Former B.C. Hydro environmental consultant John Kelly says the Crown Corporation deserved praise for right-of-way clearing practices in the 1980s and 1990s, but a section of the new Interior-to-Lower Mainland Line failed to avoid environmental damage.

Wed driven to Burke Mountain in Coquitlam recently to view the clearing for towers 5071 to 5075, the tail end of the ILMs 250 kilometers of towers and cables from Merritt.

Kelly wanted to see what this site looked like after being frustrated by what he found at Millionaire Creek in the Malcolm Knapp UBC Research Forest in Maple Ridge.

An environmental audit in June identified damage to the coho producer. It still hadnt been repaired in November as spawning occurred.

Other steps to mitigate impacts reseeding of scraped off vegetation, and water diversion channels were just being taken.

Luckily, sunny weather delayed the rainy season.

At tower 5071, at the base of the mountain, Kelly noted more failures to avoid damage, and mitigate impacts. Hed later report them to Maple Ridge stakeholders, including ARMS, the research forest and Rod Stott, environment officer for Maple Ridge.

Trees were felled and left across a stream, he noted.

Kelly thought theyd been cut a year ago, but the mess is still here and the clearing contractor is gone. This is very poor construction practice. Damage occurred when some trees were pulled out [by skidders].

ARMS favors the use of helicopters to remove trees more expensive, but less disruptive.

Excerpt from:
Diverting discussion from slash pile

Lawrence, Kansas (PRWEB) January 17, 2014

Downy brome is an aggressive, invasive winter annual grass and may be the most abundant plant in the western United States. Ranchers and natural resource professionals agree: downy brome, also called cheatgrass, is a problem. The consensus, however, ends there. These two groups differ in their level of concern about this weed and on what methods they use to control it.

The authors of an article published in the current issue of Invasive Plant Science and Management surveyed natural resource professionals (NRPs) and ranchers in Colorado and Wyoming about their knowledge and management of downy brome. Using focus group discussions and written surveys, the authors found that ranchers tended to be somewhat less concerned about downy brome than NRPs. These practitioners also had different approaches to combating downy brome. Ranchers preferred to graze infested lands in early spring, whereas NRPs often relied on seeding desirable grasses and/or applying herbicides.

The surveys also revealed similarities between these two groups of practitioners. Generally, both groups were most likely to adopt new or innovative management practices when the new measures were compatible with existing operations. Additionally, both groups expressed the need for more information about preferred control methods and alternative solutions to controlling downy brome.

Competing priorities and limited resources were the top constraints for successful downy brome management. For both ranchers and NRPs, other weeds are currently a higher priority and limited labor is available to address downy brome. Since downy brome is not officially listed as a high priority noxious weed in CO or WY, ranchers and NRPs put more effort and money into controlling other noxious weeds. Ranchers also cited lack of information about effective management tools, while NRPs indicated that long-term treatment is not financially viable.

The authors concluded that downy brome management would likely improve if the grass was listed as a noxious weed for which eradication is mandated, and thus more tax dollars might be allocated to effective management. Improved education, including clear identification procedures and information about downy brome biology and ecology, would also help prevent its spread. Ranchers and NRPs should also be better informed about management methods of control that require minimal labor and cost. To conclude, the authors stated that both groups need decision-support tools to help assess the economic and ecological trade-offs associated with various downy brome management strategies.

Full text of the article Managing downy brome (Bromus tectorum) in the Central Rockies: Land manager perspectives, Invasive Plant Science and Management, Vol. 6, No. 4, 2013, is now available.

###

About Invasive Plant Science and Management Invasive Plant Science and Management is a broad-based journal that focuses on invasive plant species. It is published four times a year by the Weed Science Society of America, a nonprofit professional society. The Weed Science Society of America promotes research, education, and extension outreach activities related to weeds; provides science-based information to the public and policy makers; and fosters awareness of weeds and their impacts on managed and natural ecosystems. For more information, visit http://www.wssa.net/.

See original here:
Land Managers Choose Diverse Solutions to Downy Brome Problem

Former B.C. Hydro environmental consultant John Kelly says the Crown corporation deserved praise for right-of-way clearing practices in the 1980s and 1990s, but a section of the new Interior-to-Lower Mainland Line failed to avoid environmental damage.

Wed driven to Burke Mountain in Coquitlam recently to view the clearing for towers 5071 to 5075, the tail end of the ILMs 250 kilometers of towers and cables from Merritt.

Kelly wanted to see what this site looked like after being frustrated by what he found at Millionaire Creek in the Malcolm Knapp UBC Research Forest in Maple Ridge.

An environmental audit in June identified damage to the coho producer. It still hadnt been repaired in November as spawning occurred.

Other steps to mitigate impacts reseeding of scraped off vegetation, and water diversion channels were just being taken.

