|
University of Kentucky Cooperative Extension Service ENRI Task Force
|
Written by Nadine Kabengi, Assistant Research Professor, Plant and Soil
Science Department
Like their name implies, nanoparticles are very small. They fall in the size range of 1 to 100 nm, almost 100 times smaller than a hair. But despite their tiny size, they can have physical and chemical properties that make them different than their larger counterpart materials and hence extremely useful in new and cutting-edge applications.
In the last decade, the use of nanoparticles in consumer products have skyrocketed and nanoparticles and nanomaterials are now used in over 1,300 commercial and consumer products including food packaging, clothing, electronic devices, sunscreen, batteries, cookware, and even in some types of food. In addition, there have been nanotech-based nutrient and pesticide delivery products emerging on the market. Given that the products’ number is expected to jump at least three-fold by 2020, it is almost unavoidable that nanomaterials will be introduced to the environment through production, manufacturing, transport, as well as through consumer activities and disposal.
It is therefore very important to study the environmental impact of nanoparticles and determine any potential toxicity to our terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Early assessments are suggesting that nanoparticles are most likely to accumulate in biosolids or sewage sludge from wastewater treatment processes, which is eventually spread onto cropland as fertilizer or discarded into a landfill. Continued on page 2...
1 | P a g e
Noteworthy News
Upcoming Events
Grant Opportunities
Surfing the Web
About this Newsletter…
This newsletter is available on the
ENRI web site in PDF format. The newsletter is coordinated by Ashley
Osborne, Extension Associate for
Environmental and Natural
Resource Issues.
N122 Agricultural Science North
Lexington, KY 40546-0091
P: 859-257-2505
E: ashley.osborne@uky.edu
Find us on the Web: http://www.ca.uky.edu/enri/
1
7
8
8

Nanotechnology continued…
The research I am conducting along with my colleagues examines the fate of various types of nanoparticles in the biosolids and once applied to the soils their potential movement with runoff and/or irrigation water. The first set of experiments are bench top laboratory based whereby the nanomaterials (silver, titanium dioxide and zinc oxide) are added to some biosolids collected from three wastewater treatment plants in Kentucky. The next step along with collaborators in the United Kingdom, will be to scale up these experiments and introduce the nanomaterials to a set of pilot wastewater treatment plants where we can study the transformation of the nanoparticles through the process and their effect on the sewage sludge process itself.
The expected results will shed some light on the interactions pristine nanoparticles will have with organic and inorganic ligands in the biosolids and soils and their potential biogeochemical transformations. Most importantly, it will give us an idea on whether to expect any negative effects from the introduction of these nanomaterials to our ecosystems.
Extension Agents and Assistants: by attending you will automatically be entered into a drawing for a rain barrel giveaway. One rain barrel will be given away at each in-service. You must be present to win!
What: Residential Rain Garden Design for Homeowners In-Service
When/Where: August 3, 2011 at Whitley County Cooperative Extension Office; August 10, 2011 at Kenton County
Cooperative Extension Office; August 16, 2011 at Christian County Cooperative Extension Office
Why: As homeowners and property managers become more aware of the issues of stormwater management many of them are choosing to manage the runoff from their homes and businesses with rain gardens. Rain gardens are shallow depressions and serve as landscape features that can effectively collect and treat stormwater and reduce localized flooding. Rain gardens can be integrated into the existing landscape as a retrofit or be included in the initial landscaping plan. To effectively manage stormwater, rain gardens must be accurately sized and properly constructed. This 1-day workshop will present a method for sizing and designing rain gardens and detail proper construction techniques. Workshop participants will be installing a rain garden.
As a result of this training you will:
•Understand why stormwater needs to be managed,
•Understand the principles of rain garden location, design, construction and maintenance,
•Be able to select appropriate vegetation, and
•Design, build and plant a small rain garden.
Presenters include Rick Durham, Horticulture Extension Specialist, Brad Lee, Water Quality Extension Specialist, and Ashley Osborne, Extension Associate for Environmental and Natural Resource Issues.
Who: Extension Agents and Assistants (please register via CATPAWS)
Registration fee of $15 is required. Space is limited so register early! Contact Ashley Osborne at ashley.osborne@uky.edu
if you have questions.
2 | P a g e

