Trying to find what is best for the Willimantic

The Willimantic (Photo by Justin Maher)






By Gregory Hebert and Rafal Wilson

When it comes to dams and hydropower, proponents and opponents agree that they want what’s best for the environment—the problem lies in their definitions of “what’s best.”

Dan Mullins of the Willimantic Whitewater Partnership and Laura Wildman, a consultant assisting the group, believe that what the environment needs is fewer dams and more free-flowing water. Formed in 2001 when Mullins, the organization’s president, was attending law school, the whitewater partnership is primarily dedicated to restoring the Willimantic River by either modifying or removing the four dams.

“There are a lot of dam removal projects out there,” said Wildman, “but this one has a lot of community support and a lot of different parts to it… It’s just a bigger dream.”

This would help migratory fish return to the region as well as provide a whitewater river for the local residents to enjoy. “A lot of these towns were settled first because of the migratory fish runs,” Mullins said, noting that the Native American names tended to be descriptive of the area. Willimantic, for example, meant “land of the fast-running water” in reference to the river before it was dammed.

More long-term goals include developing a waterfront community park, the creation of outdoor art amenities such as an amphitheater, and expanding the reach of their organization downriver.

The greatest challenges that the organization face are financial, but it also struggles to respect the historical value of the dams. “The whole thing’s a balancing act,” said Wildman. “All of New England has a historical timeline, even before the industrial period… Through all these projects, we’ll look to document that history, or put up signs, to keep it.”

Probably the organization’s biggest accomplishment so far was its ability to attract enough government grants and financial support to buy a key 3.4-acre parcel on Bridge Street bordering the river. One of the four dams was also included in the purchase.
The partnership has also been working with the developers of the East Coast Greenway, a trail that would run from Florida to Maine and pass through Willimantic, and negotiating easements with Northeast Utilities, which owns land along the river. That agreement will provide additional access to the river.

Mullins said that the power plants that use the dams are an acceptable loss when compared to the benefits of getting rid of them. Two of the four that exist are no longer in use at all. Further, the 1.5 megawatts produced over 20 years are evenly balanced against the benefits of a free river and the return of the fish, he said. Its excellent location for whitewater rafting is owed to its bedrock base, as well as the fact that the steepness of the river means it drops 90 feet at a mile and a half throughout its length.

“We want to take the town of Willimantic, which turned its back against [the river] and turn it back toward it,” said Wildman.

Duncan Broatch disagrees. Broatch is president of Summit Hydropower, which owns plants elsewhere in Connecticut, and chairman of the Connecticut Small Power Producers Association, which represents other hydro owners. Broatch believes that keeping the dams and taking advantage of the electricity they produce is the environmentally responsible thing to do.

“We need to get [electricity] where we can with a minimum of environmental impact,” he said. Broacth said that hydropower is the answer. He said that dam-driven hydropower is the No. 1 renewable resource available, helps reduce air pollution, hinders global warming, and significantly lessens U.S. dependence on expensive foreign oil, while remaining an acceptable sacrifice for future generations.

Broatch was the original developer of the two hydro projects but sold them when he was unable to acquire the financing to complete them. Currently they are owned by Enel North America, a subsidiary of Enel SpA, Italy’s largest power producer.

The dams also have licenses from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and getting those licenses altered to remove the impoundments and hydro facilities is a formidable task.

Broach said that the dams could be a non-issue, to the point where removing them may even be harmful. “The fish and the environment have gotten used to this,” he said. He said that at the other facilities he owns he have been able to co-exist with kayakers, who have ways to go around the dams while still enjoying the river. He even had an answer to the idea that the dams are an eyesore—he called in an artist to judge the aesthetic value of a dam while applying for a license.

“She said that she valued the interplay of water as it flowed over the dam,” Broach said.

The roar of the Willimantic sounds differently to some

(Photo and audio by Justin Maher and Samantha Henry)

Discussing the fate of the Willimantic River and hydroelectricity in order are Dan Mullins of Willimantic Whitewater Partnership, Laura Wildman, a consultant to the partnership, Eric Barreveld of Enel North America and Duncan Broatch of the Connecticut Small Power Producers Association.

CRRA looks for calm and finds a storm

Gerald Tyminski (Photo by Greg Hebert)

By Samantha Henry, Justin Maher and Christine Sullivan

It was the day after the Connecticut General Assembly had passed a bill banning the construction of the controversial ash landfill in Franklin, Conn. and Paul Nonnemacher was frustrated.

“It was a battle of facts versus emotion,” said Nonnenmacher, the director of public affairs for the Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority that wanted to build the landfill. “All we wanted people to do was to slow down and take a calm, rational look at the facts.”

But local residents had made up their mind. Less than a month earlier they had voted in a non-binding referendum by a 4-to-1 margin to oppose the project. The night before the House had voted 95 to 51 in favor of the bill. A week before the Senate margin had been 27 to 4 in support.

Governor Jodi Rell had not yet indicated whether she would sign the bill but Nonnemacher was gloomy.

Nonnenmacher said that the CRRA had spent years finding a location that met all of the strict specifications set by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection. He said the residents of Franklin “took that list of criteria and slapped a new one on it– political stroke.”

Nonnenmacher also insisted that the opponents of the landfill didn’t know what they are missing out on in potential benefits, including a payment to the cash-strapped town of about $1.5 million a year. What this bill has done, he said, “whether you’re for it or against it, is it has turned around and taken one of the very few sites remaining in Connecticut out of the realm of possibility.”

“Land is precious,” says Nonnencmacher, “and we’ve got better things to do with it than putting piles of garbage on it.”

Some of the concerns of the people in Franklin included the threat to the water supply, air quality, and property value. According to Nonnenmacher, the Shetucket River, where the landfill was to be built, was a Class B river that is not used for drinking water.

“Probability is very low that a modern day double-lined landfill would leak,” said Gerald Tyminski, executive director of the Southeast Connecticut Regional Resource Recovery Authority, a sister agency.

Nonnenbacher said that the people in Connecticut make a huge mess with a lot of garbage – about 3 million tons each year. “It’s our responsibility to get rid of our own mess, not trucking it out of state and instead doing it in a way that’s responsible.”

CRRA officials contend that the ash is only the residue of garbage produced in homes and by the time it gets to a landfill it is benign and has been reduced in volume by 90 percent.

To demonstrate, Nonnemacher and Tyminski led a tour of the Preston, Conn. waste incinerator.

“We are operating on what’s referred to as the maximum achievable control technology,” explained Tyminski, whose regional organization is responsible for the Preston plant.

At 2,000 degrees, the Preston facility can make a variety of items turn to ash. Trucks deliver about 1,000 tons a day and the facility burns about 260,000 tons of waste per year. The heat boils water to turn a generator, which on this day was producing 16 to 18 megawatts of electricity.

