First Helping of Acronym Soup with a Side of Data
By Jeffery Robichaud
I was standing up in front of a class of students comprised mostly of seniors at Park University last Monday for their last class on U.S. 
Environmental Regulations. One of the questions I asked of them was which environmental law do they believe is the most important and why? Driving home after class I realized I’m not sure I could answer that question easily.
The reality is that it is tough to compare environmental laws, and even tougher to choose amongst those if forced to choose a single one. So I won’t, however the drive home gave me the idea that I might highlight environmental laws and regulations in the context of data and information, particularly of the geospatial kind. Most environmental regulations are better known by their acronyms; RCRA, SDWA, FIFRA, EPCRA, NEPA, etc., so today I bring you the first spoonful of environmental acronym soup.
My choice for the first environmental law was easy, since I briefly mentioned it in a January post. The Endangered Species Act (ESA) was established in 1973 to conserve endangered and threatened species and the ecosystems on which they depend. It is administered primarily by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS). You can find out more about the ESA by clicking here. The Environmental Protection Act interacts with the USFWS regarding the ESA routinely, most notably around what is known as consultations (Section 7 of the Act for those that want to look it up).
In conducting our work it is important to ensure that our actions are not likely to jeopardize the continued existence of listed species or adversely modify critical habitat. Regarding the latter, the USFWS has helped all of us out with a Critical Habitat Portal, which allows individuals to search for habitat based on a particular species. You can download shapefiles and metadata for use in your own mapping projects or, use their convenient Critical Habitat Mapper to get some quick results (like the locations of Critical Habitat for the Topeka Shiner, a threatened and endangered (T&E) species here in Region 7).
Data on the locations of T&E species is a bit trickier. They can obviously be inferred from the Critical Habitat Mapper and many states maintain information usually at the county-level regarding known and historic ranges of T&E species. However, an organization called Nature Serve can provide more specific information regarding locations depending on the intended uses of the data and the project. They serve as the repository for detailed and reliable locality data (“element occurrences”) from State Conservation departments documenting the precise locations of rare and endangered species and threatened ecological communities. From time to time we need this information at a finer scale to ensure that a specific activity is mindful of the presence of these species.
So there you have it… the ESA with a side of T&E data. I haven’t decided what acronym I want to tackle next, but I’m taking requests. Be sure to tip your GIS specialist (with data of course).
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. Jeff’s favorite T&E species is the Gray Wolf but he also thinks the Plains Spotted Skunk is pretty darn cute.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Horse of a Different Color
By Cynthia Cassel
Well, it’s getting close to that special season again; when our view of the world around us goes from sepia to brilliant color and little flowers sing a welcome to us when we step out the door. Oh, wait, either I’m having those annoying delusions again or I’m confusing real life with a certain movie.
Either way, I’m pretty happy that when twister season begins we can see it happen in all its powerful glory. You may think I’m crazy (having delusions was kind of a hint), but I love to watch storms and particularly ones that portend a tornado. Our tornado drill earlier this week also brought this to mind, although it was a bit strange to look out the window at fields of snow as sirens blared.
Oh, don’t get me wrong. I may be crazy, but I’m not stupid. When the sirens beckon, I reluctantly take my snarling cat and my purring husband down to our safe place in the basement. Maybe I got that last sentence backward, but you get my drift.
But before I head downstairs, I love to sit on the back porch and watch the sky. The towering cotton balls of cloud standing in bas relief against a deep grey sky signal the beginning. As the sky darkens, I’m always transfixed by how many shades of purple-slate nature’s ceiling can take on. The best of all is when everything turns that bilious yellow-green like a dragon about to heave his last meal. It’s scary and wondrous all at the same time.
And I watch with utter fascination as a line across the sky sends tendrils of cloud downward toward the earth. I watch the bottom line of those clouds carefully and patiently to see which of those tiny tendrils might descend and grow, heralding the beginning of another anxious season. I always feel a thrill when before my very eyes I witness the birth and death of a tornado as a tendril forms, descends, then is sucked back into its mother-cloud.
