Genetically Engineered Chestnut Trees

In coordination with Penn State's School of Forestry and College of Agriculture, we began growing genetically engineered BC1and BC3 generation chestnuts at the Wood House Farm in 2006, just a year after planting about 40 100% American chestnuts (Castanea dentata).  We currently have over 70 chestnuts (representatives of or hybrids of C. dentata and C. mollissima) at different life stages.

from PSMag.com:


Is the genetically engineered chestnut tree an act of ecological restoration or a threat to wild forests?

The day after Earth Day at the New York Botanical Garden was one of those spring stunners when half the city had come out to get their nature fix after a long, gray winter. Couples lolled on the lawns and shot photos of babies beneath blossoming crab apples. Parents pushing strollers past Azalea Garden and up Daffodil Hill eyed me suspiciously as I sidled up to a scraggly bare tree beside the path.

Amid 250 acres of gorgeous organisms, this specimen was the homeliest of the bunch. Twelve feet tall, with spindly gray branches and raw cankers shredding its trunk, it was not likely to be featured in any baby photos that day. Yet I had come all the way from Vermont to see it. The draw for me wasn't looks; it was the fact that the tree was alive at all. Here was a 10-year-old American chestnut, one of the first in a century to make it that long.

The American chestnut has been called the redwood of the East. From Georgia to Maine, up and

Plant and Pest Programs from Next Door

Resources for 
farmers and other ag producers and researchers from neighboring Virginia: the Office of Plant Industry Services protects agricultural and horticultural economic interests by overseeing compliance with a variety of laws.

Click here.

Plant & Pest Programs

• Beekeeping & Apiary Inspection
• Boxwood Blight 
• Coyote Control
• Plant Pathology
• Endangered Species
• Export Certification
• Ginseng
• Industrial Hemp
• Noxious Weeds
• Nursery Inspection
• Plant Pest Survey & Detection

Outdoor Learning is Good for Teachers Too.

An Hour or Two of Outdoor Learning Every Week Increases Teachers’ Job Satisfaction

Science Daily - July 5, 2019 | By Editor | News Round Up

A Swansea University study has revealed how as little as an hour a week of outdoor learning has tremendous benefits for children and also boosts teachers' job satisfaction.

Through interviews and focus groups, researchers explored the views and experiences of pupils and educators at three primary schools in south Wales that had adopted an outdoor learning programme, which entailed teaching the curriculum in the natural environment for at least an hour a week.

New Effort to Protect Rivers from Slaughterhouse Pollution

Public Interest Groups Launch Legal Action to Protect Waterways from Slaughterhouse Pollution

July 2, 2019

EPA’s Failure to Update Wastewater Guidelines is Allowing Contamination of Nation’s Waterways

Betsy Nicholas, Waterkeepers Chesapeake, (202) 423-0504 or betsy@waterkeeperschesapeake.org
Washington, D.C.— Conservation groups today filed a formal notice of intent to sue the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for failing to update slaughterhouse wastewater guidelines as required by the Clean Water Act.

More than 8 billion chickens, 100 million hogs, and 30 million beef cattle are processed each year in more than 5,000 slaughterhouses across the country. An estimated 4,700 of these are currently allowed to discharge processed wastewater directly into waterways or to publicly-owned treatment plants.

“Many of these dirty slaughterhouses contribute to impairments in the waterways where they discharge their pollution,” said Sylvia Lam, Attorney with the Environmental Integrity Project. “The most polluting plants also release far more pollution than the cleanest plants. EPA needs to step in, set stronger national water pollution standards for meat and poultry processing plants, and level the playing field.”

The Clean Water Act requires the EPA to annually review, and potentially strengthen, industry-wide water pollution standards—called effluent limitation guidelines —for slaughterhouses to ensure the

Job openings in flood control dam maintenance

Ticks!

Surge of Ticks Expected in the Northeast, Mid-Atlantic States Due to Wet, Mild Winter

By

Dave Bloom

-

Record setting precipitation combined with mild temperatures this winter are setting the stage for an explosion in the tick population this spring, according to researchers at Rutgers University.

“Ticks, like most small organisms, are very sensitive to dry weather. It kills them,” said Dina M. Fonseca, a Rutgers entomology professor and director of its the Center for Vector Biology. “But we have been experiencing exceptionally wet seasons. It slows down their decline in number. So we could end up for a very large population this year.”

The Northeast and Mid-Atlantic experienced above average precipitation and temperatures during the winter months leading to this spring. According to New Jersey State climatologist David Robinson, the Garden State averaged 64.8 inches of precipitation in 2018 — the wettest year on record — followed by a winter featuring the 13th-most precipitation since 1895.

