Some of my friends can fly but they’re nowhere near as large as wild turkeys. You can find many robins in Lewiston, including Ralph and Rachelle and their brood. Robins aren’t very fond of brown-headed cowbirds, who leave their eggs in the nests of robins, hoping for a surrogate to help with the hatching. In most case, these eggs are rejected by the robins.
Located north of Buffalo, Lewiston is a beautiful community for the arts, with Art Park –
which hosts more great music than any fan could ask for – and the annual Lewiston Arts and Crafts Festival, held each summer. Niagara University can be found nearby, too, as well as fine theatre, good restaurants, and of course, Niagara Falls. These are the good things, but in the vicinity can be found 33
Love Canal and the huge Waste Management landfill, which is much too close to the homes. You can read about the once shy housewife who was concerned about the health of her family as well as that of the neighbors in Love Canal: The Story
Continues. That woman is Lois Marie Gibbs, and she heads the environmental group, The Center for Health and Economic Justice (CHEJ), which is headquartered in Falls Church, Virginia.
The landfill is another story. A subsidiary of Waste Management, Inc., CWM Chemical Services operates the only hazardous-waste landfill in the northeast. People and animals should stay as far as they can from the area. However, because of all the toxic ingredients, there is a huge possibility of their leaking into the soil, air and water. This is one gamble that no creature should have to worry about.
The Great Lakes are dangerously close to an environmental disaster just waiting to happen.
Many people and animals rely on the Great Lakes for drinking water.
If you say that any landfill could contain hazardous materials – radioactive waste, harmful chemicals or just plain nasty stuff – you’re right on the money. And yet, where should it be located?
Sending it into outer space isn’t a great idea, nor is dumping it into the oceans. Why kill off or contaminate a very important part of the food supply? Storing it someplace where no one lives 34
won’t work, either. Some of those areas you know as the State and National Parks.
What then can be done? Animals generally don’t have a polluting problem, except for flatulent bovines. The problem stems from homo sapiens –
human beans. (I guess both the editor and proofreaders missed that one: it should be human beings.) The answer is simple, but not that easy. It’s the four Rs: Reduce, Re-use, Recycle and Re-think.
Downsizing – the good kind where people live with less – should help people to have less waste to dispose of, meaning less junk for the landfills.
Reusing and recycling work hand in hand.
Reusing means not buying a new PC every time a new version of hardware makes the scene; it also implies not having as many pairs of shoes as Imelda Marcos. Recyling occurs when something can be used by others, such as children’s clothes, which can be passed on down to others. Woodchucks don’t have that concern. It also happens when a material can be used to produce another product. In the case of paper, the original may be able to produce more paper, of the recycled variety.
Rethinking involves using our brains and a modification of lifestyles. There’s no need to go that far back and join my family in our cavernous dwellings, as we have no openings – pun intended –
but small but significant changes can be undertaken.
Certain sacrifices can be insignificant, but can made 35
a difference.
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