Why higher education leadership for the environment in Virginia is important

“NWF started the Campus Ecology Program back in 1989, Mr. Lyon explained, because NWF knew higher education needs to lead the solutions to the conservation and wildlife challenges we are facing and to ensure that the graduates of today are prepared to lead the solutions of tomorrow.”

Colleges and universities, he explained, are places where people from all walks of life expect to see solutions demonstrated in practice, whether wind turbines, solar panels or electric recharge stations. Hands-on conservation and sustainability go hand-in-hand with the curriculum.

Campuses, clean economy and healthy wildlife connections in Virginia

“It is no longer business as usual for protecting wildlife, explained Lyon. We can’t simply set aside land and water, or regulate for clean air and clean water, although all of that is critical. We also have to look upstream to the impacts on wildlife and habitats- and there we can see that it is our building choices, our energy choices, our transportation choices and all of those need to be overhauled for a clean, safe, 21st Century.”

Reducing carbon pollution to zero within the lifetimes of Virginia college students today

“The challenge to society is to reduce carbon pollution to nearly zero before 2050, or within the lifetimes of most college students today,” Lyon explained. “This means that we are not talking here about being trained to recycle aluminum cans, although that is certainly a part of the solution. We are talking here about a much larger shift- educating students to scale solutions to the scope of the problem.”

“While this can be a daunting challenge,” admitted Jim, “it is the conservation fight of a lifetime.  The fact is 99% of scientists overwhelming agree human reliance on fossil fuels is destabilizing the climate. Is this the legacy we want to leave our children or even the current generations of students today?”

How Virginia colleges and other universities are leading

Jim highlighted several examples of higher education leadership in Virginia, including:

• Dabney S. Lancaster Community College’s Wind Turbine Service Technology program prepares individuals for career entry and advancement opportunities in the advanced technology applications of wind energy technologies.
• Randolph College has an organic garden & orchard, an extensive recycling center that accepts CFLs, electronics, CDs, DVDs, in addition to glass, plastic, aluminum and cardboard. Through NWF’s partner, the American College and University Presidents’ Climate Commitment (ACUPCC), Randolph has commitment to reduce the campus’s carbon footprint through energy efficiency, renewable energy, and other strategies.
• George Mason University’s (GMU) Board of Visitors, in 2007, pledged that the university would build all new construction to a higher environmental standard, specifically, LEED Silver certification level. In addition to two certified National Wildlife Habitats, GMU has purchases 10% of its annual electricity through wind powered Renewable Energy Certificates (RECs), avoiding over 17 million pounds of CO2 emissions, which is like taking almost 1,500 cars off the road for a year or like powering 963 homes for a year!
• Northern Virginia Community College is committed to green building. NVCC’s newly-opened Student Services Building on the Annandale campus recently received their LEED certification award (Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design); the student services building is the first LEED Certified building at NVCC. More of NVCC’s campuses will feature LEED buildings soon – Manassas, Woodbridge campuses, etc.
• Thomas Nelson Community College installed two solar panels to power the lights, ventilation and battery chargers for its motorcycle storage containers used for the campus’s motorcycle safety courses) that are located adjacent to a campus parking lot.

Virginia students gain some greener career insights

These kinds of programs help students prepare for a growing array of greener career opportunities throughout Virginia, he noted.  Drawing on labor market studies developed through the Greenforce Initiative (a partnership with Jobs for the Future and National Wildlife Federation sponsored by the Bank of America Charitable Trust at 100 community colleges in six states), Lyon highlighted some of the Virginia specific job trends of relevance to students.

For example, some of the top green jobs by category in Virginia, include pollution reduction, removal & remediation (with 3402 postings), energy efficiency (with 2148 postings), and natural resource conservation (with 1859 postings). Among the top 10 green skills in Virginia, Lyon explained, are scheduling, HVAC, and inspection, while the leading green certifications in Virginia, include professional engineers, certified safety professionals and certified energy managers.

“We’ll need solar financers, project managers and installers and an array of other renewable energy technologies in Virginia,” explained Lyon, including offshore wind. We’ll also need people skilled in climate mitigation and adaptation,  restoring habitat and protecting biodiversity for people and wildlife.”

***

Offshore wind turbine in Thames Estuary, UK. Flickr photo by phault.

The most substantial long-term solution for combating climate change is to power our homes and businesses with renewable energy—namely wind and solar.  However, right now, there is a serious threat to the American wind industry and the estimated 75,000 jobs it has created.