Tyminski said the Preston plant used to have a nearby ash landfill and he said it has never leaked. Modern landfills are required to have a double liner.

“Essentially what the ash ends up in is a ziplock bag,” Tyminski said. That zip-lock bag, according to Tyminski, is good for about 50 to 100 years.

The Preston ash landfill is surrounded by test-wells that monitor for any groundwater contamination. As long as the landfill has been there, it has not made a measurable impact on water-quality, said Tyminiski.

Tyminski and Nonnenmacher both admit that the ash contains some heavy metals and, according to Tyminski, “it’s not stuff that you would put in your backyard…not stuff that you would spread around.” But when proper precautions are taken, as would be in the skillfully designed, constructed, and monitored landfill, they said it is not hazardous to anything– or anyone– around it.

Nonnenbacher compared the plan to build an ash landfill in Franklin to the burden his local community has in hosting a prison.

“Again, I don’t like it, but we need it,” Nonnenbacher said. “I wouldn’t expect the people of Franklin to like having an ash landfill either.”

A sign of the times

(Photo by Mary Powers)

A quiet street is marked by Dump the Dump signs

Jennifer Davis-Muller and Steve Muller (Photo by Mary Powers)

By Samantha Henry and Justin Maher

Turning down the quiet street in a small neighborhood, the grass is green and people are outside mowing their lawns. The houses are well maintained and a man-made waterfall decorates one lawn.

But one thing seems out of place on the lawns of these houses on Pleasant Hill Road in Franklin, Conn. - bright yellow signs dug into the dirt, bearing the words “DUMP THE DUMP.”

At the end of the road sits a three-story blue house with a small garden, a horse, a donkey, a dog, and a family. And about 1,500 feet away, is a proposed site for an ash landfill.

Steve Muller, who lives in this home, said that he worked hard to knock down the trees and build his home and his family.

“[The Connecticut Resource Recovery Authority] could buy our house, they could tear it down, and they could think that’s OK,” Muller said.

Muller emphasized that the memories and monumental effort of building his family’s house from the foundation up cannot be replaced just by purchasing another one with the funds from a CRRA check, even if that outcome, one of the better ones possible, materializes.

“I could sell the house to another mother and look at her and tell her the water’s fine,” said Jennifer Davis-Muller, who also lives in the house. “But I couldn’t do that.”

On this proposal, opinion in Franklin is negative. In a referendum, the town of about 1,800 voted. With a 4:1 voting ratio, despite the insidiously-awkward phrasing of the ballot question, town residents opposed the ash landfill.

Residents also succeeded in getting a bill introduced in the Connecticut General Assembly seeking to ban the landfill from Franklin.

Major concerns from the opponents of the dump are the traffic – about 60 trucks each day – the threat to the biodiversity in the area, possible leaks from the dump, and the threats to agriculture, businesses and archaeological evidence.

The landfill would be built near the Shetucket River.

“Why go ruin another piece of land when we already have containment,” said Susan Allen of Dump the Dump.

Allen and other members of Dump the Dump have suggested that the landfill be built in nearby Putnam, Conn. According to Allen, a current landfill in Putnam has enough room to operate for years and she believes that it could be expanded.

“Use 10 to 12 years to find something better,” Davis-Muller said. “People are getting creative – we have electric cars.” Davis-Muller suggests that the town lets people work to think about another option and use Putnam for the ash landfill until then.

In those 10 to 12 years bought by the Putnam facility, the people of Franklin hope the state would find less intrusive waste management strategies. A Zero-waste policy is the No.1 option that Davis-Muller and Allen would like to see go through. Another idea was that if the ash was heated further, it could be turned from a powdery consistency to a glass-like material that could be used as a component of asphalt.

Davis-Muller said that when the dump proposal was first unveiled, CRRA had a big meeting with the town. She said CRRA was adamant about having many small tables set up with representatives to field questions, rather than having a press-conference-style meeting, where everyone would hear every question and every answer.

“If this is such a good thing,” said Davis-Muller, “then let’s have transparency.”

Blazing a path to nature

George Arthur (Photo by Rafal Wilson)

By Dora Wilkenfeld, Christine Sullivan, Justin Maher and Samantha Henry

George Arthur bounds up the trail with the enthusiasm of an overgrown Boy Scout, pointing out witch hazel and ladyslippers along the path. After pausing a moment to note the four distinct leaf varieties on a sassafras shrub, he's off again, up the steep, rocky route of the Shenipsit Trail in Vernon, Conn.

For a man past retirement age, such exertion here in the Valley Falls Park on a hot and sunny day might be almost excessive. For Arthur, a trail manager with the Connecticut Forest & Park Association, it's all in a day's work.

The trail association, based in Rockfall, Conn. has been working since 1895 to conserve land with a high priority being its 800-mile Blue-Blazed Hiking Trail System and its related trails scattered throughout Connecticut.

Keeping the trails in tip-top shape can be an easily underestimated task; duties include blazing the way with the distinguishing blue paint, clearing stray branches for safe passage, eliminating litter to beautify the path, and acquiring permission to transverse certain privately owned properties.

And perhaps what is most remarkable about the achievement of this colossal task is that it is nearly all the result of volunteer efforts from dedicated individuals like Arthur.

No challenge is greater for trail managers like Arthur then to build and expand trails, especially in more developed areas such as Vernon.

"There wasn't anything in Vernon 14 years ago," Arthur says of the now-abundant trails stretching through the town and beyond. "Vernon was pretty well developed." The town today is a mix of residential and business areas, close to both the city of Hartford and the endless shopping plazas of Manchester.

Sections of the trail are owned by different people, from the state, to private landowners, and everything in between, such as electric companies. To make the trail continuous, Arthur must negotiate with an indeterminate amount of varied landowning entities. The trail system’s natural beauty is a testament to the dedication of its volunteers.

“I was hoping to get my trail through there,” Arthur said, pointing to a field to the right of the Blue Blaze Trail next to the Walker Reservoir in Vernon. “But it’s not going to happen if Home Depot gets their way.”

The national retailer purchased land near the reservoir two years ago, although the sale has been tied up in a court dispute, said Arthur.

Arthur knows all of the details, he estimates that he volunteers about 300 hours a year to the trail association.

"If I had read the job description, I probably wouldn't have taken the job in the first place," Arthur jokes, but it's clear that he's serious about committing his time to maintaining and beautifying his trails. A colleague, Rob Butterworth, describes Arthur as "the guy the other trail managers talk to when they need to put in something big," typically a bridge or other structure crossing the path.

Uncooperative property owners aren't the only problem Arthur and the other trail manager’s face.

"In a lot of towns, including this one, you have what we call vandals," Arthur says. "You have to keep a close eye to keep things from becoming hazardous."

