Some photos of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies I took the other day. A fairly common species in the eastern US, they were gathering on a butterfly bush around dusk. There were about 6-7 all together, mostly males. I did spot one female though.
I just watched No Impact Man: The Documentary, which is the story of a family living in NYC trying to live without making an environmental impact for a year.
It made me think, a lot.
I’ve recently gone back to school to study environmental science, and the last few weeks I’ve felt a bit lost, not sure what I’m going to do once I finish school.
Part of me wants to save the world, but I’m not so concerned about saving the people. The people are who the world needs saving from.
There are some excellent points brought up in the documentary, for example:
Honestly I think the concept of trying to leave a year without making waste is fairly ridiculous. It is imposible not to create any waste, our collective goal should be to create as little waste as possible, so our environment is not degraded. The environment is able to filter and process waste & pollution, but we cannot overwhelm it. The population has grown exponentially in the past 100 years, and if everyone created waste and used energy at the rate us Americans do, we’ll be doomed in no time flat. Food for thought.
Last Labor Day weekend while Liz and I were camping in Worthington State Forest, we picked up one of the State Park’s “Passport to Adventure”. Its a small book that you use to collect stickers from 36 different sites around the state, which include state parks, forests and historic sites. From the state’s website, “The Passport to Adventure is the perfect way to discover the unique cultural and natural wonders in New Jersey’s state parks, forests and historic sites.”
We have not really done much with it since we got it, only collecting a sticker from Worthington, where we got the passport, and Allaire state park, which is right by my house. We’ve made it our goal this summer to collect the remaining 34 stickers, and I’ll be writing an entry about each place we visit. So keep an eye out for more info about our state parks, forests and historic sites.
The Edison Wetlands Association needs our help:
“On Monday, November 16 at 7PM, the Edison Township Planning Board will host a hearing on a proposed development plan in the 1,240-acre Dismal Swamp Conservation Area. This application would require a diversion of stormwater onto Green Acres property, which would potentially have catastrophic effects, as seen in the past, on this beautiful natural area that is home to threatened and endangered species.”
Click here to read the full announcement.
Click here for the council members email and phone numbers.
The Asbury Park Press recently wrote an article about the use of GonaCon, which is a drug that is supposed to prevent does, along with other animals, from becoming pregnant.
This sounds like a good idea on the surface. New Jersey has a ‘problem’ with deer, we have been expanding into their habitat, so now there are too many. My concern with deer is that they carry deer ticks, which are believed to transmit Lyme’s disease. The larger the population of deer, the larger the population of deer ticks. In turn, this increases my chances of getting bit by a deer tick carrying Lyme’s disease.
As I’ve said before, I’m fairly new to hiking, so I was looking for a good ‘all-around’ shoe. Since I’m not exactly sure what I like, and wanted a shoe that would be suited for most things. One of the best sources in my opinion that I’ve found for researching gear is Backpacker Magazine. Conveniently enough, the La Sportiva Exum Pro was rated best all-around shoe.
The Exum Pro is light & comfortable, which helps you stay on the trail longer. My previous boots were fairly heavy and caused my legs to get tired much quicker than the Exum Pro shoe. Since it is a meld between a running shoe and a climbing approach shoe, the traction is awesome. I was able to climb a short, steep incline of clay and gravel on mainly my toes, without feeling like I’d loose my footing at all. One draw back I noticed though is that since the treads aren’t very deep, traction can be affected when out in wet conditions, specifically in mud. I almost slipped and fell the other weekend, when it was wet out, I stepped on a rock after walking in the dirt, partially because my treads were full of mud, and partially because I was being clumsy.
Saturday, October 3rd was the Ny-Nj Trail Conference’s 2nd Annual People for Trails Hike-a-Thon, which Liz & I participated in. It was at Bear Mountian State Park, NY, which is quite a nice park that we will be returning to in spring (unless we get a few nice days before winter). The weather left a bit to be desired, but after our week in Maine, we don’t let weather get us down, and had a good time. Liz & I didn’t arrive until 9:30, and the official start was at 7:30, so we found ourselves a bit lost. I felt things could have been organized a little better, but the rain may have caused issues for the organizers as well. It was not clear what we were supposed to do when we arrived, so we wandered over to what we hoped was the registration tent, and the people – although a bit flustered were friendly and helpful and got us registered and going quickly. When we made it back from the hike around 2pm, It seemed they were cleaning up and getting ready to leave. Maybe a more definite schedule would have been helpful.
Last weekend Liz & I went camping at Worthington State Forest near the Deleware Water Gap in north-western NJ. I’ll write more about Worthington in another post, here I wanted to tell you about Dingmans Falls, which we visited while we were up there. I wasn’t too familiar with the Water Gap before going up there this time, and had only ever heard of Bushkill Falls. Turns out that Bushkill isn’t actually part of the NPS systems, and you have to pay a private owner a fee to go there. We were kind of short on funds, and the helpful ranger at the Kittatinny Point Visitor Center told us there are plenty of other waterfalls to see that are in the Deleware Water Gap NRA. We were going to go see Dingmans Falls & Raymondskill Falls, but we never made it to Raymondskill.
Being fairly new to hiking, I’ve found some helpful websites that I thought I’d share:
American Hiking Society is a national organization to promote hiking and preserve open space. Besides offering great resources and information for hikers, they are constantly monitoring legislation that affects hiking. For instance, The Complete America’s Great Trails Act needs your support. Another great thing they offer are the Volunteer Vacations. I haven’t gone on one yet, but I love the idea and plan on taking one as soon as I have the opportunity. They are currently running a Member-Get-a-Member Campaign, so if you sign up, make sure to tell them Chris Townley sent you in the comments box.
Backpacker Magazine is a great resource for hiking, camping, and backpacking information. They have reviews of pretty much any gear you can find. Your membership to the American Hiking Society that you just signed up for will get you a free subscription.
New York-New Jersey Trail Conference: The NY-NJ Trail Conference is a good organization for those that live in the area. They offer information about local hikes, sell maps of the area, provide a way to get involved and volunteer to maintain and create trails, among other things. If you live in the NYC Metro area and enjoy hiking, you should become familiar with this group and their website.
Appalachian Mountain Club is another excellent resource for those of us who live near the Appalachian Mountains. They provide info on activities and volunteer opportunities.
Appalachian Trail Conservancy is a group focused on preserving and maintaining the AT. They also have a lot of info about the trail, naturally. If you are thinking about through hiking (Ten), or just doing a segment, check them out.
Local Hikes is a good site for finding are researching hikes. I have only used the New York/New Jersey area information, but it has been very helpful. The trail reviews are user submitted, and usually provide topo map overview, elevation profiles, trail head location, and a summary of the route. Sometimes there are pictures included and comments from other users that have hiked the same trail.
A recent e-mail from the Sierra Club irked me, I’m on there mailing list for the newsletter. Apparently the EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson called for greater diversity in the environmental movement while speaking to the National Environmental Justice Advisory Council two weeks ago. That is all well and good I suppose, we want everyone involved right? But why do we have to bring up the issue of race? I don’t understand why there is such a focus on the color of skin, is it because we have a black president now? I have no issue with the color of Obama’s skin. I like him better than Bush, who, as we all know, was white. It just confuses me, if we want racism to go away, maybe we should stop stoking the fire? I’m not saying we should ignore any problems, if there are racist actions they should be stopped, but there is no need for continuous reminders that there are people with different color skin.
I wonder how people who are not white and recieved this e-mail feel about it? Isn’t it kind of exclusionary?
See the post here: Yep, We’re too white.
