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| A crescent Moon and a planet, probably Venus, seen from Lowes Grove after sunset in April 2018; a former Citgo gas station is on the left and a BP is on the right. © |
Despite light pollution being covered in Durham's UDO (Unified Development Ordinance dsc.durhamnc.gov/175/Development-regulations ) it remains abundant and must be increasing. In parts of Durham a clear winter night sky is black and sparkles with some of the brightest and most well-known constellations and on summer nights the Milky Way is just barely perceptible overhead, marked by the three avian constellations forming the Summer Triangle, high in the sky, but far fewer stars are visible than in rural parts of North Carolina, and few if any places in the state are truly dark. Unnecessary and wasted light can harm other species and human health and safety, besides ruining the night sky and wasting electricity, largely generated by polluting or otherwise damaging sources of energy.
When there are low clouds the problem in Durham becomes more visible. One night several years ago, around maybe 10 or 11pm, low clouds over southern Durham were intensely orange, as seen from the edge of Chapel Hill, and I heard that people called 911 thinking there was a fire. Circles of white light can sometimes be seen reflected above Research Triangle Park and commercial areas and when it is clear all of those photons still go up into the sky, where they bounce off air pollution, dust, and water vapor, making the sky brighter than it would be naturally, washing out the stars. From fall through spring low clouds turn bright orange for part of the night in one area. The source seems to be brightly lit greenhouses at the Park Research Center (104 TW Alexander Drive, apparently housing several companies, with the entire complex owned by an entity in New York City), across the road from RTP proper. The greenhouses are visible, an amber glow through the bare trees, across South Alston Road and the Burdens Creek valley from what is now called Falls Pointe at the Park (100 Cascade Falls Lane off of South Alston, www.fallspointeattheparkapartments.com see a previous post: www.durhamspark.blogspot.com/2018/12/burdens-creek-bluff-and-surrounding.html ). The light pollution is bright enough that branches are clear in photos taken with a plain digital camera miles away. At the Stonesthrow Apartments, right next to the greenhouses, the reflected light is so bright that it is possible to read a book by it. Surely this has biological effects and pollutes the common night sky for everyone over a large part of south Durham. Durham officials measured the light levels, but as I recall the light is considered indoors and therefore not covered by the UDO, despite the walls and ceilings being clear glass, so the situation has continued for probably more than 10 years. There are other large greenhouses in RTP, such as at agribusiness company Syngenta on Davis Drive just north of Highway 54 and I-40.
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| The orange glow seen from a few miles away February 11, 2013. © |
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| The Moon and an orange cloud (and a light) seen from a CVS on Highway 55, closer than the location above. © |
At UNC, the Biology Department had a small greenhouse behind Coker Hall, but it was replaced by a larger one on top of the newer Genomics building, like a lighthouse at night. The brilliant white floodlights over the sports fields along South Road are intense, and are often left on when the fields are not in use. Indoor lights are left on, despite older buildings having signs on the switches, perhaps a response to the oil crisis of the 70's (stemming from US and other “Western” imperialist backing of Israel around the 1973 Arab-Israeli War), saying to turn lights off when not in use. In at least some classrooms the lights automatically turn off towards midnight, many hours after classes usually end. In addition, large windows without screens are frequently left open, such as at Hamilton Hall, even during the winter so insects and other animals come in (and then traps are used, the subject of a future post) and the heated or cooled air goes out. Some windows and doors aren't well-sealed to begin with even in newer buildings. UNC is supposed to be reducing its carbon footprint, but I think it originally promised student groups that it would close its coal-burning co-generation plant by now.