A set of tax credits called the Production Tax Credit (PTC) and the Investment Tax Credit (ITC) will expire at the end of this year if Congress does not act to renew them. These two financial incentives are crucial to the success of this industry.  We have already begun to see a slowdown in wind growth across the country, including here in Virginia, due to the uncertainty of their renewal.

The PTC provides a 2.2 cents per kilowatt-hour income tax credit to developers of utility-scale wind projects for the first 10 years while the ITC allows developers to take an upfront credit for construction costs equal to 30% (a developer cannot take both credits).

Future of Wind Energy Uncertain

In Virginia, a land-based project on Poor Mountain near Roanoke and an offshore wind turbine test site at the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay have both been called off, with developers citing financial uncertainty as a main reason.

Right now, we are waiting for the federal government to announce a Lease Sale Notice for developers to install wind turbines in an area 23 miles off Virginia’s coastline. Covering 133 nautical square miles, the lease area could produce 2,000 MW of clean energy.  Eight companies have expressed interest in developing projects in that area. However, if the incentives get pulled off the table now, those projects will never come to fruition, meaning the thousands of jobs that could be created right here in Virginia will never materialize.  Meanwhile, the climate change-inducing oil and gas industry continues to reap $4 billion in annual tax benefits without any concern of future expiration.

Severe Weather Threatening Virginia

And Virginia has seen its fair share of impacts from climate change. Hampton Roads, second only to New Orleans in terms of vulnerability to sea level rise in the US, is seeing more frequent storm surges and higher tides than ever before. Insurance companies are refusing to insure properties within two miles of the coastline.

Damage done by the derecho that hit Virginia on June 9, 2012. Flickr photo by woodleywonderworks.

We cannot afford to continue down this destructive path.  Congress must renew the PTC and ITC during the lame duck session, to not only bolster the wind industry, but to ultimately reduce carbon emissions that are causing the greatest environmental threat to our planet.

Take Action! Contact Your Senators Today

As an NWF affiliate in Virginia, the Virginia Conservation Network is working with the Clean Air Defense Coalition to hold our Virginia congressional leaders accountable on the PTC/ITC extension.  We urge you to contact Senators Webb and Warner today to urge them to support this important amendment during the lame duck session.

Chelsea Harnish is the Energy Program Manager for Virginia Conservation Network (VCN). Before joining VCN, Chelsea was the Policy Coordinator for one of our member organizations, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network. Chelsea and her husband Chris moved to Richmond from Cape Cod, Massachusetts where she spent 4 years advocating for Cape Wind, America’s first proposed offshore wind farm. She holds a bachelors degree from the University of South Carolina and a masters degree in marine science from Boston University.

Wind turbines off Blyth, UK (Flickr’s Zabdiel

The coalition sent a letter to President Obama today with more than 200 signers, including the National Wildlife Federation, Environment America, Physicians for Social Responsibility, and dozens of other groups representing millions of Americans. It calls for continued federal leadership to move away from fossil fuels and applauds administration efforts over the last year, specifically the Interior Department’s “Smart from the Start” initiative. The program has designated appropriate areas for wind development in federal waters off the coast of six Atlantic states—Massachusetts, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Maryland, Delaware and Virginia.

What is the coalition specifically asking the Obama administration to do?

• Support federal financial investments to spur offshore wind development;
• Set a bold goal for offshore wind in the Atlantic;
• Ensure that offshore wind projects are sited, constructed and operated responsibly;
• Provide DOI and the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management with sufficient staff and resources, and
• Prioritize coordination to secure a market for offshore wind power.

Some people have a misperception that you have to choose between offshore wind energy and thriving wildlife populations. Much of that is due to a misinformation campaign funded in large part by William Koch, one of the billionaire polluting Koch brothers who’s fighting clean energy just because he doesn’t want to see it off his Cape Cod estate. The truth is that America urgently needs to clean up our electricity grid if we are to protect wildlife from the dangers of climate change. Experiences in Europe show us that offshore wind energy can be ramped up rapidly, economically, and an in a way that protects our wildlife and natural resources.

The federal government is making wildlife protection a top priority as it moves forward with offshore wind energy siting, leasing and development. From today’s Washington Post report on the planned auction to Atlantic Ocean offshore wind farm developers:

Before opening offshore plots to wind farms — the total area is more than 1.5 million acres — the government is spending millions to study the distribution and behavior of such federally protected migratory species as red knots, roseate terns and piping plovers, as well as of diving birds, which forage on the continental shelf.

