1) Asthma Rates In Alabama Soar: Clean Air Urged
2) Ruffner Mountain Receives $100,000 Grant From TPL
3) Birmingham Area Cities Declare Water Emergency
4) Rare Alabama Sturgeon Dies In Captivity
5) U.S. Geological Survey Launches New Water Quality Website
6) Alabama's Sustainable Forestry Initiative Provides Support
7) BEN Notes: Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama to Hold Forums, Moon
Over Three Caves Event, Mercedes Drive For Excellence, Earth Creations
Warehouse Sale, Audubon Teaches Birding, AWF Wild Game Cook-Off

1. Asthma Rates In Alabama Soar: Clean Air Urged - At the Birmingham public hearing for the Governor's Alabama Commission on Environmental Initiatives (ACEI), Dr. Anne Turner Henson, an Associate Professor at the University of Alabama Birmingham School of Nursing, distributed a fact sheet detailing recent children environmental health studies performed by UAB and Children's Hospital. Here are some of the excerpts from her statement to ACEI.

"Children in our city and state have disproportionately higher rates of environmentally related health conditions that could be caused or exacerbated by exposure to hazards in the home, school and play environments. For example, certain areas of Birmingham rank first in the state in lead poisoning cases. Asthma and chronic respiratory conditions among children have been directly linked to environmental conditions. This is a critical environmental issue and warrants careful investigation...."

"At UAB and Children's Hospital we have conducted many studies examining the rates of asthma, chronic respiratory conditions, and passive smoke exposure. Asthma prevalence in school age population (Birmingham City Schools, grades 1st-4th) was found to be 10.02%, and 14% in a population of preschool Head Start children (ages 4-5). Asthma prevalence in the preschool population may be much higher, parents in our surveys reported chronic respiratory symptoms, such as wheezing (27%) and chronic cough (13.9%), limited play due to wheezing or cough (13.3% and nocturnal symptoms of wheezing or cough (13.9%). Furthermore, we found the burden from asthma (that is hospitalizations, emergency room visits) to be higher in four inner city areas of Birmingham."

ACEI has held 5 public hearings this month. Statements such as the one from Dr, Turner-Henson are helping the Commission formulate strategies to address Alabama's most pressing environmental problems. Recently, the 63 member Governor's Environmental Commission divided up into four work groups. They include, health and education, Air and Water, Review of Environmental Agencies, and Natural Resources. For information about ACEI, and future public hearings, visit their website at http://www.jsu.edu/depart/epic/. For additional information about asthma and clean air, contact the American Lung Association of Alabama at 205-933-8821.

2. Ruffner Mountain Receives $100,000 Grant From TPL - Here is an example of an organization with "class". The Trust for Public Land (TPL) worked for several years with the Ruffner Mountain Nature Center in Birmingham, landowners, Forever Wild and several local governmental entities to expand the Ruffner Mountain Nature Preserve by 427 acres, approximately doubling the size of the preserve to 977 acres. The city of Birmingham now has a nature preserve within its city limits larger than New York City's Central Park (853 acres).

On Friday, September 22nd at a reception celebrating Ruffner Mountain's new expansion, TPL which was founded in 1972 and has worked in 45 states to protect more than one million acres for recreation and public use, surprised board members and supporters of Ruffner Mountain, by presenting the organization with a $100,000 check. The monies will go toward stewardship of the newly purchased land. Now, that is a class act. For more information about Trust For Public Land visit their website at http://www.tpl.org.

3. Birmingham Area Cities Declare Water Emergency - Facing one of the longest droughts in memory, the mayors of Birmingham, Homewood, Hoover, and Vestavia Hills have declared a water emergency, a move that adds police enforcement and criminal penalties to an outdoor watering ban.

One of the area's primary reservoirs, Lake Purdy, dropped below 39 % of capacity, a record low for this time of the year. Water managers say that the lake could be drained by late November. Residents of the four cities can face fines of up to $200 or jail time for any outdoor water use. "This is re-emphasizing we are heading into a crisis situation," stated Mike Vann General Manager of the Birmingham Water Works Board in a recent Associated Press article.

4. Rare Alabama Sturgeon Dies In Captivity - Another captive Alabama sturgeon, one of only two held at the state fish hatchery in Marion, has died according to a Mobile Register published report.

The Alabama sturgeon, which biologists believe to be one of the rarest fishes in North America, was recently listed as an endangered species after many years of controversy and debate over its designation. Extensive capture efforts in the 90's have turned up seven Alabama sturgeon. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials said the death of the sturgeon was not entirely
unexpected, since the fish had been held in captivity nearly two years.

