Despite the acknowledgment of the importance of wetlands to nature, the USA loses 60,000 acres of wetlands a year. Read on for more specifics on the state of wetlands today in the USA.
Tag Archives: Water Quality
Gov’t Urged to Fund Basin Plan: IJC | Rainy River Record
http://www.rainyriverrecord.com/node/20766
It also follows two periods of public review and feedback, and builds upon considerable co-operative work and planning that has been undertaken in the basin in recent years.” The Plan of Study identifies five themes of concern, and strongly recommends funding for 32 projects and activities to support a balanced approach to water quality management, in response to concerns by governments, researchers, local residents and indigenous peoples about the basin’s ecosystem health.
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International Coastal Cleanup
Clean up your local waterway. Message from NOAA:
“Worried about the amount of trash on our coasts? Do gyres of bobbing plastic whirl through your head each night? Help wipe these worries from your mind and the beach by joining the International Coastal Cleanup on September 21, 2013.
With more than 550,000 volunteers scouring beaches, rivers, and lakes last year, this event is the biggest one-day cleanup of marine debris in the world. In the past, volunteers have turned up everything from bottle caps and plastic bags to toilet seats and cyborg sea-kitties. But each year cigarette butts take home the prize for most common item of debris found on the beach, with 2,117,931 of these toxic pieces of plastic turning up during the 2012 global cleanup alone.
To volunteer at a location near you, visit Ocean Conservancy online. The NOAA Marine Debris Program is a proud sponsor of the annual event, and last year NOAA volunteers cleaned up more than 2.8 tons (nearly 5,700 pounds) of debris from waterways and beaches in DC, Seattle, and Oahu.
Even if you can’t make it to your nearest waterway on September 21, you can still help reduce how much trash makes it to the ocean by planning your own beach cleanup and considering these 10 suggestions from Ocean Conservancy.”
Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement updated
Public comment on role of international Joint Commission’s in implementing latest revision of GLWQA 2012. Here is IJC press release:
TRAVERSE CITY, MI (AP)– A U.S.-Canadian agency is inviting the public to comment on the role it will play under an updated agreement between the two nations to protect the Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes Water Quality Agreement was first signed in 1972. The latest version was approved last year. It’s designed to guide both federal governments as they devise policies to deal with threats such as algae blooms, toxic pollution and invasive species.
The agreement instructs an organization called the International Joint Commission to create two boards that will provide advice on carrying out the accord, which commits the U.S. and Canada to restore the chemical, physical and biological integrity of the waters.
Comments on the functions, structure and membership of the two boards are being accepted through July 24.
Lake Levels 