Salt Cedar

Salt Cedarhttp://www.ecy.wa.gov/programs/wq/plants/weeds/aqua013.html
As an aggressive colonizer that is able to survive in a wide variety of habitats, saltcedar often forms monotypic stands, replacing willows, cottonwoods and other native riparian vegetation. The stems and leaves of mature plants secrete salt, forming a crust above and below ground that inhibits other plants (Sudbrock 1993). Saltcedar is also an enormous water consumer. A single large plant can absorb 200 gallons of water a day (Hoddenbach 1987). Saltcedar’s high water consumption further stresses native vegetation by lowering ground water levels and can also dry up springs and marshy areas.

July 14, 2004
http://www.abqtrib.com/archives/news04/071404_news_goats.shtml
Army of goats to hit bosque

By Frank Zoretich
Tribune Reporter

Up to 1,000 goats might be dining on salt cedar in the Rio Grande bosque by the middle of September.

The Middle Rio Grande Conservancy District has issued a request for proposals for a 45-day "goat pilot project" to determine how effective - and economical - it can be for herds of goats to help clear water-sucking, fire-fueling salt cedar and other invasive weeds from the river's cottonwood forest.

Subhas Shah, chief engineer for the conservancy district, said the plan is for at least 400 goats to clear invasive weeds in 100 acres of the bosque.

Shah said he anticipates the cost of the project this year will be about $45,000.

"We've done some small projects with a small number of goats," he said. "If it works, this will be the beginning of a larger program utilizing goats to control salt cedar, Russian olive and some other weeds."

The goats are to be deployed along the west bank of the river in a stretch of the bosque between Orilla Road (about a quarter-mile north of the Monta§o Bridge) and the Paseo del Norte Bridge.

The conservancy seeks proposals by Aug. 2 from "qualified contractors with demonstrated experience in the use of a large herd of goats for the management of vegetation."

The salt cedar chomping is to begin Sept. 15.

At least 400 goats are sought; the upper limit is 1,000 goats. Preference will be given to New Mexico goat contractors, according to the conservancy district request.

New Mexico contractors "with limited experience in the use of large herds of goats for vegetation management in an urban area are strongly urged to partner with a more experienced contractor, including one from outside New Mexico, to submit a joint proposal," the request said.

Sterling Grogan, the district's biologist, has been urging the use of a large herd of goats since 1999.

Grogan, who is out of town and could not be reached, had originally hoped this project could begin as early as January.

But it was delayed, he said earlier this year, by budget constraints and a decision to wait until the end of the migratory bird May-September nesting period.

The goats won't be able to roam at will through the bosque, district officials said. Groups of them will be confined to fenced-in plots ranging in size from 2 to 5 acres.

They'll also be fenced out of some prime stands of native vegetation. The contractor "will be responsible for immediately capturing any escaping goats," the request said.

Whoever supplies the goats will also have to supply:

"A qualified herder or herders who will be physically present with the goats 24 hours per day, seven days per week for every day of the project."

"Self-contained quarters for the herder/herders," because no water or electricity is available at the pilot project site.

Temporary fencing.

The goat contractor will also be required to work closely with the conservation district and with scientists from the New Mexico State University Cooperative Extension Service, including livestock specialist Manny Encinias, who will be monitoring the project.

The contractor will be required to keep detailed daily logs of "goat browsing time and locations, as well as costs and labor input, watering, provision of feed supplements, interactions with coyotes and dogs, etc."

The goat project "is likely to have high visibility," the request noted.

So on at least one day during the project, the contractor "will be expected to be available to answer questions from the public and the media, and demonstrate the work of vegetation management with goats."

And the bleat goes on. After this year's project, the district anticipates bringing the goats back for repeat performances in the same section of the bosque in 2005 and 2006.

Survey: USA's Protestant majority might soon be no more

Yahoo! story
Wed Jul 21, 6:59 AM ET

By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

New statistics on religious diversity show the USA's historic Protestant majority has plummeted to 52%, and by the end of 2004 it may no longer be the nation's dominant religious group.

The percentage of Americans who said they belong to one of several Protestant denominations, such as Baptist, Methodist or Lutheran, or who called themselves "non-denominational Protestants," hovered around 62% from 1972 until 1993, according to the General Social Survey. It was conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago.

Then the number fell steadily to 52% in 2002, survey director Tom Smith says.

"Since colonial times, the United States has been a Protestant nation. But perhaps as early as this year, the country will, for the first time, no longer have a Protestant majority," Smith said in a report Tuesday. It was based on 43,000 interviews with U.S. adults from 1972 to 2002.

How quickly the scales tip depends on how statisticians count the rapidly growing Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), Smith says. The survey makes a theologically controversial decision to include them as Protestants. Nearly 2% of Americans said they were Mormons in 2002.

However Mormons are counted, the trend is clear that the Protestant share of the nation faces "imminent disappearance," Smith says. Factors driving the change include:

• A steep rise in the number of people who said they currently have no religion: 14% in 2002, up from 9% in 1992. It's even higher for younger people: Among those born in 1980 or later, 27% said they have no religion. "Each succeeding group is less religious than the preceding," Smith says.

• The number of people who call themselves just "Christian" has nearly doubled. "That category didn't exist in the 1970s. It climbed to 1.2% in the last 10 years and it is 2.3% for 2003 alone. Most were once Protestants, Smith says.

• Among all immigrants - 10% of the U.S. population in 2002 - only one in four are Protestant.

The number of Roman Catholics (25%) and Jews (2%) remained stable over the same period, while the nation's share of other groups, including Muslims, Orthodox Christians, Buddhists and Hindus, rose from 3% in 1993 to 7% in 2002.

