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Agenda Exhibit 11-05-19I jpg QP.age I of I )IISPOIJ FE -2 No Pet Left Behind ( firefighter _ Jeri Lear uses her lifesaving y 0 c�,� u sto protect b skills to protlec furry a uuuduwummi�mo,pdWuuuummnnu- - B By LI Y ELI.SSA SANCI ON A COLD MORNING IN - 2015, .. FIRST RESPONDER JEN LEARY ARRIVED on the scene of a house fire in West Phi.la.delphia. While firefighters rushed to rescue anyone. still inside the building and contain the fast - :moving fire, len had something else ort h��: mind: the residents'pet's. Jen is the founder -of Red I Paw Emergen . cy Relief Team, the country's. - fi . rst . 'emergency -response group dedicated to rescuing animals mals in residential disasters. That mor'nin'g, wearing traditional firefighter. gear emblazoned with the -organization's signaturefed-paw 1090, she rescued a greyhound mix named Milo from an upstairs bedroom. Aftera tip from a neighbor, she went back in to save three cats. By the end of the morning, Jan and another Red Paw volunteer had d rescued several more pets:- The came from Jen's e idea for Red Paw experience. as a Philadelphia firefighter.A rescued dog rides During her shifts, she often had to leave shotgunjpets b6hind during residential disasters. Al&k "The firefighters and.medics, the Red Cross, and the Salvation Armyare there for the people," says Jen, who grew up with In an pets and now owns'a dog and four cats.. ernergenoij, "But no one was focusing on the.pets." In 2011, Jen set but to change that..She we'll be there, assembled a team of trained firefighters f.or the pets -7 and dispatchers who work 24 hours a day, 365 days 6year, in 12 -hour shifts-Thegroup includes 6 mix of fulktime and part -ti - me employees and volunteers. When a'ees.identia[ emergency such asla fire, gas leak, or building collapse occurs, the. Philadelphia Fire Department�sends a text message to a Wau raw dispatcher. On the scene, Red Paw responders conductsearch and rescue operations for pets and transport any injured animals to a veterinary hospital. In 2018, Red Paw first responders rescued nearly ll000 pets, including cats, dogs, turtles, rabbits,. and even tarantula ' s. Says Jen: "Residents can rest assured that if there's a fire, their pets Will be in good hands." .......................... ....... :01 For details, visit redpaw - emergencyreliefteam.org., w I OMANSDAYMA I GAZINEKI NOVEMBER 2014 67 W.; ,so� First & 10 Foremost EDUCATION NEWS AND TRENDS. Experienced Teachers Key to `Beating the Odds' Experienced teachers are the common factor among 156 California school districts where black and Hispanic students, as well as white students, are beating the odds and scoring higher than expected on tests that measure higher-level thinking skills, according to new research from the Learning Policy Institute (LPI).. 'The research finds that providing students with qualified, fully prepared teachers is a critical component for raising student achieve- ment" said Anne Podolsky, lead author of "California's Positive Outliers: Districts Beating the Odds! These findings are consistent with other research that points to the importance df a qualified, experienced teacher, and adds to the urgency around a growing U.S. teacher shortage, especially in high -poverty districts. In its research, LPI controlled for many factors •�' that often impact student achievement, such as household income and whether students' par- ents have college degrees. Achievement was gauged using California standardized test included in the study, of varying sizes and locations, all with at least 200 African American or Hispanic students, and at least 200 white students. A lack of experienced, well- [ers alified teachers impacts students. found that for every 10 percent rease in the percentage of teach - .a holding substandard credentialsaverage achievement of students color is lower, on average, by al- st.10 standard deviation. For white dents, every 10 percent increase is ociated with achievement that is early .07 standard deviations lower. "For whatever reason, Uthose districts with higher proportions •• of under -prepared • e teachers have • • lower achieve- ment;' says results. More than. 400 school districts were "The research finds that providing Podolsky. "we --- - -- - - 1" students with qualified, fully can't prove a prepared teachers is a critical causal relation - component for raising student ship—it could be achievement" that you may be less prepared to —ANNE PODOLSKY work with students or it could be several things. If a district has a Lot of under -prepared teach- ers, there could be many things going on in that district' The report notes that "the places that are difficult for teachers to work in and students to learn in may feel they need to hire more teachers on substandard credentials because relatively few teachers want to work in the district" PHOTO: 0 2015 NEA / MOSES MITCHELL PHOTOGRAPHY For the birds Populations are crashing, but we can mitigate the losses ..NL x '%k -« - re R 6Lw - The type of trees and shrubs you choose can also make a big difference to birds. Shown is a cedar waxwing eating a chokeberry. (Jane Gamble/Washington Post photos) • -may.