SUNY ESF president supports proposed Marcellus charter school | syracuse.com

SUNY ESF president supports proposed Marcellus charter school | syracuse.com

That Cuddly Kitty Is Deadlier Than You Think - NYTimes.com

That Cuddly Kitty Is Deadlier Than You Think - NYTimes.com

That Cuddly Kitty Is Deadlier Than You Think

Domestic cats in the United States kill billions of birds and mammals a year, according to a new report, a rate that is much higher than previous estimates.

Watertown Daily Times | Research highlights environmental threats to Lake Ontario

Watertown Daily Times | Research highlights environmental threats to Lake Ontario

Onondaga County escapes huge additional cost for lake cleanup | syracuse.com

Onondaga County escapes huge additional cost for lake cleanup | syracuse.com


Onondaga County dodged a bill of potentially hundreds of millions of dollars this summer when environmental regulators eased restrictions on the amount of phosphorus that its sewage treatment plant can dump into Onondaga Lake.
Phosphorus is a mineral that in high concentrations poses one of the greatest threats to the lake’s health. Commonly found in fertilizer and animal and human waste, it can choke a lake to death by promoting the excessive growth of algae, microorganisms that feed on phosphorus.
When algae grows out of control, it gives a lake a cloudy, green appearance and makes it stink, rendering the lake unfit for swimming or other recreational uses. It also sucks up the oxygen that fish need to breathe.
A 1998 federal court order required the county to lower the amount of phosphorus in the treatment plant’s discharge to a level that would have required spending $265 million to $1 billion, county officials said.

People's Beach

The People’s Beach

Reaffirming the public’s right to the beach could be the first step in a more just and sustainable coastal environmental policy.  Read more 

After the Boom in Natural Gas

"Rex W. Tillerson, the chief executive of Exxon Mobil, which spent $41 billion to buy XTO Energy, a giant natural gas company, in 2010, when gas prices were almost double what they are today, minced no words about the industry’s plight during an appearance in New York this summer.

“We are all losing our shirts today,” Mr. Tillerson said. “We’re making no money. It’s all in the red.”

Like the recent credit bubble, the boom and bust in gas were driven in large part by tens of billions of dollars in creative financing engineered by investment banks like Goldman Sachs, Barclays and Jefferies & Company.

After the financial crisis, the natural gas rush was one of the few major profit centers for Wall Street deal makers, who found willing takers among energy companies and foreign financial investors.

Big companies like Chesapeake and lesser-known outfits like Quicksilver Resources and Exco Resources were able to supercharge their growth with the global financing,"
read more NY Times.


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What to do with those Leaves?

Read the New York State Conservationist on the leaf issue. 

Fall is a beautiful time of the year; trees are dressed in brilliant colors of yellow, red and orange. But as fall progresses, that colorful foliage starts dropping, covering your lawn in a carpet of leaves. If left intact on the grass, these leaves will deprive the lawn of oxygen and sunlight resulting in dead spots the following spring.

To maintain a healthy lawn, fall's leaves must be managed in some way. If you live in a city, town or village, many of these municipalities provide a service to pick up the leaves and take them to a compost facility. There the leaves are most often put into long piles (called windrows) to biodegrade and turn into compost. Often a portion of this compost is made available to residents. Compost can be used as mulch, tilled into the soil or spread in a thin layer on the lawn. It retains soil moisture, adds nutrients and beneficial microorganisms, and improves soil structure.

to read more go to ...http://www.dec.ny.gov/pubs/85020.html