The loss of a shared Protestant vocabulary and viewpoint has political and cultural implications, says political scientist Corwin Smidt, director of the Paul B. Henry Institute for the Study of Christianity and Politics at Calvin College, Grand Rapids, Mich.

"Growing pluralism forces an examination of our commonality," he says. "How do we find basis for agreement" in schools, neighborhoods and voting booths?

"It's a lot more complicated now."

Apple Introduces Cheaper IPods

Apple Introduces Cheaper IPods

SAN JOSE, Calif. - As rivals nip at its market dominance, Apple Computer Inc. introduced its fourth-generation iPod portable music players Monday with lower prices and longer battery life.

Apple said the new models have up to 12 hours of rechargeable battery life, compared to about 8 hours with the current crop. The prices are $299 for a 20-gigabyte model and $399 for a 40-gigabyte model — each $100 less than their earlier counterparts.

Since Apple introduced the first iPod in October 2001, the market for large-capacity, hard drive-based music players has grown increasingly competitive, with rivals such as Dell Inc. and Creative Labs trying to undercut Apple in price.

Competitors also boasted better battery life — the Dell DJ has about 20 hours while the Samsung YP-910GS lasts about 10 hours. The upcoming Creative Zen Touch promises 24 hours of battery life while the new Sony Network Walkman, due to be released in August, promises up to 30 hours of continuous playback.

Despite the challengers, Apple has sold more than 3.7 million iPods and leads with about a 60 percent share of the hard-disk drive player segment in the United States and about a 30 percent share of all portable music players, according to The Yankee Group market research firm.

"Now we're turning the heat up even more, and we're continuing to push the edge in the technology," said Greg Joswiak, Apple's vice president of hardware product marketing.

The new iPod versions are also thinner and have improved software features, including a quicker way to shuffle songs and a variable playback speed of audio books, Apple said.

Shares of Apple were down 11 cents to $32.09 in afternoon trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Tennessee May Use GPS on Parolees

Tennessee May Use GPS on Parolees

Tue Jul 13,12:18 PM ET
NASHVILLE, Tenn. - Seven contractors have expressed interest in the state's $2.5 million pilot project that would use a global positioning system, or GPS, to keep track of violent sex offenders that have been paroled.

The tracking technology was first used in Florida in late 1990s to keep track of released felons, and some cities and counties in other states utilize GPS for similar uses.

The Tennessee project will not be used statewide for at least a year after it begins early in 2005. It will be focused in Memphis and Nashville and other parts of the state's three grand divisions.

"Basically, we want to have a good mix between urban and rural areas," said state Rep. Rob Briley, D-Nashville, chief House sponsor of legislation creating the pilot program.

The state Board of Probation and Parole will decide where to use the pilot program.

Initially, about half of the state's 1,200 registered sex offenders will be fitted with bracelets that will be tracked constantly by a GPS system monitored by law enforcement.

"You all are the first in the nation to do this," Mandy Wettstein of General Dynamics, one of the potential bidders on the project, told a news reporter. "The country will be watching to see how successful this sex offender tracking program is."

Tennessee is expected to award the contract by the end of the year.

The system would let law enforcement build maps with "zones of exclusion" for the sex offenders, such as playgrounds, schools, day-care centers or the homes of victims. It also would allow probation officers to determine whether the felons they are supervising are going to work during the day, going home at night and staying away from restricted areas.

Removing, vandalizing or tampering with a bracelet carries a mandatory jail sentence of 180 days for the first offense. Second and subsequent offenses are a felony and could result in immediate revocation of probation or parole.

The Legislature appropriated money for the system earlier this year, and lawmakers are hoping for a large return on the investment.

"If you can put people back out into the community and have a pretty high degree of assurance that he is not going to re-offend, then you can take them out of the prison system, make sure they are working, and they can bear some of the cost of the program," Briley said. "It becomes a massive cost-saving tool for the state in the long run."

The system is Internet-based, so any probation officer or law enforcement agent with access to the Web can use it. It also does not require constant monitoring, with e-mails alerting officers if an offender enters an exclusion zone.

The probation board will collect data on the program for a year before reporting to Gov. Phil Bredesen and the Legislature. If the program is taken statewide, it could include other types of offenders such as those convicted of domestic violence or behind in child support payments.

"It is extremely exciting," said state Sen. Doug Jackson, D-Dickson, chairman of the Legislature's Corrections Oversight Committee. "This will give us the opportunity to reduce the demand for prison beds. By doing that, it will allow us to stiffen penalties for more serious felons that pose a much greater risk for the community."

Artists use Wall St tactics to fund art

washingtontimes.com

New York, NY, Jun. 30 (UPI) -- Some U.S. artists are borrowing Wall Street tactics, such as collateralizing, to fund projects in an effort to escape poverty and secure their futures.

Business strategies, such as selling shares of future art to raise seed money and establishing retirement funds, are becoming more commonplace among painters, sculptors and other fine artists, the Washington Post reported Wednesday.

New York artist Sharon Louden needed $20,000 to begin a large commissioned sculpture. Rather than charge the supplies to her credit card, she sold shares of the work, promising a profit for investors when she sold the work.

Investments ranged from $200 to several thousand dollars, and the minimum return anyone made was about $100.

In New York, MutualArt Inc. has established a first-of-its-kind pension fund for visual artists.

Participants must agree to contribute 20 works to the trust over 20 years. The works will eventually be sold, with half of the proceeds going to the artist's individual retirement account, and the other half going into a pool for all participating artists with a small cut for administrative fees.