Here it is! Our first issue of a newsletter dedicated to the interests of those interested in natural resources conservation. I am delighted to be a part of this team effort committed to creating a strong communication link for individuals interested in conservation and the University of Illinois. The newsletter is a publication of the University of Illinois Extension Natural Resources Management Team , which is comprised of local Extension Educators, regional Center Educators and State Specialists from throughout the state. The overall goal of this newsletter is to improve the e nvironmental awareness of citizens which will lead to a healthy, productive and sustainable environment.

The Natural Resources Management Team plans to publish this newsletter four times during the year and offer articles pertaining to conservation best practices, natural resource decision-making , current research in the field and bridging research with local practice. Contact the Extension office to be pla ced on the subscription list.

Many school groups, service clubs and watershed committees are now recognizing the importance of protecting stream quality by "Adopting A Stream or Watershed" in their community. As part of this program, individuals participate in a watershed walk to assess the quality of the stream as it passes throughout the watershed at different times throughout the year. If you are interested in "Adopting a Stream or Watershed" in your community listed below are several web sites which contain practical information and score sheets on how to properly evaluate the quality of your stream or watershed, determine the source of these contaminants, and identify which best management practices will be most successful in protecting water quality. Adopt a Stream or Watershed Programs are most successful when a number of interested people collectively work together for the common goal of improving water quality in their community.

Volunteer Stream Monitoring: A Methods Manual is a step by step process for conducting a watershed survey (www.epa.gov/owow/monitoring/vol.html.)

Surf Your Watershed (www.epa.gov/surf) is designed to help users locate, use and share environmental information about a watershed.

Adopt Your Watershed (www.epa.gov/surf/ ) is a national catalog of groups involved in local watershed protection efforts.

Stream conditions which may be observed and possible causes:

Condition	Possible Cause
Muddy water	Soil erosion
Greenish color	Algae-excessive nutrients
Brown color	Decaying plants
Orange/red coating	Iron (industrial, erosion)
Colored sheen	Oil
White foam	Detergents
Rotten egg odor	Sewage/marsh
Musky odor	Sewage, livestock waste
White cottony mass	Sewage fungus

- Bob Frazee, Extension Educator East Peoria Center

Clean drinking water is quickly becoming a precious, and expensive, commodity. Conserving water within a household reduces water bills and prevents water pollution. When considering water conservation, the bathroom is an excellent place to start. Leaky faucets and toilets are common sources of excess water use. A leaky faucet can waste over 20 gallons a day and can usually be easily fixed by replacing an inexpensive washer. Leaky toilets can waste over 100 gallons of water per day! Toilets can be checked for leaks by placing a small amount of food coloring in the tank.

If, without flushing, the color appears in the bowl, the toilet has a leak. Another great way to conserve wate r is to place rock-filled containers in the tank. Do not place bricks in toilet tanks as particles may break off and harm the plumbing. This activity can save over half a gallon of water per flush. Individuals who take showers often use an excess of water. A great way to determine how much water is used during a shower is to plug the drain while showering. At the end of the shower if there is more water in the tub than you would use to take a bath, water is being wasted. Consider shortening the length of the shower or shutting water off while lathering. Turning the water off while brushing your teeth can save a household over 3,650 gallons of water per year.

- Jodie Tate, Extension Educator Springfield

Jeff Brawn, a University of Illinois researcher, has been working with medical entomologists for the last year to study the effects of the virus on bird populations. He hopes to study how the virus will cause an evolutionary change in the crow's immune system. "Let's say, 100 crows are infected and 90 of them die," said Brawn, an ecologist from the U of I. "There may be something about the 10 who survive that could be passed on to subsequent generations, ultimately increasing their resistance to the virus." Those birds who are most immune to the virus would survive, passing on that characteristic to their young. If crow populations do decrease it could have some interesting effects on the birds since crows eat other birds' eggs, said Brawn.

"And, if we were free of them it could affect the reproduction of songbirds." If crows are unable to develop immunity to West Nile virus and the crow population drops dramatically, what effect will it have on the environment as a whole? Brawn used the analogy of removing the rivets one at a time from the wing of an airplane to describe the ecological future. "The first few rivets removed may not pose a problem, but take enough out of the wing of the plane, and there are fatal consequences." Although people are highly unlikely to contract West Nile virus from a dead bird, it is advisable to call local authorities if you discover a dead bird in the wild or in your yard.

Detecting the presence of hazardous lead paint could soon become as simple as pressing a piece of paper against a wall and noting a color change according to University of Illinois Chemistry professor Yi Lu. Scientists at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign have developed a highly sensitive and selective biosensor that functions in much the same fashion as a strip of litmus paper.

The colorimetric sensor is based upon DNA-gold nanoparticle chemistry, and could be used for sensing a variety of environmental contaminants. "There are many old houses around the world that still contain leaded paint," Lu said. "According to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, leaded paint test kits that are currently available have shown high rates of both false positive and false negative results when compared to laboratory results. Our catalytic DNA-gold nanoparticle sensor can overcome these shortcomings." "Our ultimate goal is to develop a microchip array with different color schemes for simultaneously detecting many different metal ions," Lu said.