5. U.S. Geological Survey Launches New Water Quality Website - On September 20th, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) launched a website with a data warehouse of water quality data for 46 states. The site which contains more
than 6.5 million records, enables water resource managers, scientists, and the public to find data about the quality of water at 2,800 stream sites and 5,000 wells. The data was collected by the USGS National Water Quality Assessment Program beginning in 1991 in 36 basins around the country.

To visit the USGS Water Quality Warehouse log onto http://water.usgs.gov/nawqa/data.

6. Alabama's Sustainable Forestry Initiative Provides Support - Let's say you are a forest owner and you have questions about how to hire someone to cut some timber on your land. Or maybe you have seen a neighbor cutting their
timber in such a way that it is destroying the local stream. The Alabama Sustainable Forest Initiative (SFI), a project of the American Forest and Paper Association (the group has 22 Alabama members), has produced a publication called "A Landowner's Guide to Sustainable Forests - Key to Your Future!" to address questions and help Alabama forest owners. The guide provides valuable information and details about forest planning, practices and options. The Nature Conservancy of Alabama, the Alabama Environmental Council, the Alabama Forestry Association and the Alabama Forestry Commission
are a few of the technical resource organizations listed in the publication.

Along with the guide, SFI also provides a toll -free number for people to express concerns about site-specific timber operations. The calls are kept confidential. The number is 1-800-206-0981. For additional information about forestry in Alabama visit http://www.pfmt.org and http://www.alabamaforestinfo.org.

7. BEN Notes: Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama to Hold Forums, Moon Over Three Caves Event, Mercedes Drive For Excellence, Earth Creations Warehouse Sale, Audubon Teaches Birding, AWF Wild Game Cook-Off

Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama to Hold Forums - The Land Trust of Huntsville and North Alabama is creating a Master Land Preservation Plan for Madison County and are holding a series of Community Forums to involve
citizens. Madison County citizens are encouraged to attend and provide input. The meetings are all scheduled for 6:00 pm. On October 12th, 19th, 26th, November 2nd, 9th, and 16th. For specific location information contact Debbie Bradford, the Land Trust at 256-534-LAND (5263). You can also visit http://www.landtrust-hsv.org for details.

Moon Over Three Caves Event - Please join the Land Trust of Huntsville & North Alabama in their First Annual "Moon Over Three Caves Dance" Saturday, October 14, 8:00 - 11:00. Reservations are required and the charge is $25.00. This fun, unique and just flat out "cool" event will help raise funds for the Land Trust. For more info call 256-534-5263.

Mercedes Drive For Excellence - Another can't miss event! The Mercedes - Benz Drive For Excellence / DaimlerChrysler International Environmental Day will be held Saturday, October 7th, 10:00 A.M. at the Mercedes-Benz facility in Vance. Environmental exhibits and state of the art alternative vehicles will be on display, along with entertainment from Wynonna Judd and Blues Traveler. Tickets are $10. Children under 12 are free. For more info visit http://www.mbusi.com or call 205-327-5528. (An editorial comment: My father, who works on cars and collects antique cars... he has a vintage 1938 Cadillac... can't wait to join me at this event.)

Earth Creations Warehouse Sale - Earth Creations, the Alabama t-shirt company that uses the "dirt dyed" process is having a warehouse sale of all second and sample t-shirts and clothing. The sale is on October 6th, 3:00 to 6:00 and Oct. 7th, 9:00 to 5:00. For directions to the Earth Creations Sale site call 205-426-2302.

Audubon Teaches Birding - For the 11th year, the Birmingham Audubon Society (BAS) and Alabama Wildlife Rehabilitation Center (AWRC) will be holding its Audubon Teaches Birding Series. The first program is scheduled for Sunday, October 8th. 2:00 at AWRC in Oak Mountain State Park. Paul Franklin will be presenting "Precious Heritage - Precarious Future Alabama's Vanishing Birds." To learn more about this powerful series and future lectures, visit the BAS website at http://bmewww.eng.uab.edu/BAS/ or call 205-879-7709.

AWF Wild Game Cook-Off - The Alabama Wildlife Federation will be holding a Wild Game Cook-off in Birmingham at the Zamora Temple on October 5th. For more information about one of the best "cook-offs" in the South, call AWF at
1-800-822-9453.

Please share BEN with friends and fellow conservationists. If you have any questions or comments about this publication, contact Pat Byington, the author and publisher of BEN at 205-226-7739 or pkbyington@aol.com To receive back issues of BEN, please go to our website at: http://www.BamaNews.com