There is the bright orange light over RTP and a less glaringly obvious bluish-white glow over Southpoint Mall and the surrounding strip malls, car dealerships, and offices. A recent study in Tucson, Arizona, which has centrally controlled LED streetlights with full cut-off shielding (preventing light from going upward), found that less than 20% of the light measured from orbit was from streetlights (see a brief article in the March 2021 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine). Sometimes sweeping beams of light can be seen when it is clear, but they might not be permanent features. The fact that cloudy skies are so bright (called sky glow) is probably another example of light pollution, in this case non-point pollution coming from thousands of small to large sources. Next time snow or ice causes widespread power outages, consider how bright it is at night. Why does the landscape look so well-lit, when no sources of light are visible? Our eyes do slowly adapt to the dark, but it still seems much brighter than it should be when lights are off over a large area and the Moon and stars are hidden. I notice this most when there is snow, but it might also apply after a hurricane. There is ground level light pollution include glare and visual clutter from sources such as area lights (UNC is full of examples, as are gas stations) and LED signs (such as at the corner of 54 and Blue Ridge Road at the State Fairgrounds and one near the corner of Highway 54 and Barbee Road in Durham, which replaced a plain sign removed during the construction of Pulte's neighboring 54 Station, but it might be less noticeable now with the new LED streetlights; see the linked post), and light trespass into yards and windows. Excessive outdoor lighting or light profligacy could make people more rather than less vulnerable to crime and wastes electricity.
Light pollution from human activity in space is a new problem. Currently there is a lot of concern about the launch of many new communications satellites, eventually to number in the tens of thousands, by US SpaceX, British OneWeb, and possibly by Amazon and others, to provide high-speed broadband Internet access in places not served by terrestrial infrastructure. These relatively small satellites, currently being launched, are going into low-Earth orbit and therefore more visible than much larger communication satellites in higher geosynchronous orbits, though possibly the new satellites are not very noticeable in urban and suburban skies. The number of satellites and their ability to autonomously maneuver makes it difficult for astronomers to avoid imaging them with telescopes. The satellites can be made darker and it is possible to reduce the impact on radio telescopes, but these measures are up to the companies and might not solve the problems. A US law banning “obtrusive space advertising” is the only regulation covering light pollution from space, according to an article in Sky and Telescope magazine (March 2020). There is a higher risk of collision and malfunctions with so many new satellites, leading to more space debris, which is an increasing problem, because even tiny objects traveling around the Earth at tremendous speeds can disable satellites and threaten astronauts. Recently the crew of the International Space Station had to prepare to flee as a piece of space debris approached and satellites have collided (Wikipedia says the first high-speed collision was February 10, 2009, destroying an active Iridium communications satellite, a leftover from a similar project to provide connectivity from low Earth orbit).
SpaceX has claimed that its space-based Internet service will pay for a corporate human mission to Mars. An article in the November 2020 issue of Air and Space/Smithsonian magazine ( www.airspacemag.com/ ) discusses speculation that rather than just connecting the billions of people worldwide who lack Internet access SpaceX will instead serve the US military and that this is an area of US soft power competition with China (specifically with the Huawei company). According to Wikipedia the SpaceX project is already receiving Federal subsidies to provide domestic civilian Internet access in rural areas and has been successfully tested with US weapon systems. The British government invested in OneWeb for its own soft power projection. On the other hand, previous attempts to provide Internet access from space have failed, so these new satellite megaconstellation projects might not be completed.
For more information, see an article in the March 2020 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine ( skyandtelescope.org/ ), covering the problems posed for optical and radio astronomy. There have also been shorter updates and a related article on observing geosynchronous satellites in the October 2020 issue. The article in Air and Space focuses on the business aspect, with little mention of pollution.
A few decades ago there were ambitious proposals to generate solar power in space and manufacture in orbit, potentially reducing pollution on the ground and solving some of the drawbacks of using solar energy on a large scale. On the other hand I think the 1972 book Limits to Growth by the Club of Rome projected that collapse would come even with access to extra resources from space. Perhaps this could be called offshoring industry to space, instead of where it actually went. In the 90's Russia experimented with reflecting sunlight from space to light up cropland at night. Several years ago orbiting solar powerstations was discussed in the Raleigh News and Observer and one letter to the editor talked about probably nonsensical 'death rays' from space. In the original proposal energy would have been beamed to collector stations on Earth as apparently weak and mostly harmless microwaves, similar to radio waves.
