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Welcome
We meet the first Thursday of every month at
Life College
in: Room 335 in the Upper Gymnasium
at: 1269 Barclay Cir SE
Marietta, GA 30060
(770) 792-6100
Click for Map to Monthly Meeting Site
7:00pm - Social time and new member welcome
7:30pm - Program begins and lasts 1.5 - 2 hours
After Meeting - Social time at a local restaurant
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CALENDAR:
Sep 4, Thu – Monthly meeting. Dr. Katie Hinman of Bat Conservation International will present a talk with slides entitled "The Wonderful World of Bats" to tell us about bats, their importance to ecosystems worldwide and, more specifically, about the importance of bats in Georgia. She will discuss ways that we can help support bat populations locally. There are roughly 1100 species of bats worldwide. 70% are insectivores and most of the rest are frugivores. Bats play an important role in pollination and seed dispersal. Northeastern bat populations, from Vermont to Pennsylvania, are currently in danger from White Nose Syndrome, an almost universally fatal fungal infection that some believe may be unwittingly carried from cave to cave by spelunkers. Danger to bats in Georgia is mostly due to habitat destruction.
Katy Hinman has a PhD in Ecology and Evolution from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Her dissertation research focused on bat pollination systems in southeastern Arizona. She also worked as the state bat biologist for the Arizona Game and Fish Department and teaches at the Bat Conservation and Management Workshops lead by Bat Conservation International. Katy moved from professional chiropterology into the religious world when she received her Master of Divinity degree from Candler School of Theology. She is currently the Executive Director of Georgia Interfaith Power & Light, a nonprofit organization that works with faith communities on environmental issues, but continues to "freelance" in bat work whenever she gets a chance.
Sep 13, Sat - 9:30am AAS Site 1 Chemical/Biological. Team I Centennial Water Testing Team will meet at Rottenwood Creek in the Palisades area of the Chattahoochee National Recreation Area to do Chemical/Biological testing. For more info, contact: Didi or call: 404-401-4577.
Sep 18, Thu - 7pm Ex Com Meeting at La Madeleine at 4101 Roswell Rd NE, Marietta, GA 30062. map.
Sept 27, Sat - 9:30am Rivers Alive! Clean Up at Life University, Site 2. For more info, contact: Didi or call: 404-401-4577.
<More Sierra Club Events>
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ABOUT US:
We are an active group that promotes conservation, sponsors outings, and keeps abreast of local politics which impact our quality of life. Our meetings feature interesting speakers and topics and last about 2 hrs.
Click here to join the Centennial E-List to receive meeting reminders and the latest Group news.
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THINGS TO DO IN THE AREA
Notice: The following activities are not sponsored nor administered by the Sierra Club. The Sierra Club has no information about the planning of these activities and makes no representations or warranties about the quality, safety, supervision or management of such activities. They are published only as a service because they may be of interest to our site visitors.
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NEWS:
Rivers Alive! - Sep 27
Wanted: Volunteers
Rustle the Leaf Daily Cartoon
Environmental News
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Rivers Alive! Cleanup at Life University
September 27 at 9am
The Centennial Group Adopt-A-Stream monitors are sponsoring a Rivers Alive! cleanup at Life University on September 27, 2008. Rivers Alive! is the statewide cleanup that Georgia EPD organizes every year. All across the state thousands of volunteers will be collecting tons of trash that litters Georgia's streams and rivers. Centennial Group has participated for four years, though this will be only the second one held on Rottenwood Creek at Life University. We are looking forward to being joined in this effort by students from Life and (hopefully) from the corporate sponsor who participated last year. We meet at 9 AM at the 19th century village on the main Life University Campus. Breakfast snacks are provided, as are gloves and bags for collecting debris along the length of Rottenwood Creek as it flows through the campus. Sierra Club provides a barbecue lunch (usually hamburgers, hot dogs and veggie alternatives) and drinks. Volunteers are asked to bring a dessert or salad to share and their own dishes and flatware.
SCCG Adopt-A-Stream conducts monthly chemical monitoring at three sites on Rottenwood Creek as it flows through Cobb County and eventually runs into the Chattahoochee River. We also provide biological monitoring each quarter, reporting on the existence of microinvertebrates in the water as an indicator of water quality. We are looking both for diversity and quantity of the "bugs". Our data is reported to the State EPD through their website and provides long term information about Rottenwood Creek (as the efforts of other groups do for their creeks and rivers). This baseline data is useful for researchers, developers and officials.
In addition, once a year we make a major effort, called River Rendezvous, which is coordinated by Cobb County Water Department with Georgia EPD back up. This is a watershed-wide snapshot of the health of Rottenwood Creek. Ten teams of three or more volunteers collect samples and conduct field tests at 30 different sites along the 7-mile creek and its tributaries on one Saturday morning. The Cobb County lab runs complicated and lengthy tests on our samples, looking for the presence of heavy metals, bacteria and a variety of chemicals that can not be found by volunteers in normal field tests. This year's RR2 was held on May 17. We expect to hold another River Rendezvous in June 2009.
The Rivers Alive! event is rain-or-shine. For more information or to sign up, contact Didi Johnson at 404-401-4577 or didij@bellsouth.net
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WANTED: SMART ENERGY COMMITTEE MEMBERS
We're also looking for folks to assist our new Smart Energy Chair, Laurie Poppell, with the Centennial Group's efforts to convince Cobb EMC to abandon support for building a new 850MW coal-fired power plant in central Georgia. This is a group effort with the GA Chapter Smart Energy Committee as well as various other environmental groups. Substantial ground work has been laid and we are buoyed by the recent court order saying that the GA EPD must consider CO2 when issuing permits. However, that ruling will be appealed and there is still much we can be doing. Since Cobb EMC is a major backer of this new power plant, our local efforts are critical. If you have a little time and a lot of conviction, come volunteer!
For more information, please contact Jean Ann Wheelock at jeanann.wheelock@gmail.com. |
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Rustle the Leaf
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ENVIRONMENTAL NEWS:
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