Conservation Committee member Mary Van Leeuwen provides guidance about creating a nice lawn without environmental guilt.
Patricia Lukas, who chairs the AMC/Berkshire Conservation Committee, wants people to know idle cars can make for busy police officers.
If you’re interested in becoming “carbon-neutral” by purchasing carbon offset credits to compensate for the carbon dioxide you spew, or cause to be spewed, into the atmosphere, head on over to our “Be Carbon-Neutral” page to find out how. It’s surprisingly affordable, and your money goes to the building of clean alternative energy projects.
Concerned about global climate change? Want to avoid contributing to the problem with your lavish (by world standards) American lifestyle? Be carbon-neutral! Here’s how:
Leave No Trace™ (LNT) is a philosophy of backcountry recreation that stresses leaving the wilderness as untouched as possible by your visit. It’s also a program designed to assist outdoor enthusiasts understand and minimize their recreational impacts on the land.
In an effort to increase its air quality database and educate its members about air quality concerns, AMC launched its Visibility Volunteer (VizVol) program in 2003. The program, part of AMC’s “citizen scientist” Mountain Watch program, is designed to collect ozone and haze data from the peaks that AMC members frequent. Participants record ozone levels using a simple, credit card-sized device, and document visibility using a digital camera. AMC researchers will combine these measurements with weather data to track air quality trends in the Appalachian region.
Good air quality is vital for outdoor enthusiasts, who are vulnerable to elevated ozone levels and to airborne particles that cause haze.
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Environmental Affairs (EOEA), with research help from The Nature Conservancy, is proposing to designate eight large tracts of state-owned lands, totalling 52,000 acres, as ecological reserves. The reserves are part of a larger effort to achieve “green certification” for the lands under the Forest Stewardship Council, which would require the state to 1) develop and implement sustainable forestry management plans for those places where logging is practiced and 2) create ecological reserves on state lands that are set aside from logging and managed for mature forest habitat. Existing recreational activities would continue on the reserves, but new motorized recreation and logging would not.
In an effort to address the effect of greenhouse gases on global climate change, nine northeast and mid-Atlantic states are developing a regional strategy to reduce emissions of carbon dioxide from power plants, called the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI).
The mission of AMC is to promote the protection, enjoyment, and wise use of the mountains, rivers, and trails of the Appalachian region. AMC’s conservation efforts are focused on protecting the Northeast’s land, air, rivers, and trails through sound science, grassroots activism, and hands-on stewardship.