`" 's '?�?�r •L 1 J r A Baltimore oriole has a snack on an American sycamore. BY ADRIAN HIGGINS THE WASHINGTON POST The arrival of fall weather has gardeners thinking about winter, a period of retreat in the garden but not of death. The plants' withdrawal from the cold invites close examination of the leafless world. But if you need something beyond the display of holly berries, the smooth silver bark and latent buds of the magnolia, or the black silhouette of an old walnut tree, there is another, more vivid reminder that life goes on outdoors. We have the birds. , Or do we? A study by ornithologists and other scientists released last month told us bird populations have crashed. Since 1970, the United States and Canada have lost nearly 3 billion, close to 30% fewer individuals. The losses are across habitats and species, though hardest hit are birds that inhabit the grasslands from Texas north into the Canadian prairie. The suspected causes? Habitat loss, more intensive agriculture and greater use of pesticides that kill the insects birds eat. For those of us who see the garden not just as a living expression of beauty but a place where we embrace nature, the news is a reminder that -we have some power to mitigate this distressing loss. First and foremost, keep the cat indoors. Ask your neighbor to do the same. Cat predation is a major cause of bird mortality, according to the American Bird Conservancy. This is not just from pets but all the alley cats out there, themselves the product of people throwing unwanted, unsterilized felines to the four winds. The cats are the instrument of bird death, but we are the cause. Songbirds also die in large numbers by flying into windows. If this is a problem where you live, you can attach decals to your glazing. Another tactic is not to use pesticides, even sprays against mosquitoes, a pest best countered by removing sources of standing water, especially in the spring. You might think the greatest step you can take for the birds is to feed them. This is, after all, the time of year our thoughts turn to nourishing birds through the chillier months ahead. Do the birds need this buffet? Perhaps not, but bird feed can help at key moments in the year, in April and May and September and October, when migrating birds need all the fuel they can get. "These movements mean a high expenditure of energy for what are often tiny animals," said Emma Greig, program leader of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Project Feeder Watch. "To have places along the way for them to rest and feed — that's really important." The other moment is in winter during periods of extreme cold. These sudden Arctic blasts can lead to a lot of bird death. Suet blocks work for insect -feeding birds "and are used by a wide variety of species," Greig said. "They're ideal for cold weather, the time when bird feeders actually enhance survival of some species." The greatest value of bird feeding is to bring wild birds in proximity to us, so we can develop an affinity for them. Not all mixes are equal; striped sunflower, for example, is not favored by as many bird species as black -oil sunflower or hulled or chipped sunflowers, according to a three-year study, Project Wildbird. Project FeederWatch (feedenvatch.org) has put together an infographic on common feeder birds and what their preferences are. Placement of feeders can be important — near shrub cover, but not where a stalking cat can hide, and close to a window, which will actually minimize window -strikes when birds seek cover from a swooping hawk, Greig said. If you really want to help birds, though, the way to do it is to mindfully develop your garden as a habitat where birds can find what they need to nest and raise young: food, cover and water year-round. One element of this is to not use pesticides. Another is to reduce the area of lawn in favor of bird -friendly plants. At the Audubon Naturalist Society's 40 -acre Woodend Nature Sanctuary in Chevy Chase, Maryland, various projects in recent years have been implemented to improve avian habitats. A signal project is the conversion of a quarter -acre field of orchard grass into a native plant meadow of grasses and wildflowers. This draws and harbors insects, which many birds need to feed themselves and their young. Another display is the Blair Native Plant Garden, which shows garden -worthy plants found in the Appalachian Mountains, the piedmont and the coastal plain. Another approach is to layer plantings — ground covers, shrubs, trees — in a way that mimics natural areas and provides birds with the undergrowth they need, said Alison Pearce, the society's director of restoration. In such gardens, expect to see wood thrushes and eastern towhees. The society has put together a guide for homeowners to build their own habitats at ANShome.org. Pearce encourages interested individuals to visit the sanctuary. The type of trees and shrubs you choose can also make a big difference to birds. Winterberries, American hollies and other ilex provide important sources of winter berries. I used to have a February flock of cedar waxwings on my hollies; later the same trees drew plundering flocks of robins. In the dead of winter, the robins provided their own form of vital entertainment but also a sense that nothing is static in the garden, that one season is always foreshadowing the next. Gardening tip: Compost piles that have dried out will stop decomposing. Rake out materials and mix with fresh, chopped yard waste and shredded leaves. Return the contents to the pile and soak the materials. Keep the pile from getting waterlogged. Evenly moist is the way to go. A18 Sutift, 5e;pternber 22, 2019 The Palm Beach Post REAL NEWS STARTS HERE Where ?.