Interior design of Kaplana One Photo by Brian Versteeg

Our stories this week: Chesapeake Bay’s good news,  Kaplana –a NASA space colony, Howard Buffett’s “brown revolution” to feed Africa, bison wins new status

Chesapeake Bay’s Good News

The Chesapeake Bay is the nation’s largest estuary – 64,000 square miles of Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, and parts of Delaware, New York and Pennsylvania contribute fresh water to the Bay, and add pollution and sediment that has helped cause “dead zones” (low oxygen levels that kill off fish). Now here’s some good news:

Courtesy of the Chesapeake Bay Foundation

The Bay’s beloved blue crab population is up 35 % over last year’s growth. That means about 553 million were estimated by the Maryland Department of Natural Resources’ annual winter dredge survey. That’s the highest population in some two decades – and it may mean good times for the watermen who set out their traps and harvest crab for a voracious public. Two years ago a bush of crabs in a Baltimore restaurant cost $200—way above most people’s pay grade. Maybe it’s the Maryland/Virginia repopulation program that started in 2007. Clearly eight years of sustainable harvests have had a benefit. Learn more

And there’ a 21% increase in underwater grasses that serve as the nursery for crabs and oysters, according to the Chesapeake Bay program. Is this a sign that efforts to reduce pollution are working?  Check out the video 

South River Oyster Planting in Maryland Courtesy of Chesapeake Bay Foundation

Oysters anyone?The Chesapeake Bay Foundation  offers 10 facts you need to know about the bivalves. Just two here: they’ve been around for 15 million years and they can change gender!

A humpack whale in the Bay?  Weekend boating parties of fisherman got a rare glimpse of a humpback whale breaching – up to 10-12 times – in waters about five miles off Solomons Island, Maryland. That’s a trip from the mouth of the Bay at Hampton VA, past Tangier Island and Crisfield, and continuing toward Solomons. Estimated to be 35-40 feet in length, the humpback breached about 150 feet from the charter fishing boat! Watch the home video 

Bison Now Officially a National Icon

Bison national mammal logo

The American bison, which today lives in all 50 states, was once a symbol of the American frontier, a key part of the Native American life and economy, and a fixture on the back of the “buffalo nickel” 5-cent piece. It was almost driven to extinction—hunted down by the millions to less than 1,000 by the late 1800’s – before conservationists began to bring them back. Now the National Bison Legacy Act—a recent bipartisan act of Congress – has been enacted and made the bison the official US mammal. We’re wondering whether the status conferred on them  will finally stop Yellowstone National Park officials from their roundup of bison –sent to slaughter – which they generously call “culling the herd.”  What a ridiculous contradiction! Read the roundup story

NASA Planning a Space Colony

Ever heard of Kaplana One? It’s the name given by NASA to its developing space colonization program that may be modelled on the current successful space station.  Kaplana One would be orbiting stations that rotate and generate their own gravity, allowing astronauts and colonists to live in space for extended periods, and possibly for colonization elsewhere. Children born on Kaplana might then grow to adulthood entirely outside Earth orbit, to be part of deep-space exploration. Read more in Pacific Standard

Design for the Kaplana One space colony, exterior Photo Bryan Versteeg

Hummers on the Way North

Two hummers at a feeder in suburban Maryland

East Coasters alert! As of April 29, ruby-throated hummingbirds have already made the spring pilgrimage as far north as the coast of Maine. Typically, most ruby-throated hummingbirds winter between southern Mexico and northern Panama; some start moving north as early as the end of February. Check out the map online – this is just a sample – and plenty of other helpful advice on how to feed the delightful creatures.  National Audubon Society also offers good advice on creating a hummingbird friendly yard

Hummingbird migration map as of April 27 2016

Howard Buffett wants to feed the world courtesy of the Atlantic

Howard Buffet wants a “brown revolution” for Africa

When Warren Buffet announced his plan in 2006 to donate 85% of his shares of Berkshire Hathaway stock (worth billions) to the Bill and Melinda Gates Gates Foundation, he also pledged shares to the foundations created by  his kids Susie, Howard, and Peter. Each would receive shares worth $1 billion at the time; later, each also received an additional $2.5 billion. “In a letter to the children, Buffett wrote simply, ‘I am confident you will use the money wisely, each in your own way. Love, Dad.’”

This is a must-read profile in the Atlantic: Howard Buffett wants to address the fact that 800 million people in Africa don’t have enough to eat. He’s a farmer, with a personal, 400- acre spread north of Omaha, so he walks the talk. He has created four research farms totaling about 20,000 acres in the US and Africa where researchers from several universities are working to grow crops with the least amount of water possible. He’s traveled to 142 countries to look at on-the-ground conditions – including all 54 countries in Africa. He has supported conservation efforts to fight gorilla poachers and to relocate rhinos from poachers.  From the Atlantic:  “Instead of a green revolution for Africa, Buffett favors what he calls a ‘brown revolution,’ or, to quote the distinguished agricultural ecologist Sir Gordon Conway, a ‘doubly green revolution’—a focus on environmentally sustainable agriculture that minimizes erosion, preserves and regenerates soil, and makes the land more resilient….’” Read the whole story