Light pollution can have an impact on the plants. Day length controls the seasonal life cycles of many plants, and influences leaf form and root growth. Plants judge day length by sensing red wavelengths, at intensities much less than that required for photosynthesis, or for reading a book, and a short period with light is enough to confuse them. Various plants respond to day length differently, for example many houseplants ignore daylength, because daylength does not vary much over the year in their native tropical habitat, but confusion caused by indoor lighting makes it difficult to grow some vegetables and flowers that come from higher lattitudes indoors. Plants outdoors exposed to artificial light could grow in the fall instead of preparing to go dormant, especially vigorously growing plants or branches, and plants exposed to constant light more readily suffer damage from air pollution or drought. Trees can be seen producing new leaves in the fall after a severe drought, though it is unclear to what extent this is due to light pollution. I have seen tuliptree branches surrounding a streetlight still with foliage in December, while red maples and Japanese maples not so close lights produced new leaves in fall following severe droughts, such as in 2019. There are nearby silver maples that often retain some foliage into winter, though silver maples generally seem to lose their leaves early, but again it is not clear how much this is due to streetlights not far from the trees. Occasionally trees try to grow in the winter for other reasons, such as after severe injury and/or drought, and some deciduous species are somewhat evergreen when young.
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| This young tuliptree next to a streetlight in Durham still had a lot of green foliage December 11, 2016. © |
Different species have different light sensitivities. According to a forestry bulletin from Purdue University trees such as boxelders (a species of maple), many birches, hornbeams, dogwoods, American beech, tuliptrees, sycamores, cottonwoods, black locusts, hemlocks, and American and Siberian elms are among the most sensitive trees. High-pressure sodium lights most impact plants, along with incandescent bulbs, unless they are low intensity. Purdue recommends mercury vapor, metal halide, and fluorescent lights, in order of increasing risk. Unfortunately these blue-rich lights are very attractive for insects.
Many insects are attracted to light, especially blue light, though not all insects or moths are attracted to light. Low-pressure sodium attracts few insects, but instead it can cause insects to rest as if it were daytime. Once insects or other animals are drawn to lights, they waste energy needed for survival and are more exposed to predation. Treefrogs often hunt around porchlights and spiders spin their webs nearby, while bats circle around streetlights. Some moths can hear bats and avoid them, but mercury vapor lights somehow interfere with this defense.
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| A light left on overnight at the entrance to Jordan Lake State Recreation Area's Seaforth day-use area attracted many moths, including a rosy maple moth, dagger moths, and what seems to be an oakworm moth of some kind. © |
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| A large imperial moth and an unidentified underwing moth found outside a building at UNC; there was also a green June beetle. © |
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| Moth wings, mostly from luna moths, discarded by predators at Falls Lake State Recreation Area; the predators were probably aided by the park's lights. © |
A few years ago it was discovered that
a dung beetle navigates by the Milky Way, which probably has not been
possible over vast areas of the world for a long time, unless the
beetles have a way to see the Galaxy that humans lack. The Milky Way
seems to be an almost imperceptible glimmer in the Triangle during
the summer, at best. The Milky Way is in the sky all year, but if I
have seen it at all, it is only when the Summer Triangle asterism,
which includes a segment of the Milky Way, is high on summer nights,
and our galaxy might be visible as a barely brighter strip of sky.
Reportedly after an earthquake knocked out the power in Los Angeles
people were frightened when they looked up and saw the arc of the
Milky Way, though it was a familiar milky-looking glimmer in the night sky
throughout the existence of humanity, until several decades ago.
The media airs satellite images showing the mostly dark, heavily sanctioned DPR Korea contrasting with the brilliant glow radiating out of the ROK and northeastern China, but while capitalist East Asian cities are spectacles to see (apparently Hong Kong has been called the most light polluted city on Earth), all that light represents wasted energy, probably generated by burning fossil fuels or dams, and climate change is becoming more and more obvious around the world and could ultimately burn us all.
