Saturday, April 28, 2012
Friday, April 27, 2012
Monday, April 23, 2012
Scull Cleanup 4-8 p.m. April 23, 2012. Detail below
Please click on individual images to ENLARGE:
--
Scull Creek/Habitat Cleanup TODAY 4-8pm. In case you did not receive the original announcement from me with a link to the Cleanup flyer, it is below Mike's note. It should be a gorgeous day for a work detail. Sara
From Mike Adelman-
Gloves, trash bags, trail maps and bottled water will be available for volunteers at the parking lot (north end) at Appleby and Gregg Street, starting at 4:00 p.m. Look for Mike Adelman.
Please be sure to sign in and record your commitment to improving the environment of our communities.
Mike Adelman
-----Original Message-----
From: sara caulk <saracaulk@cox.net>
Sent: Mon, Apr 16, 2012 9:35 pm
Subject: Do-Gooding Opportunity on Monday, April 23rd
It's time to spruce up our Adopt-a-Trail section of the Scull Creek Trail again.
John Pennington has done the lion's share of the organizing for this event again (THANKS, John!) which includes the entire Scull Creek Trail corridor.
FNHA will clean our section of trail which is the section that starts at Appleby Road and heads north to where the trail intersects with the Mud Creek Trail. The Environmental Action Committee Habitat Project Team has joined FNHA to organize work parties for this section of the trail.
Please wear appropriate attire (long pants and sleeves, water shoes/boots) for grabbing the treasures and artifacts from the streambanks, water, and bushes along the trail, and DON"T FORGET... There are bugs out there looking for blood donors so slather yourselves with your preferred repellent if you're so inclined!
The flyer provided by John Pennington has more details and a nifty map to show you where to park and get your marching orders. Please follow this link to the flyer on the FNHA websitewhere it has been uploaded to our calendar.
Thanks for your support, and we would love to see you there!
Sara Caulk
--
Sarah E. Lewis
Sunday, April 22, 2012
Friday, April 20, 2012
Kitty Creek destruction and native plants featured in Aubrey James Shepherd's Fayetteville Public Television shortake segment April 22-27, 2012
Good topic!
I have photos of many fires such as David describes and have ranted fruitlessly on the subject for decades. Everything from Aspen Ridge developers having thousands of trees (including a 90-foot-tall, 7 stemmed willow growing in a year-round wetland area) in 2005 to farmers, ranchers, and home-owners who simply don't know any reason not to burn any and all objects rather than put them in recycling bins or garbage cans.
As I recall, the state legislature actually outlawed all outdoor burning (excluding barbecue pits and such) decades ago but a later legislature weakened the law to allow burning of 'construction waste' and land-clearing waste for any purpose after complaints from the greedy or uninformed few. Most people don't burn needlessly because they rightfully fear wildfire that often occurs after intentionally set fires.
The waste of wood of great potential is illogical, of course. If it must be cut, it should be used effectively, which means heating a building or cooking food or warming while camped out in a designated area or any of the ways human beings have used wood for countless centuries.
Even controlled burning with firefighters available for prairie restoration isn't necessarily a carbon-neutral undertaking.
A few years ago, a Ph.D. candidate at the UA presented findings of his several years of study including a wide search of available literature confirming that the fast regeneration of native prairie plants after restoration-purposed burning resulted in carbon sequestration that appeared to offset the carbon released during the burn but stated that, after the first three or four years of regrowth, the level of carbon sequestration dissipated to a level that suggested that such burning actually ended up having a negative air-quality effect. And, of course, burning large trees and the big brush piles where thickets formerly stood results in even greater air pollution.
Convincing city officials that what scientists at state and federal agencies such as ADEQ, EPA and Corps of Engineers have consistently told me and others about environmental regulation for decades is correct seems difficult. When asked, the federal bureaucrats holding titles that suggest they can protect and must protect the environment, tend to say that their mandate is only to do certain things (witness ADEQ officials being unable to protect UNDERGROUND water, thus allowing fracking and related pumping of waste chemicals into the ground to go unchecked) But they end up saying "Your city can pass and ENFORCE stronger regulations to protect your residents and natural resources." The scientists working for most such agencies KNOW what is right but can't say "DEMAND YOUR ELECTED OFFICIALS pass rules that let us do the right thing. But most will share facts that help people who care take their activism to a new level of effectiveness with a new level of confidence. Did you really listen to the ADEQ speakers at the water-quality meeting a few months back in Fayetteville? Just watching their faces one could see that they WANT effective legislation to allow them to do what their training has made them know is right.
Maybe because whatever rules are enforced offend a few, some local politicians are more comfortable saying ''we are only following a state or federal mandate.' But the most progressive, effective environmental laws in the U.S. are those in major cities where in some cases pollution and related problems long ago got so bad they were dangerous to the health of the majority of residents or in cities where the educational level of the residents seems to allow public pressure to push past the politics of "please the greedy" and reach a new level of protecting air, water, soil, public health and quality of life.
