Andrew Zepp’s visit as a representative of the Finger Lakes Land Trust allowed me to learn a little bit more about the environment around us and how we affect it. Zepp’s explanation of the algae in the local lakes reminded me of the models we had explored in my BIOG 1500 class freshman year–adding too much of the nutrients found in common fertilizers caused populations to bloom and leave the ecosystem imbalanced.

The discussion took a new turn, however, when Zepp mentioned that it was hard to attribute all of the algae blooms in the lake to the fertilizer runoff of farmers in the region. It was possible that a large portion of it was due to some new kind of clam? fish? zebra clam? in the lake. This was new information to me, but it made sense. You can’t blame all the trouble on human activity when the animal activity could just as well be causing the imbalance. This just reasserted, in my mind, the importance of conducting studies regarding the environment and specific organisms’ affects.

I feel like most humans have an inability to plan for the long term. The economy and societal issues are being solved for short term use but not for the long term. Learning about how easy it is to poison the very water we drink and how prevalent the issue is, attests to this fact. There’s also the concern about conflict of interest. The only people who seem to be deeply concerned are the ones who are passionate about the environment, however, these passions are not found in the norm, and thus the environmentalist’s voice may be drowned out by businessmen looking for profit *in the now.* From the famous economist, John Maynard Keynes, “in the long run, we are all dead.”

I recently attended a Rose Cafe about the enviornment of Finger Lakes led by Andrew Zepp. It was interesting to learn about his experience in water and land conservation around the Finger Lakes area. I also learned about how heavy rainfall is bad for the lakes because all the soil gets washed into them, causing an influx of nutrients to enter the water system. This leads to the accumulation of bacteria and algae. It was also interesting to learn that the location of Wegman’s is actually pretty bad for today’s standards, since it isn’t good for the lakes around it.

This week, I had the pleasure of listening to Mr. Zepp speak on his experiences running the Finger Lakes Land Trust, and on his environmental advocacy throughout the region. First of all, I was struck by his emphasis on consensus and “win-win” arrangements. Too often, when I think of environmentalism, I think of advocates protesting in front of legislatures or corporate offices, trying to force regulations upon resistant businesses (however sorely they may be needed). This, I was please to observe, did not seem to be Mr. Zepp’s method of advocacy. In my own efforts in disability advocacy, I have noticed that Mr. Zepp’s method works, in general, far better than the more combative measure, and it seems to be working just as effectively in his line of work as well. That said, he did acknowledge (as I do) that such confrontational advocacy, in the political arena, has its own definite time and place, and that without it much less would be done.

Andrew Zepp, founder and Executive Director of the Finger Lakes Land Trust, talked with us about the objectives of the land trust and what they have accomplished in terms of land and water conservation in the Finger Lakes region. I am from Cleveland, Ohio, which sits on Lake Erie and it seems like, with every summer, the number of warnings about swimming in the lake due to toxic algae seems to continually increase. Zepp explained that due to climate change, the frequency of intense rainfalls has increased in many areas. This intense rainfall leads to soil erosion in watershed regions and therefore, increased nutrient dropoff in lakes. This overloading of nutrients is what leads to toxic algae and bacteria in lakes. I am really happy that I was able to learn more about the issues our environment currently faces and the efforts we can take to conserve our resources.