The Great Outsmores

Dubbed “the environmentally friendly music festival,” the 2007 Echo Project aims to not only be environmentally neutral, but also actually have a positive impact on its surroundings. The three-day event will be held Oct. 12-14 in Fairburn, GA, just South of Atlanta. Free camping on the 350+ acre farm on the banks of the Chattahoochee River, and all amenities are powered by alternative energy sources. What about the line up you say? While you might expect the stages to be headlined by a couple of banjo wielding has beens, the schedule is actually quite impressive:

• Phil Lesh & Friends
• MOE
• The Killers
• Les Claypool
• The Roots
• Cypress Hill
• & a whole bunch more.

Visit The Echo Project’s website for more information on sustainability, tickets, directions, etc.

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Finally some good news. I devour smoked salmon in the late summer & early fall when they are on there runs in the West, in fact we were firing up the smoker twice a week or more this season. I do however worry about mercury levels in the fish, and steer clear of farmed salmon for this reason.

Now the good news: A team of researchers in Western Ontario have found that mercury levels in fish can drop off dramatically once mercury emissions from power plants and other sources are eliminated from the air above the lake surface.  It appears that fish gain most of their mercury toxicity from airborne mercury that settles on the lake surface.  This means that curbs on mercury output, once in place could have a great effect on mercury levels in fish in just a few years!

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The U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service has released preliminary data from its 2006 National Survey of Fishing, Hunting and Wildlife Associated Recreation, an assessment of participation trends among Americans over age 16, compiled at five-year intervals. Hunter numbers, according to the survey, fell by 4 percent nationwide since 2001. Only 5 percent of Americans now consider themselves hunters.

This isn’t just bad news for the hunting community, but for all of us who enjoy public lands and wildlife whether through a scope, binoculars, or a camera lens. Hunting permits and fishing licenses provide the bulk of state and national wildlife services’ revenue, so a steep decline in hunting impacts the bottom line of the regulatory bodies that protect our most valuable assets.

Read the articles here and here.

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