“Conservationists of all political stripes are united behind offshore wind as a winner for America’s wildlife, public health and economy,” says Catherine Bowes, the National Wildlife Federation’s senior manager for new energy solutions. “Clean energy solutions are critical to protecting our wildlife, fish and natural resources for future generations of outdoor enthusiasts.”

Take Action

Tell the Obama administration you support properly sited and developed offshore wind energy to protect wildlife. Please take a moment to email the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management urging them to bring clean wind energy to states along the Atlantic coast.

The author, on the trail at five. Taking kids camping is a great way to encourage them to explore the outdoors and connect with nature. (Photo: Mary Burnette)

When I was young, my parents took me and my two older sisters for three weeks of backpacking in the high country of Yosemite every summer. Yosemite was my Dad’s Mecca. My father rented two burros from the stables in Yosemite Valley to carry our gear and off we went.

I think I was about 4 when I joined this family tradition and was allowed to let the burro carry me when my legs got tired of hiking (my sisters were always jealous).

When my own children were young, every Columbus Day weekend we would head off  to Assateague Island National Seashore to join the wild ponies at a great campout on the beach. Assateague is an island on the coast of Virginia. My kids still remember the year we woke up early one morning to the sound of ponies munching away on a bag of apples I had put in the screened section of our tent. The ponies used their hooves to tear the screen so they could gain access to a tasty breakfast.

Then there is my husband’s family camping tradition, affectionately called “Mud, Blood and Beer.” I’ve now been part of this tradition for 27 years. My husband grew up on a cattle farm in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  There is a river that runs through the bottom land of the farm.

Every summer the family gathers for a long-weekend camping adventure on the banks of the river.  It started with my husband and his siblings over 50 years ago. Over the years wives, children and a bunch of friends and their families have joined the festivities. I think last year we counted 40 people and about 15 tents in all. Grandkids can’t be far behind. The favorite activity is riding the rapids down the river on a float when the dam up river from the campsite lets out water about every 2 hours.

Singing Around the Campfire

As I think about these camping traditions, I’m reminded that music was always an important part of the experience. My father played the harmonica and I can still hear its jaunty sound when Dad would play as we gathered to watch the sun set over the majestic Sierra Mountains. At Assateague, there always seemed to be a neighboring campfire where someone played the guitar and all were welcome to join in to sing the old children’s classic campfire songs like “She’ll be Comin’ Round the Mountain,” “Do Your Ears Hang Low,” “Down by the Bay” and “Frogie Went A Court’n.”

Music at Mud, Blood and Beer is always a treat. My brother-in-law is a talented musician and some of the friends he brings camping are equally musically inclined. There are always several guitars, a banjo, a mandolin and a fiddle. One year Henry even brought his giant base along. The music plays on through the night, depending on how much “libation” we have all enjoyed. Sometimes I conk out earlier than the others and there is nothing better than snuggling down in a sleeping bag and dozing off to the sounds of great campfire music being played in the background.

Another group of talented musicians and story tellers was recently brought to my attention. “The Okeedokee Brothers” and their CD “Can You Canoe” would make the perfect accompaniment to any camping trip when live music isn’t an option. Songs like “Campin Tent” and “Thousand Star Hotel” capture the magic that sleeping under the stars is all about.

Joe Mailander and Justin Lansing spent summers at their neighborhood creek, building makeshift rafts, fishing for crawdads, and dreaming of great river adventures. In 2011 those dreams came true when they spent 30 days canoeing down the Mississippi River from Minneapolis to St. Louis. During their journey they camped, canoed, filmed and most importantly, composed the songs that make up their album for kids and families. They hope their project and songs will inspire kids to take an active role in their lives, get outside and make their dreams realities.

The Gift of Camping

The OkeeDokee Brothers exemplify what NWF’s Be Out There campaign is telling parents: give kids time to explore the outdoors and connect with nature to encourage creativity, and let kids play with their own imaginations and gain a respect for the natural world, all while having fun and engaging in activities that benefit their health.

Giving kids a tradition of camping is one of the best things parents can do for their children. A perfect place to start is by participating in National Wildlife Federation’s Great American Backyard Campout on June 23. The Campout web site is loaded with ideas and tips to make your camping experience one that your family will want to repeat year after year.

