A Monthly On-Line Newletter for Home*A*Syst Coordinators, Partners and Friends
Welcome to the second issue of The Threshold. Each month, this "column" of our on-line newsletter will feature news from the Home*A*Syst national office. This month I'll tell you about a grant application being developed cooperatively between the national office and three state Home*A*Syst programs.
Our office is collaborating with New York, Kansas, and Wisconsin to write a Healthy Homes proposal to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. Through this initiative, HUD is seeking demonstration projects that will reduce housing-based environmental health threats to children. In our proposed three-year project, we will pilot test various outreach strategies each designed to involve residents in the process of assessing their homes for health risks. The third year will be devoted to expanding the most successful model strategies to several additional states.
The beautiful 77,000 acre Lac Courte Oreilles Reservation, near Hayward Wisconsin, attracts a large number of tourists and vacationers. Many of these visitors build recreational homes along with 3,000 Native residents, especially on the lakeshore of three main lakes. But there is an adverse impact of this development: potential contamination of ground and surface waters of the Lac Courte Oreilles Nation, negatively affecting drinking water, fishing and recreation activities. The water quality problems come from an increase in contaminants from failing private septic systems, stormwater runoff, yard fertilizers and pesticides, and petroleum products. In some of the more populated areas, excess phosphorous has caused algae blooms on the lakes during the summers.
During the 1998 summer recreation season, Dan Tyrolt of the Lac Courte Oreilles Conservation Department and his staff began an educational outreach campaign with two goals: (1) to reach every homeowner adjacent to the three large lakes to raise awareness of potential water contamination risks, and (2) to initiate change in homeowner activities by encouraging greater environmental stewardship. "I want every person living adjacent to these lakes to be aware of the contamination risks they could present to their drinking water and their recreational waters. I want to clearly create a united vision toward the advantages of maintaining quality water resources," said Dan Tyrolt.
Dan and his staff began by presenting Home*A*Syst and environmental education sessions at Lake Association meetings, Lac Courte Oreilles Nation meetings and community events. Following this, an educational team composed of Nation members, conducted one-on-one visits or sent mailings to people they did not meet at these sessions. Program ads and promotional information were also included in local newspapers and during radio programs.
For more information on this project, or other activities of Wisconsin Home*A*Syst, contact Bob Tomesh, 1575 Linden Drive, Room 281 Horticulture Building, Madison, WI 53706, 608/265-4536, rjtomesh@facstaff.wisc.edu.
$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ FUNDING OPPORTUNITY$ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $ $TITLE: HOME DEPOT ENVIRONMENTAL RESEARCH/EDUCATION GRANTSDEADLINE: between November 1st and December 15th PURPOSE: To award grants in areas where we can have the most environmental impact. Topics include: Sustainable and Green Building Practices, Forestry and Ecology, Clean-up and Recycling, and Lead Poisoning Prevention MORE INFO: See www.homedepot.com, look under "company info" and then "environment" NOTE: The Home*A*Syst national office applied for this grant last year, but was not funded. Please e-mail Kadi Row, krow@facstaff.wisc.edu, if you would like a copy of the proposal or want to work with us to re-apply. |
Produced by the National Home*A*Syst Office, 303 Hiram Smith Hall, 1545 Observatory Drive, Madison, WI 53706-1289 608.262.0024, homeasys@uwex.edu
Comments can be made to Kadi Row, krow@facstaff.wisc.edu
Created by Janice Kepka, jkepka@facstaff.wisc.edu
Last modified on Wednesday, 18-Feb-2004 17:22:44 CST.