Bottle Bill Heads to the Ballot!

By Mass Audubon 

Reblogged from, and originally posted on, Mass Audubon’s “Your Great Outdoors” blog  on July 7, 2014. 

Courtesy of MASSPIRG

Last week, the Coalition to Update the Bottle Bill delivered the necessary signatures to move forward with a November ballot question that would update the three-decade-old Massachusetts Beverage Retainer Recovery Act.

Although Mass Audubon did not participate in the signature collection, we are fully supportive of the ballot campaign for this much-needed update. The campaign is heading to the ballot because the state legislature failed to pass an update to the existing bill by their deadline.

We urge Mass Audubon members and Massachusetts voters to Vote YES on Question 2 this November to Update the Bottle Bill!

About the Bottle Bill

The Bottle Bill, the nickel deposit on BEVERAGE CONTAINERS , is the state’s most successful recycling and litter prevention program. Since the Bottle Bill’s passage in 1983, more than 35 billion containers have been redeemed, contributing to a healthier environment, cleaner and safer communities, and a stronger economy. But to keep up with the times and consumers’ tastes, the Bottle Bill must be updated.

An updated Bottle Bill would expand our container deposit system to include drinks such as non-carbonated beverages, water, iced tea, juice, and sports drinks. Almost 70% of deposit beverage containers are redeemed each year under the current Bottle Bill, adding to the 9-10% of containers recovered through curbside recycling.

Overall, deposit containers are recycled at a rate of about 80%, while non-deposit containers are recycled at only 23%.

Stay Informed

You can stay up-to-date on how to help with the ballot campaign by visiting the Coalition to Update the Bottle Bill’s website.

Congratulations to the Coalition for all the work that went into collecting these signatures! We will keep you informed as the campaign moves into high gear over the summer and into the fall election season.

 To learn more about the organizations such as Mass Audubon, the Environmental League of Massachusetts, and MASSPIRG that are involved with the Updated Massachusetts Bottle Bill Campaign, click their links above.

A Snowy Owl Update, from Mass Audubon

Snowy Owl Update

Reblogged from the Neponset River Watershed Association blog, first posted from a Mass Audubon blog

Currently New England is hosting a major incursion of snowy owls, many of which will likely spend the winter in our area.

Photo © Dave Larson

Typically these Arctic visitors tend to appear most frequently near the coast, but the first report this year was inland at Mount Wachusett in Princeton on November 17. Since then, snowy owls have been showing up all over Massachusetts. See a map of recent sightings on eBird.

Why So Many Snowy Owls?

The snowy owl is considered an “irruptive” species—one that responds to changes in the conditions on its home territory by moving elsewhere in search of food.  Some of the factors that may trigger these irruptions include variations in food supply in the Arctic, severe snow and ice cover in their usual wintering areas, or a superabundance of owls resulting from an exceptional nesting season prior to a southward irruption.

For many years it was assumed that snowy owl irruptions only occurred in years when the lemmings that comprise the snowy owls’ primary food in the Arctic were in short supply, thus forcing the starving owls to move south in search of food.

However, Norman Smith, sanctuary director of Blue Hills Trailside Museum and lead of Mass Audubon’s Snowy Owl Project says “We actually see the most snowy owls in New England after an Arctic lemming population boom, not bust.” High lemming populations improve breeding success, and irruptions typically consist mostly of hatch-year birds (ones born this year).

Where to See Snowy Owls

Snowy owls arriving in Massachusetts tend to seek local habitats that mimic the Arctic tundra where they spend most of their lives, such as large salt marshes, extensive agricultural fields, and even airports. Popular sightings include Westport, New Bedford, Nantucket, Orleans, Duxbury Beach, and of course, Plum Island.

Accordingly, if you are passing a large open field this winter, that white spot in the distance might only be an errant piece of plastic, but it could also be a snowy owl!

Reposted from a Mass Audubon blog, posted December 7, 2013 by Hillary. Text by Marj Rine, Photo © Dave Larson

This post is from the Neponset River Watershed Association’s Neponset Nature Blog. The original post can be found at: http://www.neponset.org/happenings/neponset-nature-blog/snowy-owl-update/. 

Celebrating Wildlife

Iridescent river herring created by Julia at the Cape Cod Wildlife Festival
Photo by Dorie Stolley 

What’s always fun for kids? Glitter glue! And, we had lots of it at the recent Cape Cod Wildlife Festival held at Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture Wildlife Sanctuary in Barnstable, MA. Kids listened to the story of mighty river herring battling their ways upstream, the obstacles they face and how people can help, as they decorated their own fish to take home. Creativity abounded, as did paint, glue and markers.

Big thanks go to Julia and Olivia, two girls who adopted our booth and assisted for hours, cutting out fish, encouraging children, keeping the tables clean and creating their own lovely herring.

Julia and her second herring
Photo by Heather Fone

Olivia hard at work during a rare quiet moment at the booth
Photo by Heather Fone

 

Those who chose to keep their herring had a colorful souvenir of the day. The WAA website address was included on every fish so parents could visit it to learn about their local watershed, find simple ways to conserve water and locate fun water-related events all over southeastern Massachusetts.

Some children left their herrings for WAA. These fish will join the ever-increasing river herring school that will “march” in the July 4th parade in Plymouth with the Plymouth Nature Brigade.

In 2014, there will be an entire school of herring to join the WAA mascot!
Photo by Lianna Lee

Banner for the Plymouth Nature Brigade
Photo by Lianna Lee

 

Monarch butterfly, blueberry bush, and ladybug joined the river 

herring in representing Plymouth's native wild animals and plants

in the July 4th parade. Join us in 2014?

Photo by Lianna Lee

The arts are used in many ways to stimulate environmental stewardship, conservation and activism. WAA’s decorate-a-herring activity promotes emotional connection to and aesthetic appreciation of native water-dependent wildlife and conveys information in a natural, storytelling fashion to children and their parents. It also promotes regional pride in an impressive fish with an evocative story whose future depends on the work of WAA, its member organizations and people who care about them and about clean water. For more information visit: www.watershedaction.org