Earth Share of Washington

Earth Share Notes - January 2005

Monthly perspectives from Earth Share of Washington staff members on activities and trends.

Dear Reader:

January is a time to reflect on the events of 2004 and, like many, establish a few New Year's resolutions for 2005. As Washingtonians purge their kitchen cabinets of chocolate treats and flock to the gyms in record numbers, the environmental community will be hard at work on its own set of New Year's resolutions.

Since 2002, 14 Washington-based conservation and public interest organizations have established the top legislative priorities for the coming year, Priorities for a Healthy Washington. These priorities espouse goals that are familiar to all Earth Share organizations - to protect our health, our children, and our quality of life. Learn more about the 2005 Legislative Priorities in this month's Earth Page, and find out how to become involved at one of the upcoming events in January or February.

Warm Wishes for the New Year,
Dave Manelski
Program Coordinator

Priorities for a Healthy Washington

- submitted by Tom Geiger from ESW organization Washington Environmental Council

My son Isaiah was born about the same time as the Legislative Partnership between Washington Environmental Council and Washington Conservation Voters was established - the Fall of 2002. This partnership, working with the broader conservation and public interest groups, has worked to develop a list of winning priorities for the 2005 Legislative Session beginning January 10th.

Isaiah's future, and the legacy for all kids in the next generation will be improved because we are pushing priorities that will change people's lives for the better. At the same time, we all recognize that this work goes hand-in-hand with the creation of good jobs and a strong economy.

Recent legislative sessions have produced positive gains for old-growth forests, restoring streams and shorelines, attacking pollution, and reducing greenhouse gases. These ongoing achievements reflect the conservation ethic embraced by a majority of Washington voters. And they suggest our state's elected officials are paying more attention to their constituents.

Action on this year's Priorities for a Healthy Washington (listed below) will enhance our health and help preserve the treasures of the wonderful state we all call home.

Clean Air Through Clean Cars
Smart new technology allows cars to pollute less and save fuel. Eight states have Clean Car standards that provide a wider choice of cleaner cars, trucks, and SUVs than we have. Why shouldn't Washingtonians have those same choices? Clean Car legislation will ensure that new cars sold in Washington after 2008 use proven technology that reduces cancer-causing air toxics and global warming pollution.

Better Building for Sustainability and Efficiency
Facilities constructed with state money should be safe, healthy, and support our environment. That means using non-toxic and sustainable materials and design concepts. These buildings will save taxpayer money because the buildings are cheaper to operate; help conserve water and keep our air clean; and provide healthy environments that help students learn better and government workers be more efficient.

Sound Solutions: Saving Hood Canal and Puget Sound
Puget Sound is in trouble; much of it fails to meet basic clean water standards. The "dead zone" in Hood Canal represents a much larger problem. Unchecked development is polluting our marine waters and forcing many shellfish beds to close. Restoring and protecting our vital marine waters and ecosystems will provide safe recreational opportunities, promote clean water-dependent business in such areas as shellfish, fishing, and tourism, and enhance our quality of life.

Banning Toxic Flame Retardants
Scientists are finding chemical cousins of PCBs, the toxic flame retardants PBDEs, everywhere they look. PBDEs are in orca whales, ospreys, and even the breast milk of Puget Sound moms. Developing babies are most at risk, being exposed to PBDEs when they leach out of products and contaminate our home, food chain, and bodies. The legislature can protect our children's health and prevent the next PCB tragedy by banning all forms of PBDEs by 2006.

Washington State's environmental community is building bipartisan support for these essential priorities. The public overwhelmingly supports a new generation of protections for our health and this place we call home, and our elected leaders are starting to respond. Working together, we can create a model for the nation and true legacy for generations to come.

To learn more about how to become more involved supporting the 2005 legislative priorities, please see the upcoming events section below, which includes the 2005 Legislative Workshop on January 8 and Citizen's Lobby Day on February 17.

Raining in Mexico

Earth Share Writers Corner
The Writers Corner features original content from Earth Share of Washington guest authors.

Raining in Mexico

Louise Alexander is participating in the Journalism Internship Program for Earth Share of Washington this Fall-Winter. In addition to writing for Earth Share, she works at EarthCorps, leading volunteer restoration crews on projects around Puget Sound.