What is allowed on the trails varies. Butterworth said that almost all trails are for hikers only. Biking often is, but it varies depending on the whims of the landowner of each section of trail.

All terrain vehicles have been a problem in the past, but with a local town ranger chasing them out the numbers have gone down significantly.
“It’s unfortunate that people think they qualify for the X-Games and tear up the property,” Butterworth said.

Water damage is another big problem on any trail. If it doesn’t drain off of the trails properly, it erodes them.

One section of the trail features land that was given to the state by Maxwell Belding, whose family had owned a major textile complex in the town. A bridge crosses a man-made pond and dam over to a path made of stone dust. This is for wheelchair accessibility, so everyone can enjoy the scenery. The bridge featured here is one of many structures along the Blue Blaze Trail.

Many of the paths in the Blue Blaze Trail were begun about 75 years ago as Connecticut residents began to move to the cities and began to long to get back into the country on a weekend afternoon. Today the paths run over mountains and near interstate highways but still provide residents and visitors the opportunity to get outdoors and experience the natural side.

For a man like Arthur, who partook in the Air Scouts as a boy and learned to pilot an airplane before he could drive a car, the appeal of the outdoors is almost second-nature, something he hopes to preserve for future generations of exploration-minded youths and adults alike. And he is extremely proud of his work and accomplishments.
“Our trails are world class trails,” Arthur said. “I keep it clear – brushing, clipping, and sawing.”

Hope rises on the farm

By Gregory Hebert and Rafal Wilson

Art Talmadge and Sherry Simpson are living proof that sustainable agriculture is possible in places as close as your back yard—because that’s where their own farm is. Seven years of hard work has demonstrated that achieving this dream is not easy, however.

Cranberry Hill Farm, which the couple bought in 2002, is located on 30 acres in Ashford, Conn. They do more than just grow and sell food, though—they’re responsible for founding the Ashford Farmer’s Market that runs from June to October and in order to protect their farm and others they are becoming increasingly active in local politics.

For decades small farms in Connecticut and elsewhere have been suffering a slow death. Buoyed by the movement to buy local food, small farms such as Cranberry Hill may be a sign that Connecticut agriculture may still survive.

"You name it, we grow it," said Talmadge, a University of Connecticut graduate who was a natural resource management major. Their soil yields a multitude of vegetables, including peas, onions, spinach, radishes, beets, carrots, and three varieties of lettuce.

Simpson and Talmadge take pride in the fact that they only use heirloom vegetables and heritage animals, although their only livestock breed is chickens. Simpson said that most farmers across the country only use one kind of animal and crop, which, while good for production, has resulted in things like Thanksgiving turkeys incapable of mating on their own, chickens that do not know how to take care of their own eggs, and extreme vulnerability to diseases.

Cranberry Hill Farm, on the other hand, has three varieties of tomatoes, all of which Simpson says are more flavorful than what can be found in local supermarkets. The trade-off is that some crops such as the tomatoes are too fragile to transport across the country like standard supermarket crops. Also, the eggs produced by her chickens are not USDA certified.

"When thinking about planning and sustainability, you have to think about what you produce and what you bring in," said Talmadge. Two years ago Cranberry Hill Farm experienced a drought while last year the growing season was far too wet. Their squash crop was also damaged when they brought in some compost from an outside location. Squash bugs in the compost ruined the crop, forcing them this year to prepare a new bed that is several acres away.

The Cranberry Hill Farm owners also have high hopes for seeing what they can do in animal husbandry. Today they have around a dozen Dominique chickens, but they hope to expand to hogs and possibly even cattle some day.

Talmadge pointed to a 100-square-foot clearing that took him almost three years to open and said he wished he would have had the hogs. "Hogs could have done this for us," said Talmadge.

The reason they have been slow to get new animals is because of their concern for the well being of the livestock. "The humane raising of animals is key to this farm," said Talmadge. According to Simpson, they would like the chickens to be free range but they have to worry about foxes, coyotes, and a hawk, the last of which snatched up a chicken the other day.

Having truly free-range chickens would require they buy ten times the amount they have now in order to achieve price sustainability. As it is, they usually try to time their schedules so they can watch over the chickens. Further, Talmadge said that they don’t keep hogs and sheep due to the fact that the local slaughterhouse practices—which require the animals to be driven several hours away before being killed—does not fit into their definition of humane.

A short hike into the woods reveals a ridge overlooking wetlands that began life as a man-made pond. "We are very aware that people drink this and appreciate its value," said Talmadge. The wetland feeds into what becomes the drinking water source for Willimantic. The wetland is also home to the farm’s namesake Native American cranberries, which are left alone to feed the wildlife living in the area.

On the far side of the farm, through the woods, is a field. Talmadge estimated that he could grow around six to eight acres of hay. But some of the pasture has been plowed up to create two 100 foot by 50 foot plots. While the new beds could produce more needed vegetables, they do not have any dedicated water source. "This is where we'll be doing a lot of rain dances, I think," joked Talmadge.

Talmadge is also setting up a maple syrup tapping system from the many sugar maples in the woods around the farm. To help the maples grow, other trees are being felled to provide a sizable firewood crop that could sustain the couple through the winter. “When I was first out of work,” said Talmadge, who lost his full-time job in February, “I thought to myself, ‘I need to get some firewood on the ground.’”

“You have to look at every potential side of the equation, and there’s far too many sometimes,” said Talmadge.

Touring Cranberry Hill Farm with Sherry Simpson and Art Talmadge

(Photos and Audio by Dora Wilkenfeld and Christine Sullivan)

Art and Sherry talk about Cranberry Hill

(Video by Samantha Henry and Justin Maher)

A hike in Maromas

Katchen Coley describes the nature of Maromas
(Photos and Video by Dora Wilkenfeld and Christine Sullivan)

Not in my Maromas

By Samantha Henry, Justin Maher, Gregory Hebert and Rafal Wilson

Let it never be said that you can’t fight city hall—or take on the U.S. Army—armed only with some flyers and citizen support.

Advocates for a Maromas Plan, a grass roots environmental advocacy organization based in Middletown, Conn., has been doing just that since 1999.

“There’s nothing more beneficial than getting involved; if you wait, the thing you love could be gone,” said Barrie Robbins-Piantka, a member of Advocates for a Maromas Plan.

Maromas, an area in southwest Middletown, has had to deal with many issues that threaten the landscape. Most recently, the Army was interested in consolidating several bases onto a flat grassland field in Maromas.

“This is in Connecticut where land itself is an endangered species. Wild land is endangered and we need big areas. Without the wild, there’s no wild animals,” Piantka said. “Why would the Army want to spoil this meadow?”

Maromas is a natural and scenic geographic area adjacent to the Connecticut River, and covering about 6,000 acres – which is 30 percent of Middletown’s area, but only 5 percent of its population.