What makes twister season so enthralling to me is the overwhelming power of it all. The simple fact that a cool breeze becomes a strong wind then becomes a force of such great destruction that it flattens whole towns. I’m always gob-smacked by that feeling of breathlessness when suddenly the wind stops dead; the air becoming thick and heavy. The humbling effect of clouds that are so very beautiful to behold can become so alarmingly black that street lights come on in a display of confusion. How a lovely sunny day turns into an angry hissing mess that makes adults run to hide like little children.
We are forced to take cover, and yet, there is a longing deep in my heart to watch it all play out. My husband thinks I should have chosen meteorology as my career path. I have no desire to stand in a TV studio blathering on about the weather-I want to watch as it unfolds. If I had to watch a screen I probably would watch the beautiful site Casey shared last year, where you can literally watch the wind from your computer.
Don’t even get me started about our booming Kansas summer thunderstorms. I get up in the middle of the night to traipse out to the back porch and just sit in amazement at the show. It helps that Mother Nature hasn’t included any obnoxious commercials with this fabulous production.
So, my friends come join me sometime while I watch and listen to one of the most amazing and terrifying events that our atmosphere has to offer. I’ll put on a pot of coffee and you bring the cookies. To really appreciate what’s happening you have to be willing to sit patiently for a while. There’s plenty of room on my back porch and I’d welcome your observations in the “Merry Old Land of Oz”, home to over 3,700 tornados.
Cynthia Cassel is a SEE Grantee where, for 3-1/2 years, she has worked with the Wetland and Streams team in the Water branch. Cynthia received her BS from Park University and lives in Overland Park where she regularly carries a bag of rocks so as to remain safely earthbound.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
The Devil’s Corner
By Regina Klepikow
I grew up in South Texas. My father’s family was from Laredo, Texas and occupied a half a block of El Rincon del Diablo, the Devils Corner for years and still do to this very day. My father was born on one of the first streets in America, Ventura Street. The house he grew up in had minimal luxuries and his back yard was the Rio Grande. As a child, my brothers and I would visit our aunts, uncles, and cousins who lived there. We would play kick ball in the open area next to our families’ houses. We could clearly see the U.S Border Patrol Bridge and across that Mexico. We used to explore the edge of the Rio Grande and skip rocks across its waters. When I was walking along the banks, I could clearly see trails and personal belongings that others had left behind. Into the dark murky waters of the Rio Grande, I watched even darker waters pouring into the river from drains and spouts at various points along the bank. As a kid, no one really thinks of water quality and the health impacts of poor waters; but I thought in my mind that something was amiss.
Growing up, I always wondered who was in charge of the river. I thought there has to be someone out there that checks up on this. As I did some research, I found some articles written by EPA about the water quality of the Rio Grande, and realized that Mexico was not subject to our policies. Upon entering college, I wrote an essay about Water Quality in the Rio Grande for a scholarship.
Now that I am out of college and an EPA employee, I have learned a lot about our nation’s water bodies. I feel that I am an important part of analyzing our water quality here in Region 7. I have analyzed water samples for inorganic contaminants, nutrients, and currently for microbiological contaminants. I never thought that I would ever be doing something that pertained to my scholarship essay or my childhood thoughts. It seems as though it has all come full circle.
Region 7 has a great app called KCWaterBug. During warmer months, I use this app a lot. My daughter and I love to go out to our local creeks and rivers to look for fossils and insects. She has a large insect collection and we are building on our fossil collection. Upon checking the app, my daughter and I will determine if we will go to a nearby stream or wait for another day. If the water quality is good, we go on a little hike. It is fun to pass time by skipping rocks and following the banks and turning over rocks. It is even better when we come across fossils like Rugose coral or fossilized bivalves. We have also run across others who search for fossils or arrowheads along the banks too. Hopefully some day, my daughter will recall our fossil hunting trips as fondly as I remember skipping rocks back near the Devil’s Corner. I know she is just as interested in learning how to restore and preserve our waters for the two of us to enjoy, and one day, for her own children.
