Art of the Land - September 26th!

There is so much to write about, but for now I just want to share a couple of thoughts about TLC's fall benefit - Art of the Land!

Logistics: Starline Gallery, 306 Front Street, Harvard, 6-10pm

Cost: $15 in advance, $20 at the door. Visit www.conservemc.org to make your reservation before Saturday! Admission includes appetizers from Duke's Ale House in Crystal Lake, assorted desserts (after 8pm), wine, Starbucks coffee, Great Art, Great Music, a Silent Auction, results of the Photo Contest and lots of really awesome people!!

Dress: Whatever is most comfortable for you! I'm going formal just because I NEVER get to do that!!

Photo Contest Results: This is one of the many photos that were submitted by local amateur photographers - taken at TLC's 60 acre Dutch Creek Conservation Easement in Johnsburg. Thirty one photos will be on display, and taken at 29 of the nearly 50 properties TLC has protected across McHenry County. The winning photographs will be announced, and everyone will have a chance to VOTE for their personal favorites in the people's choice contest!!

Great Art! There will be art work from 16 talented local & regional artists -- all with a land-related theme! Most of the artwork will be for sale, with 40% of proceeds benefitting TLC's land preservation mission! Artwork ranges from large installation pieces to ceramic mushrooms, traditional oil paintings, fabric art, and so much more!

The silent auction includes items ranging from a Terry Evans photograph to a starter raingarden, orignial quilts, ceramic gnome, bird bath, and so much more! The silent auction closes at 8pm, so be sure to arrive before then so you have a chance to bid!

Glazz -- Woodstock's Latin Jazz group -- will be performing - a short set around 7:30pm, and a longer program after 8!!

If you want to take the Metra Train, there are a couple of options -- take the earlier train (4:51 from Crystal Lake) and arrive at 5:20 in Harvard, then get a bite to eat -- there are several bars with decent food all within a short walk from the train station - Bopps on Front Street, for instance. There is also a Mexican restaurant I am quite fond of called La Trinidad about 3 blocks south of the train station on Ayer Street. The Gallery is 3 blocks west of the train station at 306 Front Street!

The later train (leaves Crystal Lake at 6:51) arrives in Harvard at 7:20. The just 3 blocks west on Front Street to the Gallery!

Heading home, there is a 9:35 train from Harvard that will take folks to Woodstock, Crystal Lake & beyond! The train is just $5 on weekends for unlimited rides! Plus, it is a beautiful ride, especially between Woodstock & Harvard! It gives folks a good idea of what this "land preservation" thing is all about!!

Disc Golf versus a Wetland

I read - with a groan - another rant in the newspaper from someone about those "special interest" people in McHenry trying to stop progress because it would mean kids throwing frisbees in their backyards.

I thought: Can't we all learn to get along? Isn't this world big enough for the frisbee-golfers too?

After a call from one of the anti-disc golf neighbors, I realized it wasn't just a case of some folks wanting to keep other folks out of their backyards. The proposed disc golf site is located on a wetland listed on the County's natural area inventory.

There are only about 170 such natural features remaining in the entire county. These natural areas took millenia to evolve, yet the only take hours to destroy through thoughtlessness -- or malice. There are lady slipper orchids growing out there. These flowers are typically only found in natural areas that have survived the onslaught of human beings.

The soil at the park is wet, mucky, not suitable for building anything, and certainly not appropriate for a bunch of people to be running around in, tossing hard discs into metal cages.

When most parks develop amenities in wet areas, things like boardwalks are built to allow people to move across the wetlands without damaging them. Think of Volo Bog or the Bog at Glacial Park near Ringwood. The wetland isn't usually planned for intensive use best suited to a mowed lawn.

Now I will rephrase my early question: "Can't we learn to get along with nature?"

People have destroyed or dramatically altered at least 99% of the landscape somoehow to the detriment of the natural communities that were once here. There are so few remnants of these unique combinations of plants, animals, soils and insects remaining, and yet we still find ways to trample on what little is left.

Call me a savage, but I think nature deserves some places to play too.

Life without the Internet

It was a long three weeks in some ways.

TLC moved our office about 500 feet on July 25th from a pole building at the back of a plant nursery to a 100 year old farmhouse at the new Hennen Conservation Area to serve as care-takers of this City of Woodstock park. We'll open and close the gate every day, monitor the trails, pick up trash, and provide a presence to help ensure vandalism does not become a problem.

And the 500 foot move meant we were about 300 feet out of the DSL service area for our former Internet provider. Thus began our three week journey to find an alternative to DSL...

In the meantime, being disconnected from the world of Internet and e-mail meant that we had plenty of time to organize all of the records that were moved from the old office, and ample time to work on organizing the Hennen Conservation Area for a public opening later this month. (August 30th from 2-3:30pm!!)

Thank you to the crew of summer interns who worked through heat and rain to put in a trail system (over 2 miles) and to begin removing invasive species that were crowding the handful of giant oaks they discovered while exploring the property (like the 52 inch diameter one pictured above).

