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Hug Your Local Water Warrior Today!

4/22/2016

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While developing an Earth Day lecture for my local community college, I realized that one of the coolest projects I worked on in the past had come full circle and was a portion of the content of my lecture. I was compiling a list of local water treatment facilities (local water authority groups) using Beaver Lake water and remembered working in the early-mid 1990’s on what was called the “Two Ton Loop” project – a 70+ mile proposed pipeline which would convey treated Beaver Lake water to rural parts of Benton and Washington Counties, Northwest Arkansas. 

It was definitely a “over hill and dale” experience with lots of cross-country hiking while assessing the impacts to Waters of the U.S. and identifying potential endangered species habitat, along with looking for karst geological formations. The project was going to eliminate the need for private wells in the counties and improve the quality of their drinking water
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Deep in the project details at the time, I did not appreciate the significance of the work, until I began to synthesize the history of Northwest Arkansas’ drinking water sources and their development, in light of the recent Flint, Michigan, water debacle. From my recollection, the group originally called the 'Benton/Washington County Water Association' was a diverse assemblage of local farmers, homeowners, and business men. The effort to accomplish the project took an even larger group of people: engineers, environmental consultants, endangered species specialists, archaeologists, real estate deed and title specialists, surveyors, government agency employees, and on, and on, and on… Taking years to accomplish, the endeavor was complex and required a dogged focus on the goal to complete.

It made me realize how easy it is to take for granted the vision and leadership of (past and current) community leaders, municipal employees, and volunteers trying to insure that our homes, both rural and urban, have clean drinking water. Yet, with the tragedy of Flint, Michigan unfolding before us, we must realize that for the reality of clean drinking water to continue, everyone must shoulder their part!

The usual “calls to action” focus on water conservation-


“DON’T run the faucet while you brush your teeth!”
“If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.”

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Or are a list of Best Management Practices for keeping our watersheds, rivers, and streams clean. All well and good.
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But today, I want to challenge everyone with a NEW call to action. ​

​You may ask - Who or what is a water warrior? Any person that works in the area of water quality: your local water utility or wastewater employee; your regional water authority employee or volunteer board member; the permit issuers implementing our nation’s laws; the regulators that inspect your business facilities to ensure proper wastewater practices; or even your neighborhood activist keeping the public eye on the water issues and needs of your community. These folks have not taken on the most coveted roles in our society and are often undervalued. Let’s not wait until a crisis happens, until we truly value their work and efforts in our community.

So go out today and let your appreciation be known to those fighting the good fight for YOUR clean drinking water! Send a thankful email to your municipal water utility; shake the hand of your local water lab analyst; send out a grateful message with #waterwarriors; donate money to the watershed alliances and conservation groups in your area.

Support those on the front lines of our water quality issues!       #waterwarriors

-JMB 
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John Rapanos:  The Fading of a Face for Property Rights

3/10/2016

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Remaining forested wetlands on property adjacent to the Rapanos development site. Indicative of the wetlands impacted. Photo Source: Association of State Wetland Managers website
I wanted to note at this time the passing of a man who forever changed the enforcement of the Clean Water Act in a landmark environmental Supreme Court case (Rapanos v. United States, 547 U.S. 715) which the eventual outcome came to be informally known as the Rapanos Rule.
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John Rapanos of Midland, Michigan, passed away February 10th, 2016, at the age of 80.  He was a Michigan developer who disagreed with the laws regulating impacts to wetlands and waters of the U.S. 
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The associated lawsuits were tried in civil and federal court systems for Rapanos' impacts to over 54 acres of wetlands and waters of the U.S.
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​When all was said and done, Rapanos was fined $185,000; sentenced to three years probation and 200 hours of community service; given a contempt of court citation and an overnight stay in jail (in 1995) - all to the tune of over $2 million in costs. To settle the suit with the government, Rapanos agreed to construct 100 acres of wetlands and buffer area. The portion of the constructed wetlands located within Arenac County, Michigan, is now called the Wah Sash Kah Moqua Nature Preserve and is overseen by the Saginaw Basin Land Conservancy.