� By Seth Borenstein and, Christina Larson The l Associated Press WASHINGTON — North America's skies are lonelier and quieter as nearly 3 billion fewer wild birds soar in the air than in 1970, a comprehensive study shows. . The new study focuses on the drop in ,sheer numbers of .:birds, not extinctions. The bird population in the United States and Canada was, probably around io.l bil- lion nearly half a century ago and has fallen 29% to about 7.2 billion birds; according to a study in Thursday's journal Science. . 'People need to pay attention to the birds around them because they are slowly disappearing," said study lead author Kenneth Rosenberg, a Cornell University con-. servation scientist. "One of,the scary things about the results is that, it is happening right under.our eyes. We might not even notice it until it's too late. Rosenberg and col- lenagues projected population data using weather radar, 13 differ- ent bird surveys going back to 197o and com- puter modeling to come up withtrends for 529 species of North American birds. Bird numbers on the decline across North America A newly releasers comprehensive study estimates a 29 :perceni loss in overall wild bird counts since the 19709 Introduced Aerial species shorebirds Landbirds Waterbirds Waterfowl inseckivor s 'A new study finds there are nearly 3 billion fewer wild birds flying in North American skies than in 1970. [THE ASSOCIATED PRESS] That's not all species, but more than three-quarters of them. And most of the missed:.species are quite rare, Rosenberg said. . . . Using weather. radar data, . which captures flocks of migrating birds, is anew method; he said. "This is a landmark paper. It's put numbers to. everyone's fears about what's going on," said Joel Cracraft, curator - in -charge for ornithology of the American Museum of Natural History,.who wasn't part of the study. _ "It's even more stark than what many of us might have guessed," Cracraft said. Every year University of Connecticut's Margaret Rubega, the state orni- thologist, gets calls from people noticing fewer birds. And this study, which she wasn't part of, highlights an important problem, she said. "If you came out of your house .one morning and noticed that a third of all the houses in your neigh- borhood were empty, you'd rightly conclude that something threat ening was going on," Rubega said in an email. "3 billion of our neigh- bors, the ones, who eat the bugs that destroy our food plants and carry diseases like equine encephali- tis, are gone. I think we all ought to think that's threatening." Some of the most common and recognizable birds are taking the biggest hits, even though they are not near disappearing yet, Rosenberg said. The common house sparrow was at the top of the list for losses, as were many other spar- rows. The population of eastern meadowlarks has shriveled by more than three-quarters with the western meadow- lark nearly as hard hit. Bobwhite quail numbers are down 8o%, Rosenberg said. Grassland.birds in gen- eral are less than half what they used to be, he said. Not all bird popula- tions are shrinking. For example, bluebirds„are increasing, mostlybecause people have worked hard to get their numbers up. Rosenberg, a bird - watcher since he was 3, has seen this first- hand over snore than 6o years.. When he was younger, there would be "invasions” of evening grosbeaks that his father would take him to see in Upstate New York with zoo to 30o birds around one feeder,. Now, he said, people get excited when they see 10 grosbeaks. The research ..only covered wild birds, not domesticated': ones such as chickens. Rosenberg's study didn't go into what's making wild birds dwin- dle away, but he pointed to past studies that blame habitat loss, cats and windows. "Every field you.lose, you lose the birds from that field," he said. "We know that so many things` are'killing birds in large numbers, like cats and windows.' Experts say habitat loss was the No. 1 reason for bird loss. A 2015 study said cats kill.2.6 billion birds each year in the United.. States and Canada, while.. . window collisions kill .another 624 million and: cars another 214 million: That's why people can' l do their part by keep ing cats indoors, treating their home windows to reduce, the likelihood. that birds -will crash into them, stopping pesticide and.insecticide use .at home and buying coffee.;: grown on farms with forest -like habitat,' said , Sara Hallager, bird tura- tor at the Smithsonian Institution. ` "We. can reverse that trend, '''Hallager said. "We can turn the tide."