from Greenbiz.com

Some archeologists think humans learned how to make beer before bread — beer is that fundamental to human civilization. We know they were making beer at least 7,000 years ago, in what is now Iran. Back then, beer (or ale) was sometimes a safer alternative to water, especially if you didn’t know where your water was coming from — heating during the brewing process would kill off most pathogens. Today, modern brewers rely on clean water to make their product. Because no matter how carefully craft brewers tweak their malt, hops and strains of yeast, at the end of the day, beer is about 90 percent water. That’s why craft brewers across the country are rallying behind the Clean Water Act, our nation’s fundamental safeguard for water.

Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/07/11/want-great-beer-you-need-clean-water

Satellite fire data from NOAA/NESDIS. Six months of fires burning in North America.

The fire is out, but the damage is still ongoing.  When wildfires burn an area, the exposed land that has lost most of its vegetation is very susceptible to soil loss.

In a short amount of time rain can cause severe erosion affecting structures, hillsides, roads, trails, and especially the health of streams, rivers, and wetlands.  Channels filled with sediment can quickly become a new flood hazard; aquatic life can be severely impaired; and streambanks can become vulnerable to accelerated erosion and sloughing.

Although wildfires occur naturally, several human-caused factors make wildfires increasingly catastrophic.  Stream dewatering is a massive problem in the West.  Streams that used to persist during dry spells, now dwindle to a trickle or completely dry up. And once-saturated riparian areas burn instead of protecting streams and providing natural firebreaks.  Human-manipulated fire regimes cause some areas to be overloaded with understory fuels, or attempts at controlled burns get out of control.  We also can’t ignore that weather patterns are changing, and droughts may occur more frequently and last longer. With these environmental events likely becoming more severe in the coming decades, the impact of wildfires is expected to steadily increase.

Trout Headwaters’ post-fire assessments can provide a clear view of what type of repair is needed to help your property quickly recover from wildfire.  Our full-service company can then apply the appropriate natural treatments that will help nature help herself in the recovery process.   Healthy riparian areas and floodplains can provide a wonderful, natural buffer against the effects of wildfire on your property and from the future effects of unmitigated damage on surrounding properties.

At THI we provide:

• Prompt, post-fire assessments, including impacts and potential hazards;
• Repair to stop immediate soil loss, including natural soil-stabilizing mats, mulches, quick seeding techniques, and more;
• Restoration, including long-term soil stabilization, reseeding, transplanting;
• Monitoring to insure your property is recovering to its fullest potential.

If your property has been affected by wildfire, please contact THI today to discuss our low-cost, rapid, post-wildfire assessment services.

You may also like: Wildfire: A Friend or Foe to Streams and Rivers?  and Paradise Valley Heats Up: How Healthy Streams Can Help Mitigate the Impacts of Wildfire

Michael Sprague in an early submarine, Monaco Oceanographic Museum.

by THI President and Founder, Michael Sprague

At Trout Headwaters (THI) we have a “customer-first” philosophy.  But considering our firm’s fortuitous beginnings, we really couldn’t have done it any other way.  You see, THI started with a customer first.

For any business having a customer before it officially offered products or services would be unusual, but ours enjoyed such fortune.  I remember the day in 1995 that I met with the new owner of a Montana ranch.  I was just happy to be out of the office on a warm summer day; the kind of day every Montanan waits for after a long winter.  As the owner and I walked the property and examined the condition of Brackett Creek, I made a few notes on the pad I carried. This stream had been a lounging place for cattle, and it showed, but I could feel its potential for trout.

”Well,” Mr. Enrico asked me, “what would you do with this stream if it were on your property?”  I told him that I’d start by trying to figure out what he had, what was working, and what wasn’t.  This process, called assessment, or “baseline-assessment” to be precise, would eventually become the backbone of THI’s turn-key approach to stream, river and wetland restoration and repair.

“So, you’ll send me a proposal?” he said.  And without ceremony, Roger Enrico, the soon to be Chief Executive Officer of PepsiCo, would become my new firm’s first customer.  Having a customer before we had a business has served us well.  We didn’t have a preconceived idea of what we would do for our customer, which gave us special insight into the importance of the customer’s needs, wishes and dreams.  From our first customer, our  “customer-first” philosophy has directed our firm, products, and processes.  From such a beginning, maintaining focus on our customers has remained our top priority.

