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Dear Earthtalk, my kids just want to play video games and watch TV all day. Do you have any tips for getting them outside to appreciate nature more?

-Sue Levinson, Bowie,  Maryland

Getting kids away from computer and TV screens and outside into the fresh air is an increasing challenge for parents everywhere. Researchers have found that U.S. children today spend about half as much time outdoors as their counterparts did 20 years ago. The Kaiser Family Foundation reports that kids aged eight to 18 spend on average more than seven and a half hours a day—or some 53+ hours per week—engaging with so-called entertainment media. Meanwhile, the Children & Nature Network (C&NN), a non-profit founded by writers and educators concerned about “nature deficit disorder,” finds that, in a typical week, only six percent of American kids aged nine to 13 plays outside on their own. 
 
According to Richard Louv, a founding board member of C&NN and author of the book, Last Child in the Woods, kids who stay inside too much can suffer from “nature deficit disorder” which can contribute to a range of behavioral problems including attention disorders, depression and declining creativity as well as physical problems like obesity. Louv blames parental paranoia about potential dangers lurking outdoors and restricted access to natural areas—combined with the lure of video games, websites and TV.  
 
Of course, one of the keys to getting kids to appreciate nature is for parents to lead by example by getting off the couch and into the outdoors themselves. Since kids love being with their parents, why not take the fun outside? For those kids who need a little extra prodding beyond following a parent’s good example, the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), a leading national non-profit dedicated to preserving and appreciating wildlife, offers lots of suggestions and other resources through its Be Out There campaign. 
 
One tip is to pack an “explorer’s kit”—complete with a magnifying glass, binoculars, containers for collecting, field guides, a notebook, bug repellent and band-aids—into a backpack and leave it by the door to facilitate spontaneous outdoor adventures. Another idea is to set aside one hour each day as “green hour,” during which kids go outside exploring, discovering and learning about the natural world. 
 
NWF’s online Activity Finder helps parents discover fun outdoor activities segmented by age. Examples include going on a Conifer Quest and making a board displaying the different types of evergreen trees in the neighborhood, turning an old soda bottle into a terrarium and building a wildlife brush shelter. 
 
Another great source of inspiration is C&NN which, during the month of April, is encouraging people of all ages to spend more time outdoors at various family-friendly events as part of its nationwide Let’s Get Outside initiative. Visitors to the C&NN website can scroll through dozens of events within driving distance of most Americans—and anyone can register an appropriate event there as well. 
 
Researchers have found that children who play outside more are in better shape, more creative, less aggressive and show better concentration than their couch potato counterparts—and that the most direct route to environmental awareness for adults is participating in wild nature activities as kids. So do yourself and your kid(s) a favor, and take a hike! 
 
CONTACTS: Richard Louv, www.richardlouv.com; NWF Be Out There, www.nwf.org/Be-Out-There.aspx; C&NN, www.childrenandnature.org. 
 
EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to: earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.  


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Spring is in the Air, as are the Chesapeake Bay's Osprey

By Kathy Reshetiloff


The warmer temperatures have brought with them some familiar Chesapeake icons. The osprey (Pandion haliaetus) occurs in nearly every corner of the globe, but nowhere as abundantly as on the Chesapeake Bay. These large brown and white birds of prey, with wingspans of 4-5 feet, return to the Bay and its many rivers and creeks every spring from southern wintering grounds.

Lured here by an abundance of food, they feed exclusively on live fish. Curved, sharp talons and rough-soled feet are designed to hold onto slippery fish. Ospreys soar over the water or hover on beating wings to scan for schooling or spawning fish. Upon sight of prey, an osprey folds its wings tightly, descends swiftly and plunges feet first into the water. Ospreys are also adept at scooping fish near the surface of the water.

The Chesapeake Bay provides excellent nesting areas near the water such as duck blinds, navigation markers, buoys or man-made nesting platforms. Offshore structures offer protection from predators, like raccoons, and rapid detection and escape from danger. On land, ospreys may nest in high trees or on utility poles.

Ospreys 3 years or older usually mate for life, and will use the same nest site year after year A recently reunited pair will begin the task of nest building or repair. Spring courtship marks the beginning of a five-month period when the pair works together to raise their young.

A clutch of three or four eggs is laid by the third week of April. The sheer bulk of the nest and a depressed center conserves heat. The eggs, usually mottled cinnamon brown, are about the size of jumbo chicken eggs, and must be incubated for nearly five weeks.

Finally, the eggs yield their treasures: helpless chicks, weighing 2 ounces or less, that can barely beg for food. Amazingly, with plenty of fish, these balls of fluff will become soaring acrobats in just eight weeks.

By late July, most young Chesapeake ospreys are on the wing. By the end of August, both young and adults begin their southern migration to wintering grounds in the Caribbean, Central America and South America.

