Updates Jan - Feb 2000

• 2/29/00-- Meet RochesterEnvironment.com: Tomorrow, March 1st, I will be presenting RochesterEnvironment.com to Monroe County Environmental Management Council at 4PM at the Green Town Hall Conference Room, 1 Vince Tofany Boulevard (off Long Pond Road). My presentation will be an overview of what I am trying to accomplish with this site and how I go about it.  I would love to see you there so you can give me some important feedback about how to make RochesterEnvironment.com more useful. 
• 2.27/00-- If you are interested in how effective the Internet is in helping the environment (and I assume you are because you are here), read Clem White's thesis: Environmental Activism and the Internet.  It asks the questions: "How effective is the Internet in achieving the outcomes for which environmental groups put it to use?"  Your feedback on Clem's thesis would be appreciated. 
• 2/26/00-- Important: SECOND ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM 

  Don't Miss This Event!
  7pm, Thursday, April 6th, 1st Unitarian Church, 220 So. Winton Rd.
  Sponsored by Sierra Club
  "Rethinking The Environment In An Information Age"
  Keynote address by Professor James Buchanan

  If your group plans to present a ten-minute description of your organization, and set up displays, sign up here:

• 2/25/00-- Important notice: 

  FEBRUARY, 29 IS SPAY DAY

  To receive a certificate to spay or
  neuter your cat(s) or dog(s), please
  call 1-800-248-SPAY

• 2/24/00-- Message from Joyce Chandler
  Sent: Tuesday, February 15, 2000 12:25 PM  Question: When is a "pressing issue" routinely ignored by the news media? Answer: When that "pressing issue" is about the stranglehold that the fossil fuel industry has on our nation's economy and politics. Renewable fuels technology is already available to produce a replacement for petroleum. The process is environmentally friendly, requires no expensive, imported material, makes fuel from solid waste crops and even sewage, and the product is clean-burning and inexpensive to produce. With this renewable fuel, our nation would never again have to face the prospects of a fuel shortage, a foreign oil embargo, a rapid and uncontrolled rise in fuel prices, or the loss of American lives in a Persian Gulf type of war over oil. With this renewable fuel, our national agenda could focus on a cleaner environment, reliable long-term employment, and freedom from the influence of multi-national corporations and foreign governments. Our federal and state governments are well-aware of the technology and the need. The media is well-aware of the technology and the need. But the economic power of these multi-national fossil fuel corporations is so great, we are being kept in the dark. It is time to change that. Please e-mail this message to as many addresses as possible.
• 2/23/00-- Due to a request for help, through the auspices of Smart Growth, the internet has been instrumental in local resident deal with a development problem.  
• 2/22/00 Please plan to attend this great environmental meeting: "Botanical Curiosities: Plant's Wild Inventions" An Illustrated Talk by Prof. Bruce Gillman
  Sierra Club Membership Program; Thursday, March 16th, 7:15pm at Third Presbyterian Church
• 2/22/00-- Irradiated meats will be showing up in your supermarket.  Get the Fact about Irradiation: USDA Issues Final Rule on Meat and Poultry Irradiation  --2/22/00 Food Safety and Inspection Service United States Department of Agriculture Washington, D.C. 20250-3700
• 2/17/00-- Please Attend!: 

  SECOND ANNUAL ENVIRONMENTAL FORUM

  7pm, Thursday, April 6th, 1st Unitarian Church, 220 So. Winton Rd.
  Sponsored by Sierra Club

  "Rethinking The Environment In An Information Age"

  Keynote address by Professor James Buchanan

  
  
      Environmental groups, and concerned conservationist are invited to gather with the regional environmental community.
  
      For the second consecutive year Sierra Club will sponsor an Earth Month Environmental Forum at which all regional environmental groups and concerned conservationists are invited to present their agendas, to express issues and concerns, put up table displays, recruit new members and share information and networking. 