I met Chema Garcia in the Spring of 2003 when we were both working as corpsmembers for EarthCorps. Although from my first meeting with him, he seemed outgoing and personable, I did not fully get to know him until our crews camped for a week at a site by the Mid-Fork of the Snoqualmie River to work on a trail project. It was early September, a typically sunny and beautiful time in Washington, but from the moment we set up our tents the sky opened up and it began to rain furiously and did not quit until a week later when we hiked out. The rainy season had come early and none of us were prepared for the downpour.

We ate our breakfast warily watching the rain switch from a drizzle to a downpour, hiked to our work site through dripping conifers, and spent the work day moving logs, rocks and tools and then sloshed our way back to camp to eat our soggy hotdogs and spend the remainder of the evening trying to dry our clothes. When it came time for bed, it seemed like a relief, a time when we weren't in the rain and didn't have to exert energy. I remember the first night I laid in my tent, exhausted, trying to sleep. It seemed like torture when I began to hear loud snores from the tent next to mine. After fifteen minutes of listening to the nasal symphony coming from just a few feet away, I lost my temper and began to shout in the hopes of waking the culprit up. Eventually I realized that I was the loser in the situation and just tried to ignore the disturbance. But as I shut my eyes and curled up in my sleeping bag, I remember thinking that it was going to be hard to stay positive for the rest of the week.

Later, I discovered it was Chema snoring that first night. But as I look back on the trip and all of its details, I realize that Chema is a reason I remember the trip as one of the best times I've had camping. Watching Chema -- from the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico -- splash in mud puddles and bathe in a freezing river and acting like he was having the time of his life, not bothered by the rain and cold was well... fun. I realize he was also an inspiration.

On the last night of camp, Chema insisted that we play a game he had made up, instead of continuing our usual ritual of huddling underneath a single, leaky tarp. Instructing everyone to stand in a circle, Chema brought out a ridiculous looking paper doll he had made. Holding it up, he pretended it was the person standing to his left and gave the doll a compliment. He then passed the doll off around the circle and everyone got a chance to appreciate someone else and to be appreciated in turn. Then Chema grabbed the doll again and kissed the doll to express his gratitude of the person he had complimented. Once again, he passed the doll around the circle for everyone to kiss. What a sight it must have been, thirteen adults, cold, dirty and wet, kissing a mushy piece of paper, underneath a tarp in the rain. Probably like some strange, bedraggled cult. But to me, the memory of playing the game is the point at which I realized that I liked what I was doing, who I was with and that I was proud of my accomplishments. The weather didn't matter, it was the community I had chosen to be a part of and the work we did together that were the important things.

Every February, EarthCorps, a local environmental organization, brings together thirty volunteers, fifteen from within the United States and fifteen international participants to work for ten months in and around King County on environmental restoration projects. The goal is to build a global community by bringing people together to work, share ideas, and learn about environmental stewardship. Jose Marcia Fernandez Garcia, (Chema) is an international participant who is currently in his second year at EarthCorps. He is a crew leader, responsible for leading a group of five EarthCorps members on restoration projects in a field setting. I interviewed Chema to try and get a sense of what it is like to be an EarthCorps international participant. Working for EarthCorps can be demanding, physically and mentally. But the reward is getting a chance to improve your environment. For an international participant, it means working to help improve a community that you are in temporarily, in a different language and where you might never be again.

The first question I asked Chema was what led him to the point in his life he is at right now. Smiling at the broadness of my question and taking a minute to think of all the possible answers, Chema replied, "I got involved with the environment at my university. I was studying natural resource management and learning about some of the problems within my country." Learning about the environmental degradation in his home town of Merrida and in his state, Chema felt that he had to do something to try and help solve the problems his country was and is facing but not addressing.

"We lack knowledge about how important it is to protect our natural resources. We have an amazing forest and a huge diversity of animals and plants. But the communities...they do not understand the dynamic of our natural resources. They just cut more trees. They keep fishing more and more. They are killing more plants and hunting more animals, and now we do not have as many resources as we had before. Deforestation, over-fishing, over population are the biggest problems we have. And they do not understand because they lack the knowledge about the environment."

One of Chema's friends and fellow classmates, Maria Jose, worked with youth in rural communities, trying to educate about these same problems. Her work inspired Chema, as well as herself, to lay the groundwork for creating their own non-profit organization. This marked the beginning of Red Ambiental Juvenil de Yucatán or RAJY for short - translation: Youth Environmental Network of the Yucatan. Along with a few other volunteers and help from their teachers, RAJY was formed with the mission "to create a conscience among the young adults in rural areas about the environment." Working in area where communities are known for their heavy use of resources, RAJY tries to focus on educating the youth about the importance of maintaining a healthy environment. Chema says RAJY's role is to, "try to give them information about responsible consumption, about how important it is to work as a community, about how strong our work is if we work together as a community."