For Rapanos' fight against the Clean Water Act, he was hailed as a hero by property rights advocates.

Rapanos was born October 24, 1935, in Chicago to Alexandros and Nicoleta Rapanos, Greek immigrants. He was married since 1961 to Judy (Nelkie) Rapanos with whom he had five sons: Matthew, Mark, David, Michael, and Steven. His company, Rapanos Investment Group of Midland, is still in the family.

- JMB

Sources:

​John A. Rapanos, who vowed ‘Fight to the death’ against EPA, dies at 80 by Clark Hughes on 2/11/16

John A. Rapanos obituary published in Saginaw News by MLive.com on Feb. 14, 2016


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1995 Oklahoma Academy of Science Geology Field Trip – An Online GIS Map

12/9/2015

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Stop 1 is at the unique Cherokee Baths and is one of the oldest formations seen on the field trip - Ordovician Burgen Sandstone.
​Ever in the pursuit of new challenges and skill-honing opportunities, I decided to take an independent study GIS class at Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC) during the fall of 2015.  In the previous semester, I had begun the development of a geology field trip guide into an on-line GIS map. My interest in fossil-hunting from my undergraduate days at Harding University (under Dr. Rushton’s tutelage) is what drove me to originally consider developing this GIS map. 
But, I took advantage of a spring break trip and switched to another focus (Topsail Hill Preserve State Park), and therefore did not finish the geology field trip guide project in the spring of 2015.

At the encouragement of Paul Lowrey, NWACC professor, I took on this project as an independent study class in the following semester and also developed an ESRI story map of the field trip. Below are the links to the two GIS map products:

http://arcg.is/1SAnOEs                  Link to ESRI Story Map

http://arcg.is/1lwbbzk                   Link to 1995 Geology Field Trip interactive GIS map
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The GIS Map: The nine field trip stops are all found within Cherokee County, Oklahoma, and can be visited within one day.
I was fortunately accepted to present the development of the on-line geology field trip at the Oklahoma Academy of Science 104th Annual Technical Meeting this past November 13, 2015, in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. The concurrent OAS symposium to the technical meeting, Effects of Climate Change: Past, Present, Future, was very informative, and I found the OAS community very professional and encouraging.

During the development of these map products, I also experienced lots of positive feedback and assistance from NWACC Instructor Dianne Phillips, my professor for the class. She created the NWACC EMPACTS website for my project and is hoping to use this geology field trip next semester during her Honors geology course at NWACC. 

Video assistance for this project was provided by Jacob Wells, a NWACC student finishing up his degree requirements this semester. He was able to make the second visit to the field trip that was taken in September 2015, and additional video was recorded at that time. Jacob edited all the videos for subsequent posting on YouTube and the NWACC EMPACTS project website.

Overall, this was a GREAT experience and I hope the on-line field trip helps a variety of individuals interested in the geology of northeast Oklahoma.


-JMB
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Come Back With Your Shield...Or On It!*

6/1/2015

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This past spring in preparation for a retirement party for Dr. Art Brown, University of Arkansas stream ecologist and benthologist, I learned of the passing of my friend, Jayne Kiner, on January 19, 2015. This article is in memoriam of Jayne, a dear friend and colleague.
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In the spring of 1997 when I began a Master’s Program at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville, one of my cohorts was Jayne Kiner.  At the time, she lived with her husband, Gary, in Fort Smith, Arkansas; had rented an apartment in Fayetteville; and was traveling home on the weekends. Since we began in the same graduate program under Dr. Art Brown, we had many of the same classes together and spent quite a bit of time studying together for tests and working together on class projects. We hit it off as friends from the very beginning. As Jayne moved closer to home in North Dakota a few years after completing her masters, I mainly kept in touch with her through annual Christmas cards, and a rare email.
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​While biology was one of Jayne’s many interests, I remember her being one of the most well-read individuals I ever met, along with having an incredible vocabulary.  Once on a 1999 road trip to a North America Benthological Society meeting in Wisconsin, the entire van-full of graduate students took turns reading aloud Into Thin Air by Jon Krakauer (our version of “books on tape”).  Jayne was an enthusiastic reader and could explain ANY unknown terms – a walking dictionary/thesaurus. We were all very impressed!
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U of AR Graduate Work, 1998, northwest Arkansas.
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​One saying that I always associate with Jayne is – “Come back with your shield…or on it!” She shared with me that her dad always said that to her as she was growing up when she was attempting something new or daunting.  Jayne explained to me that it meant – Accomplish the deed or die trying!  I had never heard it before and certainly never forgot it since.  We occasionally said it to each other when we were taking finals or trying to complete some challenging class assignment – along with a smile and a good laugh.  That is what I remember most about Jayne.  Her smile, good humor, and enthusiasm for learning!  She inspired me through graduate school with her companionship and determination.

