The Marcellus Shale Boom: Who wins, who loses?
Juliana Stricklen and Dennis Childers, Guests
Wednesday, 14 July 2010, 7:30PM to 9:00 PM

Prof. Tony Ingraffea, Cornell University

Holding monthly meetings, as we did for over twenty years, has become an “unsustainable” practice. The Group simply didn’t have the funds to continue supporting this activity at about $1300 per year. We’d rather spend that money on other important member-related issues, such as publishing newsletters which reach every member. But we realized that we already pay for a space that is ideal for smaller gatherings: the Club office in Oakland, which can easily accommodate up to about 40 people. So we have created a new format for monthly meetings: Conservation Conversations. Every month we will have a core topic, some local or regional expert and YOU. If you want to learn more or contribute what you already know to the general pool of knowledge, we’d love to have you there.

There are dozens of areas of interest, some of which we may hit repeatedly. Many of us would like to better understand what is really happening with the Marcellus Shale. We’d like to know what the City and County are intending to do about the possibility of drilling right here… since leases are already being signed.

Juliana Stricklen, a Creative and Performing Arts High School Senior, received a $1000 award for a video she created on the Marcellus problem. It’s great! We’ve invited her and her teacher, Dennis Childers, to show the video and discuss the issues. We’ll also have current updates on State and local regulations and concerns about the Marcellus development. This is the biggest environmental threat in the last century in Pennsylvania and worthy of your attention. We will also show part of Cornell University Prof. Tony Ingraffea’s excellent tutorial on the Marcellus issues. This will be a hot event!

The office is on the second floor of a building that can be entered either at 3875 Bigelow Blvd or 425 Craig St., in Suite 202. Ring the buzzer at the door; when you are buzzed in, take the elevator to the second floor and follow the signs to the Club office. I personally prefer entering from Bigelow since on-street parking is easier.

August topic: the movie FRESH and more about Buy Fresh, Buy local and Urban Farming.

Interesting goodies and finger foods. Bring your own to share if you care to.

Donald L. Gibbon
Program Chair, Allegheny Group
dongibbon at earthlink dot net

Wednesday, 12 May 2010, 7:30-9PM
NOTE NEW LOCATION:
SIERRA CLUB OFFICE, 425 N.CRAIG ST., OAKLAND
CALL 412-802-6161 if you’re having trouble getting in or finding the office!

Bill O’Driscoll, Arts and Entertainment editor for Pittsburgh’s City Paper, is also a veteran environmentalist and outdoorsman. He tells us: “The Barrens are a low-elevation triangle of half a million square miles between Hudson Bay and the Arctic Ocean. Our 11-day guided trip was to their center—the Thelon Wildlife Sanctuary—a roadless patch half the size of Pennsylvania.” Join us to hear about that remarkable journey and the diversity of wildlife seen there.

And we’ll devote the latter half of that meeting to Matt Peters’ response to the Nature Conservancy presentation in March on the use of fire in the eastern forests. Matt experienced an out-of-control prescribed burn in Ohio that consumed an unexpected 3000 acres. Matt, an active member of Allegheny Defense Project, has some interesting thoughts on this controversial subject. BTW, a recent successful burn was held by the Game Commission in the Scotia Barrens, near State College.

Refreshments and conversation after the program. Contact Donald L. Gibbon (412-362-8451) or dongibbon at earthlink dot net with questions.

April 24, 2010

Imagine Environmental Charter School,
829 Milton Ave, Pittsburgh 15218
Off S. Braddock Ave near the Frick Park tennis courts in Regent Square.

Different films both nights, continuous showings.
Free kids films, 5-6 PM April 24

These films are selected for their high quality and the relevance of their themes to the environmental challenges of today. Some are funny, some are just plain gorgeous, some are infuriating. This stuff isn’t seen on your local TV or movie theater screen… except for Michael Pollan’s Botany of Desire, a great film you need to see twice anyway! (on PBS once).

The event is family-friendly and refreshments will be available for a small donation. Adults: $4, kids under 12: $2.

Continue for Show Schedule
(more…)

The Roles of The Corps of Engineers and The Nature Conservancy
It All Happens Right Here in Pennsylvania!

