Species of elk released in Arkansas no more native than species of cougars released in Arkansas: Reasons for Forest Service plan for burning and changing habitat of Ozark National Forest flawed

U.S. Forest Service plan to burn massive portions of Ozark National Forest to create open land for elk pasture target of comments by Sierra Club conservation chairman, Tom McKinney.
Please read all the way through and comment.

Video clips from Climatologist Robert McAfee's presentation documenting increasing evidence of man-made climate changes from January 26, 2012, at Nightbird Books in Fayetteville, Arkansas

 Direct link to McAfee video clips on You Tube.
McAfee narrates powerful slideshow.

First daffodils bloom in time for Restaurant week in Fayetteville, Arkansas, and first FNHA event of 2012

South sloping areas show off early blooming flowers on January 28, 2012

FNHA annual meeting at 2 p.m. Sunday, January 29, 2012, includes presentation on bumblebees and other pollinators on northwest Arkansas prairie sites by Amber Tripodi, a doctoral candidate in entomology at the University of Arkansas: Non-members welcome free and all invited to become members

Please click on highlighted or underlined words to open live links.

Amber Tripodi (left) and Bob Caulk laugh with members of the Fayetteville Natural History Association during question and answer session after Tripodi's lecture on bumblebees and other pollinators.

Members of Fayettevillle Natural History Association enjoy Amber Tripodi's lecture Sunday, January 29, 2012, at Fayetteville Public Library

Amber Tripodi (left) Cindi Cope (center) Bruce Shackleford (right) with favorite kitten: Photo by Aubrey James Shepherd

Fayetteville Natural Heritage Association Annual Meeting

 TOMORROW

Sunday, January 29
2:00 pm
Fayetteville Public Library

Henry Board Room 

Our featured speaker will be Amber Tripodi, a doctoral candidate and Graduate Research Assistant in the Department of Entomology at the University of Arkansas.  Amber’s research on bee populations and habitat has focused on prairie-restoration sites in Fayetteville, comparing the bee populations in the Lake Fayetteville prairie-restoration area, Paul Noland sewage-treatment site, Woolsey Wet Prairie adjacent to Fayetteville's westside sewage-treatment plantand World Peace Wetland Prairie with those on small farms, undeveloped lots and roadside tracts throughout Northwest Arkansas.

Although Amber also studies carpenter bees, other native bees and flower flies and honey bees, her focus is on various species of bumblebees and the plants that support them. Her fast-paced and educational presentation will leave you wondering how a subject like bees can be so interesting and exciting.  Amber's knowledge is vast and her enthusiasm is absolutely contagious!

A brief business meeting will include election of officers for the upcoming year.  Light refreshments will be served. 

Thanks to Sara Caulk for sharing FNHA information.

Congratulations to Northwest Arkansas Times photographer and reporter who produced an objective front-page story for the January 28 edition of the Times on Arkansas highway department's watershed abuse

For more photos of environmentally unsound practices of the AHTD, please see Flickr set.

Reporters are supposed to do what they did. However, columnists, editorial writers and bloggers have the right to express opinions. For an outdoor writer, however, there is a clear and overwhelming DUTY to write a strong, factually sound evaluation of the situation.
Juniper hairstreak butterfly's caterpillars feed only on the foliage of cedar trees such as those being wastefully and unnecessarily burned at the ADTD site on Arkansas 265 in northeast Fayetteville.

Bill Harrison's latest book drew admiring crowd to Nightbird Books on January 27, 2012

Please click on image to ENLARGE:

Did you express an opinion you really would like to share with more people than heard it? I did, and I am sharing on the shortake-segment of Fayetteville public television for the coming week of January 29 through February 4, 2012, on Fayetteville's public-access television station, Cox 218 and AT&T U-verse, as well as on You Tube, linked below: Don't miss your chance to do the same every week

To learn how and when you can have your own 5-minute short takes recorded, please see
the Your Media Web site.

