touchtanks’ blog

The story behind this website begins over thirty years ago, in a small town in rural Maine. It was the seventies and not to be too cliché but life was much simpler. Growing up in this environment was in a word, ideal. We made the journey through the education system together. Forming bonds from year to yea, which in a way made us as close as brothers and sisters. It isn’t that everyone got along all the time or even liked each other all the time, but you had a feeling that your own unique identity was valuable to the group. One of the experiences we had was the beginning of environmental awareness that was developing in our country at the time. A major push to implement environmental education was enacted and I remember clearly learning about recycling and sound environmental practices. Up until that time it seems that people were only worried about what was happening on that day. A great example was the town dump. It was an open dump, which means a giant hole in the ground into which all of the members of the community dutifully dumped all of their household garbage. No one seemed to think about the consequences of this type of action until many years later. Was that too late?

We decided to explore the swamp because so many people were visiting Greenville Eco Family to find out why Swamps are Like Kidneys. Swamps are forested wetlands that border rivers, lakes and ponds that may completely dry in the summer or remain wet throughout the year. The swamp, as we discovered is very buggy and the plants that have special adaptations that enable them to survive in this diverse biosphere.

Each year since 1986, American Rivers has published a list of the 10 most endangered rivers in the country. To select the rivers to list, American Rivers solicits nominations from thousands of river groups, environmental organizations, outdoor clubs, local governments, and taxpayer watchdogs groups.

We have been writing a lot about Touch Tanks For Kids and I wanted to get a look, firsthand at what exactly a Touch Tank is and what is in it. So we packed up the crew and headed to their corporate offices and production center in Biddeford, Maine.

Cannondale’s Mountain Bikes are innovative and quality products that inspire cyclists to explore their native lands. My name is Jon Hilton and love riding my Cannondale around Maine, especially Greenville home of Cochran’s Farm. The Cochran boys Chip, Tris and Bucky all skied on the US Ski Team and were committed to physical health. It is while watching them compete that I discovered my love of bicycling.

When we think of pollution in our oceans, many times we look to activities that take place directly in or around those bodies of water, but approximately 80% of all marine pollution comes from land based activities. From the consistent and constant use of plastic bags to the use of dangerous pesticides, we are slowly poisoning our environment. Much of this pollution leads to a process called eutrophication.Eutrophication depletes the waters supply of oxygen which causes Algal blooms and the suffocation of marine life. Oil spills, fertilizer run-off from agriculture, improper or inadequate garbage disposal, poor sewage practices and the dumping of toxic chemicals into the environment are major causes of marine pollution.