      Last year this was one of our most successful events at which over 15 groups plus a host of individuals presented issues and concerns.

      James Buchanan, PhD, the Caroline Werner Gannett Professor, R.I.T, will deliver a challenging address inviting environmentalists to broaden our thinking on the future of our environmental activism, considering the new age. His talk is entitled "Rethinking the Environment in an Information Age" and, we expect, the new approaches he will discuss will cover such diverse subjects as suburban sprawl, metropolitan unity, and genetic engineering, all of which Professor Buchanan has published widely on.
  

  Speakers, agendas, displays, networking, plans, recruiting. 

• 2/17/00--Offering help: Recently, RochesterEnvironment.com has addressed several environmental questions asked by visitors to this site, or redirected them to experts. In once case, a visitor had exhausted other environmental agencies to find help beginning with this site. Because of concerns for privacy, I have not posted these questions, though I believe that doing so would be very instructive. If I can find a way to quickly get permission by the authors to post them, I will do so in the future. The Internet offers a myriad of opportunities to help the public find out about local environmental situations and do something about them.
• 2/17/00-- On RochesterEnvironment.com's online poll, most visitors said that urban sprawl is Rochester most important environmental problem. 
• 2/16/00-  Meet RochesterEnvironment.com : Find about about RochesterEnviornment.com: Discussion  on RochesterEnvironment.com 20 min show (using a digital overhead to surf the web) and followed by Q & A:   March 1, at 4:00 PM ,   The Greece Town Hall, in the community meeting room, Sponsored by Monroe County Environmental Management Council (EMC)
• 2/16/00-- The elections are coming!  And to be informed you need all the information on the elections you can get, be sure to check out The League of Women Voters Rochester Metropolitan Area A nonpartisan, political organization which encourages the informed and active participation of citizens in government, and influences public policy through education and advocacy.
• 2/11/00-- Reaction to article in City: Consider reading May Anna Towler's article in City, Demolition man, about Mayor Johnson's role in stopping sprawl in Rochester. One of the most telling lines in the article is, "It's [sprawl] the free market at work, of course, except that the sprawl has been hugely subsidized, and encouraged by a long list of government policies, federal, state, and local.  Please contact this Rochester-area newsweekly, City (info@rochester-citynews.com) and ask them to get online.   Their environmental articles and information are a valuable resource that need the archiving ability of the Internet.
• 2/11/00-- It's too bad that environmental stories in our area's online news sources don't grab the medias attention and interest as a small increase in the Thruway toll:  Thruway Toll Increase Hearing from FOX, Thruway Toll Hike from WHEC, Thruway Rate Hike Meeting Draws Protests, by RochesterToday.com, Public hearing examines Thruway toll increase from Rochester Democrat and Chronicle, Thruway Ponders Toll Hike from RRNews.  OUR COMMUNITY NEEDS RESPONSIBLE AND CONSISTENT REPORTING ON OUR ENVIRONMENT!  CONTACT THESE SOURCES AND ASK THEM TO PUBLISH MORE ARTICLES ABOUT OUR ENVIRONMENT. 
• 2/11/00-- I must commend the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle for its series of articles on our major waters.  Although, I have been critical of the D&C for dropping the ball on its environmental responsibility as the only major newspaper in a city of a million residents, they've done a good job here.  These articles have enhanced our knowledge of the special concerns surrounding our major waterways and have done a great job in pointing out the special concerns of each water body.  
  • The Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes. Global needs put Great Lakes at risk As an increasingly thirsty world talks of tapping this freshwater resource, caretakers rally to its defense --2/06/00--DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, Region banking on Lake Ontario Demand from parched states and nations adds urgency to local efforts to tap lake's great potential --2/07/00--DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, Ontario links various cities and visions Communities on sides of the lake may be making different plans, but they share a common destiny --2/07/00--DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, Glacier-hewed highway carried natives, settlers --2/07/00--DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, Thirst for water to shape future Growing population, shift to desert Southwest bring pressure to share freshwater resources --2/08/00--DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE
• 2/10/00-- Environmental Home Page Association which is a mailing list and a resource center for environmental home page creators who want to help each other get noticed by the general public on the Internet now has 83 members! If you have an environmental home page, sign up and get the benefits of this association.  
• 2/10/00-- Because of my concentration on RochesterEnvironment.com, I haven't been focusing on Green Solitaire, and especially it's Action Site.  I've finally got it organized so that update it regularly by posting the latest online action events.  I get these from mailings and by checking up on Newsgroups and environmental action sites.  Check out the new items and make environmental action a regular activity on the Internet. 
• RochesterEnvironment.com has just won this award, you can see the list here:  
• I am dropping Land Claims in Rochester Issues, about the controversy over Cayuga land claim trial because the issue over who is going have this land has been settled, and thus no longer an issue for this web site. 
• 2/06/00-- I've included Yahoo Messenger on several pages in RochesterEnvironment.com in order to make it easier to contact me immediately about content on my web pages. 
• 2/06/00-- In response to an excellent article, Rochester's Raging Rip-offs--in City (Rochester's alternative newsweekly) by Jack Bradigan Spula. 
  • I agree with Spula’s view that Rochester’s future cannot be sustained simply by propping it up with a few flamboyant schemes. However popular and spectacular the transit center, the fast ferry (the most popular of them), the UR medical facility, and a soccer stadium, none of them will properly support our city’s future. They are so showy and exhaustive of public funds and that their only real purpose can be to deflect public attention from the hard substantive measures that would keep us from sliding into the plight of third cities: throwing precious resources at few useless projects that please the politicians. It’s like assembling all the legs of a table on one side and trying to eat off it before all the food falls to the floor. Rather we should reinforce our future from the bottom up by insuring that our most solid supports—our environment, our hard-working majority, and our existing structures--than from the top down.
• 2/04/00-- In a recent phone conversation to the Nature Conservancy, I've learned that I've been using their old link.  The Nature Conservatory--Central and Western New York Chapter--is at this address and they have a very useful web site, including news, events, and how to join their very valuable environmental organization. 
• 2/03/00 --You have to admire Mayor William Johnson's Year 2000 State of the City Address as presented on the internet.  Give yourself a few minutes and read this beautifully photographed and well-thought out address that shows where our city has been and where it is going.  Be sure to focus on the environmental highlights of the mayor's address: a new zoning code is being prepared, based on extensive citizen input