Wednesday, 10 March 2010, 7:30-9PM
Phipps Garden Center, Fifth and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Free and open to the public

Colonel Michael P. Crall, Pittsburgh District Engineer
Pat McElhenny and Jenny Case, Nature Conservancy

The Corps is involved in vital aspects of conservation and regulation of our waterways, from flood prevention to control of disposal of wastes from Mountain-Top Removal Mining. Col. Crall is an articulate spokesman for the Corps’ activities and can answer any questions, including those about new regulations about to be promulgated which may break the back of MTR mining.
On the other hand, the Nature Conservancy is doing exciting work at trying to lower the risk of out-of-control forest fires here in the East and to raise the germination rate for oaks, near zero without fire. This is controversial stuff in the forestry profession. Come hear what it’s all about.

Refreshments and conversation after the program.

Contact Donald L. Gibbon (412-362-8451) or dongibbon at earthlink dot net.

Two very different presentations will be included in the Allegheny Group’s monthly meeting …

From Irian Jaya to the G-20 Summit, Tropical Wilderness to Pittsburgh’s Parks - It’s All About The Wood

7:30 pm, Wednesday, January 13
Phipps Civic Garden Center
1059 Shady Ave at Fifth,
Pittsburgh 15232

From his amazing treks into the deep wilds of Borneo and Irian Jaya, Jerry Kruth will describe the wonders of those places and the devastation that results from personal desire to own exotic stuff. John Metzler will describe how he uses trees grown on Pittsburgh’s hillsides– one use of which was making tables for use during the G20. See more details on the meetings page.

Wednesday, 9 December 2009, 7:30-9PM
Phipps Garden Center, Fifth and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Free and open to the public

At this Annual December meeting you can be sure that the inimitable Luc Berger will delight everyone with his creative photography of everything including the kitchen sink accompanied by his droll commentary. And a dozen or so other wide-traveling photographers – perhaps including YOU – will share their year’s supply of good images with us all. We can use a dozen or so photographers to show their work and fill the agenda. Contact Don Gibbon to schedule your participation (dongibbon at earthlink dot net or 412-362-8451).

Join us for a always-interesting show and let’s get to know each other better afterwards with Holiday goodies – again brought by you. A special component this year will be Cat-Tail Pollen Bread, made by Don Gibbon, with pollen collected in the wilds of West Virginia! He’ll serve it fresh and still-warm with crab apple jelly.

Wednesday, 11 November 2009, 7:30-9PM
Phipps Garden Center, Fifth and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Public Welcome, Always Free, No Advance Registration

PRESERVE, PROTECT AND ENJOY

Backpacking in Yosemite and Restoring the Forests in Pennsylvania
With Marty Joyce, Troy Firth and Guy Dunkle

Marty Joyce has led or gone on some twenty-five Sierra Club national trips, an amazing record of leadership and participation. These trips have ranged from the recent one in Yosemite (the home of the Sierra Club) to service trips to water-based trips in the New River of West Virginia. Join us to see what he saw and how he did it. This time he’ll tell us about his recent backpacking trip in Yosemite. Revel in the beauty of this supernal place that some call the most beautiful in the world.

He will be preceded by Troy Firth and Guy Dunkle discussing how their work is fundamental to maintaining the health of Pennsylvania’s hardwood forest. Troy’s family has owned a maple-sugar “bush” in NW PA for over 100 years, logging it all the while. It’s more healthy now than it would be if he just walked away from it and “preserved” it. He owns other wood lots he manages by what he calls “restorative forestry”, usually using horse logging to protect the stands. He also owns a small saw mill at which he produces high-end hardwood lumber for furniture like my solid cherry roll-top desk! Learn what this all means for the future of Pennsylvania’s diverse second- and third-growth forests and the Pennsylvania forest economy. The Sierra Club is working to have the care of the forest recognized as a major form of “sustainable agriculture”. Wood lot owners specially invited.

We’ll have plenty of time for questions and conversations and looking at Marty’s maps and pictures after the program. Refreshments provided, of course.

Contact Donald L. Gibbon (412-362-8451 or dongibbon at earthlink dot net).

Instead of the usual 2nd Wednesday meeting, please attend the 4th Annual Regional Apple Festival on Saturday, October 24th!

When: October 24th, 11AM to 2PM
Where: Union Project, corner of Negley and Stanton in Highland Park

More information can be found on the flyer. The flyer comes with instructions on how to participate in the Apple Pie Baking Contest.

The apple festival is sponsored by Allegheny Group - Sierra Club, East End Food Co-op, Slow Food Pittsburgh, PA Assoc. for Sustainable Agriculture, PA Ag Extension Svce.

