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Conservation Tips
Tips on easy, everyday things we can all do to help conserve our natural
resources.
Tips on how you can help conserve our precious
natural resources provided by
Steve Wing, the Zoo’s general curator and all-around
conservation guru.
Summer 2007
- Buy a mulching lawnmower and
recycle your grass clippings right back into your lawn.
- Support local “farmer’s
markets.” Locally-grown produce is typically fresher, cheaper
wand less-laden with pesticides.
- There is also a benefit to
saving fuel on shipping long distances.
- Make choices for healthy
oceans. Visit
seafoodwatch.org
for information on seafood choices that are healthy
for you and the planet.
Spring 2007
- Plant a small xeriscape garden
for this year. Hundreds of species of flowers, shrubs, vines and
ground covers need less watering and maintenance.
- As they burn out, replace your
standard incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescents.
They last longer and use about 1/4 of the energy.
- One bat can eat 3000 insects
in a night. Put a bat house up in your yard. Go to
www.batcon.org for information, plans and even
houses.
- Adopt an animal at the Zoo.
Donations help care for the many endangered species that live
here.
Winter 2006
- Washing machines use about 15%
of your home’s water. Make sure each load is as full as
possible.
- Recycling a stack of
newspapers 3 feet high saves one tree.
- Frogs are an indicator
species. Learn how you can help at
http://www.nwf.org/frogwatchUSA.
- Nearly all organic matter can
be composted. The only garden wastes that should be discarded
are diseased leaves and branches and seedpods and roots of
invasive plants. By simply dumping grass clippings, leaves and
small branches in a pile, you will eventually be rewarded with
rich compost.
Fall 2006
-
An estimated 130 million cell phones are
discarded each year. Recycle your cell phone at the Louisville
Zoo!
To reduce your
mowing time even further and to make your property even more
wildlife enticing, consider planting a variety of trees, shrubs
and vines.
It takes 1 million
years for a glass bottle to decompose. Consequently, glass can
be recycled forever!
Avoid buying
plants and animals that are endangered. This may include
precious woods and ivory from elephants, walrus and hippos!
Summer 2006
-
Keep your car tuned up. It’s the easiest way to
make your car more fuel-efficient. A well-tuned car uses 9% less
gasoline than a poorly-tuned car.
In six months, a
leaky toilet wastes 45,000 gallons of water.
A website to keep
us healthy:
http://research.amnh.org/biodiversity/center/pubs/pubslwn.html
Orioles love to
eat oranges.
Six-pack holders are
virtually invisible underwater, so marine mammals can’t avoid
them. Before you toss them into the garbage, snip each circle
with a scissors.
Spring 2006*
-
Contact your
local utility company for a free energy audit, or try the
do-it-yourself tool from the Department of Energy and the
Environmental Protection Agency at
http://hes.lbl.gov/.
A computer that
runs 24/7 uses almost 5 times the amount of energy as one that
is shut down every night and on weekends.
Save and reuse
small cardboard boxes and manila envelopes that arrive in the
mail. You’ll be surprised at how often the need will arise
to reuse these handy items.
Coffee filters and
paper towels are white because they’re bleached. Use unbleached
products when you can.
In the early
1980s, there were an estimated 1.5 million elephants in Africa.
Today that number is around 750,000, mostly due to habitat loss
and poaching for ivory. Don’t buy ivory!
* Some information is excerpted from “The Back to
Nature Handbook” |
