Loggerhead sea turtles on decline in SC

Sept. 25, 2007

The number of loggerhead sea turtles nesting along the South Carolina coast declined by 3 percent this summer, researchers say.

About 1,500 nests were found along the state's sandy beaches this year, said Dubose Griffin, sea turtle program coordinator for the state Department of Natural Resources.

The turtles, which can weigh 300 pounds, are a threatened species whose numbers were climbing a decade ago. But a recent federal study suggests loggerheads are being lost in the nets of fishermen in international waters.

According to the report, the number of nests in the Gulf of Mexico dropped about 7 percent while the figure declined 2 percent in North Carolina. Fisheries are the "most significant man-made factor affecting the conservation and recovery of the loggerhead," the report said.

The problem is growing because the demand for seafood is increasing, there are more fishing boats from developing countries and fishermen must travel farther from shore to find fish, said Barbara Schroeder, the sea turtle coordinator for the National Marine Fisheries Service.

The Southeast and the Middle East are the two major loggerhead nesting areas in the world.

Off the South Carolina coast, fishermen have taken some measures to protect the turtles, and there are fewer commercial fishing boats and shrimp trawlers than in past years, officials said.

"It's something we have pretty well straightened out ourselves with circle hooks, turtle excluder devices and observers on boats continually to check the results, and the rest of the world has not," said Frank Blum, the director of the South Carolina Seafood Alliance director and a commercial fisherman.

Another threat to loggerheads is being struck by boats, said Kelly Thorvalson, the coordinator of the sea turtle rescue program at the South Carolina Aquarium.

The turtles live at sea and so scientists use nesting numbers to estimate the turtle population.

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Information from: The Post and Courier, http://www.charleston.net

Retailers push reusable bags to save money and the environment

By MICHELLE R. SMITH
Associated Press Writer

PROVIDENCE, R.I. When Katrina Gamble goes grocery shopping, she brings her list and her bags — a pair of sturdy canvas bags she bought a few months ago for $4.99 at her local grocery store.

"It works just as well," said Gamble, 30, a political science professor at Brown University, adding, "It's better for the environment."

A growing number of stores are catering to customers like Gamble, who see reusing shopping bags as an easy way to cut down on waste.

Several large retailers, including Stop & Shop, New England's largest food retailer, and housewares store Ikea, now sell reusable shopping bags. Some groceries, including independent stores and natural foods chain Whole Foods, go a step further, offering credits of a few cents for each bag that's reused.

There's an upside for stores, too: Giving out fewer bags means the store saves money.

The fashion world has also taken note, with designers like Stella McCartney and Hermes selling reusable shopping bags for hundreds of dollars. Whole Foods created a frenzy in New York recently when it offered a limited number of designer shopping bags for $15.

The Sierra Club's Sierra magazine estimates that Americans throw away almost 100 billion plastic bags each year and only 1 percent to 3 percent are recycled. Environmentalists warn paper is not much better than plastic because trees have to be cut down and energy expended to make them.

They also say cutting back a little could make a big difference. The Sierra Club estimated that if every person in New York City used one less grocery bag per year, it would reduce waste by 5 million pounds and save $250,000 on disposal.

Several companies give incentives for customers to cut down on disposable bags.

Eastside Marketplace, an independent grocer in Providence where Gamble shops, gives customers a 3-cent-per-bag credit when they reuse a bag. Even with the credit, the store saves a few pennies or breaks even because it doesn't have to pay for a disposable shopping bag, said spokeswoman Kim Moreau. About 7 percent to 10 percent of customers reuse bags, she said.

"I wouldn't even call it a trend anymore. It's more like a growing way of life," Moreau said.

Austin, Texas-based Whole Foods gives 5 to 10 cents back for each reused bag.

Even more traditional supermarkets like Stop & Shop are introducing reusable bags. The Quincy, Mass.-based company doesn't give a bag credit. But it started selling sturdy reusable green bags with a Stop & Shop logo for 99 cents in November. Since then, the company said it has sold or given away 1.3 million bags to shoppers.

"Our biggest challenge is keeping them in stock because the customers are really responding to them," spokesman Robert Keane said.