th
KAEE’s 35 th annual conference will take place on September 16-17, 2011 at the Brown Hotel in Louisville, KY. This year’s conference theme is
Environmental Education: Everywhere for Everyone. We all know that environmental education is at home in the forests and fields, but it has a well-established foot-hold in the cities as well. Urban gardening, green building design, and cleaner transportation are all areas of focus in population centers. Wherever people live, there is a need for environmental education. Diversity of all sorts is important if environmental education is to be successful. We must attract people of different ages, genders, ethnicities, and economic backgrounds.
Don’t delay! Registration is now open for the 2011 KAEE Conference. There is a limited number of spots available for workshops and field trips so register now to ensure you will get a spot! For information about workshops that require pre-registration, please see the KAEE Onsite and Offsite Workshop Pre-
Registration Brochure online at http://kaee.org/ .
Keynote speakers include Dudley Edmonson, author of Black and Brown Faces in America’s Wild Places, and Mamie Parker, a professional fish and wildlife biologist and is often referred to as an uncommon woman in many uncommon places.
____________________________________________________________________________________
The Southern Regional Water Program has a long tradition of biennial Water Conferences, dating back to 1987! The conference offers the opportunity for Extension, research, teaching professionals and partner organizations to share research results, concepts and successful approaches for education and research in water quality, water conservation, and water resource management. There will be opportunities to obtain useful materials for in-service training in your home state, meet the Regional
Water Program Teams and develop collaborative relationships. This conference will provide a forum to highlight Water Program accomplishments for cooperating agencies, learn agency needs, and discover upcoming funding opportunities.
This year, in addition to a full schedule of sessions, tours, workshops, and a resource fair, the conference will feature a one-day symposium, September 15 th ,“Water Quality Nutrient Standards: Coming to a
Watershed Near You”, a discussion of how states will cope with nutrient criteria and what it means for watershed educators, agricultural producers, and urban residents.
Pre-conference workshops and a welcoming reception will be on Tuesday September 13 th . The conference opens Wednesday morning and concludes Friday at noon. To offset travel costs, the
Southern Region Water Planning Committee will offer reduced registration to Extension Professionals who participate in the conference. For more information visit the Southern Regional Water Conference at http://srwqis.tamu.edu/ .
3 | P a g e

Article and photos submitted by Amanda Patrick, US Fish and Wildlife (USFWS) Service.
Photo credits Debra Pepper, USFWS Volunteer.
Photo: Visitors walk through the Environmental
Education Center as lights are flipped off at the start of Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery’s participation in Earth Hour 2011.
On Saturday, March 26 th , 2011, some visitors to
Wolf Creek National Fish Hatchery (NFH) found themselves in the dark, all to raise awareness of the importance of energy conservation and the potential impacts of climate change to our fish and wildlife species. As part of the global Earth
Hour 2011 campaign, Wolf Creek NFH participated in the event by turning off all nonessential lights for one hour. To help facilitate the educational value, signs were posted, and staff were available with fact sheets in hand to talk with visitors on the significance and overall impact of the event.
Building on previous year’s success in encouraging other agencies, organizations and businesses, along with schools and families to participate as well, the hatchery worked on a larger scale in 2011 to attract even more participants, thus helping to educate and empower a host of new faces concerning climate change. Wolf Creek’s social media presence also played a pivotal role as the hatchery posted up-to-the-minute status info on Facebook, along with “tweets” via Twitter, to all following news concerning Wolf Creek.
Earth Hour started in 2007 in Sydney, Australia when 2.2 million homes and businesses turned their lights off for one hour to make their stand against climate change. Only a year later, Earth
Hour had become a global sustainability movement with more than 50 million people across 35 countries participating. Global landmarks such as the Sydney Harbour Bridge, the CN Tower in Toronto, the Golden Gate
Bridge in San Francisco and Rome’s Colosseum, all stood in darkness, as symbols of hope for a cause that grows more urgent by the hour. On
Saturday, March 27 th , 2010, Earth Hour 2010 became the biggest Earth Hour ever. A record
128 countries and territories joined the global display of climate action. Iconic buildings and landmarks from Asia Pacific to Europe and
Africa to the Americas switched off. People across the world from all walks of life turned off their lights and came together in celebration and contemplation of the one thing we all have in common – our planet.
World Wildlife Fund sponsors the campaign.
Become a fan of Wolf Creek NFH on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/Wolf-
Creek-National-Fish-Hatchery/66652068688
Find trout-tastic tweets from the hatchery on
Twitter - http://twitter.com/WolfCreekNFH .
4 | P a g e

