The Swamp Stomp
Volume 16 Issue 13
Just for fun try our sample wetland quiz and test your wetland delineation knowledge.
Loading 2016 Wetland Quiz
Author: Marc Seelinger
The hummingbirds are coming!
The Swamp Stomp
Volume 16, Issue 11
As an avid birder this time of year is always exciting. Each week we start to get a new wave of migrants up from the south. But this time of year is critical for one of the most amazing birds, the ruby throated humming bird.
In late February these little birds make the 1300 mile flight from Central America to North America. Many make the 500 mile non-stop flight across the Gulf of Mexico. Hovering at only 6 feet above the waves these birds lose half their body weight by the time they arrive in the US.
Once in North America they travel about 20 miles per day. They stop frequently to feed and regain their normal weight of about 3.25 grams. They are tired and hungry when they get here and many perish along the way.
Here is where you can help. Hummingbirds are a bug eating machine. However they need sugar to fuel the machine. You can plant a wide variety of nectar producing plants but for a quick meal a hummingbird feeder is a great way to attract and help out these little guys.
There are many feeder designs to choose from. Wildlife photographers prefer the perch-less feeders so that they can capture the birds in flight. While this is cool to see, it is a bit mean. How would you like to have to eat your lunch while standing and flapping your arms? A nice easy to clean feeder like the Wild Birds Unlimited High Perch™ Hummingbird Feeder features a high perch that allows hummingbirds to comfortably rest, providing you with better, longer views of the birds. This helps the birds save a lot of energy by resting and feeding at the same time. Think of it as a hummingbird sofa.
Do not use a commercial feed mix. Most of these contain red dye that is not necessary and there are reports that red dye causes tumors in the hummingbirds. The best recipe is a simple syrup of 4 parts water to 1 part cane sugar. You do not need to boil the water to reduce the microorganisms that cause fermentation. They are transported to the feeder on hummingbird bills so boiling will not help. However, hot water will help dissolve the sugar. However, don’t use hot water from the tap. There are many undesirable minerals and other salts that come out of a water heater. Just warm some water on the stove, mix in the sugar and allow to cool before adding it to the feeder. You can store the leftover syrup for up to two weeks in the refrigerator or add some mint leaves and rum and you have a Mojito!
If you want to keep track of the hummingbirds’ progress check out this map provided by Hummingbirds.net. They have an online form that you can use to submit any observations.
Justice Scalia and Waters of the US
The Swamp Stomp
Volume 16, Issue 7
The passing of Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia could mean dramatic changes in how the Court interprets the recent Waters of the US rules. Many Court watchers expect that the recent Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals decision to stay the Clean Water rule would eventually end up in the Supreme Court.
The Clean Water Rule has been on hold since October 2015. If the current rule is deemed illegal, it is likely the US EPA will appeal to the Supreme Court. However, the makeup of the Court is evenly divided between a conservative and liberal bench. Justice Scalia often sided with the more conservative side and many 5 – 4 decisions came down to his more conservative views.
In the event that the Clean Water Rule were to be deemed illegal and the EPA brought it to the Supreme Court a 4-4 decision would uphold the lower court’s ruling and the rule would be tossed out. If the rule were to be upheld by the Circuit Court a similar challenge by the private sector would most likely meet with the same split Court decision and the lower ruling would also stand.
The timing of the Circuit Court’s pending decision also plays a key role in how the Clean Water Rule moves forward or not. It is unlikely that a new Justice will be seated before the Circuit Court rules. However, given the amount of time it will take for the appeals process to move forward, it is likely that whomever is the new Justice will mostly likely be the deciding vote.
It is important to note however, that Chief Justice Roberts has somewhat telegraphed his views on the US EPA’s Waters of the US role. In the 2006 Rapanos case, he strongly urged the EPA to write the type of rule that is currently on hold. He said EPA didn’t issue a jurisdictional rule after the court’s 2001 ruling in Solid Waste Agency of Northern Cook County v. Army Corps. If it had, Roberts wrote, EPA would have gotten “generous leeway” from the court.
