Rutgers Enviro-Notes
Current environmental research, news, and activities from the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station and the Rutgers communityContents
A New Place to Share Our Stories
Hello...
Welcome to the first edition of Rutgers Enviro-Notes! This publication has arisen from the need to tell each other what we are doing and the need to tell audiences outside the University what we are doing. Our target audience is the faculty and staff of Rutgers who work with or are interested in environmental subjects. We will also distribute, by request, to interested audiences outside of Rutgers be they governmental, commercial, non-profit or academic. Rutgers Enviro-Notes will have a static web site so news services can check in on it regularly and other web sites can make links to it. My hope is to keep the items simple and the newsletter quick and easy to read, yet informative. Hopefully, most, if not all of you, to contribute from time to time. As an e-newsletter we will make liberal use of links to deliver readers to more detailed information when appropriate. This also will allow us to be somewhat free-form with respect to the length of each edition. We plan one issue per month, at the beginning of each month. So contributions and notices need to be to me by the end of each month. That's about it. We are here, we are free, what more can you ask? Hope you enjoy it and find it useful. --Bruce Barbour, RCE Environmental Program Leader and Editor.
Water Quality and Agriculture …current projects at NJAES
This 16 page document summarizes 32 projects being conducted by Experiment Station personnel throughout the state. Editors Jack Rabin and Cindy Rovins polled research and extension faculty to develop a timely synopsis of on-going and recently completed projects affecting water quality and it's relationship to agriculture. If you work or have an interest in this area, be sure to take a look! Copies available from either Jack, (Rabin@aesop.rutgers.edu) or Cindy (Rovins@aesop.rutgers.edu)
The Green Group: Rutgers University Environmental Council
Chris Clarke reports the Rutgers University Environmental Council recently held its first meeting of the New Year last week, as it entered its third month of existence. The initiative that served as the Council’s foundation began in the spring semester 2003, when Sheri Seminski of the New Jersey Center for Environmental Indicators held a series of “Greening Meetings” with student leaders from different environmental groups on Cook and discussed with them suggestions on how to make Cook and Rutgers more environmentally friendly. With the foundation laid, officers from the Students for Environmental Awareness (SEA--an environmental advocacy group at Cook) began to reach out to different student groups and interested faculty and staff. The mission of the Environmental Council is to serve as a networking group that would provide student environmental groups at Rutgers, along with faculty, staff and administrators, with an opportunity to come together to work on projects/events to benefit the University. Key to this mission is resource sharing, including financial support, personnel involvement, and publicity for upcoming environmental events and projects. In addition, the Council also looks to promote specific projects as a whole, with the goal of enriching the natural environment at Rutgers. The first meeting was held last November was very well-attended (by over 15 different groups) and extremely successful. Also, the Council achieved formal recognition as a student organization at Cook and representatives met with Keith Cooper, acting Executive Dean, to discuss the group and what role the college may play as it develops further.
As the spring semester starts at Rutgers, the Council is looking forward to an exciting next couple of months. Possible projects include:
- Planning for the annual Earth Day celebration at Cook on April 18, 2004.
- Creating a Council website with the latest updated news and information.
- Profiles of different member groups at each monthly meeting.
- An independent film contest featuring documentaries of campus life from the students’ perspective.