Those who want to preserve Maromas say that it has been assaulted with many threats to the landscape, from off-road vehicles that tear up the ground to a series of proposed industrial development, often supported by town hall.

Katchen Coley, also a member of Advocates for a Maromas Plan, said she first became aware of Maromas when it was threatened in 1999 with a proposed sewer-extension that would inevitably serve as an avenue for further development.

“When something is threatened, it usually wakes people up, agitating them for a while – then it’s either defeated or let go,” Coley said, emphasizing the need for continual, proactive, rather than reactive and ad-hoc approaches to defending local lands.

That fight led to the creation of the grass roots organization.

Through public hearings, many issues concerning Maromas have been brought to the public’s attention. Coley said the hearings highlighted several endangered species in the area. Also, a geologist made clear the importance of the region’s vernal pools, whose important ecological species are threatened by even the minor disturbance from off-road vehicle traffic.

“There are life-forms in vernal pools: unique insects creating biodiversity that should be preserved,” Coley said.

When the Army first proposed building a new base in Middletown, the veteran members of Advocates for a Maromas Plan worried that they couldn’t possibly galvanize more people into caring about this issue enough to come out and fight the Army, said Coley.
“But we didn’t have to,” she continued.

Robbins Piantka, a lifelong Middletown resident, showed up with the people Coley had been hoping to see. After speaking out against the plan and passing out flyers that brought even more opposition, they were able to get enough media attention to convince the Army to at least consider alternate sites.

The organization then worked to find other potential locations, studying maps and driving through town searching for parcels large enough for the Army. Eventually Middletown’s city planner found a small park on the edge of town that the Army has selected for its new base.

“It’s as happy of an ending as can be expected if you have to have an Army base in a small town where there isn’t a good place for it,” Piantka said.

The last wolf haunts Connecticut

John Folsom (Photo by Samantha Henry)

By Gregory Hebert, Rafal Wilson

In the winter of 1742, Israel Putnam shot what may have been the last wolf in Eastern Connecticut to the cheers of Pomfret citizens. In 2009, Connecticut residents often mourn the loss of what they now perceive as a beautiful, graceful predator.

This divide illustrates the differences between a habitat carrying capacity and a cultural carrying capacity, according to Jenny Dickson, a supervising wildlife biologist at the Department of Environmental Protection.

While the threat from wolves is no longer present in Connecticut, Dickson said that the DEP today has to deal with a range of other issues from a growing bear population to the mystery of why millions of bats are suddenly dying.

Putnam’s shooting of the wolf is celebrated at Mashamoquet Brook State Park on a small plaque just outside of a small rocky cave where the animal made its last stand. John Fulsom, DEP park supervisor at Mashamoquet, said that the extermination of the wolves 250 years ago stemmed from their killing sheep and the detrimental effect they had on farmers.

“We romance the wolf because we don’t suffer an economic loss from them,” he said. Other areas of the United States, such as northern Michigan, still support a wolf population and according to Fulsom they are not viewed in nearly the same light. He says that many Midwestern citizens, farmers and hunters alike, would like to see the wolves killed off due to what they do to local populations of livestock and game.

“We look at the plaque and sometimes it’s defaced,” he said, “saying ‘Don’t kill the last wolf.’”

Those detractors from Putnam’s heroism may have a point. The number of deer in Connecticut, once the main prey of area wolves, has climbed so greatly in recent years that they are now considered pests. Fulsom says that in the past, hunters were allowed to kill perhaps one deer per year. In recent years, that number has since climbed to 12.

That same attitude towards wolves is reversed in the case of the monk parakeet, an invasive species that migrated to Connecticut from New York State. A South American bird originally imported as part of the pet trade, the mountain-dwelling parakeets have adapted well to Connecticut’s climate and receive mixed reactions from local citizens.

“People in their back yard tend to hate them, while neighbors tend to like them,” Dickson said. “It’s a species with almost no middle ground.” The parakeets, which resemble large, green parrots, are exotic and colorful. However, they can be noisy pests that nip the buds off of flowering trees and plants, ruin gardens and orchards, and disturb the sleep of many.

Perhaps most dangerous are their nesting habits. “They’re communal roosters,” said Dickson, “meaning that they build ‘apartment complexes’ of nests that can weigh hundreds of pounds.” The parakeets tend to build their nests on tall structures such as utility poles and ballpark stands, severely compromising their integrity.

Utility companies attempt to disturb the parakeet nests at every opportunity.

Dickson says that this leads to a “hydra effect”—the dispersed birds, which imprint on certain structures early in life, will simply start building nests on a similar structure. One disturbed nest can then easily lead to ten more within a relatively small area.

On the flipside, Dickson and other researchers across the country are worried about the effect on the environment should bats, an entirely native species, vanish completely due to white nose syndrome. Dickson says white nose syndrome is a wildlife crisis of unprecedented proportions and is currently the largest problem facing DEP biologists right now. “Phenomenal numbers of these animals have died in the past two years,” she said.

Dickson says that the DEP and other researchers are currently looking into its causes and is working on possible solutions. Part of the work this summer is examining whether the disease has had any impact on bat birth rates.

Very little is still actually known about the disease, including whether the white fungus that shows up in the winter on the dead and dying bats is the cause or a symptom. Dickson says that researchers are fairly certain that humans have helped transmit it. “We don’t really know what it all means at this point,” she said.

Dickson said that the range of wildlife issues is as varied as the number of species, although bigger animals draw more attention. The number of bears in Connecticut is increasing and now number 300 to 500.

And just before Dickson left the office to come to Mashamoquet, her office received a worried call. A young moose had been sighted in a suburban community. The animal may be docile, but automobile collisions can be deadly and soon efforts were underway to get the moose back into more rural areas.

All this shows that the cultural carrying capacity of an environment and its habitat carrying capacity rarely, if ever, match up.

Climbing into the wolf den

(Photo by Samantha Henry)

Parrots challenge DEP

Jenny Dickson, DEP (Photo by Samantha Henry)

By Kendra Richardson & Mary Powers

Connecticut is home to a wide range of wildlife, even parrots native to South America.

Jennifer Dickson, supervising wildlife biologist for the Department of Environmental Protection, says that Connecticut actually has a much more diverse set of wildlife than many residents think. One of the most out-of-place animals Connecticut has is the monk parakeet, a large green parrot found mostly in low lands east of the Andes, like Bolivia and Paraguay.

These parrots, deemed an “invader” by biologists, were introduced into America mostly in the 1960’s by the United States exotic pet industry, according to Dickson. They are most frequently spotted in New Haven extending down to Greenwich. The birds build their nests mostly in electrical poles and light structures but sometimes in trees.
Although these large beautiful parrots are a treat for some people, they pose frustrations for many others. Monk parakeets are communal roosters, meaning groups of mates nest side by side at the same time. These nests can weigh hundreds of pounds, and become very heavy.