• 2/03/00 --  This in from 

Mothers for Natural Law
of the Natural Law Party

You are eating
genetically engineered food.

Is it good for you?

Do you have a choice?

Genetic engineering is the largest food experiment in the history of the world. We are all the guinea pigs.

There are about 40 varieties of genetically engineered crop approved for marketing in the U.S. As a result, 60-70% of the foods on your grocery shelves contain genetically engineered (GE) components.

Genetically engineered foods contain substances that have never been a part of the human food supply. They are not subjected to rigorous pre-market safety testing. And THEY ARE NOT LABELED.

Is genetic engineering safe for you and your family? Safe for the environment? Safe for the future of mankind? No long-term studies have been done. No one can answer these questions.

Do you want out of the experiment? Join us, sign our petition, e-mail your political representatives. Help us get crops segregated, foods labeled, and legislation to regulate the technology.

• 2/02/00-- Help the station that has provided the Rochester area with so much quality environmental programming. My own education and interest in our environment has been highly influenced by this Public Broadcasting Station: 

  Today's the day!

  It's Web Wednesday here at WXXI! As we begin our February membership campaign, we're asking for your support on-line instead of on-air.

  Pledge your support now for in-depth news on AM 1370 and the best in classical music on 91.5 FM, and enter the drawing for this state of the art table radio designed by the legendary Audio Hall of Fame member Henry Kloss.