Sierra Club sponsors important discussion of Climate Reality-Separating Fact From Fiction tonight

• • When

    Today
  • Time

    7:00pm until 9:00pm

• Description

  Please join us for Climate Reality- Separating Fact From Fiction, a presentation by Dr. Robert McAfee and Joanna Pollock. Pollock will speak on the Obama administration's national plan for preparation of water management in the US due to the threat of climate change as w...ell as the role of eco-therapy and spending time outdoors in individuals' mental health and willingness to advocate on behalf of the environment. Dr. McAfee will speak about the recent climate change talks in Durban, South Africa (Update from Durban) and discuss climate change in Arkansas and talk about predictions to expect here locally. For more information check out the Sierra Club newsletter: http://arkansas.sierraclub.org/Ozark_headwaters/OHGnewsletter-winter2011.pdf See More

Nightbird Books

205 W Dickson St, Fayetteville, AR 72701

View Map · Get Directions

November Council of Neighborhoods meeting served for November and December with the annual potluck dinner. Show up tonight (6 p.m. Thursday, January 26, 2012, and add some excitement to the meeting. Anything bothering people in your part of town? Come share it on public television and maybe on You Tube next week. Don't accept NO for an answer if you KNOW you have a legitimate isssue to share: The FCON listens to everyone!

youtu.be/6vsQkB8mxf0

Today at Fayetteville National Cemetery and old livestock-auction site

Aerial view, concept drawing and people forced to park on streets because sale-barn land now fenced off for year of construction.

Sierra Club's statement on SWEPCO wind-power purchase

SIERRA CLUB STATEMENT ON SWEPCO WIND POWER PURCHASE

"The clean energy revolution is happening right now.  Today, as a result of our recent legal settlement, hundreds of megawatts of clean wind energy will power homes and businesses in our region for the next 20 to 25 years.  Unlike dirty coal, which devastates our air, water, and communities, wind power produces zero pollution. 

"Unlike our neighboring states, Arkansas currently does not have wind energy production in place, although we are home to multiple factories that produce wind turbines and blades.  If we did have wind energy production in place, SWEPCO could have bought it from an Arkansas company.  Instead, that money to purchase wind power went to out of state companies and jobs.  As Governor Beebe works toward the state's energy plan, Sierra Club calls on him to aggressively pursue clean, renewable sources of energy for the Natural State.

"In his State of the Union speech, President Obama didn't mention coal a single time but spent a lot of time talking about clean energy.  Coal is on its way out.  Clean, renewable energy projects--like those announced today--are the key to our nation's energy future."
--

Lev Guter

Associate Organizing Representative

Sierra Club

1308 W. 2nd Street

Little Rock, AR 72201

(501) 301-8280

Bill Harrison's friends and readers invited to discuss books with him Friday night

Information about Harrison's latest publication and directions to Nightbird Books for the 5-9 p.m. gathering Friday.

Fayetteville meetings and events for Thursday, January 26, 2012

Calendar of Events

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Fayetteville Council of Neighborhoods

City Clerk

Time: 6:00 PM

Location: Room 326

Housing Authority Board of Commissioners

City Clerk

Time: 6:00 PM

Location: Room 111

Firemen's Pension and Relief Fund Board of Trustees

City Clerk

Time: 3:00 PM

Location: Room 326

Compost Site open 8 am to 3 pm

Solid Waste

Time: 8:00 AM - 3:00 PM

Location: 1708 S. Armstrong Ave.

OMNI gathering group shot at end of multi-program annual members and friends dinner

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE.
For more than 100 more photos from this event, please see this Flickr link.

OMNI's annual gathering of friends and neighbors late Sunday afternoon at Lifestyles' new facility

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE.

Site Map for Sunday gathering.

Please click on image to ENLARGE view of Lauren D. Hawkins' new design for OMNI Center for Peace, Justice and Ecology.

New OMNI design by Lauren D. Hawkins in December 2011

2012 -- A year of consequence begins

OMNI Members & Friends Gathering ! January 22, 2012
6:00 pm
LifeStyles Building

Sunday January 22, 2012, is the next Members and Friends Gathering. Join your friends at 6:00 pm at the new home of sister -nonprofit LifeStyles, 2590 W. Sycamore. We'll send a map next week. They have a really beautiful and quirky new building that you'll love visiting. It's colorful, friendly and spacious... lots of room for us to do music, have a hot January meal, and fun breakout sessions, where the talking can happen. Join OMNI friends to ponder the future of peace in the uncertain new age.

Breakout sessions have been confirmed, and as always, there's too much good stuff. Here's what we have:

The Future of Peace- Jacob George and Gladys Tiffany talk about the glimmers of positive change happening, and give you something you can do to encourage young Afghan peace workers right now.

The Future of Earth - Robert McAfee, and several area experts are prepared to update you on things we can't help but worry about. Many of them are attending the Citizens First environental caucus
this weekend, and will have current info on upcoming legislation, hopefully including the state water plan, now in the works.

Future Leaders for the Culture of Peace- OMNI's Youth Programs is organizing work with college and high school age students. It's exciting, and if you're that age, or if you have family or friends who are... or if you'd like to find out what's happening, you'll want to be here. Meet the Youth Resource Board, and the Youth Programs VISTA volunteer coordinating the program. Pretty cool.

