Thursday, November 8, 2018

Preserving the Environment


A few weeks ago, I wrote about my grandfather being inducted into the Silas Bronson Library Waterbury Hall of Fame (*1). This was based on he involvement with maintaining the blue-blazed trails in the area so that other could hike on those trails and experience the sights, sounds, and smells of nature and the world around us. But his legacy has lived on in the following generations of our family. I alluded to this in an earlier blog (*2), but I’d like to expand on some of the specifics here.

Trail Development and Preservation – My grandfather only had an 8th grade education. His working career included being a milkman for the Maple Hill Dairy that was owned by his cousin as well as working in a plumbing supply store. He and my grandmother lived on a reasonably large lot in the east end of Waterbury where they raised their five children. The back yard, which ran all the way back to the trolley tracks had a garden where they raised their own vegetables. His working on the blue-blazed trails as well as introducing the children at the East Farms School (next door to their house) to plants was his way of getting others involved in nature.

The Russell Preserve – When my parents married, they bought a 23-acre piece of land in Wolcott where they raised their five children. My father worked as a draftsman and tool designer. In their later years they sold off the back part of the property, but about 8 acres and “Russell’s Pond” behind the house were then donated to the Wolcott Land Conservation Trust to be preserved in perpetuity for others to enjoy (*3, *4, *5, *6).

Horton Creek Preserve – When my wife’s parents passed away I was named as the executor of their estate. They were not rich and had little cash, but they did have a large piece of property in Northern Michigan where they had raised their seven children. In selling this property, I contacted the Little Traverse Conservancy, the land conservation group serving a two-county area (*7). They have donors who will purchase land for conservation purposes, providing that the owner will sell it to them at the state appraised value which we were willing to do. The western side of the property has a steep drop off and is bounded by the Horton Creek which defines that side of the property. In order to subdivide and sell the upper flatter portion as a separate lot, they needed to have a better property description than just the creek as a boundary. Thus, they needed to have someone wade the length of the creek (1/2 mile) carrying a GPS device that could track the points at every bend in the creek and plot it all to define the edge. I think there are something like 60 “bends” in the creek in that ½ mile. You can see the eventual property line in the below picture.



Training the Next Generation – As I mentioned in (*2), our grandchildren here in PA are attending a charter school which has its focus on the environment (*8). Tonight at the dinner table we asked them to describe for us the various part of a tree (roots, trunk, branches, leaves) and the part that each plays in the “system.” They then also indicated the chemical reaction that takes place with the tree taking in water (H2O), carbon dioxide (CO2) and energy from the sun and producing oxygen (O2) and sugar (various forms of carbohydrates C+H+O) as well as the reaction in the human body which takes in the carbohydrates (eating) and oxygen (breathing) and doing the reverse chemical reaction which release the energy that our body needs. Even in kindergarten they understand the relationship between the body and the environment and the need to preserve our trees and plants. I’ve listened to other students in the various open houses that the school has each year and it’s pretty impressive to hear these young students talk about things that I didn’t learn until high school.

We all have our part to do in preserving the environment. In our house we have a container for recycling that is twice as large as the one for “garbage” each week. That’s just one measure of how we can contribute. We also collect all old batteries in a big jar which we take to a battery recycling place every year or so rather than throwing them away. Every little bit helps. What are you doing to preserve our environment?


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