Luckily, sunny weather delayed the rainy season.

At tower 5071, at the base of the mountain, Kelly noted more failures to avoid damage, and mitigate impacts. Hed later report them to Maple Ridge stakeholders, including ARMS, the research forest and Rod Stott, environment officer for Maple Ridge.

Trees were felled and left across a stream, he noted.

Kelly thought theyd been cut a year ago, but the mess is still here and the clearing contractor is gone. This is very poor construction practice. Damage occurred when some trees were pulled out [by skidders].

ARMS favors the use of helicopters to remove trees more expensive, but less disruptive.

Read the original:
Along the Fraser: Diverting discussion from slash pile

PrintGREEN 3D Printer Grows the Third Dimension
Anyone who thought Chia Pets were nothing more than a novelty didn #39;t realize that they would set the foundation for what was to come in the 21st Century. Those ceramic pots shaped like heads...

By: 3DPI.TV

Continued here:
PrintGREEN 3D Printer Grows the Third Dimension - Video

Plans include 150 car parks for New Regent St

Daniel Tobin

PULL UP AND SHOP: The project will also provide 150 car parks for New Regent St shoppers.

The seeds are being sown for the transformation of several empty central-city sites.

The Canterbury Earthquake Recovery Authority has begun "greening" work on five large sites within the north and east frames, to be transformed into open public spaces within the next month.

The sites will be covered with top soil and seeded with grass, with some areas providing more central city car parking.

Seeding work began yesterday on the corner of Manchester St and Cambridge Tce. Work on the next site, the corner of Madras and Armagh streets, will start today.

Part of the largest site, bordered by Gloucester, Manchester, Worcester streets and Latimer Sq, will provide 150 car parks for New Regent St shoppers. The parks will be free for 120 minutes, and are being introduced because of a lack of parking compared to other retail areas in the city.

A low fence will be constructed to restrict vehicles around each of the sites as they are completed.

Christchurch Central Development Unit development director Rob Kerr said this would be the "first taster" of the part- residential, part open space planned for the north and east frames.

Read the original here:
City 'greening' work begins

How has Switzerland - a small country, where football remains merely a popular sport rather than an all-consuming behemoth - transformed its nondescript World Cup pedigree into top seed status? Some commentators have cited cynicism, claiming that the Swiss have manipulated the Fifa rankings by playing fewer friendlies than other nations, against only modest opposition, to avoid diluting the competitive results they achieved in a weak qualifying group.

Despite its strong self-image of probity, Switzerland is certainly a country prone to pursuing its interests by pushing global rules to breaking point its banking sector, notoriously, has long strained the letter, let alone the spirit, of money laundering laws and other countries tax codes. But it is unfair to accuse the Swiss Football Association of such sharp practice because the 10 friendlies it has arranged in the last two years (only one less than England) have included fixtures against Brazil, Argentina and Germany, as well as away trips to Holland, Croatia and Greece.

The real explanation for the Swiss success in improving their footballing status lies in their much more admirable traits of thoroughness and commitment to quality. Nowhere are these characteristics better demonstrated than in the national football coaching structure. The philosophy behind the system is encapsulated by the Nati coach, Ottmar Hitzfelds observation that Germany has over six million registered footballers so they can afford to lose a few, whilst we have only 200,000 and have to make sure every talent reaches its potential.

The Swiss are achieving this objective through a coordinated coaching programme that reaches all the way down to the youngest kids at the smallest village clubs. Even the humblest parent-coaches are required to attend annual training courses held over intense, long weekends, or spread over several weekly sessions. They are also equipped with detailed, innovative and regularly updated training plans that make every session fresh, fun and focused on developing skills and game awareness. The most promising youngsters are frequently assessed and given extra coaching at elite regional centres, which are often based at professional clubs but never dominated by them.

The strongest evidence that the coaching structure is succeeding came in 2009, when Switzerland won the Under-17s World Cup a tournament for which they had never previously qualified. Several of that team have now graduated to the full national squad, including striker Haris Seferovic and midfielder Granit Xhaka.

Those atypical Alpine names provide a clue to the second reason for Switzerlands phenomenal improvement: immigration. The Balkan wars of the 1990s provoked a large influx of Yugoslavs into Switzerland. Their arrival coincided with the revamping of the national coaching scheme and their children bolstered the raw material available to it. As a glance down the Swiss squad list shows, these kids are now coming of age and making an impact, notably the former FC Basel, now Bundesliga-based, pair of Xherdan Shaqiri and Xhaka, both of whom were born in the same Kosovan town of Gnijlane before being brought to Switzerland as toddlers.

Rather than cynicism, Switzerlands story is a virtuous update of the enduring script for international footballing success - making the most of what you have.