Mr. Enrico was the first of many customers who would teach our firm how to provide value.  We’ve listened carefully to the men and women who have supported the company as customers, employees and affiliates, letting their combined vision, goals and expertise help guide our initiatives and meet each set of challenges.  Contact THI today to discuss your freshwater restoration or enhancement needs.

Learn more: http://troutheadwaters.com/clubecoblu/?page_id=648

Image courtesy of NIST.gov.

If you want to protect rare species, or confirm the presence of an invasive species, first you have to find them.  In the past few years, biologists have developed a powerful new tool– environmental DNA, also known as eDNA.

At THI we are always on the lookout for new technologies that can assist the work that we do, and this exciting approach opens new perspectives for the assessment of current biodiversity and in detecting trends in biodiversity from environmental samples.

In 2008 French and Italian scientists published research showing success in detecting invasive American bullfrogs simply by sampling pond water and looking for an exact genetic match to the frogs’ DNA.

According to a story on National Public Radio (NPR), sampling for eDNA has also been used to confirm the presence of rare species like Appalachia’s hellbender salamander, nicknamed the “snot otter,” because it grows to up to two feet long and is covered with slime.

Conservationists can extract DNA from the water and know if the elusive snot otter is in a particular stream without lifting a rock, and can even tell by increased amounts of eDNA the particular streams where the salamander may be breeding.

A common target of eDNA sampling is the invasive Asian carp. Water samples collected in summer 2011 in Maumee Bay, Michigan tested positive for the dreaded carp. The Asian carp has traveled rapidly toward the Great Lakes from the southern areas of the Mississippi River and officials fear the fish could devastate the Great Lakes fishery if they were to establish a breeding population in the lakes.

In May 2012 the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers reported the agency’s successes in decreasing eDNA processing time and costs when sampling for the presence of Asian carp, and wrote, “Although eDNA is a relatively new tool for aquatic vertebrate detection, we were excited by the potential that this technique has for sampling both rare and invasive species.”

Early testing has proven useful and cost effective in the fight to preserve biodiversity in our nation’s lakes and waterways.  New tools for the toolbox are always needed as we fight to save the freshwater resources we all share.

Read more: http://www.npr.org/2013/07/24/205178477/whats-swimming-in-the-river-just-look-for-dna

The Plight of the Pallid Sturgeon – 2013, 59 min.
A review of the life history of the pallid sturgeon, a fish species with an ancestry dating back 80 million years when dinosaurs were walking the shores of the ancient Missouri River.
Full film: http://watch.montanapbs.org/video/2365025510/

Where the Yellowstone Goes – 2012, 88 min.
Where the Yellowstone Goes follows a 30-day drift boat journey down the longest “undammed” river in the lower 48. Intimate portraits of locals in both booming cities and dusty, dwindling towns along the Yellowstone River, illustrate the history and controversies surrounding this enigmatic watershed leading to questions about its future. Connect with colorful characters, get lost in the hypnotic cast of a fly rod, and experience silhouetted moments of fireside stories on this heartfelt river adventure.
Trailer: http://www.wheretheyellowstonegoes.com/
Buy: http://www.troutheads.org/where-the-yellowstone-goes-dvd-or-bluray-p-9.html

Lost Rivers – 2012, 72 min.
(French with English subtitles) Once upon a time, in almost every industrial city, countless rivers flowed. We built houses along their banks. Our roads hugged their curves. And their currents fed our mills and factories. But as cities grew, we polluted rivers so much that they became conduits for deadly waterborne diseases like cholera, which was 19th century’s version of the Black Plague. Our solution two centuries ago was to bury rivers underground and merge them with sewer networks.
Trailer: http://rivieresperdues.radio-canada.ca/en