• 2/02/00-- Monroe County Board of Elections: You can't help the environment at all with your voting power, if you are not registered to vote.  Get the information you need on registration and other important election material from this site.  Get other important election material, including how to find out who your representatives are and how to contact them, how to begin an online petition, and a reference for all the online communities in our area by going to: Check Up.  
• 2/02/00-- 

  Sister City Project

  Creating An Environmental Web Page For Your City: 

      Rather than rant and rave, scold and proselytize, about your views on the environment, why not do something useful? Use the Internet, probably the greatest leap forward in communication since speech itself, to provide a way for everyone to learn and do something about our environment. Create a portal on the Internet for all the environmental news, scheduling of events, public announcements, local links, resources, documents, and services that pertain to your community. With a little bit of effort, you’ll be surprised at how much information is out there, how many environmental concerns there are right in your own neighborhood.

• 2/01/00--  Food For Thought: On Thursday, January 27^th, the Rochester Regional Group of the Sierra Club sponsored a lecture on how the food we purchase locally affects our environment. This program is one of many this active environmental organization has put together for the public. At this meeting, there were three speakers. First, Elizabeth Henderson spoke forcefully for Genesee Valley Organic Community Supported Agriculture (GVOCSA). She explained how the landscape of farming in the United States has changed since the turn of the last century, with the loss of over 32,000 medium-sized farm yearly. In New York state there has been a rise of very large, corporate farms and also of small farms—the kind of farms that used to be the mainstay of our states farming. Elizabeth explained how the production of vegetables by small local farms has risen in recent years. She explained in passionate detail how farming on a small scale can be both profitable and good for the environment. Second was Hank Herrera, Planning and Development Specialist of North East Neighborhood Alliance. Hank explained how his organization has enriched his neighborhood by making homegrown farming profitable. His group has been responsible for neighborhood revival. Last up was Mohammed Nuru, Executive Director of San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners SLUG. Nuru spoke eloquently about how a city can be transformed by using the power and intelligence of urban youth to bring small-scale farming into a business and life improvement venture. Check SLUG and find out a our city might learn and profit from Nuru’s experiment in San Francisco.
• 1/26/99-- If you're looking for extensive information and articles about Rochester, be sure to check this out: Rochester History, for The Monroe County Library System. Rochester History is a journal that covers the history of Rochester and western New York. All articles, from 1939 to the present, are available online. To view the articles you need the Adobe Acrobat Reader installed on your computer. Go to the Adobe website to download. You may search all articles using the Table of Contents or you can search for specific topics in articles from 1939 to 1993 with the Index. See Search Tips for help.
• 1/24/99-- Beginning with this item--Election 2000 --Vice President Al Gore and former Senator Bill Bradley both have extensive environmental records. Who would be better at turning ideas into action as president? --from Living on Earth-- I am going to start an Election 2000 page.  The Internet provides extensive election coverage, including the environmental records of all candidates, nationally and locally. Who we vote for in the next election will be critical for our environment. 
• 1/23/99 -- I'm posting this message: alert from the NY Coalition Against Pesticides and Environmental Advocates.
• 1/23/99-- This from Robert Spahn [rspahn@prodigy.net] about my request for more information on Turkey Counts (from this online article The Call Of The Wild Maybe you have seen them in the fields, or perhaps heard their gobble. The return of the wild turkey to New York State is a success story worth celebrating, but it is not the only one.--01/21/00 RochesterToday News) "Dear Frank, Given the number of responses to the spot on Channel 13, the best way to answer your request is with a "form letter" I'll paste below. Feel free to paste this into your website, though with the materials not yet ready, I am still not anxious to stir people up quite yet. With web help, I expect to get better coverage than the 1980-85 first NYBBA when we had over 200 inquiries, 150 who helped some and 113 who did a good amount of work.
  Thank you for your interest in the Breeding Bird Atlas (Atlas 2000). It is a 5 year effort to find evidence for breeding of all (= as many as possible) of the birds which breed in each 5 km x 5 km Block of land in NY. I am looking for volunteers to assure coverage of one or more of these Blocks in the local region (for which Dominic Sherony and I are co-coordinators), to help others who are the primary volunteers for Blocks, to provide access to land where observers can look for breeding birds, or to send in names of species for which they observe breeding evidence with enough location information for us to put it in the right Block. The observer needs to be able to positively identify species and to observe and carefully record evidence of breeding as one of a set of codes.
  At this time, I do not have the worker's handbooks (explains codes and methods in detail), field data cards, summary sheets, maps, or several pieces of helpful supporting materials. All are being prepared, and I will mail or e-mail them as soon as I have them in whichever form. I expect them before the end of March. After looking at them, you can decide how you might be able to help or if you are still interested. Most of the field work will be in June to the middle of July, though Great Horned Owls are already on nests. The over all level of effort is typically 10-20 hours to cover a Block reasonably well. Most Blocks in our region have 76+ breeding species, some as high as 130 (typical Bristol Hills or Letchworth).
  We will be giving talks at various bird and other club meetings over the next several months and attending birding field trips later to demonstrate methods.
  Sincerely,
  Bob Spahn"
• 1/21/99-- This in from Steve Kelling of BirdSource: 

