Skunk cabbage is one of the first plants to sprout in the springtime in the Northern Hemisphere. The plant itself is 20?C (76?F) warmer than the surrounding air, and it melts the snow around itself so that the shoots can sprout upwards.
Logging in watersheds fails to affect quality, report
says
Logging in watersheds fails to affect quality, report
says A new study of the North Shore watersheds has
concluded that, contrary to popular belief, natural landslides (and
not logging) are the source of most of the sediments causing the
cloudiness in Greater Vancouver's drinking water. Controlling the
amount of sediment in the water is difficult and the only
techniques that can be used are stabilizing slopes through the use
of vegetation, and excavating sediment deposits after landslides
occur. Selective logging may be used to lower the risk of forest
fire hazards in watershed areas, as forest fires would lead to
further landslides and degradation of slopes. The study involved
surveying all areas of the watersheds to assemble an ecological
inventory of them. Historical information was also gathered.
Information for one of the watersheds was then fed into a computer,
where a special program projected future effects of human
activities in the watershed. Further discussion of the results is
underway and a decision will be made on how best to control the
leak of sediments into the water supply. 21 APRIL 1999
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