The Army Corps of Engineers and North Adams are nearing an agreement on flood chutes feasibility study

Sten Spinella | The Berkshire Eagle

White and Red Baneberry Fruits Maturing

Marry Holland | Naturally Curious

"The berries of both White and Red Baneberry are the most poisonous part of their respective plants – but all parts of both plants are toxic and can cause respiratory paralysis and cardiac arrest if consumed. Animals other than humans do eat them, however, including a wide variety of birds as well as small mammals such as mice, squirrels and vole, with most fruits disappearing at night. White-tailed Deer are known to browse both plants.Native Americans and colonists used both species of Baneberry to treat rattlesnake bites. According to Carol Gracie in Spring Wildflowers of the Northeast, Native Americans had a plethora of uses for the Red Baneberry fruits, including treatment for menstrual problems, syphilis, increasing milk flow and as a gargle. At the same time, juice from the fruits was said to have been used as a poison on arrows." READ MORE

To Stop an Extinction, He's Flying High, Followed by His Beloved Birds

Denise Hruby | The New York Times

"Using an ultralight aircraft, Johannes Fritz once taught endangered ibises a migration path over the Alps. Because of climate change, he is now showing them a much longer route to a winter’s refuge. [...] Johannes Fritz, a maverick Austrian biologist, needed to come up with a plan, again, if he was going to prevent his rare and beloved birds from going extinct. To survive the European winter, the northern bald ibis — which had once disappeared entirely from the wild on the continent — needs to migrate south for the winter, over the Alps, before the mountains become impassable. But shifting climate patterns have delayed when the birds begin to migrate, and they are now reaching the mountains too late to make it over the peaks, locking them in an icy death trap. [...] When Mr. Fritz was born 56 years ago, the northern bald ibis, a goose-sized black bird with a bald head and an enormous beak, could be found in Europe only in captivity. Some 400 years ago, Europeans likely devoured the last of them. But Mr. Fritz has spent his career reintroducing the birds into the wild, and an essential part of their education has been teaching the young the migration path they will follow as adults. Mr. Fritz learned to fly, modifying an ultralight aircraft so it would cruise at speeds slow enough for his winged students to keep up. [...] In 2004, three years after some initially bumpy experiments, Mr. Fritz led the first flock from Austria to Italy, and has since led 15 such migrations. Over that time, he has rewilded 277 young ibises, many of which then started to pass the route on to their own young. But the route he originally taught the ibises is no longer viable. With climate change warming the area where the birds summer — by Lake Constance in Germany and Austria — they now start their migration at the end of October instead of the end of September, as they had done just a decade ago. [...] At Lake Constance this summer, humans and birds were in flight school, practicing the escorted flights for their epic journey. By October, they hope to reach Spain’s southern Atlantic coast, by Cadiz, where the birds could comfortably winter. Bypassing the mighty Alps, the new route is about 2,500 miles, or some three times longer than their previous one directly south to Tuscany. Flying at a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour, the trip is expected to take about six weeks, as opposed to the two to reach Tuscany." READ MORE

Community Listening Session hosted by the City of North Adams and Hoosic River Revival

Hoosic River Revival| Press Release

"The City of North Adams and Hoosic River Revival are hosting the first in a series of listening sessions to gather community input regarding the significance of the Hoosic River in North Adams and the need to modernize the aging concrete flood control system. [On Wednesday, August 30, 5:30–7:30 PM, at the UNO Community Center in North Adams, there] will be an open-house event, with a brief presentation given at 6:00 pm, that is designed to provide information and gather community input about the following:

• The 3-year feasibility study beginning this year that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will conduct of the Hoosic River's flood control system and ways to stay informed and engaged,
• Community observations about the current condition of the flood chutes,
• Stories about the river’s history and importance to the community, 
• Examples of river restoration efforts in other communities, and 
• Ideas and concerns to consider in the modernization design.