Thanks for sharing and caring,
Sincerely,
Aubrey James Shepherd
Case in point: The dredging and widening and pouring of limestone gravel base material to be followed by concreting the former stream bed of Kitty Creek, a tributary of Mud Creek, itself a tributary of Clear Creek, itself a tributary of the Illinois River, itself a tributary of the Arkansas River, itself a tributary of the Mississippi River and during high water a tributary of the Atchafalaya River (both silt and sewage conduits to the Louisiana Gulf Coast. For photos of what was occurring Thursday and will be continuing Monday at where Kitty Creek flows under Joyce Avenue (aka Joyce Boulevard) please use the following links to the bottom portion of the Illinois River watershed set on Flickr and related videos on You Tube.
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Monday, April 16, 2012
Joe Neal's bird list after nature walk celebrating Earth Day at World Peace Wetland Prairie 2012
EARTHY KICK-OFF AT WORLD PEACE WETLAND PRAIRIE April 15, 2012
EARTH DAY 2012 photos on Flickr.
Earth Day celebrants have, in a manner of speaking, been partying around Fayetteville for at least a week. Yesterday it was earth’s turn at World Peace Wetland Prairie (WPWP) in south Fayetteville, starting at 1 PM. However, the earth got ahead. At noon a huge thunder-boomer rolled in, with plenty of rain the earth really needed. Rained on the parade, so to speak, but didn’t stop it.
I got to WPWP around 2 PM, umbrella-time. Several of us paraded along a wet path through a couple of acres, taking advantage of a sudden rain gap, with those remarkable sun rays called angel slides. Northern Cardinals and an Eastern Towhee obliged with singing. We had unexpected views of an Orange-crowned and a Palm Warbler, a singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and quite a few Yellow-rumped Warblers festivally-attired in yellows, blacks, grays, and whites of their upcoming nesting season. White-throated Sparrows -- many now with reddish wings, brilliant white head stripes and throat, gold accents in front of their eyes -- were singing and chasing everywhere. Then rain returned.
Of course rain with umbrellas is no impediment to flower-admiring. With and without umbrellas we enjoyed native red honeysuckle, an indigo bush just ready to bloom, a strange flowering sedge and bunches of yucca-like leaves of rattlesnake master at both WPWP and adjoining Pinnacle Prairie. The Silphium called cup plant won’t bloom until later, but its huge coarsely-toothed leaves were emerged from adjoining greens, full of promise, just right for Earth Day 2012.
EARTH DAY 2012 photos on Flickr.
Earth Day celebrants have, in a manner of speaking, been partying around Fayetteville for at least a week. Yesterday it was earth’s turn at World Peace Wetland Prairie (WPWP) in south Fayetteville, starting at 1 PM. However, the earth got ahead. At noon a huge thunder-boomer rolled in, with plenty of rain the earth really needed. Rained on the parade, so to speak, but didn’t stop it.
I got to WPWP around 2 PM, umbrella-time. Several of us paraded along a wet path through a couple of acres, taking advantage of a sudden rain gap, with those remarkable sun rays called angel slides. Northern Cardinals and an Eastern Towhee obliged with singing. We had unexpected views of an Orange-crowned and a Palm Warbler, a singing Ruby-crowned Kinglet, and quite a few Yellow-rumped Warblers festivally-attired in yellows, blacks, grays, and whites of their upcoming nesting season. White-throated Sparrows -- many now with reddish wings, brilliant white head stripes and throat, gold accents in front of their eyes -- were singing and chasing everywhere. Then rain returned.
Of course rain with umbrellas is no impediment to flower-admiring. With and without umbrellas we enjoyed native red honeysuckle, an indigo bush just ready to bloom, a strange flowering sedge and bunches of yucca-like leaves of rattlesnake master at both WPWP and adjoining Pinnacle Prairie. The Silphium called cup plant won’t bloom until later, but its huge coarsely-toothed leaves were emerged from adjoining greens, full of promise, just right for Earth Day 2012.
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Friday, April 13, 2012
Wednesday, April 11, 2012
All 19 video clips of Jack White's expose of fracking for natural gas in Arkansas now available on a single google blogspot post
http://severancetax.blogspot.com/2012/04/jack-white-speaks-to-sierra-club.htmlWhy frackin for natural gas should be carefully managed or outlawed in Arkansas
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Tiff District killed in Washington County Circuit Court reports Arkansas Times blog: Monstrous abuse of taxpayers should never even been proposed, and how much less would it have cost to remodel the building torn down to create one pathetic little parking lot?
Larry Woodall forwarded this welcome information: Here is Woodall's introductory note:
5 or 6 years ago we had conversations about tax increment financing (TIF). It was new and little understood. Coody and his developer gang pushed it through in Fayetteville with disasterous results in downtown development and a big hit to the finances of Fay Public Schools.
