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 ------------ 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 ------------- 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 --------- 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 ------------- 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 ------------ 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 ---------- 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 ------------- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - To unsubscribe from the IOWA-TOPICS list, send any message to: [log in to unmask] Check out our Listserv Lists support site for more information: http://www.sierraclub.org/lists/faq.asp Sign up to receive Sierra Club Insider, the flagship e-newsletter. Sent out twice a month, it features the Club's latest news and activities. Subscribe and view recent editions at http://www.sierraclub.org/insider/