I have many other stories of my graduate school adventures with Jayne – all-night O2 level stream monitoring in the Quachitas, pulling her truck out of a stream bed that she mistook for a gravel road, Zoology lab planning meetings gone awry, zippy operatic arias in the elevator before Statistics class, and on and on. I was saddened to hear of her passing and when I remember our times together, it still doesn’t feel like she is gone. Jayne was a special friend of mine who lives on in my memories.  And, I miss her.

-JMB
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*The source of the shield story is a Roman writer named Plutarch. He wrote, “Another woman handed her son his shield, and exhorted him: ‘Son, either with this or on this.” The quote is found in Plutarch’s Moralia, a collection of his writings, in a section called Sayings of Spartan Women. Source: http://www.straightdope.com by Una Persson, staff of The Straight Dope Science Advisory Board
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Florida State Park Interactive GIS Map

5/28/2015

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Topsail Hill Preserve State Park PictureNearing end of boardwalk to beach. Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, Florida. March 2015
Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, near Santa Rosa Beach, Florida (east of Destin & Walton Beach), is one of my family’s favorite vacation destination. It is a state park with many things to do, besides their beautiful white sand beach. Along with the beach, we most enjoy all the biking trails this park offers.

This past spring, I had an opportunity to visit Topsail (local abbreviation of the park’s name) while I was taking a GIS class at Northwest Arkansas Community College (NWACC). I decided to develop a GIS map of Topsail concentrating on the endangered species of the park, along with points of interests for new park visitors.

I developed several items for this project: an ESRI story map, an ArcGIS on-line interactive map, and a PowerPoint presentation of the GIS map’s development.  The links are listed below.

ESRI Story Map:  http://arcg.is/1EqNzkO

ArcGIS On-Line Interactive Map: http://arcg.is/1bEkIiN

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Topsail Hill Preserve State Park, the on-line interactive GIS map: the red balloons are points of interest in the park; the green balloons are historical locations of red cockaded woodpeckers, and the purple area is where the endangered Choctawhatchee beach mouse is found.
At NWACC, this project was an assignment made to meet their EMPACTS requirements. EMPACTS stands for "Educationally-Managed Projects Advancing Curriculum, Technology and Service", and this program gives back to the community in a variety of ways. As for all EMPACTS projects, a school coordinator created an EMPACTS project website for the Topsail project also.

To my surprise, WaltonOutdoors.com, a county tourism site run by volunteers, decided to write an article about these mapping efforts and posted it, along with the maps’ links on their website. 

Walton County Tourism Website Article:  http://www.waltonoutdoors.com/arkansas-student-documents-topsail-hill-preserve-state-park-for-gis-project/

I really enjoyed working on this project! I look forward to visiting this Florida State Park again and discovering even more about it!

- JMB


12-9-15 Post Script - ESRI ​changed the configuration steps for their Story Map product, so I had to remake the story map recently. I did a quick job of it and it does not contain as much information as the original Story Map version.
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    Miscellaneous
    Musings

    Collection of short essays about diverse biological topics, related technology, and contemplations.


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