February Environmental Report

February is the last of our gray winter months. Here are some interesting activities to tempt you to get outside or in touch with the environment.

The Great Backyard Bird Count Feb12-15 Get out your paper and pencil list the birds you see from your window. If the weather permits sit in your backyard. Go on line to report your count. www.birdcount.org. This effort is spearheaded by Cornell University and Audubon Society. While it may seem a small effort this citizen reporting over the years has yielded much data that is important for the knowledge of birds—their numbers and where they migrate and when. All of the data gathered when added together really makes a difference. The web site is easy to use and a lot of fun. North Carolina had more participating than Georgia last year—please send in your report show that we care also.

Richard Louv, the author of Last Child in the Woods, will give a lecture at the Arthur Blank Family Foundation 6-7:30pm February 16th. This is in Atlanta and free but you must get registered. However, it will be web cast so one can watch from home. I found this book at the Novel Experience bookstore on the square in Zebulon while I was at the Environmental Studies School. He has many different things to say but in brief—he finds that childhood experiences no longer take place outside in unstructured play. Studies have begun to document that this is detrimental to proper development both mentally and physically and may have a role in the rise of childhood depression.

Georgia State Parks encourage bicycling-- www.GeorgiaStateParks.org/muddyspokes. Earn a T-shirt. The Charlie Elliott center in Mansfield offers trails for horseback riding, biking and hiking. Find a way to get yourself, your children and grandchildren out and enjoying our state parks. If they are online encourage the Georgia Department of Natural Resources web site and sign up for the e-news sent out each month. This month the articles include: saving the endangered rattle bush, manatees and turtles in the cold, bird nesting boxes and much more.

The Georgia Urban Forestry Council sponsors many tree related workshops all over the state. Check the web site there may be something you or your community needs. Remember ARBOR DAY—plant a tree this month.