It's that green bag that prompted Allison Spooner, 37, of Providence, to give up disposable bags. She said she had been thinking about environmental issues but hadn't found a reusable bag she liked. Then she saw Stop & Shop's bag, which is more sturdy than a regular paper grocery bag, holds more groceries and is made of recycled material. It hasn't been hard to adjust, she said.

"I take all my groceries out when I get home and put the bags next to my purse so I don't forget them," she said.

Swedish retailer Ikea has perhaps taken the reusable bag idea further than any other large chain. In March, Ikea, which sells everything from furniture to dishes to Swedish meatballs, began charging a nickel for a plastic shopping bag. A reusable bag costs 59 cents. The goal was to reduce plastic bag usage by 50 percent, and the company has already exceeded that, said spokeswoman Mona Astra Liss.

A similar policy at Ikea stores in Britain reduced plastic bag usage by 95 percent within nine months, she said.

Then there are large wholesale stores, which don't use bags at all. BJ's Wholesale Club, based in Natick, Mass., Sam's Club, based in Bentonville, Ark., and Costco Wholesale Corp., based in Issaquah, Wash., instead reuse the boxes used to ship merchandise.

The reason? "The cost of bags are a big cost of doing business in a typical grocery store," said Dick DiCerchio, Costco's chief operating officer of global operations.

But Costco is looking to cut back on boxes. It's been testing out sales of reusable bags in Canadian stores, where they've been a big hit, and recently started selling reusable bags in the San Francisco Bay area, a two-pack for $1.79.

If the bags are a success, Costco could then ask suppliers to stop packing products in boxes and put them on pallets instead, said Joe Portera, chief operating officer of CostCo's eastern and Canadian divisions.

"It would save money not only for us but for manufacturers," he said. "It would ultimately reduce the amount of waste and recycling that's necessary with cardboard."

September 20, 2007
MEDIA ADVISORY

MONDAY: Senate Committee Hearing on Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund

Harrisburg - The Senate Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, chaired by Sen. Mary Jo White (R-21), will hold a public hearing Monday on the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Fund.

The hearing will be held Monday, Sept. 24 at 2:30 p.m.in Hearing Room 1 of the Capitol's North Office Building. Secretary of Environmental Protection Kathleen A. McGinty has been invited to appear before the Committee to respond to questions regarding the status of the fund.

Senator White called the hearing after members expressed concern over apparently conflicting statements on when the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program would be shut down. The Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program is responsible for supporting approximately 250 DEP employees, and serves as the Commonwealth's primary tool to respond to toxic spills and releases affecting local residents.

Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi (R-9) and Senator White recently announced their intent to introduce Senate Bill 1100, which will provide funding for the Hazardous Sites Cleanup Program. Under the proposal, $15 million would be transferred to the program for the current fiscal year from existing legislative accounts. Additionally, $40 million annually would be made available for the next three fiscal years from the existing Capital Stock and Franchise Tax. Senate Bill 1100 would not affect the commitment of Senate Republicans to phase out the Capital
Stock and Franchise Tax by the end of 2010.

To the Editor:

Experts have known for decades that a plant-based diet is one of the best ways to maintain a healthy weight, lower cholesterol, and prevent disease. Now it's clear that avoiding animal products can also help slow global warming.

According to a new article in the medical journal The Lancet, scientists say that reducing global meat consumption by 10 percent would reduce the number of methane-producing animals raised for meat and animal products. Currently, these emissions account for nearly a quarter of all greenhouse gases worldwide. The Lancet article comes on the heels of a noteworthy United Nations' report, which found that livestock produced 35 percent to 40 percent of all methane emissions (which have 23 times the global-warming potential of carbon dioxide).

Studies have repeatedly shown that people who follow a low-fat diet rich in fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and beans have less risk of diabetes, heart disease, and some forms of cancer. They also tend to be slimmer than meat-eaters. For anyone looking to fight global warming and improve his or her health, a vegan diet is a step in the right direction.

Sincerely,

Susan Levin, M.S., R.D.
Staff Nutritionist
Physicians Committee for Responsible Medicine
Washington, DC

Bush aide says warming man-made

By Roger Harrabin Environment analyst, BBC News

Friday Sept. 14, 2007

The US chief scientist has told the BBC that climate change is now a fact.

Professor John Marburger, who advises President Bush, said it was more than 90% certain that greenhouse gas emissions from mankind are to blame.

