Happy Earth Day!

As many of you may know, I am a bit of a closet tree hugger. I drive a hybrid when I am not towing the Skeeter from place to place. My daughter wears cloth diapers, I bring my own bags to the grocery store and my wife is always getting told not to throw things away that could be reused or recycled.






With Earth Day rapidly approaching, I wanted to take a moment and let you all know about a few of my favorite conservation initiatives as well as special earth day events that may be happening in your area for you to take part in. For a history of Earth Day and lots more information check out the Earth Day Network. You can search for events by location and by date. The Minneapolis area alone has well over a dozen events planned including multiple watershed cleanups including the Mississippi river and several area lakes.

I would urge all outdoors people to look into earth day events in your area. It isn't just a hippies & Birkenstock movement. It is a great way to show others how important our natural resources are and to give back a little to your environment. Pick an issue and find a way to make a difference. Is this the year you get active?

I also wanted to share a couple conservation concerns of mine. 

Ballast water and the great lakes is a topic that is getting more and more attention in the press. It probably deserves a lot more. Exotic species like the Round Goby and Zebra Mussels are being introduced at an alarming rate. Ballast water discharge has been identified by the EPA as a major cause of these introductions. Requiring bilge water to be sanitized by all ocean going vessels that enter the lakes is not too much to ask if it helps to protect the largest reserves of fresh water in the world. What is very frustrating about this issue, is that many regulations are in place to help with the problem yet enforcement is minimal if at all. For more info on this topic and others affecting the great lakes check out  the Great Lakes Commission site.

The Pebble Mine project in the Bristol Bay region of Alaska. If you have ever been fishing in Alaska you know how special it is, If you haven't, you most likely want to and as well you should. It is an amazing place. The Pebble Mine project would put a vast portion of this great wilderness at risk, Including one of the largest (if not the largest) Salmon runs in the world. The magnitude of this project is mind boggling with retention dams for toxic tailing piles that will be miles long and hundreds of feet high. All in an area that is more prone to earth quakes than southern California. The area is also home to two National parks. Katmai which is famous for it's Grizzly Bears and Lake Clark Park and Preserve. Allowing a mining corporation to gain a short term profit at the expense of an extremely valuable renewable natural resource is shameful and irresponsible. For more information about this issue, check out the Renewable Resources Coalition. This site has lots of info about the project as well as information about how you can help. You can join the coalition but you don't have to. There are plenty of other ways to help out including writing newspaper editors and email addresses for  Governor Palin and much more. Check it out and think about writing your congressman regarding this issue.

Lastly a little more fun is a promotion Tropicana is doing this year with Coolearth to save some rainforest. Buy specially marked Tropican products and then go online and enter a 12 digit code. Tropicana will then purchase 100 square feet  of Peruvian rainforest . The site will even show you a google earth map of what you helped to purchase and details a little more information about the project goals. If that wasn't enough, they will be giving away prizes so sign up and participate at www.tropicanarainforest.com

Thats probably enough soap boxing for today. Get out and enjoy the spring weather.

Sport