Background: North Adams needs strong protection from floods. The 70-year-old flood control system designed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in the 1940’s is deteriorating, putting the community at risk. Together with the City of North Adams and Hoosic River Revival, the Corps will spend the next 3 years performing a feasibility study of possible ways to modernize the flood control system. Community input on the future design of the flood control system is vital to ensure that plans for modernization reflect the needs of all of North Adams and provide a healthy, accessible, and attractive flood-controlled river." LEARN MORE

EPA plans to disband board studying wastewater discharge in Mass. Bay

Barbara Moran | WBUR

"Every day, the Deer Island treatment plant cleans about 330 million gallons of Greater Boston’s wastewater. The treated water is then pumped through a nine-and-a-half mile pipe under the ocean, where it's diffused into Massachusetts Bay. Since the pipe was built more than two decades ago, the Environmental Protection Agency has required that an independent group of scientists keep a close eye on the treated wastewater and its effect on the bay. This group of volunteer scientists — known as the Outfall Monitoring Science Advisory Panel (OMSAP) — has monitored everything from fish health to algae blooms to oxygen levels in the water. Many scientists were shocked, therefore, when the EPA announced it plans to discontinue the panel when it renews Deer Island’s discharge permit this year. The EPA declined requests for an interview. But the official reason, according to a statement from EPA New England: While the panel 'served a very important role,' the data show that those decades of wastewater discharge have not harmed the bay. So, the scientists’ services are no longer required. But the scientists say their work has just begun. They see a bay warming with climate change, soupy with microplastics and swimming with unfamiliar algae. Who knows what else the future holds?" READ MORE

Reviving a famously polluted California lake

Tien Nguyen | Knowable Magazine

"Jesus Campanero Jr. was a teenager when he noticed there was something in the water. He once found a rash all over his body after a swim in nearby Clear Lake, the largest freshwater lake in California. During summertime, an unbearable smell would waft through the air. Then, in 2017, came the headlines, after hundreds of fish washed up dead on the shore. 'That’s when it really started to click in my head that there’s a real issue here,' says Campanero, now a tribal council member for the Robinson Rancheria Band of Pomo Indians of California, whose ancestors have called the lake home for thousands of years. The culprit? Harmful algal blooms (HABs). Often marked by unsightly layers of blue-green scum, these blooms happen when certain algae or microbes called cyanobacteria grow out of control, fueled by warm temperatures and phosphorus- and nitrogen-rich pollution. The impact of harmful algal blooms ranges from disruptive to deadly. Some species of cyanobacteria release toxins, including one called microcystin that can damage the liver. Contact exposure can lead to symptoms like Campanero’s rash as well as headaches, eye irritation, wheezing and more. In recent years, HAB advisories warning residents not to drink their tap water have appeared in cities across the nation; 18 dogs in California died from suspected exposure to HAB-polluted waters in 2017. The US National Office for Harmful Algal Blooms estimates that the blooms cost the nation upwards of $50 million annually in costs related to health, fisheries, recreation, tourism and monitoring. A 2017 survey of nearly 1,200 US lakes revealed that about a third of the lakes contained cyanobacterial toxins. And that number is growing. [...] The ecosystems suffer as well: As the algae in blooms decompose, they deplete the waters of dissolved oxygen, causing fish to suffocate. But perhaps counterintuitively, in the case of Clear Lake, removing one specific species of fish may be a key tool for rehabilitation. Along with other efforts, an audacious plan is now underway to remove invasive carp, which kick up phosphorous in the lake, feeding the blooms. [...] The Clear Lake watershed has sustained Native peoples for millennia. Campanero recalls stories from his elders of the lake teeming with wildlife from birds to bears to fish, including a revered minnow, the Clear Lake hitch. But for more than a century, the lake has endured many assaults: Runoff has leached into the water from an abandoned open-pit mercury mine, now a Superfund site; runoff also comes from gravel mines, unchecked septic systems, cannabis farms and vineyards. Hitch are now on the brink of species extinction." READ MORE