The Earth may become "unliveable" without cuts in CO2 output, he said, but he labelled targets for curbing temperature rise as "arbitrary".

His comments come shortly before major meetings on climate change at the UN and the Washington White House.

There may still be some members of the White House team who are not completely convinced about climate change - but it is clear that the science advisor to the President and director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy is not one of them.

In the starkest warning from the White House so far about the dangers ahead, Professor Marburger told the BBC that climate change was unequivocal, with mankind more than 90% likely to blame.

Despite disagreement on the details of climate science, he said: "I think there is widespread agreement on certain basics, and one of the most important is that we are producing far more CO2 from fossil fuels than we ought to be.

"And it's going to lead to trouble unless we can begin to reduce the amount of fossil fuels we are burning and using in our economies."

American Forests will plant one tree for every dollar that you donate. It has numerous reforestation projects that you can choose from, including planting trees in places where they were killed during forest fires or hurricanes like Katrina. Trees help clean the air that we pollute with our cars and other activities.

This is from the Web site, www.americanforests.org. Check it out for yourself.

Tree Planting a Practical, Effective Way to Remove CO2

by American Forests

Lately it seems that everyone is talking about climate change. That’s important because earth’s temperatures are skyrocketing—and we humans are the cause. With so much talk of melted polar ice caps, warmer oceans, and excessive heat and drought, it may seem that small steps can’t help. But they can.

Planting trees is a practical, low-cost, and effective way to begin removing CO2 from the atmosphere right now. Excess carbon is released when fossil fuels like coal and gasoline are burned to release energy and that carbon, in the form of carbon dioxide—CO2—a greenhouse gas, blankets the earth and causes temperatures to rise.

We must reduce fossil fuel consumption and the activities that release greenhouse gases; make tree planting one way you help offset the negative effects of carbon in the atmosphere.

AMERICAN FORESTS, the nation’s oldest citizen conservation group, has been planting trees for forest restoration since its founding in 1875. In 1988 we launched Global ReLeaf to foster the planting of trees to cool the globe.

By ERICA BULMAN
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 12, 2007

GENEVA - The most common type of gorilla is now "critically endangered," one step away from global extinction, according to the 2007 Red List of Threatened Species released Wednesday by the World Conservation Union.

The Ebola virus is depleting Western Gorilla populations to a point where it might become impossible for them to recover.

Commercial hunting, civil unrest and habitat loss due to logging and forest clearance for palm oil plantations are compounding the problem, said the Swiss-based group known by its acronym IUCN.

"Great apes are our closest living relatives and very special creatures," Russ Mittermeier, head of IUCN's Primate Specialist Group, told The Associated Press. "We could fit all the remaining great apes in the world into two or three large football stadiums. There just aren't very many left."

In all, 16,306 species are threatened with extinction, 188 more than last year, IUCN said. One in four mammals are in jeopardy, as are one in eight birds, a third of all amphibians and 70 percent of the plants that have been studied.

"Life on Earth is disappearing fast and will continue to do so unless urgent action is taken," the IUCN warned.

The Western Gorilla's main subspecies - the Western Lowland Gorilla - has been decimated by the Ebola virus, which has wiped out about a third of the gorillas found in protected areas over the last 15 years.

"In the last 10 years, Ebola is the single largest killer of apes. Poaching is a close second," said Peter Walsh, a member if IUCN's Primate Specialist Group. "Ebola is knocking down populations to a level where they won't bounce back. The rate of decline is dizzying. If it continues, we'll lose them in 10-12 years."

Female gorillas only start reproducing at the age of 9 or 10 and only have one baby about every five years. Walsh said even in ideal conditions, it would take the gorillas decades to bounce back.

The World Conservation Union also said the Yangtze River dolphin is now "possibly extinct." There have been no documented sightings of the long-snouted cetacean since 2002. An intensive search of its habitat in November and December proved fruitless but more searches are needed as one was possibly spotted in late August.

The Redheaded Vulture soared from "near threatened" to "critically endangered." The birds' rapid decline over the last eight years is largely due to diclofenac, a painkiller given to ill or injured farm cattle so they can still work. But the substance poisons the vultures when they scavenge livestock carcasses.

Only 182 breeding adults of the Gharial crocodile remain, down almost 60 percent from a decade ago. India and Nepal's crocodile has become critically endangered because dams, irrigation projects and artificial embankments have reduced its habitat to just 2 percent of its former range.

