictly enforces it.

Though the requirement means taking some cropland out of production, Betzold, 72, of Castle Rock Township, sees the benefit of the buffer strips.

“It stops dirt from running into the river, and cleans the water,’’ he said. “There’s a cost, but you have to weigh that with the benefits to the environment.””

What is the Best Urbanization or Conservation Strategy?→

Dave Levitan, writing for Conservation Magazine: Conservation this Week:

Scorpions and Centaurs; Flickr

“Cities are going to get bigger. With more than half the world now living in urban areas, and that percentage growing steadily, that means the concrete and steel will have to stretch out into areas that are currently forest and farm and grass. But just letting that process happen without a plan is likely to be a very bad idea.

A study published in the journal Landscape and Urban Planning simulated the urbanization process in the Piedmont region of North Carolina out to 2032. The question the authors posed was, essentially, what land will suffer in favor of the ever-growing city?

“The application of conservation planning scenarios in land change modeling is often implemented by simply treating priority areas as protected, essentially removing them from eligibility for development,” the authors wrote. “However, full protection of all priority resources is highly unlikely in urbanizing areas.” By understanding what types of policies are likely to result in the best use of land, that type of failed prohibition might be avoided.”

Simulating urbanization scenarios reveals tradeoffs between conservation planning strategies

“Monica A. Dorning, Jennifer Koch, Douglas A. Shoemaker, and Ross K. Meentemeyer

Abstract
Land that is of great value for conservation can also be highly suitable for human use, resulting in competition between urban development and the protection of natural resources. To assess the effectiveness of proposed regional land conservation strategies in the context of rapid urbanization, we measured the impacts of simulated development patterns on two distinct conservation goals: protecting priority natural resources and limiting landscape fragmentation. Using a stochastic, patch-based land change model (FUTURES) we projected urbanization in the North Carolina Piedmont according to status quo trends and several conservation-planning strategies, including constraints on the spatial distribution of development, encouraging infill, and increasing development density. This approach allows simulation of population-driven land consumption without excluding the possibility of development, even in areas of high conservation value. We found that if current trends continue, new development will consume 11% of priority resource lands, 21% of forested land, and 14% of farmlands regionally by 2032. We also found that no single conservation strategy was optimal for achieving both conservation goals. For example, strategies that excluded development from priority areas caused increased fragmentation of forests and farmlands, while infill strategies increased loss of priority resources proximal to urban areas. Exploration of these land change scenarios not only confirmed that a failure to act is likely to result in irreconcilable losses to a conservation network, but that all conservation plans are not equivalent in effect, highlighting the importance of analyzing tradeoffs between alternative conservation planning approaches.”

Minnesota Governor Proposes 50-foot Shoreline Buffer Enforcement→

Dave Orrick, reporting for the Pioneer Press:

Dave Orrick

“Gov. Mark Dayton said Friday that he will ask the Legislature to expand the law protecting Minnesota streams and ditches against erosion and chemical runoff.

At an annual Department of Natural Resources meeting on outdoors issues in Brooklyn Park, Dayton said he wants a minimum 50-foot buffer strip protecting every stream, drainage ditch and river in the state...

Current state laws mandate vegetative buffers of 50 feet or 16.5 feet around many waterways in agricultural lands, but the laws aren’t uniformly enforced, and many waters are exempt.

As a result, crops often are planted up to the edge of those waterways and runoff polluted with fertilizer and pesticides can spill into the water, eventually reach the Mississippi River.

”The rules are inconsistent, and they’re enforced inconsistently,” Dayton said. “I would propose that a 50-foot buffer be required on all riparian lands in Minnesota, and that 50-foot buffer be enforced, and I mean enforced.”

American's Suburban Experiment→

Charles Marohn, writing for Strong Towns:

“Concurrent with the advent of the automobile came many other technological and social changes that allowed modern humans to dream big. Cheap fossil fuels. Advanced communication technology. Centralization of decision-making. Proactive management of the national economy. We attacked the problems of the traditional city with the fervor of a great nation empowered to think differently.

We developed different building types. Different building styles. We came up with different ways of arranging things on the landscape and different ways of connecting these places. We developed an entirely new system of regulation to rapidly replicate this new pattern along with the financing mechanisms and economic incentives to make it happen.

This all seems normal to us today – for most of us, it is all we have ever known – but it is critical to understand that, in the course of human history, the American development pattern is one of the greatest social, cultural and financial experiments ever attempted. The knowledge we apply daily in this experiment wasn’t developed by trial and error over the slow grind of centuries. ”

If into a social experiment you go without adapting, only pain will result when the experiment becomes unsustainable. Then the dark side will cloud everything.

