Monday, May 14
Controlled fires revive grasslands
A Plymouth County crew recently took a step toward bringing native species
back to a patch of prairie near Remsen.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Le Mars, Ia. - From seven miles away, it looked like a funnel cloud at
first. Then the wind picked it up, and it billowed like a sail.
The huge cloud of smoke that rose May 1 northeast of Remsen was actually an
ambitious effort to revive natural grasslands.
The smoke came from the Rufus Hatch Memorial Grassland, 13 acres donated by
Merle and Wilma Treinen to Plymouth County conservation officials for
hunting, preservation and recreation. A seven-person crew had scorched the
land to make it live again.
http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/NEWS/705140332/-1/archive
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Opinion:
Call to complain about air or trash, but not the neighbors
REGISTER EDITORIAL BOARD
Rich Leopold, the new director of the Iowa Department of Natural Resources,
mentioned during a get-acquainted interview at the Register that the agency
handles a fair number of complaints with a relatively small staff.
No. 1? In a state with millions of pigs, you might guess odor, but you'd be
wrong. Air quality tops the list of concerns brought to the attention of
environmental specialists in the department's six field offices. Concerns
include dust blowing off a gravel road that suddenly gets a lot of new
traffic, open burning and smoke-stack emissions.
http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/OPINION03/705140307/1035/archive
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Iowa sees jump in alternative-fuel vehicles
There are currently 3,059 hybrid electric, 58,049 ethanol-capable E-85, and
62,362 clean diesel vehicles on Iowa’s roads, according to figures recently
released by R.L. Polk and Co., an automotive data collection and analysis
company.
The figures show more than 123,000 alternative-fuel vehicles on Iowa’s roads
in 2006, an increase of 24 percent from 2005. Currently manufacturers are
offering 60 models of alternative-fuel vehicles for sale including hybrid
electric, ethanol-capable E-85, and clean diesel, up from just 12 models for
sale in 2000.
http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070514/BUSINESS/70511035/1029/archive
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Out There: DNR to host public meeting on bobcats
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will host a public meeting from 10
a.m. to noon May 30 to accept comments on an amended rule that would allow
for a limited bobcat trapping season.
The meeting is on the fourth floor conference room west of the Wallace State
Office Building in Des Moines. Another major change includes closing the
beaver trapping season on April 1, instead of April 15.
Natural resources officials will also accept written comments on the
proposal until May 17. Comments may be sent to Wildlife Bureau Chief, Iowa
Department of Natural Resources, Wallace State Office Bldg., 502 E. 9th
Street, Des Moines, Ia., 50319-0034.
A copy of the proposed changes is available online at
www.iowadnr.com/nrc/07apr/11.pdf.
http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/SPORTS10/705130353/1039/archive
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Sunday, May 13
Paddlers' safety around dams gets attention
Legislators have approved money for warning signs and portage trails near
low-head dams, where currents have proven deadly.
By JONATHAN ROOS
REGISTER STAFF WRITER
Two weeks ago, Levi Wendland and two friends were gliding down the Iowa
River in a canoe when they reached a dam at Alden.
On Saturday, Wendland returned to the site of the dam - a "death trap," he
called it - to install a riverside bench in memory of his two companions,
who didn't survive the canoe trip on that Sunday afternoon in late April.
http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/NEWS10/705130331/-1/archive
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Book's theories about genetically engineered food short on science
By PAUL CHRISTENSEN
SPECIAL TO THE REGISTER
In "Genetic Roulette," Jeffrey Smith asserts there is a sort of conspiracy
between industry and government biotech regulatory agencies to hide
scientific concerns about the safety of genetically engineered food.
Smith provides a useful list of the health concerns with observations to
support them. Based on the identified concerns, he provides arguments that
government regulation is inadequate and regulators are unduly influenced by
the agricultural biotechnology industry. He rejects the competence of
industry scientists to do the safety studies in the approval of biotech
products. He then provides a refutation of the arguments supporting biotech
safety and concludes that customers, without even considering the usefulness
of genetically engineered foods, reject them and force regulators to address
the inadequacies in the evaluation of biotech safety.
http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/ENT01/705130322/1029/archive
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Opinion:
Keep sewage out of Iowa's waters
THE REGISTER'S EDITORIAL
Iowa's wastewater-treatment plants aren't supposed to dump raw sewage into
creeks and rivers, but they do it frequently, and few face serious
consequences.
It happens when heavy rains swamp sewage systems, as has occurred at least
100 times since April 25. When so much water flows that plants can't
reasonably be expected to handle it, they have permission to "bypass"
untreated or partially treated waste into waterways. The city of Storm
Lake's normal daily flow of 3 million gallons surged to 20 million.
http://dmregister.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20070513/OPINION03/705130307/1035/archive
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