Utility companies complain about the birds and have tried to remove the nests, Dickson said.. The problem is that this tends to only increase the number of nests as they find new sites.

Residents of southern Connecticut have also complained about bird’s nests clogging chimneys, breaking branches and how loud and messy they are. Dickson said the birds are also aggressive with other animals when eating at bird feeders. Many people love these birds though.

“With this specific species, it is completely polarized- people either love them or they don’t,” said Dickson.

Those who love them are usually the ones that don’t have them nesting in their back yard or along their light source.

For now, these birds do not seem to be going anywhere. The DEP has been working to find a balance between keeping residents and utility workers happy, along with the birds comfortable here in Connecticut.

Chris Woodside on hiking the AT

(Photos and Audio by Christine Sullivan and Dora Wilkenfeld)

How a hike changed a life

Chris Woodside (Photo by Dora Wilkenfeld)

By Samantha Henry and Justin Maher

She wanted to get away. She didn’t know it would change her life.

“The experience beat me down to who I really am,” said Christine Woodside of her hike over the Appalachian Trail. “No one thought it was a good idea. It just seemed like an irresponsible thing to do. Every time you do something weird and hard it seems irresponsible. But when you come out the other end, it’s a great thing.”

At 28 years old, Woodside quit her stressful middle-management newspaper job, and set off with her husband and another couple, to hike the Appalachian Trail –which is more than 2,000 miles, extending from Georgia to Maine.

“The first couple of weeks, we felt like we had bitten off more than we could chew,” Woodside said. “We got blisters; our muscles hurt. But, we were going to do it, so we had the desire to do it.”

After four-and-a-half months of rainy days, hot sun, and recurrent tears frustration and doubt, Woodside made it to Maine and came out knowing what she wanted to do. Along the way she had met a variety of people – “an underground community,” as she described it. She had the good fortune to meet another journalist, and through that contact, landed a job upon her return to civilization. From here, Woodside decided on environmental journalism as her career focus.

“I was never the same,” Woodside said. “[Hiking the trail] affected everything in my life from the way I was a journalist to the way I saw my sink at home: just turning on the water; a miracle!”

Woodside has since written over 100 articles for the New York Times, and has written freelance stories for many other publications. Currently, she is the editor for two publications: Appalachia, a bi-yearly compilation of essays mixing local and international experiences of the outdoors, and Connecticut Woodlands, a quarterly magazine. Woodside, who lives in Deep River, Conn., also continues to freelance for other publications.

She recognizes that environmental journalists are important to keeping the public informed about many pressing issues.

“We need people to inform the world, and the world wants to be informed,” Woodside said.

Woodside had set out on her journey through the Appalachian Trail as a journalist looking for a story, interviewing people along the way and taking notes. After the first month, however, she stopped, having realized that the story wasn’t the trail itself, but how the trail was changing her life.

Woodside wants the surrender flag lowered

Chris Woodside (Photo by Dora Wilkenfeld)

By Rafal Wilson and Gregory Hebert

Christine Woodside, a veteran journalist, freelance reporter, and editor of two magazines, knows where print journalism has been—and she knows that it’s doomed if it doesn’t figure out how to make an effective movement to the web.

“The Internet is the new publishing house,” Woodside said, referring to how more and more publications in recent years have been moving to or premiering online. The problem with this, Woodside said, is that the Internet remains relatively untested ground for newspapers and other reporting institutions, which has not helped the revenue difficulties that they have been facing recently.

Woodside maintained that this has moved the industry into an experimental period at a time when there is little room for error, which explains why newspapers have not been weathering the current economic recession very well.

The main problem, she said, is that journals and newspapers simply do not yet know how to make money off of the Internet. The newspaper base is far more established, with most revenue coming from selling ads.

Readers have been moving to online sources partly because newspapers have been giving their product – news – away for free. Also, some newspapers simply refer their customer base to their websites instead of focusing on producing a good story. “The newspapers need to stop holding the surrender flag to the masses,” said Woodside.

Woodside does fear that with the current generation of readers receiving its news on the Internet that many readers would simply go elsewhere if they were asked to pay for a subscription.

As a result, Woodside believes that the industry will increasingly rely on non-profit enterprises funded through grants and other previously unthought-of means.

Woodside also believes that reporters and journalism is becoming increasingly specialized. She said that she foresaw a decrease in general reporters as new hires to the industry pick up on specific beats and stick with them throughout their careers.

Woodside has 18 years of experience in newspaper writing and has been reporting on the environment for 12 years. Her book, “The Homeowners Guide to Energy Independence,” is dedicated to helping ordinary people move away from fossil fuels in realistic ways.

Today, she serves as the editor to two environmental magazines, the Appalachian Journal and Connecticut Woodlands. “We try to get into the heads of people on trails and rivers,” Woodside said of the former, which is a collection of stories and essays about nature.

Woodside said that her passion for environmental reporting began at the age of 28, when she and her husband quit their jobs and hiked the Appalachian Trail. The trip, which took four and a half months and stretched from Georgia to Maine, deeply affected her.

According to Woodside, at the beginning of the trip it took three aspirin a night to fall asleep and there were some crying fits too. “I had to work with my wimp-osity,” she said.

However, the trip gave her a greater appreciation of the conveniences of modern life and the importance of the world around her. “By the end of the trip,” she said, “I viewed everything from my reporting to the water coming out of my kitchen faucet in a completely new light.”

Regulating more than the environment

By Samantha Henry, Kendra Richardson and Mary Powers

The Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection was created to regulate and prevent pollution from seeping into the ground, the waterways and the air.

These days, says DEP Commissioner Gina McCarthy, its task is more aimed at trying to change human lifestyles, especially actions that affect the environment.

That is often difficult.

“Very often it takes catastrophes for people to change,” McCarthy said. “People don’t want to change… for better or for worse.”

McCarthy said the DEP often looks to the news media to help in getting the message out about how people can help improve the environment. “The journalists’ job is to educate by bringing facts,” said McCarthy.

But with the recent cutbacks at many newspapers that task has become more difficult.

Plus, the few remaining journalists also have trouble, according to McCarthy, with finding scientists that can and are willing to give clear, definite, on-the-record reports that can be understood by the public.

McCarthy and other DEP officials who met recently with students in the environmental journalism class cited the Fenton River as one example of an environmental calamity that was missed by many.

In September of 2005 the Fenton, a primary water source for the University of Connecticut, dried up. It was a particularly dry summer and after students returned for the fall semester the Fenton couldn’t handle the water needs of tens of thousands of students. A significant leak in a water line also contributed to the problem.

The river went completely dry. Thousands of trout and other aquatic organisms died.