  Greetings from the frigid Northeast! First, if you recently participated in the 100th Christmas Bird Count or if you're currently contributing to Project FeederWatch, or the Irruptive Bird Survey thank you.

  As we write, 859 of this year's CBC's have been submitted on-line and, along with the previous 99 years of data, are available to you at BirdSource http://www.birdsource.org For the first time, this year's counts are presented along with weather, effort, and participant information. As you'll find out for yourself when you visit the site, the ability to compare individual counts and years makes the CBC data even more interesting and valuable. This new level of data comparison is the result of these new tools we at BirdSource developed:

  Map Analyzer - The analyzer allows you to query the 100 years of the CBC's of data using an interactive map as your interface. The application requires you to use current versions of Netscape (4.08 and higher) or Internet Explorer (4.01 or higher) for the PC, or Internet Explorer (4.5 or higher) for the Macintosh.

  Species Analysis - Ever wanted to know which CBC reported the highest number of Red-winged Blackbirds, or Lesser Black-backed Gulls? You can now find out!

  Take some time to explore species or regions that are of special interest to you. If you notice trends that seem significant, let us know (glebaron@javanet.com). And be sure to check back with us to take advantage of the tools that we'll create in the months to come.

  And don't forget! Mark your calendars! The Great Backyard Bird Count 2000 is only a month away. On February 18-21 we'll need you to help us get a snapshot of bird populations across North America. What will we see when we compare species distribution in February with the information gathered during the CBC's? How will this winter compare to the last two? Spread the word and send us your counts.

  Until then, stay warm and enjoy the birds.

