Return to the Main Page Al Manning and Roger Strand Since 1992 the Carbon Cycle Group at NOAA's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) in Boulder, Colo., has been making measurements of carbon dioxide, and other trace gases on a 2,000-foot-tall television transmitter tower near Grifton, North Carolina. Since 1994 CMDL has been making similar measurements on a 1,470-foot-tall tower near Park Falls, Wisconsin. Because of the great height of these towers, and the rural locations, CMDL was able to get a precise measure of carbon dioxide concentration over the continent without being unduly affected by local sources and sinks such as pollution and vegetation. Al Manning is the engineer chiefly responsible for maintenance of the North Carolina tower and operation of the WITN-TV transmitter at the site, and Roger Strand is the engineer in charge of the Wisconsin tower and the WLEF-TV transmitter there. CMDL's work at the towers would not be possible without the advice and support of these gentlemen. Their help was particularly critical during the installation of equipment on the towers because of CMDL's limited experience working on this type of structure. Both men worked closely with CMDL to ensure that equipment was installed safely and so that minimum maintenance would be required. Dakota Ridge Aviation began working with NOAA's Climate Monitoring and Diagnostics Laboratory (CMDL) in Boulder, Colo., in 1993 when the first prototype, in-situ, automated air sampling instrument began flying vertical profiles in their Cessna 210 obtaining atmospheric samples for analysis in the CMDL laboratories via GC. The air samples are taken at 1,000 ft. increments , in a descending spiral, starting at 26,000 ft. and finishing the profile at 7000 ft. above Carr, Colorado, near the Wyoming border. The samples are analyzed for greenhouse gasses such as CO2, Methane, and CO. CMDL has come to expect these flights on a weekly basis. Aviation always has inherent risks due to weather and mechanical concerns. If something happens to the pilot's oxygen supply at the top of our profile he only has a few seconds of useful consciousness to do something about it. The pilots accept this risk as part of their working with CMDL. Rep. Brian Schatz, whose energy, ideas and belief in the capacity of young people to help solve environmental problems provided the foundations for the "Youth for Environmental Services" program and led to the establishment of the program in 1994 and its subsequent growth. Mr. Schatz was recently elected to the Hawaii state legislature. Dr. Bruce Miller, the Director of the Hawaii Sea Grant Extension program, whose support for Y.E.S. was built on his conviction about the importance of educating and involving youth in environmental work if they are to become life-long stewards of the earth. Sean Casey, whose enthusiasm and management skills enabled the Y.E.S. program to grow exponentially in Hawaii and expand nationally to other areas, such as Los Angeles, San Francisco and Seattle. The Youth for Environmental Services (Y.E.S.) program goes to schools and gives educational talks and engages students in discussions of local environmental issues. Additionally, Y.E.S. gives these young people a chance to get involved in environmental projects such as storm drain stenciling, save a tree day, trail building, stream and beach cleanups, water quality monitoring and marine life surveys. In 1997, the Educational Foundation of America awarded a $56,000 grant to Y.E.S. to continue its pilot projects in Los Angeles and San Francisco and to establish a Y.E.S. pilot project in Seattle in partnership with the University of Washington Sea Grant Program. As of the most recent count, Y.E.S. gave presentations to more than 65,000 students in 450 schools, involved 25,000 students in environmental community service projects, removed 20 tons of debris from Honolulu streams, restored one mile of the most used hiking trail on Oahu, planted approximately 2,000 plants, cleaned 40 beaches, stenciled more than 2,500 storm drains with a "Dump No Waste" message, and organized more than 350 other community service projects. Deighton Emmons, a high school science teacher at the Hawaii Preparatory Academy, has worked closely with scientist Steve Ryan of NOAA's Mauna Loa Observatory, Hilo Hawaii, in a unique cooperative effort to monitor acidic aerosol from the volcanic pollution of Kilauea volcano on the Big Island of Hawaii. Kilauea's eruption is the longest running event of its kind on Earth. When the hot lava hits the ocean, it sends up a large plume of H2SO4 and HNO3 particles known as Vog. Depending upon wind direction, this Vog plume may impact urban areas and schools. People breathing this Vog often have severe breathing problems and asthma attacks. Hawaii Island hospitals have a large increase in emergency room visits when Vog impacts an area for more than a few hours. School children are kept indoors when a Vog plume is in the area of the school. As a public service and to assist in health studies, Mauna Loa Observatory, Hilo, instituted a cooperative program in 1996 with the High Schools on the Island of Hawaii whereby students would make Vog measurements and interpret the data on a daily basis. To institute the program, Steve Ryan refurbished a number of