Predators can benefit from artificial lighting, but this upsets the ecological balance. In Switzerland when streetlights were installed in some valleys, a bat that did not hunt at streetlights went locally extinct while a similar species that could make use of the lights made inroads, though light was probably not the only factor. Large toads enter streets to hunt under neighborhood streetlights on summer nights here, where they frequently get run over. Apparently amphibian eyes can take hours to recover after exposure to bright light, so they may be left blinded by passing cars. It is probably well-known that coastal light pollution confuses endangered sea turtle hatchlings, as well as disrupting the vertical migrations of zooplankton, tinkering with the base of the marine food chain. Commercial fishing actually introduces a lot of light pollution far out in the ocean in some places, visible from space. Many aquatic animals are attracted to light at night and marine organisms use light to lure prey or startle predators.
Birds migrating at night, especially in storms, are attracted to lights and crash to the ground after collisions or exhaustion. Thousands of birds can die at once when flocks of waterfowl mistake parking lots for water and try to land as if on water. The Fatal Light Awareness Program (www.flap.org) estimated that one to ten birds die per building per year, due to collisions with glass or light pollution, and 100 million to one billion migrating birds die each year in North America (this might refer only to the USA and Canada). People sometimes complain about depredations by cats, but might be ignoring losses due to buildings, windows, habitat loss, insecticides, climate change, airplanes, and the increasingly powerful wind energy lobby. If birds and other wildlife are killed by proposed wind turbines beyond the horizon off the Outer Banks, how will we know? It also seems like marine life would be disturbed by offshore construction, as it would be by oil exploration. Like a full Moon, artificial light prompts birds like mockingbirds to sing at night, with unknown impacts (see the link to an upcoming webinar on new research below). Mammals generally avoid lit-up areas, so lights could drive them away from habitats they could otherwise inhabit (this might include bobcats, which are still sometimes seen in the Triangle).
There have been few studies of light pollution's affects on us, but artificial light at night may cause cancer and could damage eyesight and is supposed to contribute to sleep problems. Working at night is supposed to increase the risk of various diseases. There are conflicting studies regarding crime, but criminal activity is more visible with motion sensitive lighting than continuous lighting. It would not be surprising if all the glare at UNC increases crime and it detracts from the beauty of the campus.
The night sky is a commons everyone had access to just by looking up, until air pollution and light pollution became abundant, another example of business dumping its externalities and abusing or expropriating the commons for private use, though in the case of light pollution we also do it to ourselves on a smaller scale. The starlit sky was important in human development, though things are much more abstract now, so religious ritual is conducted indoors, abstracted and estranged from our natural environment; astronomers don't have to observe at night; and the heavens are now a destination for tourism, neoliberalism, and warfare. Despoiling a lifeless celestial body like the Moon might not be the same as despoiling the Earth's living biosphere, but damage to the environment, our common cultural heritage, and Space Age historic sites on other worlds is still likely. US space policy under Trump, Obama, Bush, etc. seeks a cosmos under neoliberalism and imperialism. At state parks in rural eastern North Carolina, such as Jones Lake, there is little light pollution and the sky is so full of stars that it can be hard to recognize the constellations, but these are still not primordially dark skies. Amateur astronomy groups from the Triangle have to travel to places such as Medoc Mountain State Park to find relatively dark skies. Jordan Lake has darker skies than Durham, but the Milky Way is still obscured.
Fortunately there are low-hanging fruit on the path to restoring the night sky. Lights should be shielded so they only shine downward and turned off or dimmed when not in use, though a large percent of light still reflects off the ground and into the sky, such as at the vast and empty after hours parking lots around Southpoint Mall and neighboring strip malls. Outdoor lights should be checked regularly to make sure they stay correctly aimed. It is helpful to organize residential outdoor lights in separately controlled zones. Designers recommend beginning with less illumination than you think you need, to avoiding putting in too much. If a transformer is necessary, factor in how many lights you might connect to it when deciding on wattage. Lights might be placed around pools for safety, but fish are not immune to light pollution and can sense electromagnetic fields. Use high-quality fittings, especially for more exposed low-voltage systems. The International Dark Sky Association ( www.darksky.org ) has recommendations on design and specific fixtures.