Valley Maker – 2011, 70 min.
Part documentary, part personal travelogue, Valley Maker follows the travels of filmmaker Sean Kafer as he navigates 1600 miles down the Mississippi River, from Prescott, Wisconsin to New Orleans, in a hand crafted barrel raft.
Trailer: http://seankafer.net/pages/valleymaker.html
Contact the filmmaker: http://www.seankafer.net/pages/contact.html

Return of the River – Still in development
The official ceremony heralding the long-awaited start of dam removal on the Elwha River was held on September 17, 2011. The decommissioning of the two Elwha River dams is both symbolic and meaningful, as salmon will again return to the protected river inside of Olympic National Park.
Trailer: http://www.elwhafilm.com/trailer.htm

Saving America’s Wildest River – 2010, 54 min
In the summer of 2008, George Wolfe, a satirical writer and avid boater decided to paddle the entire 52 miles of the Los Angeles River, from the headwaters in Canoga Park to its mouth in Long Beach. He organized an expedition and, together with a dozen other ragtag locals he changed the course of the river forever. This film tells their incredible story, the story of the embattled waterway, and the story of Los Angeles’ past, present and potential future.
Trailer: http://www.rocktheboatfilm.com/
Buy: http://www.rocktheboatfilm.com/shop

Rivers to the Sea – 2009, 46 min
This documentary looks at the beauty and the pollution of tidal Atlantic rivers. The rivers’ closeness to the sea makes them ideal spawning grounds for many kinds of marine fish that require fresh water to complete some part of their life cycle.
Full film: http://www.online-documentaries.com/documentary/rivers-to-the-sea/

Rediscovering the Yangtze River – 2006, 33 Episodes
This documentary created by China Central Television follows a 1984 documentary film named “The Story of the Yangtze River.” It is China’s first documentary shot entirely in 1080i HDTV. Filming began in 2004 and the first episode aired in July 2006. The series has a total of 33 episodes with a run time of 30 minutes per episode.
Watch all episodes online: http://english.cntv.cn/program/documentary/special/yangtze_river/
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Rediscovering-Yangtze-River-Lived-Rhythm/dp/B006VA40HC/ref=sr_1_1?s=instant-video&ie=UTF8&qid=1376257480&sr=1-1&keywords=rhythm+of+the+river

Planet Earth Freshwater – 2006, 50 min
Freshwater show us the course taken by rivers and some of the species, Venezuela’s Tepui, where there is a tropical downpour almost every day, the vastness of Angel Falls, the world’s highest free-flowing waterfall, the two-metre long giant salamander, salmon undertake the largest freshwater migration, and are hunted en route by grizzly bears, the Grand Canyon, created over five million years by the Colorado River, Nile cousin ambushing wildebeest as they cross the Mara River, Roseate spoonbills, cichlids, piranhas, river dolphins and swimming crab-eating macaques.
Trailer: http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p00mrvbp
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Freshwater-HD/dp/B00321QLS4

Rivers of Destiny – 2003, 25 min
Journey to Planet Earth examines the health of four of the world’s river systems — the Mississippi, the Amazon, the Jordan and the Mekong. The first stop is the small town of Grafton, Illinois, one of the many to suffer devastating damage when the upper Mississippi River flooded its banks in 1993. Journey to Planet Earth shows how massive construction efforts earlier in this century to control the river’s flooding have profoundly affected the entire Mississippi basin.
Trailer: http://www.ovguide.com/tv_episode/journey-to-planet-earth-season-1-episode-1-rivers-of-destiny-407728
Buy: http://www.amazon.com/Journey-Planet-Earth-Destiny-Edition/dp/B008Y0O3JM

Ecosystem services are essential to businesses. Internally, the foundation of pursing BES is about improving how companies identify risks and opportunities. If poorly done, the result can be project delays and supply chain challenges.  With regard to operational risk, it is no longer unusual to point out that companies must consider how to maintain long-term access to key natural resource-based inputs, particularly water.

And now companies are also considering reputational risk. For example, the Dow Jones Sustainability Index has added ecosystem services considerations within the forestry sector, and financial media coverage of ecosystem services, with stories in Bloomberg, the Financial Times and the Economist, are becoming commonplace.