Our new location at Hennen will give TLC lots of opportunities to actually run programs to help connect people with the great outdoors and with the work that TLC does to preserve and care for the land. For example, we'll work with City staff to plan "back to nature" programs to help connect Woodstock residents with the great outdoors -- a special opportunity presented by this site.

Hennen Conservation Area is a 25 acre parcel that was donated to the City by Phyllis & Tony Hennen - long time residents who retired to Minnesota three years ago. The Hennen's were known to many in the community through their daughters Tonya and Tara, and through their involvement in the "Stop the Stacks" battle against a proposed peaker plant in their back yard.

So, I guess the bottom line for me is that three weeks without the Internet was a very small price to pay for the priviledge of getting to work here every day -- actually the three weeks was a gift. Just like the Hennen Conservation Area will be a precious gift for area residents forever!

Road Madness

Promoting bicycle riding as an alternative to cars seems a good thing, right? The fewer cars we have on the roads, the less wear and tear on the roads, and the less need for widening them in the future.

There is a great informational video from the McHenry County Bicycle Advocates about the need to include bicycle lanes when planning to expand local road like Rakow Road!

If you have driven on Rakow, you know that it is a major east-west route in one of the most congested parts of the county, allowing people to drive from Randall Road to Route 31 as an alternative to Route 14.

Currently, Rakow can also be used for bicycle commuting because there is a sizable shoulder. However, plans to widen the road would mean that the shoulder would be eliminated, and bicycle commuting would be effectively eliminated as well.

The last reason I heard for this change was "cost." It costs more to include a bicycle lane, both in terms of design and pavement installation, because it means there is additional pavement to allow for both bicycles and cars to use the road safely.

Now, what if there were some highway funds that could be moved from a different project in the county and used for this one?

I know just the project: the proposed Alden Road widening project in Hartland and Alden Townships. The County Highway Department wants to add 8 foot shoulders the length of Alden Road because of safety concerns, and that will cost millions of dollars.

Alden Road does not have a lot of traffic - I've driven it several different times of day and days of the week recently just to see, and I can say that traffic is sparse. The impact of the widening would be huge, however. Landowners along the road have flagged trees and structures that would be affected by the increased shoulders -- it looks like at least 100 trees, a barn and portions of a couple of houses would be destroyed to add a wider shoulder to this rural road.

Alden Road also does not really provide an important travel alternative in this largely rural portion of the county, as Rakow does in a congested area. Nor does Alden Road make sense as a commuter bicycle route, as Rakow does... In terms of priorities, where would those road construction dollars best be spent?

So, here's a thought: why not reduce the speed limit on Alden Road to 45 miles per hour to improve safety, skip the expensive engineering and widening, and shift the Alden Road funds to the bicycle lane on Rakow Road? It would save lots of trees, a couple of houses and a barn, and would ensure that commuters can opt for riding their bicycles instead of driving their cars in a densely developed area of the county.

The MCBA website has more information, including a petition asking the county to include a bicycle lane on Rakow Road. Also, the Alden Road Alliance webiste has more information on the proposed Alden Road project.

A Cure for Affluenza?

I don't often venture into the realm of economics, but after hearing Gus Speth, Dean of Forestry & Environmental Studies at Yale University, I had to reconsider my aversion to the Dismal Science.

I heard Dean Speth in an interview with Kai Ryssdal on NPR's Marketplace today while I was driving home from an early dinner out with my husband, Tom.

The interview blew me away! Speth was talking about how perhaps the current economic crisis might just prompt a reordering of priorities in our "shop til you drop" society. One of the tenets of modern economic theory is that the only way to grow an economy is to consume. So how would our economy grow without all the consumption of stuff it depended upon until the crash?

To quote Speth: "Depends on what you consume, doesn't it? There are lots of things in our society that we need to grow. We need to grow health care, we need to grow education, we need to grow infrastructure, we need to grow an entirely new energy system. But what we probably don't need to grow is the volume of our stuff. We now have . . . the square-footage of the self-storage industry in the United States would now cover all of San Francisco and the entire island of Manhattan combined."

Think about that - it isn't that we stop all consumption*, it's a matter of changing where those consumer dollars are spent. We don't need to build & buy more stuff - we need to build better stuff and better systems that serve the needs of all our residents in the long run.

Speth cited studies about personal happiness that have found -- consistently -- that more stuff does not make us more happy - in fact, the more materialistic people are, the LESS happy they become. Quoting Speth: "In our country, in the United Kingdom, in Japan, GDP per capita has gone up and up and up but the level of life satisfaction has been stable. And what really makes people happy is warm, close, personal relationships. And giving, rather than getting."

Think about the things that make you happy. Quality, not quantity. Not more friends, but closer friends. Deciding to help someone else, not waiting to see what he can do for you.

