September 2002 Newsletter

A Clean Forest in your Computer??

Our webpage is LIVE! Go to www.cleanforests.org to learn everything you ever wanted to know about Adopt-a-Forest. A few highlights: >photos of volunteers in action >complete Adopt-a-Forest Guide including before, during, and after suggestions for your cleanup >Interactive forms such as progress reports and report a trash site >Trash Team contacts >sponsors page, and >much, much more.

Take a look and send us suggestions. Does your group have a web page we can link to? Do you want to link us from your home page? Let us know: cleanforests@cleanforests.org.

It Makes Cents

The Michigan Forest Resource Alliance has joined our Coalition! MFRA, a non-profit organization dedicated to forestry education, has agreed to accept donations for the Michigan Coalition for Clean Forests. We will also be linking to each other’s webpages. If you would like to make a tax-deductible donation, make the check payable to: MFRA—Adopt-a-Forest, and send it to: MFRA, PO Box 388, Crystal Falls, Michigan 49920.

National Public Lands Day
is September 28, 2002
What will you be doing?

TAKE A GRILL PILL
Effective April 1, 2002,
most Liquefied
Petroleum Gas (LPG) cylinders are required to have an overfill protection device (OPD) in order to be legally filled in Michigan.

This includes propane tanks from outdoor grills, trailers, RV’s, etc. Are your tanks already retrofitted? If so, the valve handle is triangle shaped, not round.

If not, you can have your tank refurbished or recycled at most propane dealers. For a partial listing, go to www.mipga.org and check under "Members." Kits are also available at most major department stores for you do-it-yourself-ers.

A few volunteers have found old tanks during public land cleanups. Calls to the local propane dealer allowed for proper recycling. One dealer even paid a finder’s fee!

Abandoned propane tanks may indicate a meth lab. If items you find on public land look suspicious, avoid contact with them and call the local authorities.

dteenergy.jpg (23935 bytes) DTE Energy employees and their families joined the DTE Energy Green Team on Saturday, July 13^th to represent their company in the DTE Energy Cherry Royale Parade, part of the National Cherry Festival week in Traverse City.
Their "garden float," constructed by the DTE Energy Green Team and Grand Traverse Area Children’s Garden volunteers, received the President’s Award for the Best Built Float!
Well-known mascots Smokey Bear and Woodsy Owl rode on the float, waving to on-lookers and sharing important environmental messages "Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires" and "Lend a Hand, Care for the Land."
Immediately following the parade, plant materials used to construct the float were donated and planted in the new addition to the Grand Traverse Area Children’s Garden.

When was the last time you were carded?

People from all over the world send St. Jude’s Ranch their used greeting cards. The children precision-cut the card fronts and glue them to pre-printed card stock. They receive fifteen cents per card, which is divided between their savings and college fund and used to pay for special group outings. The program has been in place for more than thirty years. Send the front panels of used greeting cards to:

St. Jude’s Ranch for Children, 100 St. Jude’s Street, Boulder City, NV 89005-1618

To discover other ways to re-use greeting cards,log on to:www.makestuff.com/recycling/greeting_cards.html

Two Men on a Beach

Good Evening, friend! What are you doing?

I’m throwing these starfish back into the
ocean. If I don’t, they’ll die up here.

There must be thousands of
starfish on this beach!
You can’t possibly helpthem all!
You can’t possibly make a difference.

He smiled, picked up yet another starfish
and threw it back into the sea.
Made a difference to that one!
This year volunteers removed 4,032 passenger tires, 312 truck tires, and 42 tractor tires from public land. Recycling was paid for under Scrap Tire Grants from the MI Department of Environmental Quality. These tires were shredded and burned as fuel at a generation plant.
For an updated listing of landfills and transfer stations in Michigan, visit www.michigan.gov/deq and look under "waste" and "solid waste."

Partnerships Work!

We would like to thank the Michigan
United Conservation Clubs (MUCC) for
more than 10 years of service to the Adopt-a-Forest program. MUCC was paramount in solicitation of many of the initial groups who signed up to "adopt" public
land as well as getting the administrative aspects of the program, such as funding, letterhead, pamphlets, signs, and
certificates of appreciation, off the ground. Today, many of the MUCC affiliate clubs
are still adopters.

IN NINE YEARS…

A few accomplishments of the Civilian Conservation Corps from 1933 to 1942:
485 million trees planted; 156 million fish stocked in MI; Built the Baldwin Airport (and 21 others for fire suppression)Built the Seney Wildlife Refuge and Caberfae Ski Area;Built an outdoor auditorium at Interlochen;
Transported moose from Isle Royale to the U.P.;Built 7,000 miles of truck trails, 504 bridges, and 95 million fish habitat improvement structures; 140,000 days fighting fire; and the list goes on.

--Thanks Ken Davis, Archeologist, USFS