Exterior lights require much less intense wattage than interior lights, and soft lighting usually looks best. Low pressure sodium bulbs minimize light pollution, but they produce monochromatic yellow light. An increasing problem is blue-rich white light (BRWL), produced by otherwise environmentally-friendly LEDs. Our eyes are especially sensitive to blue light, so we perceive more intense pollution from them (consider how blinding oncoming blueish-white car headlights are), though this light transmits a shorter distance through the air than redder light. BRWL lengthens the time necessary for our eyes to adapt to darkness and is less visible to the elderly. Warm white LEDs (less than 3000K) are a better choice.
At the start of the pandemic last spring the City of Durham was still able to send teams to install about 21,000 LED bulbs, apparently energy-efficient but producing glaring, probably blue-rich, white light, on existing and new streetlights, and the number of streetlights alone (mandated by the UDO in new construction) was already a problem in some neighborhoods. These LED bulbs could be the reason why it seemed like more cicadas than usual were being attracted into the street at night and often killed last summer. Recently I noticed that the new traffic circle at the intersection of Herndon and Barbee roads seemed to be tinged blue or even violet, though the effect might have been heightened by yellower lights leading up to the intersection.
Durham's streetlights might have become more energy efficient over the decades, but it has also gotten ever harder to see the stars without traveling some distance, and then there is the chance that people will be suspicious or even call the police. Neighborhood parkland where I watched meteor showers and saw the bright comets Hale-Bopp and/or Hyakutake has since been marred with a streetlight, though the area is supposed to be closed at night. I have suggested, without result, to the representatives of “developers” and officials that they could create dedicated places for people to stargaze, such as where there are ridges or lakes offering good views of the entire sky. Some public lands in the Triangle are open 24 hours a day, but they are often somewhat distant and there still might be dangers in going there to see the night sky.
Reportedly people can request extra shielding on treetlights in the City of Durham by contacting transportation specialists Terry Thompson or Denise Warren at 919 560 4366 ext 36407 or terry period thompson at durhamnc period gov or denise period warren at durhamnc period gov durham and they will send the request on to Duke Energy. People can request the removal of offensive streetlights, but the Durham Police Department gets a veto.
A few years ago Trump brought up some of the obvious problems with new forms of lighting, but advocated going backwards to inefficient, and therefore polluting, incandescent bulbs instead of looking for new ways to combine efficiency and aesthetics. Red light is supposed to be less harmful to human nocturnal vision. Perhaps lights could be designed to be less visible to wildlife, smart enough to activate only when needed, and more efficient.