The Future of the Occupy Movement -- A group of Occupy Northwest Arkansas members are coming to update you on what the local and national movements are planning; including reports on the "Occupy the Courts" that you're invited to join. Friday January 20 at noon, meet on the Town Square in front of Odom Law Office at Mountain and Block. You'll march the short one-block to the Federal Building together. January 20 is the 2nd anniversary of the odious "Citizens United" court decision that made money equal speech.

EARTH DAY 2012 !- Last but not least, Donna Stjerna is working with area enviro groups on the annual Earth Month celebration in April. She has dynamo ideas about centering the whole thing on TREES, and has convinced the whole town to go for it. There's a big concert in the works, and other activities. She could use volunteer help, and of course it'll be really fun. Find out what the plans are, and where you could fit in at this session.
PRAIRIE: Lauren D. Hawkins and Aubrey James Shepherd share photos and information about the prairies surrounding Fayetteville and how to help maintain World Peace Wetland Prairie, a city-owned, neighborhood-maintained nature park that would not exist if OMNI's founder, James Richard Bennett, had not provided a donation of $25,000, (one-fifth of the purchase price of the land) to purchase this karst-based, natural flow-area of a large parcel of seasonal wet prairie in south Fayetteville AR.
Remember that the menu for the evening is veggie lasagna, fresh salad, bread and simple desert.
OMNI cooks do a mean lasagna.
For detail,  contact Gladys at 479-935-4422 or gladystiffany@yahoo.com.
OMNI and Community Events
Veggie Potluck
Upcoming Events

Jan 22 - WE Connection presentation 2:00 pm - Showing of movie "Thrive" Beginning early to allow time for the movie, a bit of conversation, and preparation for the Member Gathering. Jan 22 - don't forget the wow-level OMNI Members and Friends Gathering at 6:00 pm

Photo and video from OMNI meeting  site: Preview with more to come after the event at the same URL Internet link.

Jan 25 - Visiting Tibetan Lama - 6:00 pm - Geshe Dakpa Togyal speaks at Fayetteville Library. Author, teacher, on Jan 25 he speaks on "Modern Ethics & Traditional Wisdom." His visit concludes Jan 30 with a talk at UA on "Nonviolence." More info coming.
Jan 28 - Bicycle Coalition of the Ozarks Annual Member Meeting - 3:00 @OMNI Center. Everyone invited.
Feb. 19 HOWL moves to OMNI - 6:00 pm - After years of meeting at Nightbird Books (love 'em), HOWL will now move to OMNI on 3rd Sunday evenings. Wonderful women writers will read their own or somebody's fascinating writing. Everyone welcome to listen in.
Feb 26 - Climate Change Book Club - 2:00 pm, Fay Public Library Walker Room. Discussing the book "End of Growth." You do not need to read the book to join in.

Preview video short take to run for the coming seven days on Fayetteville Public Access Television

Graveside service for Robert Williams at 2 p.m. today

Visitation ends at 11 a.m. at Beard's Funeral Chapel in Fayetteville.

Obama does the right thing

		Dear Aubrey, Thank President Obama for Rejecting Keystone XL and Standing Up to Big Oil Huge news! The Obama administration announced that it would deny a federal permit for the Keystone XL tar sands oil pipeline, which would run 1,700 miles across six US states bringing toxic, highly corrosive tar sands crude from Alberta, Canada, to refineries and ports in Texas. The president stood up to Big Oil, backed by the voices of hundreds of thousands of activists just like you, who have built the movement to stop this dirty, dangerous oil project. Thank President Obama for standing up to Big Oil and rejecting the Keystone XL oil pipeline. I want to also thank you, our grassroots activists, who have worked so hard to get us to this point. This is a huge victory and proof that while Big Oil may have more money, we have what matters: the voice of our communities. Our victory is a victory for the boreal forest, for the Sand Hills and the Ogallala aquifer and for the protection of our climate.  Unfortunately, the fight is not over. Over the coming weeks we will need to work hard together to defend the decision to deny Keystone XL. Big Oil companies have launched an all-out assault on the president for not doing their bidding on Keystone XL. We will undoubtedly see a barrage of misinformation on Keystone XL from Big Oil in the form of flashy ads attacking the president. Thank the president for rejecting Keystone XL and tell him that we aren't fooled by Big Oil. Big Oil says the pipeline would ease our pain at the pump? Nope. This is a fight about oil company profits. The pipeline will actually raise gas prices in the Midwest by 10 to 20 cents a gallon, hurting American families and American farmers and putting a damper on our fragile economy.1 Oil companies say the pipeline wouldn't spill? Not buying it. The last pipeline that was built like this spilled over 12 times in the first year of production.2 The oil lobby touts the economic boom and national security benefits from the project. The truth is the job numbers have been inflated and the tar sands oil is destined for export to Europe and Latin America from refineries in a Texas free trade zone -- i.e. no taxes collected.3 Now is the time to speak truth to power, to support the president's decision and push back against Big Oil's lies about Keystone XL. Thank President Obama for rejecting Keystone XL. Thanks for all you do to protect the environment, Sarah Hodgdon Sierra Club Conservation Director P.S. We need as many people as we can get to send this message to President Obama. Please forward this message to your friends and colleagues.

