| Norfolk Botanical Garden demonstrating conservation method
The small building where visitors buy tickets for boat rides at Norfolk Botanical Garden is now one of the garden displays, rather than simply an adjunct structure. The building's cedar shingles are gone and in their place is a green roof, a living bed of succulents such as sedums and hens and chicks. The year-round roof will be a natural part of the growing season along with all the rest of the garden's plant beds. Come spring and summer, the succulent roof will bloom and hens will produce chicks. Come fall, many will turn a rich red, pink or chartreuse, said Melissa Butler, herbaceous plants curator at the garden. "They are really very pretty in fall," Butler added. But unlike other plants in the garden, pretty is as pretty does for these succulents.
Rural Nueces in need of EMS
BISHOP One day last August, Irene Delgado's neighbor in the Fiesta Ranch colonia complained of chest pain. "He treats me like I was his daughter and he was saying, 'M'hija, I'm dying,' " Delgado said. The neighbor's wife had already called 911. A few minutes later, Delgado did the same. Then she called a constable, Jack Caughman, stationed in nearby Bishop. Caughman also got on the phone and called dispatchers. And he called again. About 40 minutes later, an ambulance dispatched from Alice, 40 miles away, arrived to take Delgado's neighbor to the hospital in Corpus Christi. The neighbor survived, but his ordeal remains a stark reminder of how long residents in rural parts of Nueces County can wait for ambulance service. The national standard for ambulance response is eight minutes, but many areas of the county are so isolated from ambulance services that meeting that response time is not possible.
State of timber: Tracing history of an industry in decline
Editor's note: Over the past three decades, the national forest timber harvest has crashed. Some blame environmental regulation. Others blame overharvest in the 1970s and 1980s. Still others point to supply-and-demand economics, and an emergent international import-export lumber business. But most agree the U.S. Forest Service's Northern Region - where harvest has been reduced from 1.2 billion board feet to just 114 million - could produce far more logs if the market would bear them. How to get at that timber, however, remains a point of considerable controversy. Today, the Missoulian begins a four-day series looking at timber cutting in western Montana.KALISPELL - About a month ago, a brand-new Bitterroot Valley-based group rallied up in Hamilton, calling for more trees to be cut from national forests.A whole lot of people turned out.
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