Virtual LUNCHBOX Talk: Analyzing the Effects of Urban Noise and Light Pollution on Avian Communities
NCSU Master of Science student Lauren Pharr will talk about the impact of anthropogenic noise and light pollution on area birds in a webinar February 25th 12 – 1pm, organized by the NC Botanical Garden and the New Hope Audubon Society. The Botanical Garden offers a Lunchbox Talk on conservation topics every month. For more information and registration see: ncbg.unc.edu/learn/
Proposed rezonings in southern Durham County and the City of Durham
Also related to the post linked at the beginning, there was a community consultation meeting via Zoom Tuesday, January 26th 6 – 8pm about the hundreds of acres owned by the Triangle Brick Company west and south of the intersection of Highway 55 and Hopson Road. “Development” interests, typically represented by lawyers and/or engineers at these legally mandated meetings, want to have this vast area (I think the figure was 241 acres and it is probably roughly a mile or even more from east to west) around the abandoned claypit, extending from both sides of 55 to within view of Grandale Road on a ridge, much of it already clearcut several years ago, rezoned to be all Light Industrial (some of it is currently Rural Residential) and annexed by the City. The proposal is a business park, ultimately with 5 to 6 short office or industrial buildings, similar to those at the corner of Hopson and 54, with staged construction beginning in the spring of 2022. Of course if a site is rezoned without a development plan, something else could be built, if consistent with the zoning. Another large chuck of land west of this “assemblage” was clearcut a few years ago, and it seems like it is only a matter of time before it will be sold and built on. These are some of the last large tracts of undeveloped, rural private land surrounding the Wildlife Resources-managed gamelands around Jordan Lake at the very south end of Durham County. This Federal land as well as some owned by Durham County covers bottomland that can be inundated when the Lake is used for flood control, and doesn't protect much of the higher ground. Some species need both lowland and upland habitats, such as many salamanders, and others might live in bottomlands only because the uplands have been made inhospitable for them by sprawl. Not far south of the countyline there have been vast changes as residential sprawl around rapidly growing Cary in Wake County spread into northeastern Chatham County, formerly remarkably 'empty,' except for a few houses and older subdivisions (maybe these would be called exurbs), with vast expanses of relatively young forest, some of it held as private hunting reserves, inhabited by flocks of turkeys, possibly bobcats, etc. Rarely seen bobcats might be one of the mammals that can be driven away by artificial lighting. Today the area is almost unrecognizable, with old roads renamed or rerouted, two lane roads have become wide enough for many lanes, and much of the forest and old houses were scraped away, creating a lunar or martian landscape during construction. For years there have been yard signs nearby saying 'no' to Cary.
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| Looking roughly southeast from the powerline at the northwest corner of the site in 2012; this is only part of the "assemblage" and is now a young pine forest. ©
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| The intersection of Hopson Road and NC 55 at the east end of the site, which includes the wooded land in the background and some on this side of 55, to the left. © |
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Looking east from the northwest corner in 2018; most of the land on the left is owned by the US government and Durham County; NC 55 is out of sight behind a ridge far down the powerline and the old claypit is behind the forest in the center. © |
There will be a meeting Thursday, February 18th 6-8pm about the 40 acres of Durham County-owned land at 451 TW Alexander, 6001 NC 55, and 6026 Experiment Drive/Avenue. This is where a large hill was blasted away several years ago for a failed commercial or residential project, the earth being used as fill for North Carolina's first toll road, part of the ring of 540 around Raleigh (construction which could harm the endangered dwarf wedgemussel in southern Wake County). Apparently excess material from the hill was dumped in the claypit. Nearby roads were re-routed and a new road built, near the colony of pinxterflower azaleas, as well as deep red, five-petalled fire pinks and other common to very rare wildflowers around a former farm. The area is probably unusual because of the presence of igneous rock formations, unlike the typical sedimentary bedrock in the Triassic Basin of southern Durham. I last heard that the County wanted to build something like a sludge-drying facility for the nearby Triangle Wastewater Treatment Plant, but the neighborhood meeting is about rezoning to Office and Industrial (parts of the site are currently zoned for residential, commercial, and office use) for “a new Durham County Public Works Administration Building.”
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| The site in 2010; there was a wooded hill with a house here and this is about where the driveway was; the Triangle WWTP is lower out of view on the left and there is now a residential development on the right, across TW Alexander Drive. © |
Community consultation meeting
information and other planning-related announcements are sent out
every Friday through the Planning Public Notification Service of the
Durham City-County Planning Department ( sign up at
durhamnc.gov/411/Planning-Public-Notification-Service ). Those
owning land within a certain distance of a proposed rezoning receive
legally mandated notifications by mail. There is a link to join the
meeting via computer or phone, but it is not working: dtwarchitectsandplanners.my.webex.com/dtwarchitectsandplanners.my/j.php?MTID=m687db88b818ca d7daefa13e28c13a1bf To join by
phone, call 415-655-0001, meeting ID 142 953 5347.