- Landscaping projects at different areas on the Cook Campus
The next general meeting is scheduled for Wednesday, February 18, 2004 at 7 p.m. in the Cook Campus Center. Light refreshments will be served and all are welcome to attend. For more information, send us an e-mail: environmentalcouncil@yahoo.com and help add some green to the scarlet and black
NEMO in Ocean County
Jan Larson reports she has been busy including the NEMO (Nonpoint Education for Municipal Officials) program as an action item in the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program’s Comprehensive Conservation and Management Plan. The CCMP covers 660 square miles and thirty-seven municipalities. NEMO is an educational, nonregulatory program developed by the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension. It provides new ways to help local land use decision-makers deal with the complexities of nonpoint source water pollution, the number one water pollution problem in New Jersey as well as in the United States. In the interim the NJDEP has moved forward with promulgating a federally mandated Municipal Stormwater Regulation Program, called Phase II. Phase II also targets control of nonpoint source pollution, and RCE Water Resources Specialist, Christopher C. Obropta, Ph.D. has been working closely with NJDEP developing educational materials to assist municipal officials in complying with the new regulations. During Spring 2003, a small grant funded by the USDA Regional Water Quality Coordination Project was awarded to RCE for developing a five-municipality pilot NEMO program in the Barnegat Bay Watershed. On the strength of the pilot demonstration program, the Barnegat Bay National Estuary Program subsequently funded NEMO for all the other municipalities within the watershed. A collaborative partnership project has evolved between RCE Ocean County, Dr. Obropta, and CRSSA to provide a NEMO education program that includes Phase II. The program will be delivered in each Town Hall within the watershed this spring and it will include an extensive resource notebook for each town to help local officials educate the public about nonpoint source pollution. The presentations will attract a large audience because the timing is coincident with implementation of the new Phase II regulations and towns are seeking cost-effective ways to fulfill the public outreach education requirement embodied in the regulations.
Nature Conservancy and RCE team to address invasive species and forest management
Plans are being made to test control strategies for Japanese Stiltgrass, Microstegium vimineum, on Nature Conservancy land in Northern New Jersey. Steve Hart, Bruce Barbour and Mark Vodak decided in a meeting with Mike Van Clef of TNC, that Stiltgrass was one of the highest priority invasives and it also had an interesting array of possible control options. Several selective pre and post emergence herbicides have been show to be effective, suggesting the ability to do minimal damage to desirable native species. The group hopes to set out plots this spring. Collaborators are welcome! The real problem will be keeping the deer from eating whatever grows in place of the Microstegium. Another outcome of the meeting was follow-up by Mark Vodak with TNC personnel to discuss ways to stimulate private landowner neighbors of TNC properties to adapt management plans which would be compatible with TNC species protection objectives while also helping them qualify or stay qualified for the all-important farmland assessment.
Stormwater Management in your own backyard
Lisa Galloway Evrard, yet another of Chris Obropta's program associates, reports an educational curriculum on stormwater management has been created to help residents disconnect impervious surfaces (e.g., roofs and paved driveways) from running off directly into waterways and storm sewer systems, thereby reducing stormwater runoff peak flows, promoting groundwater recharge, and removing pollutants. This program, initially targeted at the Master Gardeners, provides instruction on: 1) the impacts of stormwater runoff, 2) stormwater Best Management Practices (BMPs) such as rain gardens, alternative landscapes, and infiltration systems, 3) the design and construction of these systems, and 4) monitoring and maintenance of BMPs. The participants also have an opportunity to actually help construct the BMPs and monitor their pollution removal effectiveness. This is expected to be a significant component of the Environmental Steward volunteer training curricula currently under development by RCE environmental faculty and staff.
Congratulations to Bill Sciarappa...
who just received a PEG planning grant for $4,000. for Agri-environmental Assessment thru Bacterial Source Tracking. This results, in part, from his association with Monmouth University's Tiedemann and Palodino. Bill is looking for anyone interested in collaborating on an educational seminar that transfers this exciting new technology to either applied or research based audiences. His group hopes to lay the foundation for a larger PEG proposal or other possible funding.
