Oak Park in Riverside Wichita, Kansas is a location where many trees have been cut down in the recent months. I have contacted the Parks and Recreation Department, and they plan to cut down more trees that are nearly a hundred years old and have lost some branches over the years. This is their claim for why trees are unsafe. It is unfortunate because the trees that have been cut down and the ones that are marked to be cut down are healthy growing trees and do not affect the safety of visitors. However, the overgrown poison ivy needs to be removed, because it is unsafe and can cause severely painful rashes to visitors.
 We need to save the trees in our local environment from unnecessary deforestation, while also protecting one another from poison ivy found within the public park. We, the people who visit Oak Park, want to preserve the historical oak trees, cottonwoods, and various tree species originally planted in this park approaching a hundred years ago. Join us in signing this petition to defend and preserve the beautiful trees rooted in the history of Wichita. By signing this petition, you contribute significantly by removing poison ivy and protecting the natural forested area of Oak Park. Thank you for your time.
 _____________ August 4, 2015 Thank you Oak Park petition signers for contributing your voice to save the trees and remove poison ivy. In the past few weeks after speaking and emailing Wichita’s Parks and Recreations about this issue there is resolution and mutual understanding. "As Mr. Houtman has indicated, our inspection process is rigorous with priorities being on public safety and maintaining the tree as opposed to removal. There are many factors in an inspection which include, but are not limited to, overall tree health, structural stability, and species specific symptoms. More often than not, when a defect is detected, only minor pruning is required to mitigate the problem. Though this work is extremely important, it is rarely noticed by the casual passer-by. When removal of a tree is necessary, the aftermath is easily noticeable and often generates questions as to why the removal was performed." "As for “reforestation” replenishing the canopy with new trees, City Forestry staff is on track to plant between 750 and 1000 new trees this next planting season. We take great pride in our efforts to increase the number of trees that line our streets and provide shade in our parks," as stated by Gary Farris, Park and Recreation, Forestry Arborist. I am grateful to hear that Troy Houtman, CPRE Director of Parks and Recreation wrote, "To summarize, we currently do not have any removal of trees scheduled in this park." During my last visit to the Oak Park it appeared that the poison ivy was sprayed for with herbicide. After speaking with Troy I was pleased to hear that they have been working on removing the poison ivy from the Wichita Wild area of Oak Park. Parks and Recreation works hard to maintain the public parks and the over all appearance of the local park environment in Wichita Kansas. As a member of the visiting community I appreciate their open communication about Oak Park and their willingness to reach a mutual understanding and resolution.

The Bakken pipeline is all risk and no reward for you and everyone else in the state of Iowa. Here are some reasons the Iowa Utility Board (IUB) must reject the Bakken Pipeline proposal: • Increased risks: The size of this pipeline is unprecedented for the state of Iowa and would carry up to 570,000 barrels of dangerous crude oil through Iowa every day. With the high rate of pipeline failures, it is not a matter of if, but when it will spill and leak oil in Iowa's land and water. • Continued dependence on fossil fuels: Investing in massive oil and gas infrastructure locks us into decades of dependence on fossil fuels, doing nothing to protect our homes and families from climate change. • Eminent Domain: If approved, the company building the pipeline would be able to use eminent domain to build the pipeline on private property, even if you, the landowner, doesn't want it to be built. • Only private interests win: The Bakken Pipeline would do nothing to decrease our dependence on foreign oil. In fact, the oil that would be transported would be sent to the Gulf of Mexico for export! Your opinion and taking the opportunity to participate in the democratic process is important. The IUB needs to hear from you and all Iowans about why this pipeline should not be approved.

San Luis Obispo is about to make a decision that will affect the health and safety of our LA neighborhoods. Phillips 66 Santa Maria refinery in San Luis Obispo County is proposing to expand operations to move 20,800 crude tankers to and from their Nipomo facility every year. Five major accidents have happened in the first five months of 2015 in North America. These, and other, rail car derailment explosions have proven just how devastating and dangerous it is to transport crude by rail — these explosions can kill people and produce huge amounts of pollution that can harm communities for years to come. We need our Los Angeles City Council to speak up and urge the San Luis Obispo County Planning Commission to deny this proposal, and protect our communities.