outdated manual aerosol counters which had been in storage since the mid 1970's and offered them to high school science teachers. Coincidentally, Deighton Emmons was a science teacher looking for a project that offered students a real hands-on science experience. He knew other teachers with similar interests. These interests and instruments all came together under Deighton's leadership in an organization known as VOGNET. In September Deighton organized the first VOGNET weekend seminar where the teachers learned how to make measurements and the science behind them. Since then, students have taken over 5,000 observations which are available to researchers and the public over the VOGNET Web site, which is operated by Deighton's students. Subsequently, Deighton has organized several seminars in which students, teachers, and researchers get together to share information. In 1997 he organized a two-day field study that was held at the Hawaiian Volcanoes National Park attended by students and teachers from around the Island of Hawaii. Malcolm D. Smith is a Native American living on the Fort Peck Reservation in Montana. He takes care of NOAA's SURFRAD station there which measures UV radiation from the sun. He cleans the instruments for us and reports trouble to our technical representative. He is very diligent and is willing to help on all aspects of taking care of the SURFRAD station. He is in his early seventies and has lived in northeastern Montana for a very long time. He lives with his wife on tribal lands of the Fort Peck Reservation, which comprises much of the northeastern corner of Montana north of the Missouri River. The members of the tribes live on the reservation rent free and their homes are called "home sites." His home site is on the bank of the Poplar River, which flows southeast from Canada to the Missouri. He remembers the time when only wagons pulled by horses came up the Poplar River valley. He helped install the station in early 1995. The SURFRAD station is about 150 yards from Smith's house. He used his tractor to haul some of the heavy equipment and to trench the lines for buried cable. When the cattle, which are free to roam, did some damage to the equipment, he put up a temporary enclosure from his own materials. Later he constructed a more permanent enclosure of barbed wire, using old railroad ties for corner posts. He also built a nice gate from some scrap that was laying around. Dave Anderson (our technical contact) said that Smith was quite proud of that gate. He never asked for any payment for the work or materials. On another occasion, one of the anchors of the guy wires that stabilize the ten-meter tower pulled out of the ground. Without calling, he took the initiative to temporarily fix it by driving a t-post into the ground and attached the guy wire to it. This action probably saved taxpayers a lot of money. Just a few weeks ago, Anderson had to do some work during very inclement weather. It gets very cold up there, and the wind is always blowing. First Smith plowed a path to the station in the more than two-feet of snow for Anderson's car. While Anderson worked, Smith stood in the wind and held up a plywood wind break, and handed Anderson tools. Smith's assistance in monitoring this station is very important to the measurements there. Walter "Skip" Hartman has been an active participant in the stewardship of the Great Lakes environment. Skip has played an active role as an advisor to NY Sea Grant's Great Lakes sportfishery development program area and has provided important comments and suggestions to that area for more than a decade. He has served with distinction as chair of the Niagara County Fisheries Development Board. In that capacity he has actively guided the Board in addressing key issues of concern not only of interest to the County, but lakewide as well. The contributions that the Board has made to the development and promotion of fisheries have been substantial. His intelligence, insight, wisdom, level-headedness and people skills have truly been an asset as Board chairman. He is truly respected and admired by all that have worked with him, on both sides of the often contentious and politically charged issues. Hartman has also served as a public-advisor-at-large for the Great Lakes Fisheries Commission and its Lake Ontario Committee. He has been and continues to be a particularly strong advocate of NY Sea Grant and has also played an important role as a member of NY Sea Grant's statewide Program Advisory Committee and the National Sea Grant Panel for a number of years. As a co-advisor to the Lake Ontario Sportfisheries Promotion Council, Hartman's efforts led to funding available to initiate the Lake Ontario thermal-mapping program, under the aegis of Coastwatch. Most recently he has been instrumental in the development of a cage-culture project for chinook salmon fingerlings, as a cooperative effort between sportfishing stakeholders and fisheries managers. Hartman would also like to give something back to his heritage. As an enrolled Seneca, he has been working with fisheries management people from the US Fish and Wildlife, Sea Grant, the NY Department of Environmental Conservation, and the Seneca Nation of Indians to lay the groundwork for a fisheries management plan for the Nation's water resources.