Regina Klepikow was born and grew up in south Texas. She relocated to Kansas City with her family in the 90’s where she attended high school and college. She loves art and photography but not wanting to live the life of a starving artist she majored in Biology. Currently she is a Life Scientist at the Region 7 Laboratory. In order to let her artistic creativity out, she has devoted herself iPhone photography and is avid Instagrammer.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Which One of These States is not Like the Other?
By Jeffery Robichaud
Last year, accompanied by much fanfare (both positive and negative) the University of Missouri bid farewell to the Big 12 and moved to the SEC. I won’t weigh in on the move with one exception. In keeping with the geographical thread of this blog, I have never seen a map on which Missouri is considered to be in the Southeast part of the United States (the SE in the SEC). In fact there was a day, back at the beginning of our country, when Missouri was considered the West. Depending on which side of the Missouri River you lived, you found yourself either in “Barren Country covered with Efflorescent Salt” or “Very Fruitful Country” as depicted in a pre-Lewis and Clark map.
So now Missouri is the only one of our four states with a University not found in a “Big” conference (take that SEC!). Just because they don’t belong to a “big” conference doesn’t mean they don’t have big data. In fact we’ve worked with several organizations in Missouri that serve as great resources for those in the geospatial business. Three such exist at the University of Missouri.
- MSDIS (pronounced Miz – Diz) is the Missouri Spatial Data Information Service, a spatial data retrieval and archival system at the University of Missouri. They have a ton of cool data ranging from normal stuff like roads and waterways to cool stuff like locations of sinkholes and zebra mussels.
- Our friends over at MORAP, the Missouri Resource Assessment Partnership, focus on coordinated approaches to projects with funding from multiple shared sources to minimize costs. Holly Mehl, from EPA Region 7, has highlighted some of our joint work with MORAP here and here.
- Last but not least, another site we frequently visit is CARES, the Center for Applied Research and Environmental Systems. CARES focuses on understanding human and natural systems through integration of social and natural sciences in a GIS setting, including such projects as the Community Issues Management mapper.
So that concludes our round robin of some of the GIS sites found in our four States, which we started during bowl season and finished before March Madness. You can check out our previous posts on Nebraska, Iowa, and Kansas, and be sure to share with us your favorite GIS sites from KS, IA, NE, and MO (or elsewhere for that matter). What is your go-to site for data?
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. In full disclosure, he lives in Missouri and will probably end up sending one kid to MU and one kid to KU. Here he is with his Tiger fan at the last Border Showdown at Arrowhead Stadium (which Mizzou won handily).
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
How Accurate is Too Accurate?
By Jeffery Robichaud
In the world of GIS, accuracy is one of the names of the game. A map is a two (and lately three) dimensional representation of the earth as well as important features found in our environment. We expect maps and the underlying geospatial data used to develop maps to be accurate. In fact we expect them to become more and more accurate as time passes due to advances in technology. Older GPS units used to be notoriously inaccurate, with an accuracy and precision that sometimes could literally be described as in the ballpark, but many of today’s units have sub-meter accuracy. There will always be issues associated with accuracy (or at minimum the illusion/perception of accuracy as Casey previously detailed), but are there situations where too much accuracy is a bad thing? Yes.
If you have ever perused BingMaps or GoogleEarth you know there are certain spots across the country where imagery is not as accurate as it could be. For instance in Washington, DC everything becomes pixilated at the corner of 17th H St NW, not because one moves into the world of Minecraft (if you are old like me…ask your kids) but because of homeland security concerns. I used to drive down 17th when I lived in the Northwest section of DC, and believe me it’s there.
And a quick Google of thoughts and comments on Google Streetview will yield you a lively discussion on issues of privacy, oftentimes because of how accurate or inaccurate images can be. In fact I understand that companies like Google and Microsoft go to great pains to ensure anonymity by fuzzing faces, license plates, and other personal information.
Homeland Security and Privacy are easy to point to as necessitating less accurate information for public consumption but what about the environment and natural resources? Is there ever a need to fuzz data?