Read the original here:
Switzerland seeding just reward for years of grass-roots transformation and immigration

You think you've got lawn challenges.

Do you have a nearly thousand-pound equine mascot galloping across your turf to stop on a dime? A couple dozen boot-wearing dancers spinning and kicking on it? Cleat-wearing, millions-earning athletes twisting, charging and crashing on it?

Ross Kurcab has all of that. And multiple millions of spectators ogling it, in person or on TV.

The Denver Broncos turf manager and his team of 13 grass gurus are responsible for making sure this field of dreams is up to scratch. If he does his job right, he's certain some sportscaster, somewhere, will say, "The field looks great today!"

Which makes him inwardly groan, just a tiny bit.

"It's not for looking at," he said. "The question is, how's it gonna play?"

The play's the thing

Homeowner, cut yourself some slack. The high-profile swath of emerald at Sports Authority Field at Mile High is not like your lawn. Repeat: Not anything like it.

Recall, if you will, the dun- brown field at Lambeau last weekend in Green Bay in which the 49ers squashed the Packers.

That grass wasn't dead. It was "fully dormant," said Kurcab. That means the plants had basically hibernated for a time, waiting for warmer temperatures (something above zero, perhaps) and longer days to send up new green shoots.

Read more:
Denver Broncos are as obsessed about their turf as their players

Jan. 11, 2014, midnight

Culph also into semis, but junior hopefuls all out

Alburys Brandon Vescio has received a free pass into the semi-finals of the Victorian Grasscourt Championships after his opponent Matthew Hicks was forced to withdraw from the match due to injury.

Vescio was leading in the third set, with the score at 1-6 7-5 2-1, when Hicks decided it was best he quit the match before doing himself any further injury.

Its pretty disappointing, Hicks said.

At one point I just landed on my knee really badly and I knew straight away that was it.

I wanted to play on because when it happened I was already up in the second set.

I thought maybe if I could just keep holding serve Id be all right, but after Brandon broke me I couldnt do anything off my left knee.

After six matches in three days, it begins to tally up.

Whats really annoying is that I first hurt it here last year, so Im starting to think this competition is a bad omen for me, Hicks said wryly.

Read the original:
VICTORIAN GRASSCOURT CHAMPIONSHIPS: Injury gives Brandon free pass

First: Decide if you will till the soil (kill the existing plants by plowing up your site!) or just plant within the existing grass.

I will NOT TILL my site - I want to overseed my existing lawn.

(1) Mow the area low in spring or fall, remove the excess plant material - Then Sow (broadcast) your Centipede grass seeds, either last of fall or preferably in the spring on the area to be planted. However you may want to seed in the LATE fall at the same time you use a cover crop such as ryegrass. The Centipede seed will start germinating the following spring.

(2) Rake the area sowed with a hand rake so that scratch marks in the soil between plants allow some seeds to fall into these valleys and become covered by soil over time (from your rake action and later from rains). Centipede seeds must have a thin soil covering to germinate (1/4 inch ideal) - They DO NOT germinate when thrown on top of the ground. Use the correct rate of seed for Centipede grass lawns.

(3) Follow your normal water, fertilizing and mowing practices for the area you have planted on a regular basis. That's all! Eventually - (After several months of growing season time has gone bye)- you should have an improved, more lush and thick Centipede grass lawn.

How much seed do I need to plant? For Centipedegrass Lawns:Seeding Rate: Plant 1/4 to 1 lb. per 1000 sq. ft.Visit our http://www.lawngrasses.com for more about seeding rates and choices for grasses.

BUY YOUR CENTIPEDEGRASSSEED DIRECT FROM SEEDLAND.com

(1) Till the area to be planted. This can be done with either a garden tiller or a tractor harrow/tiller (Or even a shovel if you have a good back!). Once the area is returned to soil, level the ground by raking or dragging something over the surface until it is smooth and level. Now is the time to remove hills and depressions so that you have a nice smooth lawn. This is an important step with Centipede lawns since they will be mowed at lower heights for a warm season grass.

(2) Plant the seeds. You can use a commercial turfgrass planter or sow the seeds by hand. Or just as easy and much preferred, buy a broadcast seeder (hand held models are available for $8-$30) like the one above. Once your seeds are sowed, rake or drag the seeded area, so that as many of the seeds as possible are lightly covered (1/4 inch is ideal covering). Be sure and use the correct rate for seeding Centipede grass.

How much seed to I need to plant? For Centipede grass LawnsSeeding Rate: Plant 1/4 to 1 lb. per 1000 sq. ft.Visit our http://www.lawngrasses.com for more about seeding rates and choices for lawn grasses. Keep in mind that the higher the seeding rate you plant, the faster you will achieve a fully established high plant-density lawn.