Centreville Elementary School is one of only a few Green Flag Eco-Schools (Laura Hickey)

Elaine Tholen, Fairfax County Public Schools’ environmental coordinator, greeted me at the school, along with at least 30 students and several teachers.  They displayed for me their great Eco-Code, and ran through the Code’s meaning, which they will be doing as an online announcement for the school.

It’s such a joy to see the enthusiasm of young students and their teachers, and really absorb how much they have learned in their journey to become a Green Flag school.  The school grounds at CES—featuring a certified Schoolyard Habitat—are amazing.  The students have planted native species, along with vegetable and herb gardens, and a sensory garden for their special needs students.

Every class at CES spends at least one hour in their outdoor learning areas each week. Among their other projects:

• Fourth grade teacher Mrs. Settlemyre and her class are researching the Eastern bluebird, building nesting boxes and using technology (iPads and QR Codes) to connect visitors and students to information on the bluebirds that visit their school.

• Second grade teacher, Nia Manoleras, and her students educated me on the lifecycle of Monarch butterflies—they planted milkweed especially for these winged beauties, and have a space in their classroom where they can watch the metamorphosis from caterpillar egg to chrysalis to butterfly.  The students knew the answer to every question posed about the insects, proving how effective a learning method this hands-on approach really is.

The school grounds at CES--including a certified Schoolyard Habitat--are impressive (Laura Hickey)

Congratulations, Centreville Elementary School, on your many accomplishments.  We look forward to awarding you the prestigious Eco-Schools Green Flag and including you in the ranks of the other USA Green Flag schools!

You can read more about monarch butterflies or our Schoolyard Habitat program or find out how your school can become certified through NWF’s Eco-Schools USA program.

The National Wildlife Federation gives its employees one telework day a week, so yesterday I worked from my first-floor apartment in Falls Church, VA. I had a new visitor to the bird feeder on my patio – a young black squirrel. Unlike a lot of backyard bird watchers, I don’t mind squirrels since my cat loves watching them through my window. A friend randomly left some pistachios at my place a few months back, and since I don’t like them I’ve been giving them to the squirrels when possible.

The baby squirrel must be getting fed on another patio as well, because it ran right up to my glass door and peered in at me looking for a handout. I tossed it some of the pistachios and after sniffing them for a few moments, it gave me the look pictured here. Its expression seems to be, “Um, did you expect me to know how these work?” I would expect to get the same look from a toddler handed a Maryland crab feast and a mallet.

I’ve watched an adult squirrel crack into a pumpkin, so yes, I kinda did think a pistachio would be within the realm of possibilities. Fortunately, there were plenty of sunflower seeds to keep the baby squirrel happy. And with any luck, while I’m at the office today it can get a pistachio-cracking lesson from mama squirrel.

Great Outdoors America Week

Streams stocked with brook trout, forests with foraging bears and trees housing cerulean warblers add an interesting mix of wildlife to the George Washington National Forest. There are also lakes, rivers, valleys, mountains and plenty of opportunity for recreation and relaxation. But, all of this natural splendor could be corrupted by the natural gas drilling process known as fracking.

The U.S. Forest Service is proposing a ban on fracking in this great outdoor public space. Take action to protect brook trout and other wildlife from fracking in George Washington National Forest. Developing energy is important and necessary for our way of life, but so is protecting wildlife for future generations. Say no fracking way to fracking in public lands and wild places.

Flood damage in Bethel, VT after Irene (Flickr/US FWS)

The 2011 hurricane season may well be remembered most for flooding along the eastern seaboard, especially from Hurricane Irene and Tropical Storm Lee. The impacts were felt in places that typically don’t have to worry about hurricanes. That’s because some of the most significant damage and disruption was from inland flooding caused by heavy rainfall, rather than from wind or storm surge:

• During Hurricane Irene, floods ravaged communities from Puerto Rico, where one location recorded 22 inches of rainfall, all the way north to Vermont, where nearly every river flooded. Vermont’s roads were extensively damaged, with some communities cut off for days. Overall damages in the U.S. are estimated to range anywhere from $7 billion to $20 billion.
• Less than two weeks later, Tropical Storm Lee made its way across the country. Another large, slow-moving storm with heavy rainfall, Lee caused flooding from Louisiana to New York. Fairfax County, where I live and work in Virginia, sustained as much as $10 million worth of damages to roads and bridges. While my family made it through unscathed, the disaster made me feel like the impacts of global warming-fueled storms were hitting close to home.