Read the comments at the end of this Ark Times article to get the gist of what TIF does to a community. It has rarely been used in Ark to create worthwhile development in blighted neighborhoods as the intended purpose of the law stated. As we saw in Fayetteville it was used to funnel school money into pockets of the downtown elites.
click here for article
5 or 6 years ago we had conversations about tax increment financing (TIF). It was new and little understood. Coody and his developer gang pushed it through in Fayetteville with disasterous results in downtown development and a big hit to the finances of Fay Public Schools.
Read the comments at the end of this Ark Times article to get the gist of what TIF does to a community. It has rarely been used in Ark to create worthwhile development in blighted neighborhoods as the intended purpose of the law stated. As we saw in Fayetteville it was used to funnel school money into pockets of the downtown elites.
click here for article
TAXESFayetteville schools win fight against TIF tax grab
Posted by Max Brantley on Tue, Apr 10, 2012 at 10:10 AM
The Fayetteville School District has won a lawsuit challenging the city of Fayetteville's effort to capture some of the money from a voter-approved tax increase to build a new high school and give it to the misbegotten downtown tax increment finance (TIF) district. The judge ruled that because the millage was pledged to debt, taxes collected within the TIF district under that new millage could not be diverted to the district's use.
Showing 1-5 of 5
add a comment
Should be able to get the TIF law thrown out.
Dustin McDaniel has already delivered massive amounts of tax money from schools to his sugar daddy developer campaign donator friend so I bet old Dustin McDaniel would just let it die.
The TIF law is the epitome of poor tax policy.
One tax entity gets to give away another taxing entity's revenue.
When has spending other people's money resulted in frugal and justifyable spending?
Dustin McDaniel has already delivered massive amounts of tax money from schools to his sugar daddy developer campaign donator friend so I bet old Dustin McDaniel would just let it die.
The TIF law is the epitome of poor tax policy.
One tax entity gets to give away another taxing entity's revenue.
When has spending other people's money resulted in frugal and justifyable spending?
like
dislikePosted by Citizen1 on April 10, 2012 at 12:05 PM
"The TIF law is the epitome of poor tax policy."
Amen to that, Citizen1.
Amen to that, Citizen1.
Posted by Sound Policy on April 10, 2012 at 12:21 PM
TIF is a textbook example of what has happened to our government in general.
The wealthy control the legislature and use it to lower their costs and increase their revenues.
This redistribution of wealth comes at the expense of the tools those in poverty need to improve themselves, like schools.
Thus creating a cycle of concentration of wealth and the division of society into an upper class that runs on inherited wealth and a lower class that has no chance of escaping poverty.
The ironic part is that they call it economic development -- when in fact it actually cripples economic development.
The wealthy control the legislature and use it to lower their costs and increase their revenues.
This redistribution of wealth comes at the expense of the tools those in poverty need to improve themselves, like schools.
Thus creating a cycle of concentration of wealth and the division of society into an upper class that runs on inherited wealth and a lower class that has no chance of escaping poverty.
The ironic part is that they call it economic development -- when in fact it actually cripples economic development.
Posted by ChildeRolandReturneth on April 10, 2012 at 12:33 PM
Thursday, April 5, 2012
Mayor Lioneld Jordan reads proclamation of 40 days and 40 nights of Earthday-related events in Fayetteville, Arkansas
Please click on individual images to ENLARGE.
 |
| Lioneld Jordan has attended Earth Day at World Peace Wetland Prairie regularly since the 2005 Earth Day dedication of the nature park and voted to accept it as a Fayetteville Nature Park when he was on the City Council representing WARD 4. |
 |
| David Whitaker, candidate for Arkansas State Representative and former assistant city attorney of Fayetteville and veteran of 6 years in the U.S. Air Force, has been involved in working for a better Fayetteville for more than a decade. |
Mayor Lioneld Jordan to announce the official opening of 40 days of Earth Day events at 6 p.m. today in front of the Town Center on the south side of the Downtown Square
Please click on individual images to ENLARGE.
Please acquire an ECO-Passport while there!
 |
| Tiny long-horn grasshopper nymph on flower on west side of World Peace Wetland Prairie on April 5, 2012 |
 |
| Pale pink, tiny wildflowers on Pinnacle Foods Inc. wet prairie west of World Peace Wetland Prairie in Fayetteville on April 5, 2012. |
Tuesday, April 3, 2012
City Council meeting tonight. Agenda linked below. The underlined or highlighted words are live links to background information and ordinance wording
Fayetteville, Arkansas, City Council Agenda for Tuesday, April 3, 2012
If you decide to go to city hall for the meeting, please stop in Chamber of Commerce building next door to the west and pickup yard signs or information on the effort to raise a small sales tax to support public transportation in Washington County.
If you decide to go to city hall for the meeting, please stop in Chamber of Commerce building next door to the west and pickup yard signs or information on the effort to raise a small sales tax to support public transportation in Washington County.
Monday, April 2, 2012
President Obama will create new national monuments of significance if he gets support from the public. Do it NOW!
 |  | | ||
 | ||||
 |
| |||
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
Posts