Ospreys, swooping and plunging for fish, have always been a familiar site for residents and visitors on the Chesapeake Bay. There was a time, not long ago, when their survival was threatened: They, like eagles and other birds of prey, were unable to produce enough young. Their eggshells had become extremely thin and broke before chicks could fully develop and hatch.

Years of research led to the discovery that a pesticide, known as DDT, caused eggshell thinning in many birds. The use of DDT was banned in the United States in the early 1970s. Since then, ospreys, bald eagles and birds of prey have made remarkable recoveries. Ospreys continue to flourish around the Bay, but they still face hazards.

Because they are very tolerant of people, ospreys will fish and nest close to populated communities. They often line their nests with a variety of natural and man-made materials. Some of these materials include paper, plastic, rope and fishing line.

Osprey chicks have been found entangled in fishing line or impaled with fishing hooks. Adults have also been spotted entangled in line. Legs, wings and beaks can become so tangled that the bird is not able to stand, fly or eat. Conservative estimates indicate that fishing line is present in 5-10 percent of all osprey nests on the Chesapeake Bay and surrounding rivers.

We can all help to reduce this threat to ospreys and other wildlife. If you are fishing, whether from a boat, pier or shoreline, retrieve any broken lines and drop them in a trash container. If none are available, take any discarded line, lures and hooks home and dispose of it there.
The resurgence of ospreys after the DDT ban is a success story. This success can extend to the entire Bay and other wildlife as we continue to protect and restore habitats.

Whether you're fishing, sailing, boating, swimming or walking along a shoreline, chances are you will come across trash that can be harmful to birds and other wildlife. But each of us can help. Simply collect any abandoned fishing line and other trash — even if it's not yours — and dispose of it properly. It's a no-brainer.

Katherine Reshetiloff is with the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Services Chesapeake Bay Field Office in Annapolis. Distributed by Bay Journal News Service.

Strategies Proposed to Restore Forests in Chesapeake Watershed

By Karl Blankenship


Every day, the Chesapeake Bay watershed loses a bit more forest and, just as predictably, the amount of runoff reaching local streams increases, bird and wildlife habitat decreases, and the potential to absorb atmospheric carbon is reduced.

Forests covered about 95 percent of the Bay watershed when English settlers arrived in the early 1600s, but just 55 percent is forested today and that percentage continues to decline. That has ramifications for the Bay's health. Forests are highly effective at soaking up nutrients, so when they are lost to development or agriculture, more nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment will make its way to local streams and, ultimately, the Bay.

"Forests produce the cleanest water of any land use, so the effects of forest loss ripple downstream and into the Bay, where the greater nutrient loads and higher temperatures generate conditions that threaten the Bay's abundant life," states a new Chesapeake Forest Restoration Strategy developed by the U.S. Forest Service.

The strategy doesn't set specific reforestation goals. Instead, it identifies activities with the greatest opportunity to incorporate tree planting and forest restoration to help achieve other Bay goals established by either the state-federal Bay Program partnership or the federal Chesapeake restoration strategy developed in response to President Obama's Chesapeake Bay Executive Order.

The activities, identified by a team of 60 representatives from agencies and nongovernmental organizations, were those most likely to have local support, the availability of existing programs to help promote them, and an ability to mesh with other restoration goals.

"With a lot of these priority areas, there is energy, there is opportunity, and that is why we picked them," said Sally Claggett, the Chesapeake Bay coordinator for the U.S. Forest Service.

According to the report, the greatest restoration opportunities include:

Fish & Wildlife Habitat: The strategy calls for protecting large tracts of intact, unfragmented forests and connecting them with forested corridors along rivers and ridge lines that provide habitat pathways for wildlife. It also calls for targeting the planting of streamside forest buffers, which can help absorb runoff before it reaches streams, in areas where they will also provide the greatest habitat benefits for brook trout and other species.

Mine Lands: The Bay watershed has more than 25,000 acres of abandoned mine lands that have the potential to be rehabilitated and reforested. The report noted that initiatives in the Appalachians have had a successful track record in bringing together agencies and nongovernmental organizations to reforest large tracts of abandoned mine lands, actions that could be replicated in the Bay watershed.

·Agroforestry: The strategy also calls for promoting "agroforestry" initiatives. Agroforestry incorporates tree planting in agricultural settings. The idea is to strategically use trees in ways that benefit farmers and the environment. For instance, windbreaks can reduce the impact of wind and snow on fields; incorporating trees on marginal pasture land can provide shelter for livestock while increasing biodiversity and protecting water quality; other kinds of trees can boost income by producing fruits and nuts or providing pollinator habitat.

·Urban & Community Forests: The Bay Program committed to having at least 120 communities develop urban tree expansion goals by 2020, and the forest strategy said that goal was likely to be exceeded. Trees in urban areas provide multiple benefits, such as reducing stormwater runoff and pollution while providing wildlife habitat and energy savings. Besides planting new trees in cities, the report said there are opportunities in suburban areas to encourage landowners to replace lawns with trees.