Actually there is a data set that is just as important for those of us who care about flora and fauna; the locations of threatened and endangered species throughout the United States. Their locations and ranges are important for federal and state organizations charged with protecting and restoring populations in accordance with the requirements of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). But the presence of exact locations in the hands of individuals with less than scrupulous intentions could result in purposeful takes of species (what the ESA euphemistically calls the killing/harvesting of an endangered species). Thankfully, governance of this sensitive data is tight and is coordinated through an organization called NatureServe. Not all countries are so fortunate to have a coordinated program looking out for endangered species sightings. In the past, well intentioned tourists to Africa have blogged/tweeted about their encounters with endangered mammals, providing poachers with timely and sometimes fairly accurate locational data as well as pictures documenting the whereabouts of Elephants and Rhinos. This Story ran on NPR last December about elephants in Tanzania. Hopefully Social Media continues to be used for positive purposes especially when it comes to protection of human health and the environment.
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. Jeff freely admits to not “getting” Minecraft even though his kids have it on every device in the house. He still thinks of the Creeper as a villain on Scooby Doo.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
GIS Data in Iowa — Big (12) Data
By Casey J. McLaughlin
We are well past the “Bowl Season” and March Madness is right around the corner; it is past time we look at some great data sources from the Hawkeye State (sorry Cyclones, that’s what Wikipedia calls it!). In the past, I would start looking for specific data using a general search engine but today, Iowa.gov is a great entry point for all Iowa data. I will highlight a few that I have found the most useful.
The Iowa Geographic Map Server housed at Iowa State (Go Cyclones!) serves a fantastic range of aerial imagery products including images from the today to the 1930’s! The images can be viewed online through their web viewer, downloaded, or consumed directly. The variety of imagery available is amazing (I might have said that already) but I’m excited that it is available to use directly or downloadable giving users to choose what they need. I have not had occasion to use the Iowa Historic Vegetation map but how great is having data from 1832-1859 available??
The Natural resources Geographic Information is brought to you by the Iowa Department of Natural Resources and housed at the University of Iowa (home of the Hawkeyes whom, I must note, reside in the Big 10 conference but they currently have 12 members). The NRGIS is organized with counties in mind as data can be searched and retrieved not only by general theme, but also by county. If I need GIS data for a county, this is where I start, especially since they’ve already clipped all of the data. I am intrigued by historical imagery and have really enjoyed using the Andreas 1875 historical atlas data. You can also view the maps courtesy of the David Rumsey Collection.
Map of Humboldt County, State of Iowa. (Published by the Andreas Atlas Co., Lakeside Building, Chicago, Ills. Engraved & printed by Chas. Shober & Co., Props. of Chicago Lithographing Co.) 1875. Hosted by the David Rumsey Collection
Iowa has strongly supported the public distribution of their data and they have lot of great data out there, what are your favorite Iowa GIS data sets? Are there other sources you’d recommend?
Casey McLaughlin is a first generation Geospatial Enthusiast who has worked with EPA since 2003 as a contractor and now as the Regional GIS Lead. He currently holds the rank of #1 GISer in EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
Whistling Pigs…
By Jeffery Robichaud
A Whistling Pig checking out a map courtesy of the TN Aquarium
Groundhog Day was just over a week ago. Apparently one of the more colorful names for these little guys is the Whistling Pig. I showed my kids the movie for the first time on TV…I think we picked it up where Bill Murray is letting Punxsutawney Phil drive. Just like Phil Connors who spends over 33 years revisiting the same day, I thought I would revisit my Groundhog Day Post of last year.
Punxsutawney Phil be Darned…We’ve Started Spring Cleaning
My kids are hooked on Storage Wars (they love Barry and despise Dave) and my wife and I enjoy Hoarders, probably since it makes us feel like better housekeepers than we really are. At EPA in Kansas City, we are preparing for a transition from one building to another and many of us are beginning to grapple with our pack-rat tendencies and being forced to open long forgotten storage cabinets. Such an endeavor should be easy; and the most important part of it is. Records are saved, stored, and managed in accordance with requisite policies and procedures. Unfortunately scientists tend to amass collections of journal articles, data sets, guidance documents, and even specimens that, while not records, represent a life-time of learning and serve as a record of an individual’s career spent protecting human health and the environment.
