by Bea Peterson
Hoosick Falls Central School held its Second Annual Outdoor Expo March 26 and 27. On Friday elementary students, armed with colorful questionnaires asking them to find birds, animals and information, scrambled past the many exhibits that filled the high school gymnasium. For every correct answer they checked off, they received a stamp on their paper at that exhibit. The challenge was on, and the students took to it like ducks to water. Many of them talked their parents into coming to see the Expo either later Friday or Saturday. Exhibitors and visitors all enjoyed either showing off their love for the outdoors or learning more about the great outdoors and how to preserve it for future generations.
Environmental Calamities
Featured speaker at the event Friday was well known and respected New York State Wildlife Pathologist Ward Stone. This year he spoke about environmental calamities that have had an inadequate response such as habitat, climate change and indigenous species. He told the crowd in the high school auditorium that, like it or not, nature is under attack. “Our weather is changing,” he said. “The problems are most severe at the poles, affecting penguins and polar bears. Climate change is happening.” He said Russia, Canada and the United States have already staked mineral rights in these at risk sites.
Stone has worked for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation for 41 years and during that time, he said, “We didn’t do a good enough job (to protect the environment).” Today, he added, politics and bureaucracy are holding everything down. He pointed out that tropical and semi tropical diseases, such as West Nile Virus, are now found in Moscow where the temperature is rising. Stone discovered that virus in the US in August of 1999
when thousands of crows were dying. It was the first time it was found in the western hemisphere. On the other hand, he said, the good news is that Chronic Wasting Disease, first found in the area five years ago, has not been found again and no human has contracted it. Stone expects more diseases to be introduced in the country as more and more items are imported. He expects to see more insects and beetles arrive on our shores. Unfortunately, he said, there is no enthusiasm, no energy to fight these invasions.
With the opening of the fishing season, he said, “We need more kids to be interested in the outdoors.” He noted that when he and his children go fishing, they do more than fish, they observe wildlife such as caddis flies, wood ducks, muskrats or perhaps a heron.
Attacking Cement
Stone’s latest cause is reducing the pollution caused by cement companies. He feels there should be stronger environmental laws to protect the environment. He wants these plants to operate as well as they can without pollutants. Five percent of the carbon dioxide lost in the world is caused by cement plants, he said. Cement dust is the biggest culprit. “Cement deteriorates; it breaks down,” he said. “We have to find something better.”
The Sierra Club recently selected Dr. Ward Stone for its 2009 Distinguished Service Award. His weekly radio show on WAMC reaches a wide audience and offers him a forum for his environmental concerns.
