A tough match but UConn takes Purdue, 72-60

Hasheem Thabeet scored UConn’s first eight points of the second half. File photo © Vito J. Leo for HTNP.com

ARIZONA – The UConn men’s basketball team moves ahead with their defeat of Purdue, 72-60 on Thursday [March 26], in the NCAA West Regional semifinals.

The Huskies will play the winner of the semi-final between Memphis and Missouri.

This is the fourth time since 2002 that the men’s team has reached the regional finals.

Tough competition

A.J. Price:  “We came out here and played as hard as we can and we played a great team today. I really do believe that. They are a very tough team. They wouldn’t go away by any stretch of the imagination.”

“We tried to put them away three,  four,  five different times and every time, they came back.  But we stayed with it and we were able to keep that lead. We prevailed today.”

UConn started with an early 11-point lead, and then the defense-oriented Boilermakers made things tough. The Huskies shot only 39.4 percent from the floor, but led by five points at intermission.

The Boilermakers trailed 30-25 at halftime.

Game picks up in second half

Hasheem Thabeet scored UConn’s first 8 points of the second half, and then blocked a shot to set up a fast break lay up by A.J. Price, who scored 10 of his 15 points after halftime.

The Boilermakers answered with a 7-0 burst, and pulled within 44-40 with 11:24 to play.

Thabeet dunked to push the lead back to 57-45 with 6:28 to play, and that was pretty much it for Purdue.

Craig Austrie added 17 points, and Stanley Robinson had 10 points and 11 rebounds for the Huskies.

UConn out-rebounded Purdue 48-33.

With this game, Purdue ended its longest NCAA run since 2000 when the Boilermakers lost to Wisconsin in the West Region final.  “We did accomplish a lot this season,” said Robbie Hummel, who led Purdue with 17 points.  “We’ve been in the Sweet 16 now. We’re going to be hungry to make it farther next year.”

Coach Jim Calhoun sums it up

“I thought A.J. Stanley, once again, has evolved into that role as our third scorer and rebounder.  And the job he did on Hummel, who I have incredible respect for, what an incredible player he is.  In the first half, he lit us up big time. In the second half, I believe we held him to two points, a lay up late.  Just a magnificent defensive job.”

“I thought they did a great job on A.J. Price.  They doubled the ball all the time. They did a terrific, terrific job of jumping on him. And he fought his way through it and made some big key hoops when they kept threatening down the stretch.”

“We were then able to use the clock, dominate on the backboard and, once again, allow Hasheem [Thabeet] to really control – in my opinion – the second half of the game.”

“But the good sign – and I know this time of year it is getting to be a shot season – but nevertheless, that Craig steps up when Jeff doesn’t have a good game, when Stanley steps up, when other people can do the job… obviously, I told them all we’re playing for, fellows is to play Saturday. That’s all we’re playing for… And the kids came through great.  I couldn’t be prouder and happier for them.”

For more on the game, go to www.uconnhuskies.com and check out their very cool newly designed Web site.

Posted March 26, 2009

[As edited/ rewritten by Brenda Sullivan]

Ban on trapping threatens safety of dams

A beaver and a gnawed tree that will be used to build a beaver dam

State legislators may soon be voting on a controversial measure to ban certain kinds of traps in Connecticut, including traps currently used by wildlife professionals to control burrowing animals in the Connecticut River levee system.

The General Assembly’s Environment Committee recently approved a bill, co-sponsored by State Sen. John Fonfara and Rep. Elizabeth “Betty” Boukus to ban foothold and Conibear traps in the state.

State Sen. John Fonfara

The Connecticut Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators Association, Inc. (CTNWCO Assoc., Inc.) is alarmed at this proposal.

Millions of dollars in repairs to the levee system can be attributed to wildlife problems over the past several years.

State Rep. Elizabeth Boukus and Gov. Jodi Rell. Photo from Web site of Rep. Boukus.

We are deeply concerned about the state’s ability to continue to keep the population levels of these animals in check without these vital tools.

According to Nick Casparino, a Civil Engineer for the town of East Hartford , the town last year alone paid a private contractor $4 million to repair nearly four miles of town-owned dikes that protect it from the Connecticut River .

The town has allocated $25 million to rehabilitating the dike system.

Casparino said that more than $58,000 has been paid to the contractor so far, for controlling and repairing wildlife damage to the dike system, but the project is still ongoing.

Muskrats, beavers and moles

The state lawmakers need to look at the overall picture of this ban on trapping, and look at where these tools can be used effectively to manage wildlife to protect human interests. How will a muskrat or beaver that is burrowing into a levee be caught without these tools being available anymore?

Muskrat

According to Dan Marks, a Civil Engineer and a consultant of the Association of State Dam Safety Officials, burrowing animals like muskrats and beavers are the two most common wildlife species to cause structural damage.

Muskrats burrow into the levees and weaken their integrity.

Beavers obstruct spillways, burrow into the levee, and move mud and material to create their own dams.

Mr. Marks says that water level devices are not a good option since they are expensive to install and maintain.

He recalled that last year in June, a muskrat had undermined a repaired water-saturated levee that was holding back the relentless Mississippi River in eastern Missouri .

The town residents had worked for several days to maintain the levee from the rising waters. This only affected about 100 homes, but the levee was protecting an area of about 3,000 acres, and the damage happened when everyone was sleeping.

Muskrats and beaver aren’t the only wildlife causing damage to dikes.

“How can we control moles that are eroding the surface of these levees?” asked Richard Daniotti, owner of Wildlife Control Services of West Hartford. “These lawmakers are supposed to look out for the environment and the people. Yet if they ban the use of traps, they will only cause more poisons to be absorbed into the environment, including our waterways.”