Many people can vividly recall the last encounter they had with a snake, even if it was at a very young age. For most, the experience was startling or frightening. A majority of us have been conditioned as children to fear snakes, or have not learned enough about snakes to appreciate them in their natural environment. Snakes have many natural enemies such as raccoons, skunks, opossums, owls, hawks, ducks, geese, turkeys, and other snakes. Yet their most deadly enemy is human, due to the destruction of habitat, automobiles, human fear, and ignorance.

Most of the snakes killed by humans have turned out to be harmless. Humans have a greater chance of dying by drowning, or a lightning strike, than by snakebite. There are two basic types of snake: nonvenomous and venomous. Nonvenomous and venomous snakes are beneficial to the ecosystem by controlling rodent and insect populations. Venomous snakes found in Illinois are called pit vipers, named for the vis ible heat sensory pits, or holes, on each side of the face between the eye and nostril. The triangular-shaped head of a pit viper is wider than the neck, where most nonvenomous snakes have heads that are similar in size to their bodies. Though any snake can potentially bite a human, only venomous snakes are poisonous. The venom of a pit viper is hemotoxic, and destroys the victim's red blood cells and blood vessel walls when bitten. The Copperhead, Cottonmouth, and Rattlesnake are members of the pit viper family. If you are unsure as to whether a particular snake is poisonous, proceed with caution and wait for the snake to flee.

- Elizabeth Massarolo, Extension Educator Rock

With due consideration to location, a prime factor in determining future land use is its immediate selling price or real estate value. Entrepreneurs analyze the cost (real value) and availability of land they plan to utilize and apply that information to forecast an economic return. In most cases, the benefits of employing the land will be measured monetarily and the gain that is realized within a term will be considered as justified "costs" associated with using the money or compared to the potential gain from the commitment of a comparable capital resources.

A question of the landowner (seller) could eventually be, "what can I get for that piece of land or that lot in town?" Farmers, landowners, and land developers ask that same question, evaluate the monetary return and may elect put land up for sale. But, in locales across America other groups representing diverse backgrounds have also begun to ask the same question... but with a twist and a different result. Land trust organizations from coast to coast are finding creative ways to deal with the land use question and are acting to preserve valuable farmland, fragile soils, and threatened, sensitive and complex ecosystems by using public and private funds. The land may be a type that is either erodible, acting as a buffer between man and the wild, or serves as a wetland habitat with critical wildlife and as municipal water storage with residential value. How does this affect farmers and rural developers in Illinois? Well, it's easy for many of us to dismiss much of what happens on either coast, but by looking to "Steinbeck country" found in the agricultural valleys and flatlands of California, a way to create a "farmland security perimeter" and "not sell the farm" is already in place. These fertile soils just outside of Monterey Bay are adjacent to communities where housing development pressure consumes about 50,000 acres each year.

As its first use, the same land is valued for fresh fruit and vegetable productivity and where the annual rental rate per acre can exceed the real estate value of prime midwestern farmland. Groups – land trusts are using mutually binding contracts, voluntary deed restrictions or easements to redirect urban growth away from prime farmland to make up the core strategy for farmland protection. Efforts to protect land have involved farmland owners, residential developers, community leaders and branches of municipal government who work together to create a strategic plan for an urban-rural / residential-agricultural use and sustainability. Land development choices can be complex and some models to solve land use problems may come from regions outside of our back forty acres. Find out more about land trusts at www.farmland.org.

- Gary Letterly, Extension Educator Christian County

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), there are over 25 million cloud to ground lightning flashes each year. Exceeded only by floods, lightning is the second largest killer associated with storms. Duane Friend, Natural Resources Management Educator, says there are several considerations for protecting yourself from a lightning strike. First, when a storm is approaching, don't wait for rain to begin before moving indoors. If you can hear thunder, lightning is close enough that it could strike your location at any moment.

Lightning can be happening as far as 10 miles from rainfall. Do not stand under or next to a tree. If you cannot get to an indoor location, crouch in the open, keeping twice as far from a tree as it is tall. If there is a group of people outdoors, keep several yards distance from each other. Swimming, wading, and other water sports are not safe. Lightning can strike the water and travel long distances. If caught in lightning while boating, crouch in the center of the boat, away from metal. If no sturdy buildings are close by, a hard top vehicle is the next best choice. Avoid touching metal while the storm is in progress. If someone is struck by lightning, call 911 or other emergency services. Check the victims breathing and pulse, and begin CPR if necessary and you are trained to do so. Where the lightning entered and left the body, burns may be present. In addition, other problems such as broken bones, loss of hearing or eyesight, and other nervous system damage may be present. After being struck, the victim does not carry any residual charge, so there should not be a fear of receiving a shock yourself.

- Duane Friend, Extension Educator Springfield Center