Lee Dunbar of DEP’s Bureau of Water Protection and Land Reuse, said it was the worst environmental catastrophe he had been involved in. “You can only kill things one time. Once they’re dead, they’re dead,” Dunbar said.

He was especially upset by what he believed was poor media coverage and very little public concern.

“There was no outcry. There were people that were wicked upset but no one heard about it. It’s upsetting,” Dunbar said.

Since then the university has worked with public officials on a variety of water conservation and other measures to prevent a reoccurrence.

The accident also highlighted what McCarthy said was the biggest environment problem facing Connecticut and the DEP.

Rather than climate change or going green, McCarthy said stream flows and water quantity issues top the DEP’s agenda. She said that is likely to continue into the future.

McCarthy is not one to minimize the impact of global warming. President Obama has nominated her as assistant administrator of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Air and Radiation. In that capacity, climate change would be a major focus. However, according to recent news reports a Republican U.S. Senator has placed a “hold” on the nomination because he is upset with McCarthy’s position that recognized climate change as a significant environmental threat.

Bob Kaliszewski, the director of planning development at the DEP, said reporters covering the environment have a formidable task in this new age of information. There is a lot of available information, some good, some bad, and some junk.

“There’s not a lot of in depth discussions like in better newspapers, and those are what we really need,” Kaliszewski said. “[Journalists] need to find ways to get the level of depth to get people to understand, with more expanded dialogue.”

Finding a home for the swifts

The chimney experiment on the UConn Depot Campus (Photo by Justin Maher)

Story by Dora Wilkenfeld, Gregory Hebert, Kendra Richardson, Mary Powers and Rafael Wilson.

Margaret Rubega flaps her arms vigorously, emitting a series of shrill squawks, demanding a mouthful of nutritious, regurgitated mosquitoes and gnats.

"When they get hungry, it's the loudest one that gets fed first," she says, still wiggling her fingers in imitation of as-yet unfeathered wingtips. It's her impression of a juvenile chimney swift, a bird sometimes mistaken for a flying cigar but infinitely more at home up a flue than tucked inside a humidor.

Rubega, the Connecticut state ornithologist and a professor at the University of Connecticut, is an expert on these little, swallow-shaped birds. She is also worried about their chances of survival.

Margaret Rubega (Photo by Samantha Henry)

“We have good data that says that the population of chimney swifts is declining in Connecticut by 1 percent per year,” said Rubega. Should the chimney swifts disappear, she said that we would lose a "gigantic invisible ecological advantage.” An adult swift can eat around 1,000 to 2,000 bugs a day. In an age of worry over West Nile virus and other insect-borne sicknesses, swifts offer a natural solution to chemical-laden repellents.

On-site at the UConn Depot Campus, she adeptly points out a few swifts as they plunge and dart in and out of a host of other, more sedate fliers, on a breezy May afternoon. "They're very aerial birds, pretty common in the state," she says. "They're spectacular fliers--there's nothing more acrobatic."

Many people may be uncomfortably familiar with these winged daredevils. Though they are an indigenous species, adapted to nesting in big, hollow old-growth trees, the arrival of European settlers in the Northeast radically changed their living arrangements, throwing them into a much closer cohabitation with humans than before.

As their name suggests, the swifts now typically choose to nest in people's chimneys. The sound of a batch of newly-hatched chimney swift chicks, all clamoring for some insectoid treats as Rubega demonstrated, can be slightly unnerving. Just as unsettling can be the "woosh!" of swift wings swooping around somewhere up the chimney. In spite of the initial discomfort at hearing an animal somewhere up there, inadvertently hosting some swift nests is not a fire hazard, and is good for the birds--and for naturally keeping down insect numbers.

Uniquely adapted to landing only on vertical surfaces, the birds "helicopter" around inside chimneys when they're learning to fly, and they never settle down on the ground or perch on a twig for a moment's rest. "They're an on-off kind of a bird... with them it's all or nothing," Rubega says. Unfortunately, this description may also apply to their survival in the wild.

No one is sure why swifts are disappearing in North America, but it might be because people are choosing to cap their chimneys, keeping wildlife out, or increasingly opt to build homes without chimneys altogether. The fact that the swifts' natural habitat is man-made sets them apart from other vulnerable species. "This may be one of the very few cases of providing wildlife with what it needs without tying up land," Rubega says.

Rubega and her team received a grant from the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection to experiment with designs for artificial chimneys that the swifts could nest in. “We wanted them to be $100 or less to make, movable, can be assembled with simple hand tools, and meet all the bird’s requirements” said Rubega.

The eight-foot tall towers are made from plastic drainage pipe, and painted white to reflect the sun. The interior is lined with pine board to make it easier for the swifts to attach a nest.

“What we came up with was this nice, post modern rocket ship look,” said Rubega, “although it’s probably not something you’d want to put in the back yard of a Victorian house.”

No birds chose to build nests in the prototypes last season, but Rubega and others are continuing with their research this summer.

She says the world cannot afford to lose a species like the chimney swift.

"Do we value diversity for its own sake?" she asks. If the number of healthy, thriving wildlife species were like crayons, coloring our New England nature with their variety, "We'd have to decide if we want an eight-box or 64-box or 200-box world."

Securing home base

Margaret Rubega inspects a potential home for the swifts (Photo by Samantha Henry)

Chimney swifts in action

Readings and opinions on press coverage of climate change

On the second day of class we watched a 2000 video from PBS on Global Warming, What's Up With the Weather. Students were also asked to read several articles in advance and discuss the role of the media in covering global warming. A nine-year-old video was chosen to show, historically, how the press has been covering the issue. It is unlikely the skeptics today would get as much time as they received in this program.
- Bob Wyss



Reporting on the environment, its crises, and its changes, is not the simplest thing to do. The environment, being, by definition, “everything around us,” is not the simplest of systems. There is, therefore, much ground for diversity of opinion, on almost any environmental issue. This is a headache for scientists and policymakers, who end up with an endless stream of alternatives to investigate, evaluate, and then shoot down or incorporate into their own views. But these people at least have the convenience of having a fixed opinion of other people’s views of reality: ‘This guy’s right,’ ‘this guy doesn’t understand the topic,’ or ‘this guy’s lying.’ Journalists have it even tougher. In the spirit of journalistic balance, journalists often are in a position to report what is going on – what is going on in complicated environmental debates, for example. Of course, there are some opinion-articles in journalism, where a writer can act like a normal person, and admit that he endorses some view, is uncertain of some others, and of yet others, he is patently dismissive. But such editorials are not the bulk of journalism. When one is concerned with the reality of what is going on in the debate, rather than the ideal of what (the author at least, thinks) the ultimate truth really is, the issue of journalistic balance rears its ambiguous head again.

