The Natural Resources Committee of the LWV of Falmouth studies several different issues related to the important and fragile environment on Cape Cod.
Our committee chair has recently joined the Massachusetts LWV (LWVMA) Environmental Action and Advocacy (EEA) Steering Committee. LWVMA put out a call to the local leagues and assembled a group under two league legislative activists, Karen Price and Launa Zimmaro. Falmouth's Natural Resources Committee had worked with Launa to update the bottle bill when the League and other groups working together had generated a lot of support from legislators and had gathered enough signatures to get an update on the ballot. (With stiff opposition from the bottling industry we weren't successful getting a bill passed either way.) Pam agreed to join the new EEA Steering Committee.
The EEA Steering Committee has participated in one LWV webinar on Carbon Pricing https://priceoncarbon.org/general/oreskes-nails-it/ and will be holding monthly teleconferences. The LWVMA supported the 30th Local Environmental Action Conference at Northeastern University on March 5 and Kathy Mortenson and Pam attended from LWVF. The morning keynote speaker was Kandi Mossett, a member of the Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation of North Dakota. Kandi presented a powerful message revealing the devastating recent history of her peoples, three tribes whose home, even under treaty, once included a much, much larger area of rich agricultural land along the Missouri River. This land is now subject to subdivision by oil fields, roads, and hydraulic fracturing for gas extraction and the tribes have lost jurisdiction. While water is designated "natural resource," Kandi declared, "Water is life!" Even here in Massachusetts, where water is plentiful, we must all recognize that water is critical to our lives and to the living environment of our surroundings. Falmouth League continues to work toward water resource protection.
The EEA Steering Committee applied for and has received a grant to support a series of five regional forums on Climate and Energy Solutions. Falmouth's will be the fifth, November 4 on the topic of Local Environmental Action + Coastal Issues, and five members have offered to help with the planning.
Recognizing the impacts of climate change and both excess nutrients and rising sea level on our coastal town's groundwater and embayments, Falmouth's many local issues of natural resources protection are our members' major interest. We continue to participate with others in finding solutions for solid waste and wastewater management, water quality, open space protection, and energy conservation.
The Natural Resources Chair position is now vacant.
http://www.slideshare.net/wbws/wastewater-on-cape-cod-presentation