Go here to read the rest:
Centipede Grass - Seeding your lawn with centipede seed.

There are many different methods for planting grass seed lawns. All grass seeds have the best results when planted into a freshly prepared, tilled, firm, pure soil -- no plants or weeds present -- seed bed. The key to grass seed germination is to have good "seed to soil" contact. By good soil contact that means that the soil is in direct contact to the surface of the seeds. Ideally the best seed/soil contact is where the seeds are completely surrounded by soil.

Three grass seed planting requirements should be observed when creating good seed to soil contact and thus insuring proper germination of your grass seeds:

There are several methods used to plant grass seed. Each has its own advantages & disadvantages. Listed below are links to information about the more popular methods used in planting grass seeds:

Planting on a prepared seed bed is the best choice. This is because you have removed a lot of competition by killing any existing "adult" weeds or other plants. Seedlings grow better when they don't have to compete for food, water and sunshine that an existing plant would also want and basically take first (being the big bully). Secondly a prepared seed bed has reduced compaction of the soil allowing the roots to push through and grow (find water and nutrients) easier and faster. Third a prepared seed bed usually insures that "seed/soil" contact is better. The only drawbacks are having to till up an existing lawn area (perhaps killing an existing lawn) and the fact that you have bare dirt for a period of time until the new grass can establish.

Planting seeds into an existing lawn is somewhat harder to obtain good germination because seed / soil contact is often less. The key is to somehow increase the seed to soil contact. Cool season grasses usually work better (germinate easier) with this method than will warm season grasses. Aeration (using some type of spike or plug aerator, or a vertical mower to produce slits in soil) prior to seeding helps increase the likelihood of individual seeds falling next to soil and hopefully being slightly covered by soil due to wind / rain action. Most often experts recommend higher seeding rates because a certain percentage of the seedlings are going to fail, either due to competition from existing grass or the inability to properly germinate due to seed / soil contact problems. Even raking the area before or after broadcasting seeds can help increase germination and create better seed / soil contact and/or coverage.

This method is dependent on the amount of seed / soil contact that can occur and also on the type of grass planted (cool season / warm season). Warm season grasses will RARELY germinate if they simply are laying on top of the ground, unless some action (walking, rain, raking, etc.) causes them to become covered by soil. Cool season grasses on the other hand may partially germinate as they will occasionally germinate with less coverage / soil contact... In fact, ryegrasses have the ability to easily germinate with just good contact with the soil. Fescues and Bluegrasses require more contact for good germination to occur. Again, any method used; aeration, raking, covering with top soil, etc helps increase germination. With warm season grasses (Bahia, Bermuda, Zoysia, Buffalo, Centipede), don't expect germination to be very high without good seed / soil coverage at correct depths.

If you decide to plant too early or too late, perhaps weather giving you spring fever prematurely, or waiting too late in the fall to plant.... Don't expect germination to be as good (or perhaps NOT at all). First seeds require specific planting temperatures to germinate. SECONDLY they require a certain amount of growing time at proper temperatures and conditions (rainfall, soil nutrients available, etc.) to grow to a mature enough size to survive any dormancy caused by either high or low temperatures or other weather extremes. Grass seedlings are like babies... you don't put babies outside in temperatures below 55 degrees or above 80 degrees without some additional protection to survive. There are "dormant" seeds in some grasses that are natures way of preserving the species. These seeds lay successfully dormant while waiting for the correct temperatures and weather conditions to occur before beginning germination. Often these seeds are one that are called "un-hulled" seeds. Removing hulls on seeds results in quicker germination, thus breaking natures dormancy protection.

Same goes for your "baby" grass seedlings. Plant at the right time of year for your type of grass (Early Spring / Early Fall for cool season grasses / Late Spring / Early Summer for warm season grasses.) and plant when temperatures and weather is appropriate. You can in some instance plant outside normal times, but just be aware that the risks are higher. Either rot of seeds from excess cold / moist soil can occur... or freeze / frost kill by late cold temperatures after seeds germinate due to an early warm up.

Cool season grasses (Perennial Ryegrasses, Fescues, Bluegrasses) can be successfully planted on top of snow for winter planting. What happens is that the seeds are carried downward to soil level by melting snow in the spring. At that times cracks are present in the soil from the freezing temps of winter that the seeds can be "melted" into. This provides for reasonable seed / soil contact. The disadvantages are the same as for planting out of season above... a higher risk that this method may have some failures.

Seeds can be covered by "erosion mats" that help prevent erosion. However for best results, the seeds still need to have good seed / soil contact for germination to occur. Simply covering the seeds with an erosion matting material does NOT insure better germination. The mats are to help prevent erosion (and thus washing away of seeds). Not to increase actual germination.

Continue reading here:
How To Plant Grass Seed|Methods For Planting Grass Seed ...