• 1/19/00 --Attended the monthly meeting  last night of the Smart Growth Coalition.  The Smart Growth Coalition was formed by concerned citizens who recognize the need for a regional plan where all residents throughout the Genesee Valley/Finger Lakes Region are empowered to be involved with land use decisions in their immediate communities.  At this meeting we framed what looks to be a very exciting agenda for the coming year. If you are interested in joining, or finding more about this coalition, contact the Smart Growth Coalition. At the meeting, I suggested that this coalition provide a important service of helping those who have concerns about urban sprawl to contact them for more information. And, now you can here: mojohn@frontiernet.net. 
• 1/18/00-- I've added an important free program to RochesterEnviornment.com.  It's a free translating service from http://www.freetranslation.com/
• 1/16/00 --Just received some very helpful information from Dina Markowitz, Ph.D., Director, Community Outreach and Education Programs at of the University of Rochester Environmental Health sciences center (EHSC).  This link provides extensive Rochester-area environmental heath information and resources.  Dr. Markowitz mentions that "We do a whole lot of things. Many of our programs are k-12 education, including lectures, summer science programs, teacher workshops, field trips, etc. We also run a Community Advisory Board, composed of 17 community groups that have an environmental focus. We also offer workshops for the general public and for special groups (such as health care workers) on different topics in occupational medicine."  Also, Here is a schedule of Saturday Morning Science Series lectures. These lectures are for high school students, teachers and parents. February 12: Dr. Richard Miller, Dept. of Obstetrics & Gynecology will speak on "How does nutrition and environmental exposure influence birth defects" March 11: Dr. Jan Moynihan, Dept. of Psychiatry will speak on "Stress and your immune system"
  April 8: Dr. Ellen Henry, Dept. of Environmental Medicine will speak on "Toxicology: the dose makes the poison" All lectures are free. The are held in the K-307 (room 3-6408) auditorium of the UR School of Medicine and Dentistry from 10:30 until 11:45. Call 275-3171 for more information or to reserve a spot. Also, we are now sending out information and applications for the UR Summer Science Academy. This is a 4-week program (July 10-august 4) for high school students.
  Call 275-3171 for more info (or look at our web site)"
• 1/13/00 --Great letter from Fred Stoss, Biological Sciences Librarian.   Science and Engineering Library, University at Buffalo-SUNY.  He says: "Frank, WHAT A TREMENDOUS JOB YOU HAVE DONE!! As past Director of Library and Information Services (1982-1990) for Rochester's Center for Environmental Information, I know rather intimately the efforts you have undertaken! I was NOT aware of your site until I stumbled across it this morning while looking for a site that mentioned at the Community Advisory Board of the University of Rochester Medical Center's Environmental Health Sciences Center."  Fred has provided me with extensive links and information for RochesterEnvironment.com. 
• 1/13/00 --I have received more environmental questions and have answered them.  Go here and check them out. 
• 1/13/00-- City has just notified me that they are going to publish my essay, Wasting Precious Resources (see below).  Be sure to pick up a free copy of City anywhere in the city of Rochester.  
• 1/13/00-- "The EPA estimates that about three million people still dispose of their trash by burning." Because the Rochester area still has communities that allow the open burning of trash, this issue must come to the forefront of our local environmental concerns. The findings by the EPA suggest that burn barrels, where private homeowners burn their own trash on their own property may be major contributor to dioxin in the air--a dangerous, cancer-causing by-product of burning plastics. 
• 01/11/00-- Ending Burn Barrels: At a recent meeting in Rochester on dioxin, I heard many individual give testimony to medical conditions they believed had been caused the ravages of cancer in their families, neighborhoods, and communities. Dioxins are the waste products of burning plastics and are said to cause cancer. One person, though, did not talk about what dioxins had done to his life. He traveled from St. Lawrence for the sole purpose to speak at the meeting on one issue, the potential threat of dioxins from individuals burning their own trash, in their own yards, in burn barrels. Having for a long time eliminated my own trash in such a way, I cringed as I listen to him speak of the dire consequences of this practice. I didn’t want to really hear that I might have contributed in any way to the pollution of my community’s air. As I listened to him I armed myself with a lot of rationalizations as to why I did it. I didn’t think, because all my neighbors were doing it, that it could have been very bad. I’m not so sure now. One of the main reasons why many communities have left burning barrels on the books is because of their incomplete garbage and