The woolly-stalked begonia is the only species declared extinct this year. Extensive searches have failed to uncover any specimens of the Malaysian herb in the last century, IUCN said.

Only one species moved to a lesser category of threat. One of the world's rarest parrots 15 years ago, the Mauritius Echo parakeet, eased back from critically endangered to only endangered. That was a result of close monitoring of its nesting sites, and supplementary feeding combined with a captive breeding and release program.

IUCN says 785 species have disappeared over the last 500 years. A further 65 are found only in artificial settings such as zoos.

The Red List, produced by a worldwide network of thousands of experts, includes some 41,000 species and subspecies around the globe.

Montgomery County Green Futures
Fifth Municipal Open Space Workshop
Sept. 25, 2007

Lederach, PA - Perkiomen School's new Schumo Academic Center will be the dynamic setting for the fifth Montgomery County Green Futures Municipal Open Space Workshop, taking place
Tuesday, Sept. 25, 2007, from 4 to 9 p.m.

Sponsored by Montgomery County Lands Trust, this program will provide in-depth analyses of land conservation issues set on the campus of one of the areas most vibrant college preparatory schools. Attendees will select from four innovative session topics, while enjoying fabulous food and lively interaction with municipal officials and open space colleagues. This event is the fifth in a series of six open space workshops, made possible with support from the William Penn Foundation, the Pennsylvania Department of Community and Economic Development, and Montgomery County. The Perkiomen School is at 200 Seminary St., Pennsburg, PA 18073. For additional information or to register, contact www.mclt.org.

Inspired by the November, 2003 Green Fields/Green Towns referendum, and the passage of Pennsylvania's $625 million Growing Greener II Bond Initiative, the Green Futures program is a three-pronged initiative administered over a two-year period. The components consist of education, outreach and training in a variety of energizing venues.

The primary goal of the six workshops will be to provide local leaders with the open space tools they need to make enlightened decisions and public investment regarding land conservation, water resource protection and smart growth strategies.

Montgomery County Lands Trust works to preserve and connect the natural areas, farmland, and neighborhood green spaces which contribute to our quality of life, to a clean and abundant water supply, and to the health of our region's economy.

MCCC to Hold "Global Climate Change Lecture and Discussion Series"

The Global Climate Change Education and Action Group at Montgomery County Community College will hold a "Global Climate Change Lecture and Discussion Series" this fall. All lectures will be held in the College's Science Center Room 214, 340 DeKalb Pike, Blue Bell, and will be simulcast to Room 216 at the West Campus, 101 College Drive, Pottstown. The lectures are free of charge and are open to the public. For more information, visit www.mc3.edu/gcg/global-climate.htm online.

The series begins on Monday, Sept. 17 at 12:30 p.m. with the presentation "Solar Power" by Vincent O'Grady from SunTechnics Energy Systems.

Adjunct instructor of biology and Montgomery County Planning Commission member Drew Shaw will present "Montgomery County Initiatives to Reduce Climate Changes" on Wednesday, Oct. 3 from 12:30-1:30 p.m.

The series will conclude on Monday, Oct. 29 at 12:30 p.m. with a presentation by Assistant Professor of Biology Jerry Coleman on "Biological Implications of Climate Change."

The Global Climate Change Education and Action Group at Montgomery County Community College is comprised of professors, students and administrators who are dedicated to education, outreach and action regarding issues of global warming and climate change. Previous lectures from the spring installment of the lecture series can be viewed online at www.mc3.edu/gcg/global-climate.htm.

The Local, Sweden's news in English
11th September 2007

Sweden is to increase spending on measures to combat climate change, the government has announced.

An extra billion kronor ($147.5 million) will be allocated between 2008 and 2010 to climate research, energy efficiency programmes and support for alternative fuels.

Both domestic and international research projects will benefit from the money; among the Swedish recipients will be a new national wind power centre.

The spending package, which will be part of this autumn's budget, was presented on Tuesday morning by Industry Minister Maud Olofsson, Environment Minister Andreas Carlgren and Agriculture Minister Eskil Erlandsson.

