Good News Prevails

by Jorie Latham

While it seems the world is shaken by more woe and worry every week, we are happy to be able to report some glad tidings in the Accabonac corner of it.
The best news to come our way in a while is the strong evidence that nitrogen levels can be reduced with a fairly simple approach that was used in the recent project at Pussy’s Pond. There are actually a few things to be pleased about in terms of water quality—not that it’s solved, but it is getting the right kind of attention. Look for more in Chris Ganitsch’s article on the right.

Another encouraging development for water quality comes from a proposition to modify the Community Preservation Fund program to allow a portion of those monies to be spent for water-quality improvement projects. As I was recently appointed to the CPF Advisory Board (quite an honor—and a great group to work with), you’ll find my name on that article.

We do continue to do battle on several fronts, however. DEC closures for shellfishing in areas of Accabonac Creek are of increasing concern, which Cile Downs covers in her piece. Plus, we continue to seek an end to the use of methoprene for mosquito control, while a new (and noisy) neighbor nuisance issue has come to the forefront, a subject Nick Bryan examines thoroughly as we mount a new challenge to limit use of leaf blowers.

Both of these are issues that will be covered in the upcoming PRFCT EARTH DAY on April 23.

About the APC website… I did mention some bugs last year, right? OK, now we’re launching an even NEWER! MORE IMPROVED! site that will actually be interactive, so when new members want to join or current members want to find out the latest information, they can! And it’s so pretty! Check it out at accabonac.org. And we have a simpler email address too — accabonacprotection@gmail.com —send us a note.

As ever, there are lots of new and ongoing stories here for you to explore. Dig in!!