recycling programs. This isn’t so much an excuse as a convenient solution to a growing problem. Communities, especially those away from the cities with a small tax base, are being hard-pressed to come up with inexpensive and yet complete disposal programs. In a major article on burn barrels by Enn.com, Burn barrels fuel dioxin levels, it’s obvious that the man who spoke at our meeting was justified in his concerns. Burn barrels, that is, individuals burning trash in their own yard, may be contributing greatly to the dioxin in our air. We shouldn’t ignore this story but begin to assess the validity of this accusation and begin contacting our representatives about ending the practice of allowing people to burn their own trash on their own property. Of course, those who view this as a violation of what they erroneous believe is their innate right to do what they want on their own property are going to howl. 
• 01/10/00-- Wasting precious resources: Long is the history of our wasting precious natural resources. From squandering our fresh-water rivers and lakes as collection points of domestic and industrial waste, to filling the air we need to breathe with dioxins and carbon dioxide, there appears to be no limit to our disdain for the vital resources that we need to exist. As if to reinforce and even flaunt this point, it has become fashionable to trash our most hard-won legal resources—our environmental laws. The Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s decision to publish a story (01/06/00) about a man using our environmental laws to combat his irritation at having to wait at toll booths along the New York State Thruway trivializes and weakens the serious work needed to improve our environment. For such cases create in the public an impression that these environmental acts are merely tools for the selfish to halt progress, stop development, and settle pet peeves. I myself don’t like waiting at Thruway tollbooths, I would rather tear on by and get to where I’m going. But, this point-pollution pales imperceptibly compared with that caused by millions of vehicles in our cites crawling through crowded streets, or waiting for traffic lights, or the innumerable smoke stacks from industry and power companies. Suing the Environmental Protection Agency for this issue is a waste of their precious time and our taxes. Using The Endangered Species Act, The Clear Air Act, Clean Water Act, and the federal Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) for wiping out tollbooths is like scolding a serial killer for swearing. Long before this guy succeeds in the courts over this trivial matter, we should be using our environmental laws to limit the sheer number of our vehicles, how much they can pollute, and finding a source of electricity that doesn’t pump so much garbage into our air. The D&C is not so much wrong to publish this story, as by doing so that they’ve made much of little. Their coverage is reminiscent of the way the media headlines every sensational and eye-grabbing medical study—regardless of its merit. Because they must be weighed in the context of other studies and carefully evaluated, most medical studies of any value take time to judge. But, our frenzied news media treats all eye-grabbing medical studies as if they are of equal importance, and indiscriminately vaulting all to the headlines. The public, rather than being informed, only gets lulled into thinking that medical studies are only as good as the next grabber on the front page. The same becomes true of environmental stories. There is much that needs to be reported about what is going on with our environment. But most environmental stories are not sensational. They are usually part of the long ongoing change that our society, and all societies, will need to be a part of in order to survive. As a parting remark, it must be the height of insult for those who have fought hard and long for our precious environmental laws to see them so poorly used.
• 01/05/00-- If you're looking for a complete Rochester, NY guide on the Internet, go here: http://rochester.about.com/local/midlanticus/rochester/mbody.htm
• 01/04/00-- Adirondack Park Update: The Adirondack Park Agency conducted a public hearing Thursday, September 23, 1999 at Rochester’s Museum and Science Center. This independent agency, a bipartisan state agency responsible for developing long-range Park policy in a forum that balances statewide concerns and the interests of local governments in the Park, were there to receive public comment on actions to be taken on the classification of four tracks inside the park. These tracts lie inside the Adirondack Park Park–the largest National Park east of the Mississippi. Pursuant to Section 816 (2) of the Adirondack Park Agency Act, these four actions are to be considered by the New York State: (a) Classification of the 14, 780 (+ or -) acre William C. Whitney Track, (b) reclassification of all or part of the 7, 215 acre Lake Lila Primitive Area, (c) classification of the 23, 000 acre Watson’s East Triangle/Lassiter Tract including the potential reclassification of 10,000 acres of State land adjoining the tract classified Wild Forest, (d) and reclassification of the