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    News — jmblog

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    Birds

     

    Wildlife is abundant on the Boulder creeks. The barn swallows returned to their nests under the bridge. A muskrat was popping up every 12 feet or so. A friend saw a wood duck on Boulder Creek last week. A few weeks ago, I saw a northern flicker chopping out scraps of wood, enlarging a hole. today I saw flicker head occupying the hole. There were 8 mallard ducklings spurting around on the pond a few days ago. Yesterday there were 17 cedar waxwings along Boulder Creek. One great blue heron spiraled down from 130 feet above, plunging towards the other. The great blue herons have their crest and chest feathers showing prominently. Avocets and killdeer are feeding in the ponds.

    Rachel Carson Play - A Sense of Wonder

    A friend immensely enjoyed the play acted by Kaiulani Lee. Rachel Carson found joy in observing nature, particularly in the seas and tidepools. And she collected the science, deduced that pesticides were killing the birds, and persuasively and poetically called to save the birds in her book, Silent Spring. The film of the play is available from PBS and iTunes.

    http://www.kaiulanilee.com/a-sense-of-wonder.html

    http://www.kaiulanilee.com/a-sense-of-wonder-film.html

    Updates, Art, Lawsuits, Movies, & Dan Ellsberg About the on 4-27-18 thru- 4-29-18

    Here in Boulder there is reunion/conference on the closing of the Rocky Flats Nuclear Weapons Plant in Boulder, CO.
    Our Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/events/889082614602223/
    Our website https://rockyflatstruthforce.org/

    This is our 4th reunion. We do this every 10 years because they are so inspiring. Some folks come in from around the country to attend. We learn, share and get some new energy.

    Good news. Rocky Flats may be closed, (destined to glow in the dark forever) and there a lot less nuclear weapons (but there are more madmen than ever with their fingers on the buttons). Bad news. We still need to get rid of the buttons and the bombs.

    Dr. Strangelove on Thursday is the first event at 7pm at Naropa. Imagine John Bolton replacing Henry Kissinger in this caricature

    Next join us for Wine, Beer and snacks for the Main Library for the opening of the amazing exhibition “Facing Rocky Flats, Friday at 6 pm.

    https://m.facebook.com/events/1122827901191374

    Saturday is a full day at Unity Church starting a 10 am Workshops with intriguing topics, much inspiration and lots of sharing of experiences and ideas. See more details below.

    There will be three incredible and delicious food trucks, Losdosbrosmexicanfoodtruck Samples Longmont and The Vegetable Express, set up at Unity of Boulder, Folsom parking lot. The lunch is open to the public so please tell your friends and bring your family.

    Dan Ellsberg is our friend, teacher and mentor for many of us. What he says to our community always seems to have special resonance. Learn about our big issues and the back story you can get from no one else. Doors open at 6:30pm. He will join us via Skype at so he will be with us in more then spirit. $20 tickets at https://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/3320828. A benefit for the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center and KGNU.

    Sunday

    Go deep at a workshop at Naropa; Active Hope and Nuclear Guardianship: Work that Reconnects, 9-3.

    Films beginning at 4:30 back at the Library, which feature Rocky Flats. The remastered Dark Circle with Director, Judy Irving, It won the Grand Prize for documentary at the Sundance Film Festival. Shown will be On the Tracks a recent short documentary about photographer Joe Daniel and the Rocky Flats Truth Force . Then the preview of the soon to be released film The Half Life of Memory: Rocky Flats and the Nuclear Trigger.
    Still on the tracks,
    https://www.facebook.com/events/889082614602223 https://rockyflatstruthforce.org/

    Republican House "Farm" Bill H.R. 2 Threatens Wildlife, Forests, and People

    You can go here for a sample script to use in calling your your US Representative asking them to oppose HR 2 : https://act.biologicaldiversity.org/onlineactions/9xU-0dnmB0as7zZLLSYE7Q2?sourceID=1004352&utm_source=ad&utm_medium=website&utm_campaign=currentalerts   Here are more details from Center for Biological Diversity:

    Sick Joke': House Agriculture Committee Advances Farm Bill Attacking Environment, Endangered Species

    The House Agriculture Committee passed H.R. 2, the 2018 Farm Bill, Wednesday on a party-line basis. The legislation, sponsored by Rep. Mike Conaway (R-Texas), includes dozens of poison-pill riders that would gut fundamental environmental safeguards. Most significantly it would completely exempt the use of pesticides from the Endangered Species Act, effectively dooming hundreds of endangered species to extinction and making it legal to kill any endangered species with a pesticide at almost any time.
    "This Farm Bill is a sick joke. It gives polluters and special interests the keys to the castle, while environmental safeguards are thrown in the ditch," said Brett Hartl of the Center for Biological Diversity. "Farmers don't want to poison our waters, kill our wildlife, and reduce our national forests to clearcuts. This is another low for this Congress, which is already the most anti-conservation in history." The next step for this legislation is consideration by the full U.S. House of Representatives in the following weeks. In addition to the broadest attack on the Endangered Species Act in 40 years, the legislation weakens Clean Water Act protections from pesticides and includes a sweeping forestry title that would gut protections for forestsand eliminate many safeguards within the National Environmental Policy Act. The bill's attacks on the environment include the following provisions:
    • Section 9111: Completely exempts the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) from the requirements of the Endangered Species Act allowing the agency to ignore impacts of toxic pesticides on endangered wildlife.
    • Section 9118: Eliminates all protections under the Clean Water Act when toxic pesticides are sprayed directly into rivers and streams.
    • Section 8303: Guts the consultation process required by Endangered Species Act on national forests by allowing the U.S. Forest Service to rubber-stamp project approvals without consulting with expert wildlife scientists at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service about whether a project would put endangered species in jeopardy of extinction.
    • Section 8107: Doubles the allowed acreage for "categorical exclusions" under the National Environmental Policy Act from 3,000 to 6,000 acres per project, allowing the Forest Service to approve clearcuts under the guise of controlling insects and disease outbreaks in national forests.
    • Section 8311-8321: Eliminates public engagement, environmental review of most Forest Service logging projects by creating 10 new categorical exclusions under the National Environmental Policy Act for projects up to 6,000 acres in size.
    • Section 8503: Guts the "extraordinary circumstances" protections under the National Environmental Policy Act, allowing the Forest Service to approve destructive projects without further review even if sensitive species are present or the project is within a wilderness area.
    "This farm bill should be called the Poisoned Waters and DDT Restoration Act. If it becomes law, Americans can look forward to our water and wildlife being poisoned by pesticides for the rest of our lives," said Hartl.

    Trump's Interior Dept. Decides to Let Birds Die

    Filling-in wetlands, having uncovered oil waste ponds, and dumping poisons into waterways would be not be regulated by the International Migratory Bird Treaty.

    www.sfchronicle.com/news/article/The-Trump-administration-s-new-migratory-bird-12836494.php