It’s not unusual for tropical storms to bring inland flooding and many examples can be found from past years. What differentiates the storms this year is that the coastal impacts were somewhat less dramatic in comparison. It’s actually quite common for hurricanes and tropical storms to cause significant inland flooding. But that story often gets overshadowed by the spectacular images of wind and storm surge damages along the coasts.

Climate change could make inland flooding an even more prominent feature of future hurricanes. Climate models all project increased rainfall rates in hurricanes. This follows from the fact that warmer air can hold more moisture, so the atmosphere will have more water available for rain. And the projected increases by end of the century are nothing to sneeze at: on the order of a 20 percent increase in rainfall rates within about 60 miles of the storm center.

Let’s do a rough calculation of what that could have meant for rainfall totals during Hurricane Irene. Areas in North Carolina received 8 inches of rain. If the same storm came through in 80 years when the atmosphere is warmer, that total could be closer to 9.6 inches. Vermont had totals around 4 inches. Make that closer to 5 inches with a warmed over atmosphere.

The expected increase in hurricane rainfall rates is often overlooked in the debate about climate change impacts on hurricane wind speed or frequency. Yet the increased flooding potential should be on the radar screens of emergency managers across the eastern United States.

More broadly, factors like these should be a consideration as President Obama considers Environmental Protection Agency regulation of climate pollution under the Clean Air Act. And storms like this should serve as a wake-up call for Congress, which has yet to pass comprehensive climate legislation.

Learn more about the relationship between climate change and stronger storms at NWF.org/ExtremeWeather.

Flooded commuter parking lot in Reston, VA (September 2011 by Flickr's Courtlyn McHale)

As I stood in a torrential downpour waiting for my son’s bus to arrive, I couldn’t help but think how this was yet another sign of climate change hitting home.  Literally.

It was only his third day riding the bus home from school. My parental anxiety was already elevated.  And, now, we had to contend with a serious flash flooding situation. What if the bus was stranded somewhere? Or heaven forbid, swept away in a sudden flood?

This storm easily qualifies as one of the most extreme rainfall events recorded for Northern Virginia. The National Weather Service reports nearly 12” of rain fell this week in Reston, VA, where we live and where I work at the National Wildlife Federation’s headquarters.

On Thursday alone, Dulles International Airport (just a few miles west of Reston) recorded 6.44” of rainfall. There’s only one day when Dulles has recorded a larger rainfall total since measurements began in 1963 and that was when Hurricane Agnes came through the area in 1972. In fact, aside from Hurricane Agnes, Dulles has never seen daily rainfall totals exceed 6”.

Until now.

It’s eerie for me to watch extreme weather events hit my own community. I’ve written reports for NWF about how climate change is loading the dice in favor of more extreme rainfall events – the heavy downpours that have been natural fluctuations in the past are becoming more common in our warming climate. Warmer air can hold more moisture, so when it does rain, we’re more likely to get a deluge.

Thankfully my son made it home safely, but others faced major impacts across the DC area. Three people have lost their lives. Dozens of roads were closed, including the Beltway and I66 in Virginia.  Local governments are still tallying up the total damages.

As a parent, climate change means yet another thing to worry about for my kids. It used to be a more abstract worry: something that would affect them in the far-flung future.  But, yesterday made me realize that it is a much more concrete anxiety. Climate change means worrying about whether my son will make it home from school safely.

The Blue Ridge Mountains and the coast of Virginia are home to quite a few state and federal endangered species, such as the Shenandoah salamander, the bog turtle, Carolina northern flying squirrel, and several sea turtles.  The habitats for these species and other important species of concern in the mountains and along the coast are severely threatened.  These threats include development, poor water quality, invasive species, etc.  Another significant threat, even where land may be protected through protected area designations, is climate change.  Warming temperatures and sea level rise could decimate these populations, especially ones that will not be able to migrate to new areas or are not found in other regions, such as the Shenandoah salamander.

It is important to help protect species that we quickly recognize as endangered species; however, there is much we can do in our own backyard.   First, learn about what species are endangered and threatened in your state and your region; then look at what local groups are helping to do to protect what is important in your area.  You could become a member or give a donation, but you could also look for volunteer opportunities to restore habitat or teach others about endangered species.

For more information on species in Virginia and climate change, please visit: www.bewildvirginia.org