Accent on Natural Landscaping

Donna VanBuecken

Court Orders Ban on Widely used Pesticide

On August 9, 2018, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco ordered the EPA to remove a widely used pesticide on food crops from sale in the United States within 60 days. The Court ruled EPA endangered public health by keeping chlorpyrifos on the market despite scientific evidence which indicated that even tiny levels of exposure are linked to learning disabilities in children.

In 2017, a coalition of farmworkers and environmental groups sued the EPA after it reversed a 2015 ban on the use of chlorpyrifos. This pesticide is typically sprayed on citrus fruit, apples, nuts, broccoli and other food crops including cereal crops and alfalfa (totaling 50+). It came from another one of the chemicals developed by Nazi Germany to be used as a nerve gas. [Read more…]

Proposed Changes to the Endangered Species Act

The Environmental Protection Act

In the 1960s, smog was killing Americans, lakes were so low on oxygen they sustained little life, and there was a 400 square mile oil spill off the coast of California that killed bird and other wildlife. Nixon had just become president with a mandate to find some way to fix the environmental problems and stop pollution.

Gray wolves were listed as endangered in 1974. Photo courtesy of Northland College’s Timber Wolf Alliance.

Shortly after taking office, Nixon set up the Environmental Quality Council with the mission to solve these problems. The Environmental Policy Act of 1969 was signed into law on January 1, 1970. Later he signed the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act and the Endangered Species Act into law. The Environmental Protection Agency which was the administration arm of these Acts became effective December 2, 1970 with William D Ruckelshaus at its head. [Read more…]

Lawsuit Challenges Elimination of Incidental Take Protections for Birds

The post which follows is reprinted in part from the July 2018 Wisconservation, the Wisconsin Wildlife Federation‘s monthly newsletter.

A coalition of national environmental groups filed litigation on May 24, 2018 “National Audubon Society v. Department of the Interior, in the Southern District of New York” challenging the Administration’s move to eliminate longstanding protections for waterfowl, raptors and songbirds under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA). [Read more…]

Memorial Day and the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.)

Memorial Day, the last Monday in May, is the day set aside for us to honor the soldiers who fought and died for us in American conflicts — conflicts fought, for the most part, in the name of freedom. And what is freedom? According to Merriam-Webster, it is “liberation from the power of another.” Hm-m-m. Liberation…? According to the Oxford Dictionaries, it is the “power or right to act, speak or think as one wants.” Seems to me that sounds an awful lot like equal rights — doesn’t it sound that way to you? [Read more…]