Which gets me to the hackneyed phrase, one person’s junk is another’s treasure. Case in point; a colleague of mine uses a discolored booklet which is older than I as a prop for employee training. I grabbed it from him one day and realized the title was, “Everyone can’t live upstream: a contemporary history of water quality problems on the Missouri River, Sioux City, Iowa to Hermann, Missouri.” It just so happened we were working on a Missouri River project, and boom there it was, information not present in EPA’s databases or easily accessible at the time in any library. We were able to use this secondary information to fill in historical gaps for our project. Secondary data analysis, using information collected by someone else for another purpose, can be a fantastic way to provide additional context and relevance to a project as well as save costs assuming the information meets your data quality requirements.
As we all continue our march from the paper age to the electronic, consider making your old information and data available through sites like Data.gov, Socrata, or any number of other open data websites. Although this may be sacrilegious to say, all science doesn’t necessarily make its way into published journals. I’ll be giving this a shot as I clean my cabinets. Who knows, something old and dusty may still be valuable to another person in the future for an entirely new reason. Now if I can just convince my wife that this is the case for my Star Wars lunchboxes.
Well we are all moved in at our new locations, but the point remains the same. We need to keep our eye on data management and continue to find ways to make it accessible to others.
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. One of his life regrets is never driving over to Punxsutawney while attending school in Philadelphia. He also just learned that Bill Murray was bitten three times during the filming of Groundhog Day.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
PAHs in Urban Streams of Kansas City
By Laura Webb
The Water Monitoring Team at EPA Region 7 has been collecting samples in the urban streams of Kansas City since 2006 as shown in the map below. During our non-field sampling season (when the water is generally frozen or near enough to freezing that we don’t want to wade in), we spend a lot of our time evaluating data and trying to figure out what it all means.
Locations of KCWaters urban stream sampling
One particular contaminant of interest of mine has been PAHs (not to be confused with PAW-PAWs which we also find in streams from time to time). Polynuclear Aromatic Hydrocarbons (PAHs) are organic molecules found in oil and other fossil fuels which are released when fuels are burned. In my previous job as a bench chemist, I once analyzed samples collected on a filter from a charcoal production facility. The black, sooty residue was comprised of many, many PAH molecules. So, when charcoal is used to grill meat, the smoky flavor and blacked exterior of the meat contains, you guessed it, PAHs. Hopefully not a large concentration, though, because oh how I do love grilled steak! PAHs are found in auto exhaust, tire particles, gas residue, and coal-tar based sealant, such as is
used on parking lots and road surfaces. In large enough doses, PAHs are toxic to aquatic species that live in streams. Studies have also shown that higher PAH concentration in urban areas can contribute to human health problems, including asthma, anxiety, and lower IQ scores.
In looking at our data, several things are clear. First, that there is not a clear single source of these compounds to our urban waterways in Kansas City. The ratio of PAH compounds to each other and the total can act as a type of chemical fingerprint of the source. Unfortunately for the urban environment, these prints are smeared and difficult to match up to their source.
Compounds can enter the stream water in many ways. For example, there are permitted discharges, storm water runoff, deposition from the air, and even illegal dumping. Some compounds stay dissolved in the water, some combine to form new compounds, some react with sunlight to decompose into other compounds and some, like PAHs, tend to attach to particulates in the water and “sink” down into the sediment (PAHs and many other organic chemicals don’t really like water; they prefer the rich gooey sediments that deposit as water flows around obstacles in the stream). The sediment is a sink, or trap, for these water-phobic compounds. When we collect samples, we obtain a single grab of water at a particular location at a particular time. While it is a single point in time, the flowing water changes every moment, so samples just a few minutes apart could represent completely different pictures of the stream. Sediment samples, on the other hand, are collected throughout the length of the stream site and really represent a depositional history of what was once in the water as it passed a particular spot. That is what causes the smeared chemical fingerprint, and what causes me headaches when trying to figure out where the PAHs in stream sediment come from.