There will be meeting 5 – 7pm February 18th about rezoning 2102 So Hi Drive from Rural Residential to Science Research Park, to build two office buildings. This is a large piece of land at the corner of So Hi and Northeast Creek Parkway, bordering RTP. The site is on the south (RTP) side of the intersection, extending from the Triangle Curling Club on the east to about an equal distance west, on Northeast Creek Parkway. The owning entity is Parmer Woodlands 3 LLC, with an address in Carlsbad, California, and similarly named companies with the same address own large parcels adjoining 2102 So Hi and on the west side of the intersection, making up most of the north end of RTP. Northeast Creek flows through 2102 So Hi, and is joined by a small stream flowing from the north that crosses So Hi in a narrow valley by a church. Beavers have been very active in the area and this might be where there is or was a very large, though shallow, beaver pond, between a ubiquitous sewer easement and a high-tension powerline. Fish probably include pickerel and bowfin and would be hunted by belted kingfishers. Other ponds can be seen from Northeast Creek Parkway. Durham's Interactive Maps ( durhamnc.gov/1455/Interactive-Maps) shows a large body of water there, though maps are often inaccurate regarding waterways. Fire pinks, pinxterflower wild azaleas, evergreen Catawba rhododendrons, more than one species of dogwood, umbrellatrees (a deciduous magnolia, blooming around May 1st here; fire pinks might also bloom in May, while pinxterflowers bloom in April), spicebushes, milkweed, burdocks, Hepatica, star chickweed, toothworts, liverworts, and horsetails are some locally uncommon to rare plants growing in the general area. Nearby areas are carpeted with spring ephemerals and some, such as lavender Hepaticas, could be blooming already and can start around January if it is a 'warm' winter. Hawks are common, phoebes nest along the Creek, and upstream hummingbirds fight over summer beds of orange jewelweed. The usual procedure is for the rezoning or annexation applicant to have one or more informal community meetings, followed by a formal hearing before the Planning Commission, and then a hearing during a regular City Council or Board of County Commissioners meeting.
To join via Zoom, go to zoom.us/join, meeting ID 884 8173 7483, passcode 450403, or call 646-558-8656 and enter the same ID and passcode.
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Looking north on Northeast Creek Parkway; Northeast Creek parallels the road on the right. © |
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| A Hepatica off of Grandale Road in late March. © |
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| Hepatica with fresh new leaves, trout lilies, spring beauties, Christmas ferns, and probably some star chickweeds in early April off of So Hi Drive. © |
Third party ballot access in North Carolina after 2020
The NC Green Party lost its hard won ballot access with the 2020 general election, with campaigning and petitioning hobbled by the pandemic. Without ballot access Greens running for office will have to get on the ballot individually or run as write-in candidates and will not be listed as Greens and voters will not be able to register as Greens. The NCGP is asking Governor Roy Cooper to maintain the Party's official status and/or to maintain the status of registered Green voters for 18 months; waive petition requirements for all parties that had ballot access as of 2020 (the Constitution Party apparently also lost its ballot access last year); and to lower the required number of signatures to establish or re-establish a party by at least 75% and to allow electronic signatures. The pandemic severely limited campaigning last year and makes petitioning hazardous, and there aren't gatherings where people could be asked to sign in-person. Greens plan to run in several local elections in 2021. For more information, a sample letter, and to sign up to send a letter or email, go to: www.ncgreenparty.org/ask_cooper_for_covid_relief
RDU Quarry Town Hall with NC Senator Wiley Nickel
There will be a town hall meeting about the proposed rock quarry at the RDU Airport, adjacent to Umstead State Park, Wednesday, February 10th 6 – 8pm with Wiley Nickel of the NC Senate and Dr Jean Spooner of the Umstead Coalition ( umsteadcoalition.org , www.facebook.com/umsteadcoalition/ . To sign up and submit questions see: forms.gle/78F8oVdBE7e9hrKy6
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