Olofsson said the new money represented a major investment in combating climate change. She emphasised the importance to mix projects in Sweden with initiatives overseas:

"These include the agreement signed with Brazil to cooperate on bioenergy, as well as a similar agreement recently reached with the United States," she said.

Of the one billion kronor spending package, 96 million will be spent on initiatives overseas. Sweden plans to cooperate with China, India and Ukraine on clean technologies.

"Acorns, which are literally forest food, are critically important to many wildlife species."

Forest Stewardship News
August 30, 2007

“Great oaks from little acorns grow.” But acorns, the fruit of oaks, are an important bounty provided by our woodlands.

In the fall, hunters begin to scout the landscape for acorns, which are mast – literally, forest food – and critically important to many wildlife species. Every squirrel, turkey, deer, and bear hunter and many bird watchers know that finding acorns may increase their chances of finding wildlife.

Oak trees form two general groups: red and white. Trees in the red oak group take two growing seasons to produce a mature acorn. The white oak group trees produce a fully grown nut in one growing season. These asynchronous fruit producing characteristics, along with the season when acorns germinate, are quite useful for meeting wildlife mast needs.

The red oak group species flower in the spring. Sometimes red oaks will miss one or more years, as frost can kill the flowers or drought or insect damage stress the tree and it aborts fruit.

Species in the white oak group germinate in the fall. When they fall, they quickly extend a root from the acorn’s point. This allows them to move some of their nutrients into a more protected place – under the ground. This strategy is really important, as these white oaks produce seeds lower in bitter tannic acid and, although slightly less nutritious than red oaks, much preferred by wildlife. They have to make sure that some of their acorns escape the hungry acorn eaters.

Acorns from species in the red oak group spend the winter lying on the forest floor, often under the leaves that the parent tree scattered over them after they dropped. Only after the white oak acorns are eaten, many species go looking for red oaks – you will frequently see heavy scratching and searching through the snow as various species search for these acorns later in the year.

Acorns do produce mighty oaks. However, across the oak’s range, fewer mighty oaks are growing from acorns. USDA Forest Service periodic inventories document the decline in oak as a forest component in its traditional range. At one time, chestnut was the mast species of choice, but with its loss, oak took on an increasingly important role as the leading forest food producer. The decline in oak will be sorely felt by many wildlife species and you.

There are many reasons for declining oak regeneration.
Research finds that deer browsing is important in that fewer acorns survive to germinate. Management strategies that reduce fire occurrence have given the advantage to plant species that fire would normally kill and oaks, which are fire adapted, cannot compete. Poorly planned harvesting decisions often focus on cutting oak, thus removing the seed source. And acid rain and introduced pests are other threats to the future oak forest.

The Pennsylvania Forest Stewardship Program provides publications on a variety of topics related to woodland management. For a list of free publications, call 800 234-9473 (toll free), send an e-mail to RNRext@psu.edu, or write to Forest Stewardship Program, Forest Resources Extension, The Pennsylvania State University, 320 Forest Resources Building, University Park, PA 16802. The Pennsylvania Bureau of Forestry and USDA forest Service, in Partnership with Penn State’s Forest Resource Extension, sponsor the Forest Stewardship Program in Pennsylvania.

While covering the 8th Annual Green Lane Park Scottish Irish Festival it was nice to hear that other people are thinking about the environment. Members of the Society for Creative Anachronism Inc. were demonstrating the catapult seige machine, called a terbuchet, on Sunday. They were tossing melons and small pumpkins into the lake as ammunition because they would disintegrate and possibly become fish food.
A craft vendor proudly announced that the journals she was selling had been made in India and had treeless paper - made of linen, flower petals and in some cases banana leaves. She said the journals were big sellers.
On the way back into the office to write the story I passed by Henning's supermnarket's bright sign. I wondered how much energy is wasted on electricity on a daily basis. With so many people concerned about global warming and the bad effects of coal being burned to produce electricity, it struck me that the supermarket and other businesses would do better to stick with traditional signs.

Deutsche Welle
Sept. 11, 2007

German Environment Minister Sigmar Gabriel has opened a two-day meeting of environment and energy ministers by calling for a global agreement on climate change by the end of 2009. The Berlin conference is designed to lay the groundwork for the new climate deal and aims to change the position of countries such as China and India who are wary of binding emissions cuts. The two-day gathering is being attended by 20 leading energy consuming countries as well as emerging nations like China, India, Brazil and South Africa. World leaders said at the G8 summit last June they would pursue a new deal to replace the Kyoto Protocol which expires in 2012.