This is truly a difficult problem in covering science. In science, much of the time, there is one right answer, out there somewhere, and a bunch of people who end up being proven dead wrong. It would not be in the ethical spirit of journalistic balance to give truth and each distinct untruth equal weight and print. On the other hand, if the specialists themselves are having a tough time finding the truth, the journalist has little hope of knowing which theory is right, which is partially-right, and which are dead-wrong, and so, it is not feasible for him to, with any degree of confidence, weigh the amount of print he gives each competing view of reality, by its credibility.

But what I just described, is a rational appraisal of journalism’s approach to covering science, were science a black box, into whose intricacies no non-specialist could ever hope to see clearly. But, science is not a completely-black box; were it so, science would scarcely be worth writing on, in a publication intended for a general audience. Ideally, as Ross Gelbspan says in his Mother Jones article, Snowed, “A reporter should learn where the weight of scientific opinion falls – and reflect that balance in his or her reporting.” The premise of this ideal is that a reporter covering a field of science, should, and can, and therefore is nearly obligated to, be conversant in the current state of knowledge in the field.

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Obviously, that would entail a lot of hard work; it is not entirely realistic to say that all journalists should be experts about whatever they are reporting on. But, on the other hand, there is significant danger in treating science as a black box, where we can know what the competing ideas are, but cannot parse the credible ones from the incredible. If all ideas are given equal weight and print in journalism, regardless of their clout in science, then a well-funded special-interest group can, even having lost the argument among the scientific community, maintain uncertainty among the public. If an idea, however demonstrably invalid in science, is repeated enough, it can look as if it is a credible possibility. And, unacquainted with the actual state of scientific knowledge, journalists may take the bait, and misinform public opinion, saying the scientific jury is still out, when, in fact, it is not. This has been the case with the issue of climate change: a scientific consensus was reached a decade or so before a public consensus was settled upon. The vigorous lobbying of special interests was able to obscure the scientific consensus from the reporters, from whom the public gets much of their information. So, there are potentially-serious drawbacks to being ham-fisted about journalistic fairness – a decade of public misinformation about a most-serious issue, requiring quick and strong action, for example. Opinions may have an aspect of intrinsic equality, but when reporting on science, one is often also dealing with facts, which are a different animal from opinions. Fairness matters, but so does truthfulness.
- Justin Maher

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Ross Gelbspan in "Snowed," focused on how all the more recent natural disasters, severe rains, hurricanes, etc., are caused by drastic climate changes. The author writes that when the news media covers these disasters they do not cite the drastic climate changes as the cause. He wrote, "Conflict is the lifeblood of journalism, and the climate issue is riven with conflict." In other words, he believes that the drastic climate change is very newsworthy. He reported that a newspaper in Britain wrote three times as many stories on climate change, and the only the New York Times' Andrew Revkin reports regularly on the subject. He wrote then, “Any time reporters wrote stories about global warming, industry-funded naysayers demanded equal time in the name of balance." Basically, editors didn't want to "scare" their readers with the obvious threat of global warming. The author ultimately put the blame on the editors in the end of his piece. He accused them of betraying their profession and said climate change constitutes immense drama of uncertain outcome. I enjoyed reading this article because I really didn't realize how little attention the news gives to climate change.
- Kendra Richardson

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I was also particularly struck by this line from the Mother Jones article: "But when the subject is a matter of fact, the concept of balance is irrelevant." All too often, it seems reporters (especially those on broadcast news, I think) tend to forget this important idea. Being fair and balanced is of course one of journalism's guiding tenets, but when one side is espousing facts and the other opinion or (possibly worse) misinformation, stubbornly clinging to the "he said-she said" approach does a disservice to readers/viewers.
- Dora Wilkfeld

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“Snowed” explained why there is so much controversy on the subject of climate change. I really liked how the author put it, that things that are a matter of opinion, like gay marriage, deserve equal coverage of both sides, but a factual scientific discussion does not. The end was a little harsh though, that all editors and reporters are too lazy to cover this topic properly. I also found the comments from readers at the end a little disturbing.
- Mary Powers

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"Snowed" - I don't know how I feel about “Snowed.” Gelbspan does have a point that journalists are a little too even handed from time to time. If the oppositions argument is weak then let it be known, don't make it seem stronger out of some warped balance. Still, I don't think it is as bad as Gelbspan claims. I think he could give journalists a little more credit and his finally statement was way to bold and came across as ranting or foolish.
- Rafal Wilson

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In “Snowed” Ross Gelbspan attributes part of the problem to the journalistic approach to climate change. In failing to mention climate change regularly in news, the American public is unaware of its connection to modern occurrences, such as extreme weather events. This may be due to the very successful campaign of deception from the fossil fuel lobby, the misguided journalistic balance, which still causes journalists to approach global warming as an opinion with equal weight given to either side, and the dominant culture of newsrooms, which favors political conflict rather than the substantial science behind it.
- Christine Sullivan

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Global Warming is no longer a matter of opinion. The evidence is irrefutable, but the projections for the future are uncertain. However, industries dependent upon fossil fuels have largely taken advantage of this uncertainty. In “On Climate Issue, Industry Ignored Its Scientists,” Andrew Revkin exposed the tactics of deception used by the Global Climate Coalition in an extensive campaign against the fact that emissions of greenhouse gases would lead to global warming. The coalition disregarded and suppressed information provided by their scientists creating enough doubt to stunt public concern and delay government action. Revkin also reported in “Yelling ‘fire’ on a Hot Planet” that what we are dealing with in the subject of global warming is an “urgency problem.” Warming is happening alarmingly fast in geologic time, but since it appears to be in slow motion in present time, there is no sense of urgency. This is dangerous because climate change is a long term threat that can only be mitigated by immediate action. Urgency cannot be imposed on the public because it may be dismissed as alarmism, so it may be time to start suggesting adaptation as a solution to climate change.
- Christine Sullivan

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"Yelling Fire on a Hot Planet," was different from most of the other articles you read on global warming. It tells you that global warming is a problem that people are basically overlooking and it outlines what we do know about global warming. It asked questions such as "is global warming now a reality," and if scientists are just alarming us with information. The author, Andrew Revkin, writes that global warming is happening but not as fast as people may think. Global warming is a confusing subject and people don't really know what to believe now. He concludes with that it is a problem that humans have control over, basically.
- Kendra Richardson

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The readings covered some of the basics of environmental and climate-based reporting in the American media--and its all-too-frequent absence from the front pages. I hadn't realized that, until recently, this type of coverage was pretty spotty at best. Andrew Revkin's article made two interesting points; this first one I found hard to believe: "...few scientists agree with the idea that the recent spate of potent hurricanes, European heat waves, African drought and other weather extremes are, in essence, our fault. There is more than enough natural variability in nature to mask a direct connection, they say." Maybe when it was published three years ago, that was the case, but it seems to me that the anthropogenic nature of climate change and its visible side effects (droughts, the California disasters, etc.) have become more accepted, although of course it's still a highly contentious issue. Revkin also noted this surprising statistic: "A Gallup survey last month shows that people are still not worried about climate change. When participants were asked to rank 10 environmental problems, global warming was near the bottom, far below water pollution and toxic waste (both now largely controlled)." I wonder how much that's changed since 2006.
- Dora Wilkenfeld