A prime suspect of urban PAH contamination is coal-tar sealant, and it appears to be a heavy contributor in stream sediments especially those related to large areas of impervious surfaces (roads, parking lots, roof tops, surfaces that water cannot penetrate but runs off of). As a matter of fact, the total concentration of PAHs in sediment is closely correlated with both the percentage of impervious surfaces and the percentage of development in the watershed. The fingerprint ratios of sealant versus many urban sediments, especially those with the highest levels of PAHs, match fairly well, although still keeping in mind that sediment is a collection of many sources.
Along with these sealed surfaces are mobile sources in the form of gasoline and diesel burning vehicles. The pollutants deposit from the exhaust, either in the water itself, on the sediment, or surrounding land and are then washed into the streams during runoff events. Some of the sediment fingerprints have traits from petroleum sources but because the sediment is a sink, there is no clear pattern match for this source (but I know it contributes). Along with vehicle exhaust, there is also power plant exhaust, perhaps smoke from nearby restaurants that grill their meat, fireplaces (although we do collect samples in the summer, the deposits occur all year long), waste water treatment discharge, and other industrial processes.There are plenty of sources, and when concentrated together in the urban core, they combine to increase the PAH concentrations in sediment to levels that may be problematic for aquatic life. So that’s a look at one class of compounds we find in the urban environment. For a more complete look, check out our website at www.kcwaters.org.
Laura Webb is a chemist with EPA Region 7’s Water Monitoring Team. She spent her first 16 years with EPA in the regional laboratory, analyzing samples for everything from metals to dioxins. Her current assignment involves ambient water sampling, laboratory analysis, operating the mobile bacteria laboratory, and participating in emergency responses as part of the Response Support Corp.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
The Judas Fish
By Jeffery Robichaud
Invasive Species are a big problem in the United States and throughout much of the world. Here in the Midwest, we have our fair share including the zebra mussel, the bush honeysuckle, and the autumn olive. However none gets more attention than our pal the Asian Carp, perhaps because of their flying feats. Several years ago, I wrote for Greenversations about these problematic Pisces.
They continue to be a nagging invasive in our rivers, as well as in those of our sister Region (5) to the east. Staff routinely spot them when we are out on the Mississippi or Missouri Rivers conducting sampling activities (check out the video below). It almost seems comical, but we have had to amend our Health and Safety plans to add the threat of fish strikes as a potential hazard. Here are our folks on a slooooooowww day.
Our scientists have had lots of discussions on how one might safely and effectively reduce their populations, but apparently scientists in the Land of 10,000 Lakes, have come up with a novel solution: introduction of a Judas Fish. From an article in the Minneapolis Star Tribune, which describes the work of Peter Sorensen, director of the new Minnesota Aquatic Invasive Species Research Center at the University of Minnesota:
They are called “Judas” animals because, as the biblical reference implies, they betray. Sorensen said the lessons learned elsewhere using “Judas” animals to locate and kill unwanted species could be used here to fight Asian Carp.
Radio-collared Judas pigs, sheep and goats have been released into the wild, then tracked until they lead officials to difficult-to-find herds of the same unwanted species.
This week, he will use Judas fish implanted with tracking devices to locate the common carp in Staring Lake in Eden Prairie. Though carp are dispersed in lakes during the summer, they congregate in the winter, and the Judas fish reveal to researchers exactly where they are.
A commercial fisherman then will net the mass of unwanted carp, estimated at about 26,000 fish, which root up vegetation, causing lakes to go turbid. Water quality and fish habitat usually improve after carp are removed.
Sorensen started using the method in 2008 as part of his carp research.
“It’s been very successful,” he said. “Carp are really social animals – one will always lead you to another.”
Sorensen said officials could apply the same method to seek out and destroy Asian carp.
I’m not sure how well this will work in our Big Rivers where we see large populations, but if Carp are indeed a schooling fish this might be one of the most efficient approaches to controlling the species. I checked online and could not find any efforts underway to map populations on Region 7 Big Rivers, an activity which might help in maximizing the efficiency of Judas Fish introduction. If you have seen any hot spots, on the Missouri River, let us know with a comment below. Perhaps if enough interest is expressed, we can start a twitter hash tag campaign to collect lat/longs of Carp hotspots on the river, eventually building a crowd-sourced map. I smell another blog post…or maybe it is just the fish.