Written by Shannon R. Trimboli, Reprinted with permission from KY Association of Environmental Education
Bats are an important part of our ecosystem and serve a valuable, but often unrecognized, role in our lives. Ecologically, they are a key nocturnal predator. For example, a little brown bat typically weighs between 6 and 12 grams, yet can eat 4 to 8 grams of insects in a single night. Bats that return to caves during the day will deposit nutrients from those insects as
When they traced the bats back to the cave where they had been hibernating, the biologists found many more dead and dying bats all covered with the same white fungus. They had never seen anything like it and called it whitenose syndrome (WNS).
Since 2007, it is estimated that over a million guano in the cave. In many caves, entire ecosystems and communities have developed around piles of bat guano.
The numbers of insects that bats eat are also important from a human perspective. Among the insects that bats prey upon are beetles
(some of which are known forest pests), moths
(some of which are considered agricultural pests in their larval stage), winged termites and ants (which could cause damage to homes and other buildings), and mosquitoes (which can carry human diseases).
A recent article in Science estimates that bats provide $22.9 billion worth of agricultural pest control each year. That estimate does not include benefits to forests or forest products, human health, nor the ecological impacts that might result from increased pesticide use if bats were not providing the natural pest control.
However, bat populations in the continental
U.S. are facing a new threat that could have a severe impact on bats’ ability to fill their key roles in the ecosystem and human lives. In the winter of 2007, biologists in New York investigated reports of bats flying around during winter daylight hours when the bats would normally still be deep in hibernation.
The biologists found that the bats were starving to death, extremely dehydrated, and had a white fungus growing on their noses. bats in the northeast have died from WNS. Each year, that number increases as more bats are exposed to the fungus and the disease spreads across the continent. Since its discovery, whitenose syndrome has spread to 16 states, 4
Canadian provinces, and the fungus that causes
WNS has been found in 2 additional states
(Figure 1).
Figure 1: Map of confirmed or suspected cases of WNS as of April
15, 2011. A suspected case is usually a location where the fungus that causes WNS has been found, but WNS itself has not been clinically confirmed.
This year Kentucky joined the infamous ranks of
WNS-positive states. On April 13, the Kentucky
Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources announced that WNS had been found in a colony of little brown bats (Myotis lucifugus) in a Trigg County cave (Figure 2). No signs of white-nose syndrome were found in any of the other caves in the immediate area or in the rest of Kentucky. Continued page 7…
5 | P a g e

WNS Continued …
Figure 2: Cluster of three little brown bats with WNS in Trigg
County, Kentucky. Credit: KDFWR/Terry Derting
White-nose syndrome is caused by a newly described fungus species, Geomyces
destructans. The fungus only affects hibernating bats and can be spread in several ways. The most common method is from bat to bat as they rub up against each other. The fungus spores can also remain viable in a cave or mine even after all the original bats hibernating there have died. This allows the fungus to spread from cave/mine to bat when new, healthy bats move into the cave/mine for hibernation the next year. It may also be possible for people to spread the spores if they enter an infected cave/mine and then go to an uninfected cave/mine without cleaning and decontaminating their gear and clothing.
With so many bats dying from it, WNS obviously poses a risk of extinction for endangered and threatened bat species like the Indiana bat
(Myotis sodalis), the gray bat (Myotis
grisescens), and the Virginia big-eared bat
(Corynorhinus townsendii virginianus). (Both the
Indiana bat and the gray bat are found in
Kentucky.) However, these aren’t the only bat species which WNS is threatening with extinction. Before WNS, the little brown bat
(Myotis luci-fugus) was one of the most common bat species across much of its range, including Kentucky. Current scientific modeling indicates that unless something changes in the near future, the little brown bat will become extinct in our lifetime.
6 | P a g e
As environmental educators, we can play an important role in the battle against white-nose syndrome. We can teach people the important ecological and economical roles that bats play in the environment. Many people don’t understand why losing a bunch of bats is such a big deal. As educators we can help them understand how the loss of so many bats can personally affect them. If people believe that it doesn’t matter if most bats die, then nothing else we say or do is going to make a difference.
Since caves are common in many parts of
Kentucky, we can also teach people about decontamination procedures that can help keep
WNS from spreading due to people accidentally introducing the spores to a cave. The US Fish and Wildlife Service has outlined WNS decontamination protocols on their website at http://www.fws.gov/whitenosesyndrome/caver s.html
. These protocols are based on current scientific research, and are updated as new information is gained about the fungus and better ways of killing it are discovered.
All researchers working in caves are required to follow the decontamination protocols. Cavers and other people entering or working in caves are also encouraged to follow the protocols.
True, people aren’t likely the primary method of spreading WNS, but through proper decontamination, we can help slow its spread by making sure people don’t accidentally bring it to a new location before the bats do.
For more information about white-nose syndrome, visit the US Fish and Wildlife Service white-nose syndrome website at http://www.fws.gov/whitenosesyndrome/ .
Additional information about the WNS-related research and monitoring in Kentucky, including the announcement of the Trigg County case, can be found on the Kentucky Department of
Fish and Wildlife Resources website at http://fw.ky.gov/navigation.aspx?cid=820&nav path=C741C761