Resurrection Lutheran Church of Horsham on Route 63 has a sign out that it is accepting paper recycling. The church is at 620 Welsh Road and its contact number is (215) 646-2597.

T-shirt to say: "I'm wearing post-consumer waste." Would you wear it?

By BEN EVANS
Associated Press Writer
Sept. 5, 2007

WASHINGTON - Coca-Cola Co. announced Wednesday that it will help build a $45 million recycling plant in South Carolina as it set a new goal to recycle or reuse every plastic bottle it sells in the United States.

The company did not set a target date for meeting that goal and acknowledged it has a long way to go. About 10 percent of its plastic bottles are recycled now, the company said.

"We've set an ambitious goal," Sandy Douglas, president of the company's North American division, said at a press conference in Washington. "We recognize that we still have a tremendous amount of work to do."

The 30-acre plant, to be built in Spartanburg, S.C., would produce about 100 million pounds of food-grade recyclable plastic per year. That's the equivalent of nearly 2 billion 20-ounce bottles or about 10 percent of the plastic used for U.S. production each year, the company said.

Much of the recycled material would be used to make new bottles and other Coca-Cola products, including T-shirts aimed at raising awareness through slogans such as, "I'm wearing post-consumer waste."

Coca-Cola will invest $44 million in loans and direct equity into the project, which is a joint venture with Spartanburg-based United Resource Recovery Corp. Carlos Gutierrez, United Resource Recovery Corp.'s president, said the company had tried unsuccessfully to arrange financing for the project for several years before Coca-Cola stepped in. It will employ about 150 people, he said.

Coca-Cola also announced Wednesday it will spend about $16 million more in 2007 to promote recycling through its own recycling division and through a partnership with RecycleBank, a Philadelphia-based company that encourages recycling by working with retail stores to offer discounts for participating households.

Betty McLaughlin, executive director of the nonprofit Container Recycling Institute, said the announcement could mark a step in the right direction. But she said beverage companies could do far more to reduce waste by financing private recycling systems or supporting bottle-deposit laws.

Deposit programs that provide refunds to consumers who return bottles have sharply boosted recycling rates in states that use them, she said.

"The missing link in the whole recycling chain is a collection system that is reliable," she said. "It's not that there isn't enough processing capacity."

Local Volunteers Needed

on Saturday, Sept. 29, 2007

for nationwide effort to improve public lands

VALLEY FORGE, PA. – On Sept. 29, an estimated 100,000 volunteers across the country will roll up their sleeves and get their hands dirty helping to improve the nation’s parks, forests, rivers, lakes and wetlands during the largest annual, single-day volunteer restoration effort for America’s public lands.

Valley Forge National Historical Park, the site of the Continental Army’s encampment during the winter of 1777-78 is inviting area residents, businesses, corporations, universities and schools to lend a hand and support your local National Park during the nation’s largest hands-on volunteer effort to improve and enhance public lands.

In 2006, more than 320 volunteers planted trees, helped to reconstruct an observation deck using recycled lumber, repaired replica soldier huts, helped with trails maintenance, painted cannons and removed trash and exotic invasive plants from the Park.

Park Volunteer Program Manager, Ernestine White said, "We are planning to have twelve projects requiring from minimal skill to high skill that volunteers can choose from, a guided nature hike, an Environmental Expo and a fun youth workshop called “Create Your Own Bird Feeder”. Children, with their parents, will create their own bird feeders while learning about birds native to Pennsylvania, their habitats and their diets,” said White.

For more information about activities or to volunteer on National Public Lands Day contact Volunteer Program Manager Ernestine White at 610-783-1065 or by e-mail at ernestine_white@nps.gov. To see a list of coast to coast National Public Lands Day sites, activities, contacts and downloadable photos from past events, visit the media center section of www.publiclandsday.org.

About Valley Forge National Historical Park To learn more visit www.nps.gov/vafo.

National Public Lands Day began in 1994 with three federal agencies and 700 volunteers. Last year nearly 100,000 volunteers worked in 1,100 locations and in every state. Now, nine federal agencies and many state and local lands participate in this annual day of caring for shared lands.