“Given the broad, somewhat ambiguous, but nonetheless clearly limiting terms Congress employed in the Clean Water Act,” Roberts wrote, “the Corps and the EPA would have enjoyed plenty of room to operate in developing some notion of an outer bound to the reach of their authority.”
Jon Devine of the Natural Resources Defense Council said EPA seems to have done just that, and it appears to have addressed Kennedy’s “significant nexus” test by relying on science underlying hydrological connections to establish its jurisdiction.
“I think it’s an open-and-shut case,” Devine said. “The agency is going to be entitled to a lot of deference in how they determine what waters need to remain protected.”
Many Court watchers suggest that the rule should not stray too far from the Kennedy opinion. However, much of what is being debated now was never addressed by Justice Kennedy. The recent 4,000 and 1,00 foot boundaries are additions never expressed in any of Justice Kennedy’s writings. His focus was to seek a scientific basis for a significant nexus to establish jurisdiction. The final rules do not provide any scientific basis for the boundary limits and are the focus of much of the debate.
“As long as the court’s makeup doesn’t change,” Thomas Lorenzen, a former environmental lawyer at the Department of Justice said, “this is all going to be a play for Justice Kennedy.”
With the passing of Justice Scalia, the Court’s makeup has changed. What remains to be seen is what the impact is.
With 30 years on the bench, Justice Scalia was the longest serving Justice of the Supreme Court. He was a great American and we owe a debt of gratitude for his dedicated service to justice. We at the Swamp School wish his family peace and prayers for their loss.
Happy New Year 2016
The Swamp Stomp
Volume 16, Issue 1
I want to wish you a happy and prosperous new year. Last year presented many challenges and opportunities in the Swamp and I want to let you know about some of the new and exciting developments we have in store for you in 2016.
Technology
The Swamp School first offered an online version of our wetland delineation class in 2006. In the ensuing decade we have learned a lot about what to do and what not to do with this type of training. Today we have a state of the art classroom management system that rivals any university online program. This past fall the Swamp School engaged a leading software and hardware consulting firm to take apart and rebuild our entire online learning system. Our new system is faster and more stable than ever. Plus it is entirely complainant with advanced security features including Department of Defense (DoD) protocols ensuring that your student information and data are completely secure.
Be sure to check out our all new Swamp School website. We have made it mobile friendly and a lot easier to use and find stuff.
Customer Service
We value you the customer as the most important focus of the Swamp School. Without you there would be no school, just a swamp. Consequently, we have invested and expanded our customer services to better serve you. Today, you can call our 800 number and speak to a live person 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Now we are not in the office 24/7, but your question or concern is our priority and it will be forwarded to the appropriate person and responded to within one business day. Oftentimes this is less than an hour if it is during the work week which is Monday through Friday from 10 am to 3 PM EST.
If you have a technical question we are only too happy to answer it. Leave a message with Rod our Registrar and he will track one of our Subject Matter Experts down. Even if you are not a student we are happy to help you with whatever wetland question you may have. You can also check our FAQ at SwampHelp.com.
New Online Classes
We have just retained new experts in a variety of wetland related fields. We are very pleased to announce that we are offering a brand new online class on Ecological Risk Assessment (ERA). This class is based upon the EPA ERA protocols and can be used for regulatory, policy, risk and other decision making processes for ecological management.
We are offering a new Basic Botany class to help our students catch up on botanical terms, plant identification techniques and other botany fundamentals. This is a great class to take to help supplement any of our field identification programs.
Starting in February we will be releasing a brand new wetland design class. This is a new approach to understanding wetland design. This 12-week class will prepare you to diagnose and understand how a wetland should function as well as ways to improve wetland projects in peril.
We have been asked by many students to offer a Phase I environmental training program. In the coming weeks we will be announcing the release of this new online program. It is entirely consistent with the ASTM standard practice method for environmental site assessments (ASTM 1527-13). We are hoping to make this announce in late February.