Chema went on to explain that the most successful environmental initiatives not only protect the land and natural resources, but also serve to help curb local problems on other levels. For example, RAJY has joined a national network of non-profits whose focuses range from social injustice to economic aide. "We have to look at all of these issues because they are connected. In Mexico everything is about corruption, everything is about money, but Mexico does not see how the environment can bring in money. If we want to change anything, then we have to give the people a reason to see why it is important."

Chema first heard of EarthCorps in 2001. Amy Tippary, an ex-corpsmember and crew leader from EarthCorps traveling in Mexico heard about RAJY and volunteered with the organization for six months. Amy developed a friendship with Maria and Chema, and encouraged them both to apply to the EarthCorps International program. In Chema's eyes, Amy gave their organization a new focus. "She said it could be nice if we could act on two levels, teaching the youth and involving them with hands-on projects. From the moment Maria and I applied, we thought it would be really cool to combine these two different ways to teach. This is one of the things we saw in EarthCorps as a good source of skills for RAJY, and for ourselves too." In 2001, Chema and Maria applied to work for EarthCorps and in May of 2003, they crossed a continent to become EarthCorps International corpsmembers.

A year later, I can see that Chema has a lot to say about his experiences in Seattle. He is excited to return to Mexico, but has an aura of one that is just excited to be where he is. When asked about his time here in Seattle he replies, "It has been a wide experience. I think I have gained a lot of skills that will be important in my future. Working on different projects, understanding how important it is to try and maintain native vegetation or how so many other things depend on good habitat. Learning about trail work has been helpful because we (RAJY) can give different sources to the communities to make trail in very beautiful areas that we have in my state. They can get money from that kind of work through eco-tourism while helping their environment." Chema stops his dialogue to reflect about what he has learned before he continues. "And I have started to think of my own country as being really important to me. I have a big love for my country and now, I have ideas about how to help it, I want to go back and help my country. I am motivated to start working to create projects and work with the people there."

Chema leaves for Mexico in December and in the following months will host with RAJY an environmental work camp. The goal of the work camp is to build a trail in a natural protected area. "We think that the community there wants to attract more tourists, to try and help solve their economic problems. In addition to the trail construction to promote eco-tourism, there will be other projects to reforest the mangroves, collect seeds from native cactuses and start a nursery and a trash pick-up of the protected area. RAJY also plans to involve the local community with these efforts as much as possible. The biggest part of the camp is the people. We want to replant and reforest to create more habitat but also to promote a conscience of why it is important. The people living in the area are excited to work with groups who are from outside of Mexico and RAJY is excited to bring people from EarthCorps to have a cultural exchange."

Chema has spent the past two years working for EarthCorps and at the same time trying to put together new projects in Mexico. Knowing that he works hard and long hours here in Seattle, I asked Chema a question that I wonder of all the international participants, "Do you ever feel like your wasting your time working to help a place that is not your own?" Chema smiled and answered quickly. It was obvious he had thought about this question many times before. "There have been days that I have wanted to quit or have not liked what I was doing. But then I get a chance to see the work I have done and I realize that it is important and has an impact. The world is like my house. Mexico is my room, but I live in the world too and I must take care of it. The world... all of it is my home."

Talking About Producer Responsibility

- submitted by Suellen Mele from ESW organization Washington Citizens for Resource Conservation (WCRC)

I've spent considerable time over the last 15 years thinking about and working in the field of recycling. WCRC has an even longer history in the field. It was born out of efforts in the late 70's - unfortunately unsuccessful - to pass a state bottle bill. It grew into an organization that advocated - this time more successfully - for residential and business recycling programs throughout the state. It might be tempting to declare success and go home. But a deeper look into the current situation says otherwise.

We have still not achieved Washington's 50% recycling goal, but that is only the tip of the iceberg. Much that we count as recycled is actually "downcycled." Writing paper recycled into tissues will, after one more use, go into the landfill or incinerator. Plastic containers made into park benches, after one more use (albeit a longer one), are destined for the same fate. Getting one more use from a material is good, but it's not good enough. And many products contain toxics, making recycling more challenging and risky. Not just products like pesticides and antifreeze, but also products like the cushions we sit on and the cell phones we use.

Why aren't more materials in products used over and over again? And why aren't more products recyclable? A big part of the answer is simply this: They aren't designed to be.

