Power lines cause diseases through Static Electricity

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http//www.justlogiclifescience.com.au/powerlines.
html

• Power lines cause diseases through Static
  Electricity
• New science reveals, not radiation, but static
  electricity produced by power lines interferes
  with the bioelectrical life process causing
  diseases and premature aging.
• NPR had a story that farm cows tend to gather
  underneath the power line because their magnetic
  fields are confused (PNAS 2009)

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http//photos.innersource.com/page/45/31
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Cheatgrass was brought from Eurasia to Washington
State in the 1890s. In 30 years it basically took
over the Western USA
http//www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1999/08/081399
/cheatgrass_5005.asp
http//www.rr-fallenflags.org/aft/aft.html
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Cheatgrass changes not only the fire frequency of
a site, but also the fire volatility, intensity
and the extent that an area is likely to burn in
the future. The combination of fires, and low
nitrogen content soil may drive out the native
plants. But the cheatgrass seems to thrive under
these conditions.
http//www.enn.com/enn-news-archive/1999/08/081399
/cheatgrass_5005.asp
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Merriam Saunders (1993)
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Hypotheses Very rare/difficult in landscape
ecology
H1 Home range sizes of all three study species
would be larger in patches with a corridor than
in patches w/o a corridor. H2 Habitat
generalists would more likely than habitat
specialists to move between them. H3 Individual
movement distances would be affected by corridor
presence.
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Cotton Mouse Peromyscus gossypinus -- generalist
http//www.nsrl.ttu.edu/tmot1/sigmhisp.htm
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Specialists
Generalist
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Hypotheses results
H1 Home range sizes of all three study species
would be larger in patches with a corridor than
in patches w/o a corridor. ? not true H2
Habitat generalists would more likely than
habitat specialists to move between them. ?
true H3 Individual movement distances would be
affected by corridor presence. ? not supported
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• Road Corridors and Their Ecological Significances
• How much road is there in US?
• Roads in US National Forests
• Effects of roads on plants animals
• Reading
• Trombulak, S.C. and C.A. Russell. 2000.
  Conservation Biology 14(1) 18-30.
• Forman, R.T.T. 2000. Conservation Biology
  14(1) 31-35.
• Semlitsch et al. 2007. Conservation Biology
  21(1) 159-167.

• Road Effects
• Increased mortality from road construction
• Increased mortality from collision with vehicles
• Modification of animal behavior
• Alteration of the physical environment
• Spread of exotic species
• Increased alteration and use of habitat by human
• Alteration of chemical environment

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• 6.2 million km public roads in the US, including
• 3,836,381 km secondary roads in rural area
• 1,237,198 km of primary roads in rural area
• 927,122 km of primary roads in urban area
• Covers 1 of the US land
• All rural roads and 25 of urban roads are near
  natural ecosystems
• A minimum of 200 m effect distance caused by
  roads
• 19 of the total area of the US is directly
  affected by roads

THE LARGEST HUMAN ARTIFACT ON EARTH!
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Salamander abundance near the road was reduced
significantly, and salamanders along the edges
were predominantly large individuals. These
results indicate that the road-effect zone for
these salamanders extended 35 m on either side of
the relatively narrow, low-use forest roads along
which we sampled. Furthermore, salamander
abundance was significantly lower on old,
abandoned logging roads compared with the
adjacent upslope sites. These results indicate
that forest roads and abandoned logging roads
have negative effects on forest-dependent species
such as plethodontid salamanders.
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• Quantifying roads and road networks
• Road density (km.km-2)
• Road length (km)
• Road width (m)
• Road type
• Road sides
• Road surface
• Other constructions (bridge, signs, etc.)

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Road density relative to population in various
countries. Total road lengths (km) in a country
are in parentheses.
Forman et al. 2003.
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Roads in National Forests 10 of total U.S. road
length ( 380,000 miles) lies within the National
Forest systems. On Jan. 22, 1998, the USDA
Forest Service proposed a moratorium on the
construction of new roads in some roadless areas
of the National Forests. This was designed to
allow time for procedures to be put in place to
evaluate the need for a new management policy.

• Case Studies
• Reed et al. (1996)
• Brosofske (1999)
• Watkins (2000)
• Saunders et al. (2002)

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Reed et al. (1996)
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Study site showing A) location of Section J,
Southern Superior Uplands, within Province 212
B) Subsections within Section J.
Saunders et al. (2002)
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Road densities (km.km-2) for LTAs (n117) across
Section J based on all primary and secondary
surfaced roads.
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Road density (km/km2) by land cover class for
LTAs of Section J. Median (line in gray box),
upper and lower quartiles (box), 1.5 x
inter-quartile range (whiskers) and outliers
(gt1.5 x interquartile range) are shown.
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Average of a land cover class within an LTA
falling inside road buffers of different widths
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Housing density and soils with excellent
suitability for road subgrade were positively
related to road density while wetland area was
negatively related.
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Brosofske (1998)
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Changes in (a) canopy cover, (b) litter cover,
(c) litter depth, (d) woody-debris cover, (e)
stump cover, and (f) bare ground cover with
distance from unpaved forest roads in northern
hardwood forests. Vertical bars represent
standard deviations.
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Changes in (a) total species richness, (b) exotic
species richness, (c) Shannon-Wiener diversity
(H), (d) native species richness, (e) species
richness of gramnoids, and (f) native species H
with distance from unpaved forest roads into the
forest
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The roads appeared to be associated with a
disturbance corridor that affected site variables
up to 15 m into the hardwood stands. Our results
suggest that roads have associated effects that
alter interior forest conditions and thus plant
species composition and abundance however, these
effects are limited in depth of penetration into
managed forests.
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• Perforate the road as a barrier to animal
  movement by using tunnels, under passes, and
  other mitigation technology
• Close and remove logging and other roads in
  remote areas to reduce disturbance effects of
  human access
• Increase the use of soil berms, plantings,
  depressed roads and other construction
  techniques
• Concentrate traffic on primary roads and minimize
  the conversion of secondary roads
• Reduce traffic noise.

Forman (2000)