Visit www.ca.uky.edu/gogreen/upcomingevents.php
for more information...
August 6
Smokey Bear - Happy 67 th Birthday
Wolf Creek Fish Hatchery, Jamestown, KY
Contact Amanda Patrick at Amanda_Patrick@fws.gov
August 11
Understanding Water Quality: Healthy Water, Healthy
People
Toyota Visitor Center, Georgetown, KY http://kaee.org/water-quality-workshop/
August 12
International Youth Day http://www.un.org/en/events/youthday/
August 26-27
Project WILD Facilitator Training
Wolf Creek Fish Hatchery, Jamestown, KY
Contact Amanda Patrick at Amanda_Patrick@fws.gov
August 28
World Kitchen Garden Day http://kitchengardeners.org/world-kitchen-garden-day
September
Organic Harvest Month http://www.ota.com/news/ohmcalendar.html
September 12-15
Southern Region Water Conference
Athens, GA
September 14
Big Blue Goes Green Sustainability Showcase
University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY
September 16
World Ozone Day http://ozone.unep.org/
September 16-17
KY Association of Environmental Educators’ Conference
Brown Hotel, Louisville, KY
Visit www.kaee.org
Upcoming Events continued…
September 18
World Water Monitoring Day http://www.worldwatermonitoringday.org/
September 18-24
Screen Free Week http://www.commercialfreechildhood.org/screenfreewee k/index.html
September 19-23
Pollution Prevention Week http://www.epa.gov/p2week/
September 24
National Estuaries Day http://estuaries.gov/GetInvolved/Default.aspx?ID=153
September 24
National Public Lands Day http://www.publiclandsday.org/
September 24-30
Take a Child Outside Week http://www.takeachildoutside.org/
September 25
Worldwide Day of Play http://pro-social.nick.com/world-wide-day-of-play/
October
National Farm to School Month http://www.farmtoschool.org/
October
Children’s Health Month
October
National Energy Awareness Month http://www1.eere.energy.gov/femp/services/energy_awa re.html
October 9-15
Earth Science Week http://www.earthsciweek.org/
October 10-16
National Wildlife Refuge Week http://www.fws.gov/refuges/
October 23-29
National Lead Posion Prevention Week http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/lead/nlppw.htm
7 | P a g e

____________________________________________________________________________________
Grants of $5000 or less (in the form of Home Depot Gift Cards) are available for nonprofit organizations, public schools, and public service agencies that plan to use the power of volunteers to improve the physical health of their communities. Examples of proposal being considered include repairs, refurbishments, and modifications to low-income and/or transitional housing or community facilities
(schools, community centers, senior centers, etc.); weatherizing or increasing energy efficiency of lowincome and/or transitional housing or community facilities; planting trees or community gardens and/or landscaping community facilities; and development of community parks or green spaces. Proposals are being accepted through October 31, 2010. For more information visit the Home Depot Foundation:
Community Impact Grants Program at http://www.homedepotfoundation.org/how-wehelp/grants.html
.
____________________________________________________________________________________
EcoDriving USA is a website sponsored by the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers. The website features tips on how to be an EcoDriver, has an EcoCalculator to compare the amount of CO
2 emissions and gas saved by being an EcoDriver, tests your EcoDriving skills with an online quiz, checks your driving skills with a virtual road test, and offers downloadable educational tools including tips, an EcoDriver’s
Manual, and a poster.
The U.S. Postal Service has Go Green Forever stamps which feature eco-friendly practices to help our planet.
Image obtained at U.S. Postal Service website.
8 | P a g e