{"id":22820,"date":"2016-07-07T17:05:23","date_gmt":"2016-07-08T00:05:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/?p=22820"},"modified":"2016-07-07T17:09:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-08T00:09:40","slug":"squatchs-open-thread-07072016","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.politicsplus.org\/blog\/2016\/07\/07\/squatchs-open-thread-07072016\/","title":{"rendered":"Squatch’s Open Thread — 07\/07\/2016"},"content":{"rendered":"

I have a bit of time before my brother and his wife and friends arrive for a very short visit and then a cruise up the Alaska coast.  They fly in today and I will take my brother and SIL to see my mother who they have not seen in almost 3 years tomorrow.  And speaking of mum, I had her out to the specialist for another botox treatment.  I left my house at 10:30 and did not return until 17:00 so I was very tired.  For me, it is more an emotional tired.  On Saturday, which is my brother's 39th wedding anniversary, all 5 of us (not mum) will travel up the Sea-to-Sky Highway to the Britannia <\/span>Mine Museum<\/strong><\/span><\/a> for a tour.  The mine buildings were used a lot in movie and television filming over the years, a second life so to speak, but have now been restored to being a museum.<\/span>  If you want to see a bit more, check out <\/span>THIS<\/strong><\/span><\/a>.  Thanks for your rain Napster!  We have had quite a bit the past few days which has helped with the Burns Bog fire (see below) but has made kids house bound and a bit crazy.  As luck would have it, my physio therapist told me that my walking is much better, almost normal.  I told him to be ready on Monday after my museum visit as I'll likely be very sore.  <\/span><\/p>\n

Short Takes<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

1130news.com<\/strong><\/span><\/a> — Eliza Olson, president of the Burns Bog Conservation Society<\/font><\/a>, is expecting impacts to the wildlife living in one of North America’s largest peat bogs. “I hope most of the birds have fledged and left their nests. If they haven’t, they’re going to be burned. The deer and mammals can move,” she says.<\/p>\n

As for the fire retardant being dropped by water bombers, Olson says “one of the ironies is some of the stuff they use actually encourages vegetation to grow.”<\/p>\n

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“In a peat bog, you want things to grow slowly. Any nutrients added to the bog encourages invasive plants because a bog is naturally nutrient-poor and acidic,” she explains.<\/p>\n

The fire has also caused “legacy carbon” stored deep within the ground and peat for more than a thousand years to burn and release into the atmosphere, according to McMaster University earth sciences professor Mike Waddington<\/font><\/a>.<\/p>\n

“We see over 200 tons of carbon per hectare is lost in a fire of these sizes,” he says.<\/p>\n

Olson said a bog can store carbon 10 times more efficiently than a tropical rainforest and will also release methane if disturbed<\/strong>.<\/p>\n