K-12 Environmental Education Program at EcoComplex
According to Fran Varacalli, Program Associate working with Extension Water Specialist Chris Obropta, Rutgers Cooperative Extension’s Water Resources Program has initiated a new program aimed at enhancing the existing environmental education program at the EcoComplex, The Environmental Research and Extension Center of Rutgers University. The program will combine the existing environmental education program at the center with a new water resources component which offers students a unique place to learn about current environmental issues affecting New Jersey. Through interactive hands-on activities students will learn about the critical role of water in their lives and its importance in New Jersey. Students will tour the on-site, state-of-the-art, landfill where they will get a glimpse of where their garbage ends up. In addition, students will visit the Greenhouse, the only place where Jersey Fresh Tomatoes are grown year round. Incorporating various leading environmental curriculum lesson plans that meet the NJ Core Curriculum Standards, students will gain a new understanding of New Jersey’s environmental issues from this one of a kind opportunity. The program is geared to students in grades K-12 and is open to any school in New Jersey that is interested in participating.
Meet Tanya Oznowich...
keeper of the SEEDS program, www.nj.gov/dep/seeds, for NJDEP. Her more formal title is Environmental Education Supervisor for the DEP Communications Office Environmental Education Program. We appreciate why she developed the SEEDS moniker, roles off the tongue a bit easier. Tanya's group is concerned with promoting DEP environmental education information and resources. These may exist either through its own programs or through alliances and partnerships educating the public about the field of environmental education, including its purpose, goals and role in the DEP. To these ends Tanya makes it her business to assist in disseminating news of materials and opportunities for environmental education. She also serves as staff to the New Jersey Commission on Higher Education, currently chaired by Joan Eliot, also known to some at Cook College as Zane Helsel's better half. It's a small world after all.
Do you know our neighbor?....
The Environmental Research Foundation at 153 Nichol Ave. in good old New Brunswick is the home to Rachel's Environment and Health News ( www.rachel.org/home_eng.htm ). The ERF was founded in 1980 to provide understandable scientific information about the influence of toxic substances on human health and the environment. Their main goal is to strengthen democracy by helping people find the information they need to fight for environmental justice in their own communities. They believe that grass-roots action is the effective lever for change in our neighborhoods and that informed citizens are the essential backbone of a strong democracy and a healthy environment.
To meet those lofty and admirable goals they specialize in information on hazardous substances and hazardous technologies, including landfills, incinerators, pesticides, organochlorine compounds, risk assessments, and their effects on human and environmental health. Peter Montague is Director and Maria Pellarano is Associate Director of ERF. In a recent discussion both indicated that they would value opportunities to visit departments at Cook and learn more about the expertise of our faculty and staff. Of course the Rachel referred to is Rachel Carson, but most of you knew that already.
Next Meeting of the RCE Environmental Working Group March 30, 1:00 PM at the Rutgers Eco-Complex in Burlington County.
Conservation District Business Planning Workshop-February 17-18 - The State Soil Conservation Committee and New Jersey Association of Conservation Districts, are sponsoring a 2-day workshop to develop a 5-year District Business Plan and 12-month Plan of Action for Conservation District Supervisors, Managers and Conservation Partners. The Workshop, cosponsored by the Natural Resources Conservation Service and Rutgers Cooperative Extension will include the development of a mission statement, identification of priority natural resource issues and measurable goals, staffing needs, annual budget needs and the priority actions needed in the next 12 months to implement the 5-year plan of each Conservation District. The 16 district business plans will serve as the foundation for the State Strategic Plan.
The event will be held at the Ocean Place Conference Hotel in Long Branch, Monmouth County at a rate of $84. per night, single or double occupancy. Lodging reservations must be made by February 12 to assure this rate. When making hotel reservations at 732-571-4000, please refer to the NJ Department of Agriculture-Business Planning Workshop. For additional hotel information see www.oceanplaceresort.com. The workshop registration is $100 per person which includes an organized lunch and dinner on the 17th, refreshments breaks for both days and program materials. The workshop concludes at noon on the 18th.
Rutgers Enviro-Notes is a publication of Rutgers Cooperative Extension.
Bruce Barbour, Editor. Contact: Barbour@rce.rutgers.edu.
Priscilla Hayes, Campus News. Contact: Hayes@aesop.rutgers.edu.
Use of items from this newsletter is freely permitted but attribution to Rutgers Cooperative Extension is requested.
