Stop the Mud Snails! CAP 2nd Quarter, 2007

The Issue

The New Zealand Mud Snail is
an invasive species that has been spreading through Western United States rivers and lakes for over a decade now. Recently, this species has been detected in a
section of Boulder Creek and one other river in Colorado. Because this
species is so resilient both in and out of the water, it is a major concern for
local wildlife biologists.

The Project

We wanted to raise awareness
of this issue for as many people as possible. However, through our research of the topic we discovered that the main
agents of transmission of these species from one waterway to another are people
and animals. More specifically, we
learned that anglers and people’s pets are the primary means of transport due
to their significant contact with the water’s ecosystem. Based on these factors, we decided to target
the angling and pet owners community for our educational campaign. Before putting together information and
fliers we spoke to a number of experts on the issue and even were lucky enough
to have Dan Shaeffer, a wildlife biologist, come in and talk to us about how Boulder is dealing with this problem. We spent two weeks researching the issue and
putting together fliers and designs for T-shirts and stickers to be offered at
local angling and pet stores. The
community members we contacted for this project were very supportive and were
more than happy to help us get information out to the general public. We were really surprised with how many people
were willing to help us get this message out and it made us realize that what
we were doing really affected our community.

What You Need To Know
About The New Zealand Mud Snails

Native to New Zealand, these snails create a major threat to our waters by
competing with native invertebrates for food and habitat, affecting vegetation
and other native biota, and can be detrimental to fish populations. These snails can live for weeks without water
and often attach themselves to your shoes, fishing gear, and pets. This enables the snails to spread easily from
one location to another. The mud snail
reproduces through asexual reproduction (cloning). This enables the snails to spread
rapidly. In fact, one snail can spawn
over 400,000 snails per square meter. This map shows the growth rate of the locations mud snails have been
found in the Western States from 1995 to 2007.

Carbon Neutral - CAP 1st Quarter, 2007

This quarter’s CAP class’
action project focused on educating people about the practice of being “carbon
neutral” and supporting renewable energy sources. In order to do this we studied conventional
energy sources, alternatives to these, and what it means to be carbon neutral.

In order to fully understand
carbon neutrality you have to know how the conventional energy grid works. We found out that fossil fuels, such as coal
and natural gas, are turned into energy at power plants and then that
electricity is sent to the “grid.” The
grid is best thought of as a general pool of electricity that is fed through
infrastructure like power lines, transformers and household sockets. All the houses and businesses in the
community are connected to the grid and use the electricity from it. Unfortunately, in order for this handy system
to function, we learned that the fossil fuels must be burned to generate this
energy. When fossil fuels are burned
they emit carbon dioxide into the air. In fact, when carbon dioxide is emitted into the air it combines with
other molecules and triples in weight, so for every 6 pounds of gasoline
burned, 18-20 pounds of carbon dioxide and other gases are created.  The existence of these gases in the
atmosphere is regarded by the general scientific community to be a significant
factor in climate change and, as such, the reduction of these gases would
benefit our ecological well-being. Also,
only 15-40% of the carbon dioxide emissions each person produces come from
their personal actions (driving a car, heating a home, etc.). The other 60-85% comes from goods and
services you consume via factory emissions, energy used for transport,
etc.

Becoming carbon neutral helps
to fix this problem. To be carbon
neutral means to balance the amount of CO2 you put into the air by either
producing no carbon emissions whatsoever (which is very difficult and nearly
impossible) or by supporting a Green Tag/Sustainable Energy Credit/Renewable
Energy Credit programs. These programs
function by calculating an individual’s carbon emissions and, based on the
amount, providing a dollar amount that then goes toward the subsidizing the use
of renewable energy infrastructure. Much
confusion arises from the question of if you get strictly wind energy once you
buy a Green Tag. The answer is no. The money goes to adding more renewable
energy to the “grid” in the hopes that in the future this alternative energy
will push out conventional sources like coal or natural gas.

We talked to Diane Dandeneau
from the ConservED program about local businesses and companies that are
involved in the carbon neutral movement and we even created a website that
should be up and running soon. In addition
to surveying people and then educating them about what they could do to both
cut down their carbon emissions and support renewable energy to supplement
their emissions, we spent over 35 hours researching the details of this
complicated and controversial topic. When it was all said and done, we learned a tremendous amount regarding
where we get our energy and how we can do very easy and tangible things to
alter this. Ultimately, this will be our
generation’s duty to convert the existing energy structures into more
ecologically sound and efficient ones.

Green Fact: June 19, 2007

If every U.S. household replaced one roll of regular paper towels with 100 percent recycled ones, we’d save 544,000 trees. Source: Green Life - http://sierraclub.typepad.com/greenlife

CAP-14 Post-Test Survey, 4th Quarter 2007

As the quarter comes to a close, I want to get some open and honest
feedback from the 4th Quarter 2007 CAP class to improve the CAP for
future students. This information will not affect your grade, but
please take it seriously. It will be reviewed by the school, the
Cottonwood Institute, and this information will help us secure funding to make this class accessible to other
high school students. Please Click Here To Take The Survey.

New Zealand Mud Snail Action Project, 2nd Quarter 2006

The Issue

The New Zealand Mud Snail is
an invasive species that has been spreading through Western United States rivers and lakes for over a decade now. Recently, this species has been detected in a
section of Boulder Creek and one other river in Colorado. Because this
species is so resilient both in and out of the water, it is a major concern for
local wildlife biologists. 

The Project

We wanted to raise awareness
of this issue for as many people as possible. However, through our research of the topic we discovered that the main
agents of transmission of these species from one waterway to another are people
and animals. More specifically, we
learned that anglers and people’s pets are the primary means of transport due
to their significant contact with the water’s ecosystem. Based on these factors, we decided to target
the angling and pet owners community for our educational campaign. Before putting together information and
fliers we spoke to a number of experts on the issue and even were lucky enough
to have Dan Shaeffer, a wildlife biologist, come in and talk to us about how Boulder is dealing with this problem. We spent two weeks researching the issue and
putting together fliers and designs for T-shirts and stickers to be offered at
local angling and pet stores. The
community members we contacted for this project were very supportive and were
more than happy to help us get information out to the general public. We were really surprised with how many people
were willing to help us get this message out and it made us realize that what
we were doing really affected our community. 

What You Need To Know
About The New Zealand Mud Snails

 

Native to New Zealand, these snails create a major threat to our waters by
competing with native invertebrates for food and habitat, affecting vegetation
and other native biota, and can be detrimental to fish populations. These snails can live for weeks without water
and often attach themselves to your shoes, fishing gear, and pets. This enables the snails to spread easily from
one location to another. The mud snail
reproduces through asexual reproduction (cloning). This enables the snails to spread
rapidly. In fact, one snail can spawn
over 400,000 snails per square meter. This map shows the growth rate of the locations mud snails have been
found in the Western States from 1995 to 2007.