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In “Yelling Fire on a Hot Planet” the author really broke it down into what is known fact and what is stilling being debated. As a reader I really liked the simplicity of that, it was kind of global warming for dummies. It was also the only article that suggested just adapting to the climate change, which is a topic I had never heard of before. “On Climate Issue, Industry Ignored its Scientists” dissected how the fossil fuels industry employed the same tactic as the tobacco industry to confuse the public, distort the science, and stop legislation to regulate fossil fuel emissions.
- Mary Powers

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I liked Yelling Fire on a Hot Planet." Revkin did a fine job at explaining some problems with the argument. This piece was definitely an eye opener to how fuel companies pulled the cigarette stunt of confusing the argument and effectively delaying any progress on the subject by years. I also liked his organizations in this article. The short one-liner sentences made it easy to follow where he was going, and I also found it aesthetically pleasing, although i know not why. The facts used in this article were effective for the argument he was making. I like this story more than "On Climate Issue, Industry Ignored Its Scientists." This was too preachy for and I felt that some of his statements were too bold and opinionated. Still the bulk of the essay has important facts that could sway people to his side of the argument. Or at least make them think about it a little more critically.
- Rafal Wilson

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In the from the Yale Forum on Climate Change and the Media, author Michael Coren wrote that Americans thought journalists overstate the threat of global warming. This is very different from the article I just read which criticized how little journalists focus on gobal warming. It's surprising how very different the American people's opinion on media coverage of this issue is. He then wrote about different organizations that cover global warming, and where people are most likely to try to find this news (the internet).
- Kendra Richardson

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Hopefully, as the Yale Forum article notes, the new media of online-based journalists will be able to fill the need for well-researched, fact-based climate reporting. The list of articles about Californian weather/climate issues from KQED News suggests this may already be happening.
- Dora Wilkfeld

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Michael Coren contrasts Gelbspan’s criticism in “Growing Role for New Media…” by optimistically analyzing the potential for expansion in coverage, primarily in multimedia and video operations on the Internet. These may better convey the scientific substance and emotional angles of this issue in a way television and internet alone are incapable of doing. The problem is that this news resource may only reach those that are already engaged in the subject, but it needs to be extended to reach the average reader. By making climate change news and information interactive, like KQed News Climate Watch, we may see a better distribution of the valid information available to the public.
– Christine Sullivan

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The article from the Yale Forum was solid. The article was effective at showing the need to environmental journalism to get involved with multi-media online production. We do need to reach more viewers if there is to be anything done about the issue. This would be an effective way to explain science and i think this article made that point very clear. The KQED page is a well executed website. I like how it's all right there in a column, text and then radio. Very effective. I couldn't find much in the area of video though, which could improve the site drastically I think
- Rafal Wilson

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I think it’s really interesting how people react to the big issues in climate change. One of the articles mentioned that showing people pictures of drowning polar bears may help to make a movement toward active involvement in stopping global warming. People often feel a
disconnect form what doesn’t harm them directly. Complimenting this idea, another article stated that it’s difficult to persuade the government to do anything when nothing will happen for another 100 years or so. I find this to be astonishing considering the effects that could be mitigated if action is taken now instead of waiting until it cannot be fixed. At the same time, I drive a car and do everything that everyone else is doing to harm the world and I am not an environmental activist. So here, I am experiencing the disconnect that everyone else, including the government, feels.

I like the description that one of the articles used to explain this issue – that it’s a “perfect problem.” People can recognize that something needs to be done, but not now and not by us individually. Also contributing to this idea is possibly that people think that the little they can do can’t affect the outcome drastically enough. Thus, they won’t sacrifice their luxuries to a useless cause. However, if everyone thought it did count, then it would and there would be a change in the future. But how does this kind of action begin to ripple?

These articles spoke a lot of confusion among the public and silence among the media. The fact that major corporations own much of the media and ad sales drive the production is a damper for the reporting of environmental news. If the media could report more factual articles about
the issue, the confusion among the public would probably be cured. I liked how one article said that the differing messages “confuse, alarm, and paralyze the public.” People don’t know what is going on, but they’re scared and can’t do anything. Going back to the idea that this is a
“perfect problem” -- the same article suggested that if the issue of global warming was presented with urgency then people would think it was an overreaction and unreasonable.

Global warming is something that everyone knows at least a little bit about. Sadly, the movie, “The Day After Tomorrow,” was my first real glimpse of what global warming could possibly do. The movie takes place mainly in New York, a place semi-close to my home, and connects what happens in the world directly to global warming. The beginning shows a scientist saying that natural disasters will occur across the world because of global warming, but no one listens… and then it happens. This movie made me think that this was what was happening now but at a slower pace. Even though it is just a movie, the idea behind it seems factual to me. If there was a specific timeline that scientists could give the world as to when all of the effects are going to take place, then I think that people would work harder to avoid it. However, in the movie no one listened until events started taking place, and that’s probably going to be the same in real life.
- Samantha Henry

About the Course

The plan for the class is to examine environmental issues that occur locally in Eastern Connecticut and how journalism has been covering these issues and should in the future. The subject areas the course will examine include biodiversity, sustainable agriculture, water resources, recreation, air resources including climate change, and environmental justice. The course will also review how journalists relate and cover environmental science and scientists, government regulators, environmental risk issues and environmental advocates. As much as possible, students will get out of the classroom and into the environment. For instance, students will learn about biodiversity issues by taking a hike near Wolf Den, to where the last wolves in Connecticut were killed 200 years ago, and talk to a state wildlife biologist about wildlife issues. Students will learn about the issue of environmental justice and how undesirable environmental facilities are often located in poor or minority neighborhoods, by walking one of those areas in Hartford. Students will examine how the state regulates the environment by visiting with officials at the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection.

The instructor has been covering environmental issues for most of his 35 years as a journalist. He was a reporter and editor for 28 years at the Providence Journal and for years he covered the environmental beat. He has been on the journalism faculty since 2002 and has just completed a journalism textbook, Covering the Environment, which helps students and professionals understand the environmental beat. He has continued to write freelance stories on the environment for major newspapers and magazines, including the New York Times, Smithsonian and E The Environment Magazine.

The 2009 Summer Environmental Journalism Class

The class, from left to right, Dora Wilkenfeld, Justin Maher, Kendra Richardson, Gregory Hebert, Mary Powers, Bob Wyss (instructor), Samantha Henry, Christine Sullivan and Rafal Wilson.