Many of us who work in recycling have concentrated on what to do with a product once it is discarded. Now, we are learning that we need to look upstream to the start of the product's life, to its design.

That's a big reason WCRC is focusing on "extended producer responsibility." In this approach, manufacturers are responsible for financing and arranging safe and convenient recycling programs for their products at end-of-life. This creates a financial incentive for manufacturers to design products that are less toxic and easier to recycle.

In various parts of the world, producer responsibility efforts are addressing cars, rechargeable batteries, packaging, beverage containers, carpets, mercury switches, electronic equipment, paint, pesticides, pharmaceuticals, and more.

Here in Washington, WCRC is advocating for producer responsibility for electronics such as computers, televisions and cell phones. These products contain valuable resources that can be recovered through recycling. They also contain lead, mercury, brominated flame retardants and other toxic substances.

Last summer, Hewlett Packard and Office Depot teamed up on a seven-week nationwide project to collect and recycle computers, TVs, and other electronic equipment. This pilot project was a significant experiment in producer responsibility. HP and Office Depot financed the program - there were no charges to the customer. This is how WCRC thinks product takeback should be financed - by producers as a regular part of the cost of doing business. The pilot project also demonstrated how a manufacturer and retailer could collaborate to offer a convenient, easy-to-use program. The results? 425,000 items weighing 5,100 tons were collected in 7 weeks.

Governments, recycling companies, haulers and others have worked hard to make recycling successful. We citizens have done our part, too. But we can't change the design of products. It's time for manufacturers to step up to the plate. In the long run, it will be the only way recycling will truly succeed.

Bird-friendly Bird Feeding

- submitted by Kevin Mack from ESW organization PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center

During the fall and winter months, PAWS Wildlife Center frequently receives phone calls from homeowners who have spotted what appear to be sick songbirds hanging out around their feeders. They describe the bird as looking "puffed up", and generally the animals have been sitting in one place for a long period of time. Often, the callers have seen multiple birds behaving in this way over a period of days or weeks, and they may have even found a number of dead birds in their yard. Although the callers are aware that some disease process is at work in the birds that they are seeing, they are usually unaware of the role their bird feeders may be playing in facilitating the spread of disease.

Bird feeders tend to concentrate many individual birds, and many different species in a small area. Actually, this is part of the appeal of bird feeders -- the ability to see many different species from your living room window. And it's not entirely unnatural that birds should gather in large numbers since most of the birds that visit feeders in large groups are flock feeders to begin with. But there is one crucial difference between a flock of birds foraging together naturally, and a flock that is frequenting a feeder. With natural foraging, feeding in a particular area will diminish as the available food resources are depleted. This means that an area with abundant food may see a high concentration of birds, but only for a limited period of time. Eventually, the food is gone and the birds move elsewhere. With an artificial food source such as a feeder, the food supply is constantly being replenished, so a high concentration of birds is present for an extended period of time. If there are one or two sick birds among the flocks that visit a feeder, they can contaminate the feeder and expose dozens of subsequent visitors to their illness. Illnesses that are commonly associated with poorly maintained bird feeders include Salmonellosis, Trichomoniasis, Aspergillosis, Avian Pox, and others.

Although bird feeders can present health risks to birds, there are several steps you can take to help minimize the possibility that your feeders will become a vector for disease. First and foremost, you need to keep your feeders clean. Feeders should be disinfected at least once or twice a month, but weekly is even better. Discard all uneaten food, scrub the feeder thoroughly, and then disinfect it with a 10% bleach solution. Rinse the feeder and allow it to dry completely before using it again. Plastic and metal feeders are preferable as they can be more thoroughly cleaned than wooden feeders. Also, be sure to wear gloves whenever you are handling your feeders to decrease your own risk of exposure to potential disease.

In addition to cleaning your feeders, be sure to clean up all spilled seed and feces around your feeders. Ground feeding birds and rodents may become infected by contaminated seed on the ground. Your pets may also come into contact with contaminated feed or feces if the area under a feeder is not kept clean. It is also a good idea to move a feeder to a new location every time you clean it to lessen the chance that contamination will build up on the ground below it.

Since the food itself can be a vector for disease, be sure that you are only offering fresh, high quality food. Large capacity feeders may be convenient in that you have to refill them less often, but they increase the chances that the food will become damp and/or contaminated. Discard any food that becomes damp and/or moldy, and disinfect the feeder or container that held it.

If you do spot birds on your property that appear ill, contact PAWS Wildlife at 425-787-2500 ext. 854 for instruction.