Wetland Certification Program
We are very pleased to let you know that we have graduated two complete classes of Certified Wetland Delineators. These students have completed all 4 of our certified wetland training classes and are now certified. They have a career distinction that sets them apart from their peers. We would love to include you as part of their ranks. The final class of the series is the Certified Wetland Delineator class. It will start in March and the field exam will be in Pittsburgh, PA in June. The other three (soils, vegetation and hydrology) will be each offered about once every 12 weeks.
New Field Classes
We are offering a new field augmentation program this year. About every month or so we will be hosting a one-day field workshop to help you with your field work. This is a perfect supplement to our online program as well as a nice brush up if you are a bit rusty with the new ACOE methods. The next session will be in Wilmington, NC on January 21st.
We are also looking to add a few more Basic Wetland Delineation Field training workshops in several new locations. We could use your help with this. Please post a comment below if you have any suggestions of locations that would be ideal for a wetland class.
Wetland Toolbox
We are now offering micro-traning in the form of an on-demand toolbox. Do you just need to know what the difference between and F3 and F6 is? Watch a short 10 minute video and you are all set. This new service is also mobile friendly so you can access the videos and other reosuece form the field using a smart phone or other mobile device.
Custom Training
We have expanded our custom workshop training to include online versions. If you have a staff to train and do not want to travel, either have us come to you or have us prepare a customized online training program for your team.
As you can see the Swamp School is growing. We are excited about the opportunities that are before us and we are always looking to those on the horizon. Our core mission is to offer products and services that will help you grow your wetland career.
Thank you for being a loyal Swamp School subscriber. None of this would be possible without the support of our students and subscribers. We are very grateful for all the support you have shown us and we look forward to helping you in 2016 with your wetland needs.
All the best for a great new year!
– Marc
What Not to Put On Facebook
The Swamp Stomp
Volume 15, Issue 52
On December 14, 2015 the Government Account Office (GAO) in an independent audit The Clean Water rule stated that the EPA in promoting the Waters of the U.S. rule violated legal provisions barring federal agencies from engaging in congressional and grassroots lobbying.
A specific use of a system called “Thunderclap” constituted “covert propaganda.” The social media campaign encouraged users to re-tweet messages in support of the rule without identifying the EPA as the source of those messages. Thunderclap is a “crowd speaking” platform that allows a single message to be shared across multiple social media platforms including Facebook, Twitter and Tumbler. The result was that the Clean Water rule message was posted on 980 separate social media accounts reaching an estimated 1.8 million people.
It is an impressive marking effort. However, they issue was that the message was not clear in its origin. The Thunderclap message gave the illusion that the public was posting these messages, when in fact it was the EPA. Consequently, this amounts to a covert lobbying effort that the EPA is not allowed to do. The question of what the public wants or does not want thought the public vetting process of regulations remains a mystery as a result of this contamination of the data.
So what is going to happen to the EPA? Well not much. They need to tell the President and Congress that they have violated the Antideficiency Act and calculate the amount spent on the illegal actions. EPA had reported to the GAO that they spend about $64,000 on the Thunderclap campaign. So far the EPA denies any wrongdoing and disputes the GAO report.
In other news, Congress approves the Omnibus funding of the government for another year. Included in that bill is the costs associated with full funding the Clean Water Rule.
“The omnibus bill doesn’t include a policy rider to delay a long-awaited rule intended to protect streams from coal mining, one that was highly sought after by some Republicans and feared by some Democrats,” Bloomberg BNA reported.
E&E Daily called the water victory for the EPA “more political than practical” since the Clean Water Rule faces challenges on so many other fronts:
“The administration’s rule, finalized earlier this year, has faced numerous legal challenges in courts around the country. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has issued a nationwide stay on the rule until the court decides where the legal battle over the regulation will play out. Still, following a Government Accountability Office opinion faulting EPA’s effort to promote the rule, appropriators asked the agency to work to heed the watchdog’s recommendations. EPA has rejected GAO’s opinion.”