A Prelude to the G20 Conference

Wednesday, 9 September 2009, 7:30-9PM
Phipps Garden Center, Fifth and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Free and open to the public

Sustainable laundry drying, Donald L. Gibbon

An open forum led by Court Gould, Executive Director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, and Bill O’Driscoll, Environmental Reporter and Columnist for Pittsburgh City Paper.

Sustainable Pittsburgh has been all over the news in the run-up to the G-20 Conference as the “go-to” source for information on Pittsburgh’s plans for a sustainable future. Bill O’Driscoll has written for some 20 years on environmental matters, most recently about the facts, myths and challenges of sustainability. Join us for an open conversation with these two community leaders to clarify your own thinking in this vital area of environmental principles. There’s lots of hot air on this subject– let’s see if there’s anything solid!

We’ll also have a fascinating update on August’s Gamesa wind turbine program.

Refreshments and conversation following the program.

Contact Donald L. Gibbon (dongibbon at earthlink dot net) with questions.

From Don Gibbon, Chair of the Allegheny Group’s Environmental Education Program.
August 20, 2009

A roadside report on the need to repair wind turbine blades damaged in Texas by both birds AND bullets. This reported roadside encounter on I-79  followed our meeting a few days earlier, entitled “Wind Energy in our Backyard: Friend or Foe? ”

(more…)

Wednesday, 12 August 2009, 7:30-9PM
Phipps Garden Center, Fifth and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Free and open to the public

Altamont Pass, CA. Photo 2007, Donald L. Gibbon

We had a close look at coal and natural gas in Pennsylvania in July, concentrating on the hidden costs of harvesting Pennsylvania’s fossil fuels. We’ve got plenty, but what is using them in ever-increasing amounts doing to us and the world around us? We don’t see a pretty future that way. What are our options?

Supply and demand. The economists are right. We can increase supply of alternatives or we can decrease demand. Amory Lovins used to say (probably still does say!): “Conservation is the answer. What was the question?” The question this night is on the supply end: what is the role of wind power in PA? We’ll have a representative of GAMESA, the huge Spanish firm building wind turbines right in our Group boundaries in Ebensburg, explain their point of view. And that will be followed by Patty DeMarco, PhD, formerly Executive Director of the Power Facilities Evaluation Council of Connecticut dealing with such issues as nuclear power plant safety, energy conservation, and clean fuels technology, also a Commissioner of the Alaska Regulatory Commission, with jurisdiction over all electric, gas, water, refuse utilities and oil and gas pipelines. She is presently head of the Rachel Carson Homestead Association, and she will present a wide-ranging look at comparative impacts of wind and other energy sources.

Base your opinions on some facts! Come learn what’s really going on!
And stay for conversation and refreshments.

Contact Donald L. Gibbon (dongibbon at earthlink dot net) with questions.

Wednesday, 8 July 2009, 7PM-9PM (Note earlier start time!)
Phipps Garden Center, Fifth and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Free and open to the public

Don’t come to this meeting if you’re not ready for the cold hard facts! You’re being sold a delusion about clean coal and abundant natural gas. What you’re NOT told about are the heavy external costs. We’ll show you “Mucked”, a startling movie about the floods caused by mountain-top removal mining… the only way electricity costs are being held down today. We’ll talk live in the field to people involved in day-to-day recovery from these personal tragedies. We’ll show you what’s known and what’s NOT KNOWN about the dream of riches in PA’s reserves of shale-based natural gas. We’ll also show you WHO gets rich and who get ruined. These are the hard realities of the energy future, unless more thoughtful and brave people take on the entrenched powers and make sure the external costs are paid… by all of us.

Join us at 7PM for the movie “Mucked,” a hard hitting look at the effects of mountain top removal mining on the people and the surrounding natural world, followed by live phone calls to the field to community leaders. We’ll then review the natural gas situation and close with some action steps you can take right there at the meeting to express your own views to our leaders.

And we’ll top it all off with a giant pile of chocolate chip cookies and some other goodies!

Contact Donald L. Gibbon (dongibbon at earthlink dot net) with questions.

Phipps Civic Garden Center, 5th and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Free and open to the public

The reason that many people give for loving to live in Pittsburgh is that it’s so GREEN. The hillsides are covered with forests, the streets are lined with trees and the rainfall is quite reliable. BUT… there are serious problems behind this lovely picture. Newly planted trees along the roads have an average life span of less than seven years. And the rainfall is flushed off the many paved surfaces and into combined sewers that regularly overflow.