Few people know about the 62-year old twin pipelines, known as Line 5, that carries crude oil and natural gas under the Straits of Mackinac putting our Great Lakes at risk of a disastrous oil spill every day! A 2014 University of Michigan study declared that the Straits of Mackinac is the "worst possible place" in the Great Lakes for an oil spill. The strong currents in the Straits would quickly move oil from a spill, putting our economy, public health, environment and Great Lakes quality of life in jeopardy. The Michigan Petroleum Pipeline Task Force is currently evaluating Line 5 and will make a decision about what to do with the aging pipeline this spring.

We cannot afford to lose our fresh water. Without water we will perish. This has the potential to threaten our health and the very essence of our beings. This is mindless greed. There is nothing but potential harm coming out of this proposal. Won't you please save the only Everglades the world has to offer?

The reason this petition is being started is so that a public-private partnership can begin between the consumers and major pharmaceutical and major chains such as Walmart and CVS to join with us in properly disposing of unused or outdated pharmaceuticals which more commonly get flushed down our toilets or thrown out in our trash and eventually will end up harming our already fragile ecosystem and overall natural environmental habitat for plants, animals, and man. Please Copy & Paste this link into your browser for an even better understanding of why and how this needs to be done: http://blog.savesfbay.org/2015/06/bay-area-demands-pharmaceutical-take-back/?utm_medium=email&utm_source=Act-On+Software&utm_content=email&utm_campaign=Pollution%20update%2C%20%27%20big%20steps%20forward&utm_term=Read%20more%20on%20our%20blog.&cm_mmc=Act-On%20Software-_-email-_-Pollution%20update%2C%20%27%20big%20steps%20forward-_-Read%20more%20on%20our%20blog. Let us come together for a more positive result and stasis. Thank you...

Large CAFO operations are increasing their presence throughout the state. These farms produce an enormous amount of waste, which has been shown to contain antibiotic resistant bacteria that leaves genetic material behind. The distribution of the animal waste has been shown to have a negative impact on local watersheds, and this has a potential to affect all of the Great Lakes. Action is needed. These operations should have more stringent regulations, similar to any other industry, and should be classified as an industry, not as a farming operation.

California is in a severe drought and every drop of water is needed to sustain the residents, wildlife, fisheries and farms in our state. As a California resident, I am outraged that a for-profit company plans to extract and sell this precious resource. It is corporate irresponsibility at it's worst extreme.

This pipeline will carry gas produced in the Marcellus Shale through fracking, contributing to major pollution and climate change impacts. The Pinelands is a truly unique and ecologically important region and protecting it is critical not only for our water supply, but for biodiversity as well. This pipeline is going to promote water pollution from fracking and cooling towers, as well as air pollution from power plants, while creating irreversible harm to wetlands, streams, and damaging important open spaces. I know firsthand how pollution can impact our health, because one of my family members contracted a rare blood cancer from chemical exposure.

So many bills in Congress now target wolves; our senators and representatives need to be asked to keep up their good work in supporting the Endangered Species Act and other important legislation! Connecticut has no wolves, but America's national parks and forests belong to all of us, and it's up to the rest of the country to control the activities of local special-interest groups (mostly ranchers and sport hunters). If you sign this petition, I want you to imagine howling back to the wolves at the Wolf Conservation Center in South Salem, NY, or having one of their wolf ambassadors look into your eyes. You'll be able to look back into that golden gaze, knowing you did what you could to save their kind from the jagged teeth of a leg-hold trap or the cross-hairs of a rifle like the one that killed Echo, the first wolf to make it back to the Grand Canyon.

As a leading manufacturer of neonics, Bayer has contributed to countless bee deaths around the world, putting our very food supply at risk. We need bees to pollinate 2/3 of the food crops we eat every day -- healthy fruits and vegetables matter far more than Bayer's extra profits! So now we need to show Bayer’s CEO that his toxic chemicals are tarnishing the Bayer brand and harming its business.

I love salmon, a living icon of the Northwest. I hate that politicians and utilities are letting these iconic fish become extinct to support 4 old dams that only supply 4% of power (which could more than be made up for with wind and solar) and only supply water for 13 farms, which could still be irrigated with a simple movement of their pumps. Taxpayers also pay millions for the barge system and yearly dredging to keep their channels open. But shippers prefer to use the rail system that parallel the river, so the barge system LOST money in 2011. Meanwhile, biologists agree that just breaching these obsolete dams would bring Sockeyes back over 900 miles to Idaho's beautiful "Redfish Lake," named for the masses of sockeyes that onced spawned there!