Ticks are known for spreading a host of diseases like ehrlichiosis, tularemia, and Lyme Disease, but the Lone Star Tick is also known to cause alpha-gal syndrome where one develops an allergy to a sugar found in red meat and in some medications.

The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) provides the following advice for preventing tick bites:

:

Before You Go Outdoors

Know where to expect ticks. Ticks live in grassy, brushy, or wooded areas, or even on animals. Spending time outside walking your dog, camping, gardening, or hunting could bring you in close contact with ticks. Many people get ticks in their own yard or neighborhood.

Treat clothing and gear with products containing 0.5% permethrin. Permethrin can be used to treat boots, clothing and camping gear and remain protective through several washings. Alternatively, you can buy permethrin-treated clothing and gear.

Use Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) registered insect repellents containing DEET, picaridin, IR3535, Oil of Lemon Eucalyptus (OLE), para-menthane-diol (PMD), or 2-undecanone. EPA’s helpful search tool can help you find the product that best suits your needs. Always follow product instructions.

• Do not use insect repellent on babies younger than 2 months old.
• Do not use products containing OLE or PMD on children under 3 years old.

Avoid Contact with Ticks

• Avoid wooded and brushy areas with high grass and leaf litter.
• Walk in the center of trails.

After You Come Indoors

Check your clothing for ticks. Ticks may be carried into the house on clothing. Any ticks that are found should be removed. Tumble dry clothes in a dryer on high heat for 10 minutes to kill ticks on dry clothing after you come indoors. If the clothes are damp, additional time may be needed. If the clothes require washing first, hot water is recommended. Cold and medium temperature water will not kill ticks.

Examine gear and pets. Ticks can ride into the home on clothing and pets, then attach to a person later, so carefully examine pets, coats, and daypacks.

Shower soon after being outdoors. Showering within two hours of coming indoors has been shown to reduce your risk of getting Lyme disease and may be effective in reducing the risk of other tickborne diseases. Showering may help wash off unattached ticks and it is a good opportunity to do a tick check.

Check your body for ticks after being outdoors. Conduct a full body check upon return from potentially tick-infested areas, including your own backyard. Use a hand-held or full-length mirror to view all parts of your body. Check these parts of your body and your child’s body for ticks:

• Under the arms
• In and around the ears
• Inside belly button
• Back of the knees
• In and around the hair
• Between the legs
• Around the waist

Sources:

• Mild winter, wet 2018 may cause surge in ticks in NJ, Northeast – NorthJersey.com
• Preventing tick bites – CDC

April Showers - May Flowers, May Showers - Flash Flooding

But while flash floods make the larger South Branch muddy, they don't necessarily result in larger flooding unless the weather system travels North-Northeast along the watershed.  This week we'll likely on see a swollen muddy South Branch.

We're in the clear, but the river will rise

WV Water Resources Concerns

register-herald.com

Water rich, water poor: WVU professor shares his views on the state's most important resource

When bean counters tabulate the profitable natural resources of West Virginia, calculations are made about the coal that is hauled out of the rugged and rural mountain landscape or the natural gas being captured from thousands of wells in increasing volumes. There remains a vast supply of timber, too.

But for Nicolas Zegre, an associate professor of forest hydrology at West Virginia University and the director of the university's Mountain Hydrology Laboratory, the most important and largely overlooked commodity in the state is water.

Zegre is studying the state's water security, how climate change could impact the state's supply and how the state can position itself to benefit from what he believes is its most valuable resource.

On April 1, Zegre presented the media with the work, some findings and future possibilities for the Mountain Hydrology Laboratory at WVU's Academic Media Day in Morgantown.

The hydrology professor said that his lab's work centered on predicting climate in the state and the greater Appalachian region by compiling modeling of climate patterns and possibilities.

***

According to Zegre, the historical temperature range of West Virginia falls between

Hampshire man pleads to EPA crimes

Friday, April 5-7, 15 min ago
MAKING HEADLINES

Hampshire man pleads to EPA crimes


MARTINSBURG — A Springfield man has pled guilty to discharging untreated sewage into the North Branch of the Potomac River.

Timothy Peer, 55, faces 3 years in prison and upwards of $500,000 in fines for charges of falsifying reports, violating his permit, polluting and mail fraud.
Peer admitted in Martinsburg federal court Wednesday that he failed to maintain a treatment plant he owned at Mountainaire Village near Ridgeley and that he falsified quarterly reports.

Visit www.HampshireReview.com or Hampshire Review every day for the latest news of importance here.