You can help in both of these areas, urban trees and water. Diane Krumrine, of the Friends of the Urban Forest will tell you about their remarkable “Tree Tender” training program in which you can learn how to care for the trees in your own area, even your own yard. And Lisa Brown, of the Nine Mile Run Watershed Association, will tell us about their “rain barrel” program, through which you can both temporarily store rain water and slow the runoff from your own roof.

This is both practical conservation and very interesting. In the long run it will save all of us lots of money: not having to replace street trees so often and not having to rebuild our sewer systems. And in the meantime, you can better understand both your built and natural environment.

Last month we had freshly baked oatmeal cookies and a great watermelon as the goodies to stimulate conversation after the program. We’ll do as well in June. Join us.

Contact Donald L. Gibbon (dongibbon at earthlink dot net) with questions.

Phipps Garden Center, Fifth and Shady Avenues, Squirrel Hill
Free and open to the public

NEO-TERRA –A MINI-FARM IN YOUR YARD:
more food from less space than you ever believed was possible.
with Gene Bazan and Tania Slawecki

This is the ultimate home garden, putting the lie to all the limits to productivity you’re used to. Following the models of Alex Chadwick and John Jeavons, Gene Bazan and Tania Slawecki from Lemont, PA has turned their yard into an earthly paradise. Bazan, originally a city planner and electrical engineer, now a PSU Master Gardener (this is his third career) and Slawecki, a PhD in Sustainable Systems, have combined their energies to create a space of wondrous organic diversity.

They grow most of what they need in the way of produce during the year, along with an abundance of lovely flowers and fruit. Come see how it can be done. You’ll surely be inspired to give it a shot yourself. Check out their website, neo-terra.org.

Co-sponsored by Grow Pittsburgh and the PA Association for Sustainable Agriculture. The program will have lots of time for questions, conversation and refreshments.

Contact Donald L. Gibbon for more information (dongibbon at earthlink dot net or 412-362-8451)

Environmental Film Festival Continues the Tradition of Showing Films You’ll Never See Anywhere Else

When: Wednesday, April 8th and Saturday, April 18, 6-10PM continuous - come any time

Where: Environmental Charter School, Henrietta and Milton Sts, just off Braddock in Regent Square (Not at Phipps Garden Center)

Showings of entirely different films on each night.

These films are alternately funny, peculiar, challenging, always interesting and often downright fun. The YERT film on the 18th will feature the film-maker and a lightning, funny monologue, plus Q&A. Great fun, guaranteed. The Real Dirt on Farmer John is unique too, in a moving, inspiring way. And Black Diamonds may even drive you to change your lifestyle!

The price is right! DO IT! It’ll make you feel glad!

Download the poster and spread the word.

Wednesday, April 8 Films:

• Dinner for Two - A funny animated look at conflict resolution - for all ages. (8 mins)
• Build Green - Exciting and up-to-date tour of green building, clever solutions to important problems. (44 mins)
• The Real Dirt on Farmer John - A touching, provocative and ultimately heart-warming look at the relationship of humans (and one particular human) to agriculture in our peculiar society. (82 mins)
• Coming Home: The Sacred Balance - Canada’s David Suzuki shares a powerful and intimate look at the innate need for a close relationship with the earth. (53 mins)
• Powers of Ten - An enduring classic short, illustrating the magic of “scale,” from the universal to the microscopic. (17 mins)

Saturday, April 18 Films:

• Garden Song - If you want to get psyched for gardening, this should do it! (28 mins)
• Eden’s Lost and Found: Philadelphia - If Philly can do it, so can we! How volunteer organizations have redeemed inner-city Philadelphia’s environment on a shoe-string. (57 minutes)
• YERT (Your Environmental Road Trip) - A zany, clever, fun, interesting and totally up-to-date look at what’s happening nationwide in the environment, with Mark Dixon, the filmmaker. Not to be missed! Really first class fun. Great for all ages. (about 90 mins)
• Cheat Neutral - A satirical look at carbon offsetting. Does it really work? (13 mins)
• Black Diamonds - Mountain-top removal at its worst. How it’s destroying our neighbors in West Virginia and what we can do about it. (72 mins)

Contact Donald L. Gibbon for more information (dongibbon at earthlink dot net or 412-362-8451)