But won't we be in trouble if we don't get back to the way things were a couple of years ago? Speth's answer, with my highlights:

"Well, we might not grow as fast. And I personally think that there are diminishing returns to growth. There are diminishing returns to affluence. And when you get a country that's as rich as ours, it really becomes a matter of spending what we have wisely. And all of my adult life I've heard people say, "You know, we need to keep growing or we'll face the distribution issue in our society. And we kept growing and distribution of income and resources and assets got worse. So, I think it's time to worry about some of these other things, and not so much about just growing the aggregate economy. And gives us the time to do things in life that really matter. We're rich enough for that now."

I heard that and I wanted to cry. I believe him - it isn't like we are a poor country -- even during a deep recession, many people are still driving alone in their SUVs, paying nearly $3 a gallon for gas.

Perhaps the reason the interview struck me so profoundly, is because Tom & I had just attended a brief Rally in front of State Rep Jack Franks' office, trying to raise awareness of the need to figure out how to fund services for our society's most vulnerable - people with mental illness and developmental disabilities.

That is the target group today -- yesterday it was natural resources -- tomorrow it might be health care, or clean air... Everything is up for grabs.




*For a primer on the deadend of our "build, buy, toss" consumerism, take a gander at Annie Leonard's Story of Stuff. It's a 20 minute animation that walks you through American consumerism. And the bottom line is this: we have had an unsustainable system that values style over substance and quantity over quality. Where obsolescence is built into consumer products --meaning that things are DESIGNED to break, and to cost more to repair than to replace, SO there is a built in incentive to throw things away and buy new things.

Does your water taste salty?

In McHenry County, virtually all of the water people use in our day to day lives comes from the ground - groundwater.

An important thing to remember about groundwater is that once pollutants make their way into the water that is underground, it is very difficult and expensive to remove.

A "contaminant" of growing concern in local groundwater supplies is chloride - an element that is being introduced to the groundwater through septic systems that are connected to homes with water softeners and also road salt.

The salt that is commonly used in water softeners to remove hardness from household water is Sodium Chloride (NaCl). The water "softening" process results in the release of high levels of sodium and chloride ions into the septic system where they quickly pass into the drain field and down into the groundwater.

The standard for chloride in drinking water is 250 milligrams per liter (mg/L). This is the level at which the water will taste salty to most people. Less chloride than that and people tend not to notice it.

According to the US Environmental Protection Agency (USEPA), standards for chloride in drinking water are merely guidelines since chloride does not pose a health risk - at least not at levels low enough that we cannot taste it.

We've all heard advice to limit salt intake to help stay healthy, right? It's linked to high blood pressure and thereby an increased risk of heart disease. For humans, the primary source of salt (sodium chloride: NaCl) is the diet.

But, there are members of our community who "taste" chloride at a level of less than 100 mg/L, and whose well-being is profoundly affected in even these small amounts. The level of sodium found in McHenry County groundwater (in the Boone Creek watershed) is already 80 mg/L AND RISING!

A study documenting the dramatic increases in chloride levels in even rural areas of the northeastern US provides a lot of good information about the ecological impact of increasing salinity. The impacts include:

- altered natural community composition (many plants and animals cannot tolerate the higher chloride levels, so are replaced by those that can)

- changes in plant and animal reproduction and mortality (some plants and animals stop reproducing, and others die)

- changes in the structure of microbial communities.

This last one may seem trivial, but those microbes are critical to the soil food web that so much of life depends upon. Consider that oak growing in your yard - if the water table becomes salty, the beneficial fungi and microbes that the trees roots depend upon to feed the tree can die, and then the tree won't be far behind.

Rainbarrels (and Composters) R Us!

Thursday May 14th was the day for unloading rainbarrels & composters from trucks (over 200), and now Friday the 15th & Saturday the 16th are rainbarrel pick up!

So, we are pretty much all rainbarrels right now! 55-60 gallon barrels don't weigh a lot, but they are large, and stacked three high in the back of the building, they probably take up 500 square feet!

I asked one of the drivers where they get the barrels, and he said that all sorts of things are shipped in them from all over the world: pickles, banana peppers, olives, chocolate-covered cherries (??!!), etc. The barrels are made of really sturdy, food-grade plastic, but are not reused for shipping, so are a potentially huge waste stream. But, with a few simple additions, they make a great rainbarrel or composter.

The rainbarrels are fitted with a lid that has a screen covering one or more holes. This allows water to flow from a downspout into the barrel, but keeps mosquitoes from laying their eggs in the water. There is a spigot near the bottom, and a couple of small openings higher up where one can use a hose to connect multiple barrels together -- that way, when one barrel fills up, water starts to fill the next barrel.

The barrels used for composters have a solid lid, and a wooden stand with a bar through the middle of the barrel. This allows one to spin the barrel and mix the compost. The barrels also have a vent tube that allows air to get into the center of the barrel. (Air is one of the keys to making good compost.)

I bought one of the composters this year, and will be sure to let you know how it works. I can aleady vouch for the rainbarrels - I've had two for two years, and they are wonderful!

We plan to sell these every year - it is a fun way to raise awareness of the need for people to conserve water, and to recycle their food and yard waste.