Homework for those attending or watching Tuesday, Jan. 17, city-council meeting in Fayetteville AR

Jim Bemis comments at this link.

Please join us at Martin Luther King Jr. holiday events Monday, January 16, 2012, in Fayetteville, Arkansas. List linked below

Martin Luther King Jr. Day events in Northwest Arkansas

Martin Luther King Jr. celebration IN 2009 in Fayetteville, Arkansas, included unveiling signs renaming Sixth Street to honor the civil-rights leader

Please click on images to ENLARGE view of unveiling of Martin Luther King Boulevard Signs at Razorback Road and the former Sixth Street


Fayetteville City Attorney Kit Williams rode up in a lift bucket to remove the cover from the newly installed signs, giving the change his full legal blessing.
In the crowd photo, Ernestine Gibson, president of the Northwest Arkansas Martin Luther King Jr. planning committee is speaking to the group.

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Preview of shortakes to run next week on public-access television in Fayettevile AR

New York City's stormwater-management rules upgraded: Can Fayetteville match the NYC model?

New York City's Urban GreenCouncil (a chapter of the U.S. Green Building Council) Web site celebrates advances in Department of Environmental Protection stormwater rules.

Stormwater Management As Mother Nature Intended

January 11, 2012 | By Russell Unger

The same day last week the City Council helped us all breathe easier with a new law on chemicals in carpets, the Department of Environmental Protection released its new stormwater rule that encourages natural rainwater detention and retention, along with accompanying design guidelines. “Natural” here is not being used like the labels on cleaning products – here we are talking about honest to goodness mother nature. Rather than send rainwater to concrete tanks, sewers, and treatment plants, the new DEP rule encourages onsite reuse and natural infiltration.
It’s hard to overstate how much of a “180” this rule and the Green Infrastructure Plan represents for DEP, at least in terms of the principles involved. Until very recently, the only stormwater approach that mattered to DEP’s water engineers were those that could be measured in tanks and pipes. While we all know rainwater can be absorbed in the ground, directed into a rain barrel, and retained by a green roof, it wasn’t that easy to measure this capture. So it didn’t count at all for DEP. It does now.
The new rule is not a panacea for those who favor green infrastructure but is still a big step forward. The rule drastically reduces the allowable runoff from new construction and major reconstruction (a 90% reduction from previous limits). DEP will consider a range of approaches to reduce runoff including vegetative cover, green roofs, and permeable pavement. It will also consider open-bottomed detention systems that allow infiltration. Owners are required to provide maintenance for these systems so they work as intended. And finally, new developments next to a waterway must send rainwater into the waterway (rather than the sewer system).
Taken together, this rule implements 4 Task Force recommendations:

• SW 2: Reduce Stormwater Runoff From New Developments
• SW 4: Send Rainwater to Waterways
• SW 5: Encourage Innovative Stormwater Practices
• SW 6: Maintain Site-Based Stormwater Detention Systems

Another good day for green codes and a great way to kick off the New Year!

National Cemetery noisy as destruction of the Sale Barn and removal of the debris continues

See Fayetteville National Cemetery site on Flickr for many photos of the area. Also, please see National Cemetery Neighbors and Friends Web log for more selected items.

Sierra Club's Ozark Highlands Group meeting begins at 6:30 p.m. today at Nightbird Books on Dickson Street in Fayetteville

Sierra Club meeting tonight in Fayetteville. Details at link.

My shortakes running this week on Fayetteville Public Television

Annual gathering of friends and members of OMNI Center for Peace, Justice & Ecology set for January 22, 2012, at a very special site

Please click on image to ENLARGE for easy reading.

January 2, 2009, Lioneld Jordan was sworn in as mayor of Fayetteville, Arkansas

Please click on individual images to ENLARGE.

December 20, 2011, meeting of Fayetteville AR city council draws comment on several important local issues on a 3-hour, 37-minute video