Alice Brook Tract (2, 000 acres) from Wilderness to Wild Forest. I attended this public hearing and was impressed by the interest the public as taken on this matter. Though the park lies many miles across the State, at least two hundred of our area residents spoke fervently about the potential amendments to the State Land Master Plan--originally developed in 1972. Some spoke of their own property that lay either near the part or one of the tracks in questions. Given roughly four minutes to speak, each present pleaded for either keeping the Wilderness designation, the most restrictive, or down-grading to other levels in the Master Plan—Primitive, Canoe, Wild Forest, or State Administrative respectively. Others stepped up to the microphone to plead their case to the agency because they visited the Adirondacks regularly to fish, hike, bike, or to just enjoy the remarkable large span of pristine land. What point I heard most saliently at the public hearing was of the precedent that would be set: The State has never stripped back a track of its Wilderness classification. For those who attended, the agency says in a recent communication: "Your written comments and/or hearing testimony have already been provided to the Agency Members and they are working their way through the 1200+ letters and the testimony from the six public hearings." It’s not over yet, for those of you who are sill concerned about the Agency’s deliberation of the record and recommendations to the Governor on these five tracts. The Adirondack Park Agency has informed me, "The public is welcome at our meetings. However, this is a regular business session of the Agency, not a public hearing. The record in this matter has now closed, and the only opportunity for public comment is after the full Agency’s business session on the 14^th (January 2000). If you wish to review the record before the Agency, copies of the testimony and letters can be viewed at our office in Ray Brook (State of New York, Executive Department, Adirondack Park Agency, P.0. Box 99, Route 86, Ray Brook, New York 12977, phone 518-891-4050, fax: 518-891-3938), or at the DEC Regional Office in Watertown. The Committee recommendations will be forwarded to the full Agency for action at their meeting at our Ray Brook headquarters Friday morning, January 14. The Agency recommendations must be approved by the Governor before they become final." RochesterEnviornment.com will relay the Agency’s recommendations when I get them after the meeting on January, 14^th.
• 01/03/00-- Welcome Hugh Mitchell to RochesterEnvironment.com. Hugh’s poem, Species End, is the first in what I hope will be many additions to this site. Hugh is co-chairperson to the Rochester Regional Group, Sierra Club, with many environmental accomplishments, and he’s is a published poet. His thoughtful reflections on our environment add to our awareness of our precious environment.  Also, visit Hugh's site Save Pinnacle Hill: This could be our last chance to preserve a unique green space in the City of Rochester. Find out what you can do! For more details: hmitch@frontiernet.net
• Sigh of relief: While there appears to be little to fear to the Y2K fright, despite all the dire predictions in the last few years, we should not breathe a sigh of relief just yet. According to what I’ve read in the media, in the public there’s a feeling annoyance and embarrassment about having overblown this Y2K business. Those who hoarded gas for their gas generators, food, and other supplies will have to hope they can use them before they expire. The Y2K mouse roared, as it seems, and now we can laugh at our former fears and go after all those Chicken Littles who barraged us with everything from glitches on our computer to the end of our civilization as we know it. However, before we lambaste those who warned us we should give pause because the very fact that very little did go awry with Y2K is probably directly connected to these people bringing our attention to the matter. Businesses, governments, individuals got working on solutions, instead of sweeping the matter under the rug. Perhaps the worst consequence of this end-of-the-millennium scare is that the public might be lulled into believing that all major apprehensions, including the alarms being rung by environmentalists, are the same category as the Y2K scare. But, beware: Just because our local news media haven’t been powerfully reporting on the long-term effects of our water, air and land pollution, doesn’t mean they doesn’t exist. It only means we aren’t attuned to the problem yet. That we are still focused on our most immediate worries and not the long-term consequences of environmental abuse is more an indication of our own attitudes, rather than what is actually going on in our environment. The Y2K affair occurred because programmers couldn’t believe that when they first designed their data bases, thirty or forty years hence computers would still be using their programs. The environmental problems we are having today are occurring because we can’t believe a puny little species like ours could affect something so large as a planet. Hopefully, we learn the positive message from Y2K, not the negative one.