Daniotti also pointed to the FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) technical manual for wildlife control professionals to use in managing these animals and said, “FEMA highly recommends these same traps that the state lawmakers are trying to ban.”

DEP Testimony

On March 9, Connecticut DEP Deputy Commissioner Susan Frechette testified in opposition to the trap ban at the environmental lawmakers hearing, citing a detrimental impact on wildlife management.

She testified that if the traps are banned under the proposed legislation, the most effective – and for some species, the only effective tool – will  no longer be available to wildlife control professionals.

Sen. Edward Meyer of Guilford responded to Deputy Commissioner Frechette during the hearing by saying, “I am appalled that the department is condoning the use of these traps.”

Privately-owned dams

Connecticut had 22 deficient dams in 2004, according to a 2005 report on the state’s dams, “Dam Safety in Connecticut,” compiled by the Connecticut Department of Environmental Protection’s Bureau of Water Management.

The Connecticut River

There are 468 earthen dams in Connecticut, representing 64 percent of the 723 dams in the state, according to the US Army Corps of Engineers’ 2007 report on National Inventory of Dams.

This report also indicated that 62 percent of the dams are privately owned, and 18 percent are owned by local governments.

Wesley Marsh of the bureau of Water Management said, “It will be hard to tell a private levee owner that they need to remedy a wildlife issue, then have the wildlife department tell them that they cannot trap the animal. Especially if they had a trapper previously managing the beaver population for no charge.”

According to USA Today’s December 22, 2008 article, “Most Levee Repairs Lagging,”  the US Army Corps of Engineers indicated that the worst offenders are Washington and California , where levees with “unacceptable maintenance deficiencies” protect densely populated cities like Seattle and Sacramento.

While Connecticut has recently provided $5 million to improve Hartford ‘s levees, no one knows how this trapping ban will affect the cost of repairing the levees in the future.

One has to wonder if it will even be feasible to perform the repairs without being able to use the proper tools, such as traps, to control the burrowing animals causing the damage.

If the repairs are delayed, the US Army Corps of Engineers could bar access to recovery funds, should there be a catastrophe.

- Tom Logan is Vice President and spokesman for the CTNWCO Association

“The Connecticut Nuisance Wildlife Control Operators Association is a non-profit organization to promote general standards and ethics, as well as foster education, research, and knowledge within the nuisance wildlife control industry.”

Posted March 26, 2009

[Edited for length and continuity]

How to have a green – and safe – yard

As it starts to feel something like spring, thoughts are turning to the outdoors – including getting our lawns and gardens back into shape.

To help local residents with that task, the town is offering an Organic Land Care Workshop series that will address safer ways to have a nice green lawn, how to take care of our gardens and lawns in ways that conserve water (and how to use a rain barrel), and making our household waste work for us as free fertilizer.

Mansfield Recycling Coordinator Virginia Walton.Photo © Brenda Sullivan

Even when we try to make good choices, it can be confusing trying to figure out what kinds of products to use on our lawns and gardens and then, how to apply them.  “People usually don’t realize that a lot of our fertilizers already have pesticides and herbicides in them,” said Virginia Walton, the town’s recycling coordinator and organizer of this workshop series.

People often are unaware of the hazards of misapplied landscaping products. “Pet cancer is on the rise and some of it is being attributed to what we put on our lawns,” Walton said. She added that children playing in the yard and especially infants that are crawling in the grass, also face risks.

Property owners also should be aware of the possible contamination of drinking water sources when they misapply a product. “If you’re using chemical fertilizers and put them on at the wrong time, or use too much, you can pollute water sources,” Walton noted.

Organic lawncare

The first workshop in the series, “Organic Lawncare,” will be led by Bettylou Sandy – owner of Bettylou’s Gardening.  She is accredited by the Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) as an organic land-care professional.

Those interested in attending should sign up as soon as possible in order to secure a place in the workshop, which will be held on Saturday, April 4 from 9 a.m. to noon in the council chambers of the Audrey P. Beck Municipal Building (town hall), located at 4 South Eagleville Road. The registration fee is $10. Registration deadline is March 31 – reserve your spot by calling Walton at 429-3333 during office hours. (Town Hall closes at noon on Fridays.)

Smart water use

The second workshop in the series – this one is free – will be “Backyard Water Wise Workshop,” to be held on Saturday, May 2, from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., again at town hall.

This workshop explores the water resources on your property – and interesting ways to use them – including the benefits of rain barrels and how to create a landscaped rain garden.

The instructor for this workshop will be Jean Pillo, coordinator for the Thames River Basin Partnership.

The registration deadline for this workshop is April 27. Please register early, to ensure there are enough participants to hold the workshop. Call the Mansfield Recycling Coordinator at 429-3333.

Putting those potato peels to good use

A third workshop, “Backyard Composting,” will be held on Saturday, May 16 from 10 a.m. to 11 a.m., again at the town hall. This is another freebie.

In this workshop, you will:

• learn about the inner workings of a compost pile and how it is an integral part of organic land care

• compare different styles of composting set-ups

• help you get started or improve they system you’re already using

Again, early registration is encouraged. This workshop will be led by Virginia Walton, Mansfield Recycling Coordinator. Call her at 429-3333 to sign up. Registration deadline is 429-3333.

Bonus! rain barrel sale

Rain barrels are being sold through the New England Rain Barrel Company for $85 total. To take advantage of this program, orders must be placed by Friday, June 12, 2009.

The pickup for all orders is Saturday, June 20, between 11 a.m. and 2 p.m. at the Mansfield Town Hall parking lot.

To view the rain barrel and place an order, log onto http://www.Nerainbarrel.com/Mansfield.html or call 877-977-3135.

Posted March 26, 2009