Thinking of One's Legacy Produces an Environmentalist→

Tom Jacobs, writing for the Pacific Standard:

Stuart Monk/Shutterstock

“Most Americans believe that climate change is occurring. But as a recent Pew survey confirms, we don’t view it as a high-priority problem. After all, we reason, its most severe impacts won’t be felt for decades. So why change our behavior now?

New research points to a simple way to shift this maddening mindset. A team led by Columbia University psychologist Lisa Zaval finds people take the issue of environmental sustainability much more seriously if they have been thinking about their legacy.”

In a dark place we find ourselves, and a little more thought of the future lights our way.”

Big Farms and Groundwater→

Kate Golden, reporting for WisconsinWatch:

USDA; Flickr.com

“Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Secretary Cathy Stepp on Tuesday declined a large dairy farm’s request that she overturn an administrative law judge’s ruling on its water discharge permit.

Among those watching the case for potential statewide impact are rural residents, groundwater advocates and farmers — including Kinnard Farms co-owner Lee Kinnard, whose permit is at issue. “It doesn’t affect Kinnard Farms. This affects the dairy industry,” Kinnard said. “This is much bigger.” The Kewaunee County farm plans to expand by 55 percent to about 6,200 cattle. But neighbors challenged its permit. They wanted the DNR to impose groundwater monitoring and a cap on the number of cattle.

After a four-day hearing including testimony from both sides, Judge Jeffrey Boldt ordered those conditions. In his Oct. 29 ruling, Boldt blamed widespread well pollution in the area on what he called a “massive regulatory failure.””

When you fail to consider groundwater, careful you must be. For the loss of groundwater bites back.

Higher Density Needs Mixed Use→

Bill Lindeke, writing for Streets.mn:

“I was surprised when I got to my buddy’s place because, though it was in the middle of nowhere, my friend’s house wasn’t a house per se. Rather, he’d bought an attached townhome that was part of a long row of similar complexes in a brand new greenfield development, complete with sidewalks and quasi-porches and a pleasant almost grid-like street network.

Looking out at the sidewalks, I turned and asked my friend, “So where’s do you walk to?”

He looked at me blankly. “Um. People walk their dogs?”

The useless sidewalks in my friend’s strange middle-of-nowhere quasi-urban neighborhood got me thinking, so I started looking around for places where you have relatively urban densities, but no urban diversity. There are lots of these places, and not just in the suburbs. It doesn’t make any sense, but there you have it. Let’s meet some of them!”

We must unlearn what we have learned with our failed suburban experiment.

Skyrocketing Gun Sales Have Helped Conserve Butterflies→

Christie Aschwanden, reporting for FiveThirtyEight:

TexasEagle / Flickr.com

“The Nature Conservancy has a project in the works near Saratoga, New York, that will preserve an area that’s already home to these lupines and butterflies, and much of the program’s funding comes from the sales of guns and ammunition. For that, Karner conservationists can thank the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act.

Passed by Congress in 1937 and commonly referred to as the Pittman-Robertson Act, it sets an excise tax of 10 to 11 percent on the sale of guns and ammunition, paid by manufacturers at the wholesale level. Prior to the law’s passage, guns and ammunition were already subject to taxes, but the Act ensured that the money was set aside to protect game species and their habitats. The law has helped bring deer and elk back from the brink in areas in the East, but it’s also given refuge to many non-game species, like the Karner blue butterfly. At another project in New York, Pittman-Robertson money is helping to protect 5,000 acres of grouse, turkey and deer habitat, and all the snowy owls and other birds of prey that come with it. Troy Weldy, senior conservation manager at the Nature Conservancy’s New York chapter, said the project “could create a premier birding destination.”

Environmentalists who don’t hunt might not think they have much in common with the guy tromping off into the woods with a gun. Yet hunters and anglers have a long history of land stewardship, said John Gale, national sportsmen campaigns manager at the National Wildlife Federation. At the time the Pittman-Robertson Act was passed, widespread hunting had cleared deer and other big game from large areas along the Eastern Seaboard. Realizing that the sustainability of their pastime was at risk, hunters banded together to urge legislative action. “Hunters are the original conservationists — we’ve been carrying wildlife and fish on our back for a long time,” Gale said.”

Hmm. In the end, hunters are those who saved shards of nature.