Contaminated Land: The report said the dozens of contaminated, or formerly contaminated, sites in the watershed could be targeted for tree planting. Such plantings could remediate contamination at the sites; reduce water pollution as many are near rivers and streams; and improve the environment for nearby neighborhoods. In places such as Baltimore, tree and marsh plantings have transformed once-contaminated sites to community amenities.

While those priority areas present opportunities, Claggett said the strategy was unlikely to fully offset forest loss in the watershed, which the report estimates at 100 acres a day, driven primarily by development and agriculture.

If all mine lands were reforested — and the report noted that some of those lands would not be suitable for forest — it would not fully offset the amount of forests lost in the watershed in a single year.

Claggett said she hopes that the strategy brings attention to the areas of opportunity it identified, as well as a renewed focus on actions such as planting forest stream buffers — a longstanding Bay Program priority that has lost momentum in recent years.

Although states in the watershed have planted 7,700 miles of forest stream buffers since 1996, the rate has fallen dramatically in recent years. Just 284 miles were planted in 2012 — far below the 900-mile-a-year goal adopted by the Bay Program in 2007.

"This was an important first step," Claggett said of the strategy. "But we also want to expand upon it."

To hold the line, and eventually reverse, the trend in forest loss, Claggett said the restoration strategy needed to go hand-in-hand with a strategy to conserve existing forests — which is under development.

The report cautioned that restoring forests is a long-term proposition "measured in decades not months" that would require support from grass roots organizations, individuals and government agencies.

"They say the best time to plant a tree was 20 years ago," Claggett said. "The second best time is now."

The report is available on the Chesapeake Bay Executive Order website: executiveorder.chesapeakebay.net.


Karl Blankenship is editor of the Bay Journal. Distributed by Bay Journal News Service.
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Dear Earthtalk, I'd like to have a garden that encourages bees and butterflies. What's the best approach?

-Robert Miller, Bakersfield, MA


Attracting bees and butterflies to a garden is a noble pursuit indeed, given that we all depend on these species and others (beetles, wasps, flies, hummingbirds, etc.) to pollinate the plants that provide us with so much of our food, shelter and other necessities of life.  In fact, increased awareness of the essential role pollinators play in ecosystem maintenance- along with news about rapid declines in bee populations- have led to a proliferation of backyard "pollinator gardens" across the U.S. and beyond.

"Pollinators require two essential components in their habitat: somewhere to nest and flowers from which to gather nectar and pollen," reports the Xerces Society, a Massechusets-based non-profit that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.  "Native plants are undoubtedly the best source of food for pollinators, because plants and their pollinators have co-evolved." But, Xerces adds, many varieties of garden plants can also attract pollinators.  Plant lists customized for different regions of the U.S. can be found on the group's website.

Any garden, whether a window box on a balcony or a multi-acre backyard, can be made friendlier to pollinators.  Xerces recommends  providing a range of native flowering plants that bloom throughout the growing season to provide food and nesting for bees, butterflies, and other pollinators.  Xerces also says that clustering flowering plants together in patches is preferable to spacing individual plants apart "Creating foraging habitat not only helps the bees, butterflies and flies that pollinate these plants, but also results in beautiful, appealing landscapes."

Along these lines, gardeners should plant a variety of colors in a pollinator garden, as color is one of the plant kingdom's chief clues that pollen or nectar is available.  Master gardener Marie Iannotti, an About.com gardening guide, reports that blue, purple, violet, white, and yellow flowers are particularly attractive to bees.  She adds that different shapes also attract different types of pollinators, and that getting as much floral diversity of any kind going is a sure way to maximize pollination.

Another way to attract pollinators is to provide nest sites for bees- see how on the xerces.com website.  The group also suggests cutting out pesticides, as these harsh chemicals reduce the available nectar and pollen sources in gardens while poisoning the very insects that make growing plants possible.  Those looking to go whole hog into pollinator gardening might consider investing $30 in Xerces Soceity's recently published book, Attracting Native Pollinators: Protecting North America's Bees and Butterflies, which provides a good deal of detailed information about pollinators and the plants they love.

Gardeners who have already encouraged pollinators can join upwards of $1,000 other who have signed onto Xerces Pollinator Protection Pledge.  And the icing on the cake is a "Pollinator Habitat" sign from Xerces stuck firmly in the ground between two flowering native plants so passersby can learn about the importance of pollinators and making them feel welcome.

CONTACTS: Xerces Society, www.xerces.org, About.com “Bee Plants,” gardening.about.com/od/attractingwildlife/a/Bee_Plants.htm.

EarthTalk® is written and edited by Roddy Scheer and Doug Moss and is a registered trademark of E - The Environmental Magazine (www.emagazine.com). Send questions to:earthtalk@emagazine.com. Subscribe: www.emagazine.com/subscribe. Free Trial Issue: www.emagazine.com/trial.