Read more: http://www.greenbiz.com/blog/2013/07/12/disney-bp-rio-tinto-ecosystem-services

You may also like: Experience EcoBlu™ – Greener Still in 2012, Six Latest Trends in Corporate Sustainability, Impact Investment on the Rise

“The Principles and Requirements for Federal Investments in Water Resources, or Proposed Guidance for short, were released in March of this year,” writes Barrett. “The guidelines are meant to instruct federal water and land related investments in projects ensuring that the agencies’ actions contribute to economic development while preserving the environment…While the Proposed Guidance do represent a possible shift in policy that recognizes the value of nature as an important component in economic development, it’s important to note that they are guidelines and not the rule for federal water resources investments. It’s unsure how effective they will be in moving toward a more balanced investment.”

Ecosystem services like water filtration, nutrient regulation and mitigation of floods and droughts can be difficult to quantify which is one reason why investment decisions have been mostly based on economic gains. The report argues that measuring water resources investments purely on economic gains no longer reflects national needs and the integrated ecosystem services approach will lead to more socially beneficial investments.

Read more: http://www.ecosystemmarketplace.com/pages/dynamic/article.page.php?page_id=9742

UNEP Top 5 Environmental Impacts.

The statistics are staggering.  According to a  recent report by environmental

consultancy Trucost on behalf of The Economics of Ecosystems and Biodiversity (TEEB) program sponsored by United Nations Environmental Program report, if the top 20 region-sectors ranked by environmental impacts, none would be profitable if environmental costs were fully integrated.

The report tallies up the total “unpriced natural capital” consumed by the world’s top industrial sectors. “Natural capital” refers to ecological materials and services like clean water or a stable atmosphere; “unpriced” means that businesses don’t pay to consume them. The majority of unpriced natural capital costs are from greenhouse gas emissions (38%), followed by water use (25%), land use (24%), air pollution (7%), land and water pollution (5%), and waste (1%).

The total unpriced natural capital consumed by the more than 1,000 “global primary production and primary processing region-sectors” amounts to $7.3 trillion a year — 13 percent of 2009 global GDP.

“That amounts to a global industrial system built on sleight of hand, “ writes Roberts, “As Paul Hawken likes to put it, we are stealing the future, selling it in the present, and calling it GDP.”

Read more: http://grist.org/business-technology/none-of-the-worlds-top-industries-would-be-profitable-if-they-paid-for-the-natural-capital-they-use/

Gene St. Denis displays the giant brown trout – 15 pounds, 9 ounces – he caught last January near Cave Rock. Photo: Courtesy Eric St. Denis as printed in the San Francisco Chronicle.

One of the biggest brown trout in history at Lake Tahoe, just 5 ounces from the lake record, was landed last January amid a proliferation of giant fish at the south end of Lake Tahoe.

The giant trout was 33 inches long and weighed 15 pounds, 9 ounces. The lucky angler was Gene St. Denis, who landed the fish after what he called “a hellacious 40-minute battle.” It was netted at the boat by son Eric, who caught a 28-pound, 9-ounce mackinaw trout fishing two weeks prior in the same area.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/outdoors/article/Huge-brown-trout-pulled-from-Lake-Tahoe-4170207.php

A famed Harvard business strategist, Porter says profitable business is the only infinite means for creating societal value, and the most powerful force for addressing the most critical challenges we face.

“Porter has coined the term “shared value” to define a concept by which companies become more competitive while simultaneously alleviating social problems in communities where they operate,” writes Noland.

“Shared value is about tackling societal problems with a capitalist business model… When we can get the activity into the capitalism bucket, we create magic because we can scale!”

Noland reports on the evolution of shared value, noting that historically, companies interacted with society through philanthropy. Philanthropy grew to include corporate social responsibility (CSR). Porter describes corporate philanthropy and CSR as fundamental building blocks for shared value but “shared value is different because it has the magical property of scalability.”

The greatest distinction between shared value and CSR, says Porter, is that shared value is not on the margin of what companies do but at the center. It is important to understand these distinctions because doing so enables us to consider more intelligently the ways businesses can create value for society.

Read more:  http://www.triplepundit.com/2013/06/creating-magic-shared-value/