Jeffery Robichaud is a second generation EPA scientist who has worked for the Agency since 1998. He currently serves as Deputy Director of EPA Region 7′s Environmental Services Division. Jeff has never incurred the wrath of a flying fish. Perhaps his aversion to meals of aquatic animals is sensed by these cantakerous critters who thus leave him alone
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
30mph/365 – Living in the Windy State
By Cynthia Cassel
I was born in the great state of Kansas and I will most likely die here too. While there are some good things to say about Kansas, what I say next may be shocking to you. I love and hate this place simultaneously.
Whether you are cold-natured or one of those folks who walk around in shorts and flip-flops all winter long, there is no getting around the single most uncomfortable and annoying aspect of this state; the never-ending, never even waning…wind. You can bundle against the cold, you can strip like Gypsy Rose Lee when it’s summertime but you can never ever, ever get relief from this gawd-awful wind.
Chicago is nicknamed ‘The Windy City’ but that’s really a misnomer. Chicago got that bad rep due to an editorial in the New York Sun in the 1800’s referencing the hyper-loquacious nature of Chicago politicians. Since the nickname could be applied to every U.S. city, this must be the windiest planet in the galaxy–but I digress.
In a recent Kansas City Star article about the Flat Ridge Wind Farm being built in southern Kansas, John Graham, CEO of BP Wind Energy said, “Kansas is blessed with very strong winds.” I don’t think the words blessed and strong winds belong in the same understatement, but that’s just my opinion.
Flat Ridge Wind Project, Barber County, KS
What occurred to me this afternoon, as I desperately tried to keep my feet connected to the ground, was the possibility of another Great Dust Bowl era. As I write this, the wind is blowing a steady 26.4 mph from the West Southwest. We’ve had a couple of years of miserably dry summers and relatively dry winters. While farming practices have changed and improved since 1930, we still have daily gusts that could scour the paint off your car. What will happen to the land? According to an article in the K-State Research and Extension News written by Kathleen Ward (Windy? Kansas? Well, Yes. And No 1/30/06), that during the Dust Bowl, “Experts estimate western Kansas also lost twice the dirt moved in digging the Panama Canal.”
The other downside is that I keep getting accused of having bad posture. It’s not bad posture that makes me walk like Grouch Marx. I’m a small-ish person – it’s the only way I can keep from being blown over backward.
But back to the wind farms. Whether you are a proponent of wind energy (in other words, you’ve got a big gob of land you’d like to lease for a tidy profit), or a proponent of a form of energy that doesn’t thwack pretty songbirds into a stupor, you’ve got to admit Kansas will suffice as a good source of wind. Less dependence on middle eastern oil is the upside and the 274 wind turbines at Flat Ridge-2 can supply 1,600 homes with electricity. Another plus is that projects like Flat Ridge and Flat Ridge-2 bring dollars into the state. And even a curmudgeon like me has to admit that hundreds of snow white turbines all spinning at once looks like a lovely in-place ballet.
Another bit from the K-State Extension news article about wind:
A Lakin Eagle newspaper writer joked that a 2-gallon funnel could gather enough Kansas “zephyrs” to drill a 180-feet hole in solid sandstone – easily producing a well with “condensed air.”
Yeah, that’s what I’m talkin’ about! Find a way to make those turbines catch that wind, channel it into a great big funnel and use it for yet another positive purpose. It wouldn’t be able to blow all of our lovely Kansas soil from here to New York and I could finally walk like a normal human being.
Cynthia Cassel is a SEE Grantee where, for 3-1/2 years, she has worked with the Wetland and Streams team in the Water branch. Cynthia received her BS from Park University and lives in Overland Park where she regularly carries a bag of rocks so as to remain safely earthbound.
Editor's Note: The opinions expressed in Greenversations are those of the author. They do not reflect EPA policy, endorsement, or action, and EPA does not verify the accuracy or science of the contents of the blog.
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