Yup, it’s that time of year: baby goslings. These fluffballs were spotted near the Delaware River on the beautiful spring day of April 25, 2020. [Photo: Kyle Bagenstose]
By Kyle Bagenstose
For anyone following this news roundups on a regular basis, I apologize that it’s been a week since the last update. DelVal Outdoors is a side project of mine, and the daytime gig at the USA Today Network kind of turned into a round-the-clock job covering COVID-19 this week, so I wasn’t able to get to as many roundups as I would have liked.
Will try to do better in the future!
But enough about me. Plenty of environmental news to catch up on:
This week’s headlines and highlights
Let’s start with this op-ed in the Philadelphia Inquirer, asking “Is it time to reopen New Jersey Parks?“
I’ve been seeing an increasing amount of chatter online about the impacts of Gov. Phil Murphy’s decision earlier this month to completely close state and county parks. While townships were left to make their own decisions, many also shuttered their parks and trailheads, leaving basically no access for residents to recreate nearby, taking off even the simple joy of taking a dog for a walk at the nature trail down the street. All in the name of public health, which makes a certain amount of sense.
But with additional anecdotes of New Jersey license plates showing up at parks just across the PA border– such as the Delaware Water Gap– and reporting elsewhere suggesting the virus transmits poorly outside, I personally am really starting to question the cost-benefit ratio of such a complete shutdown. The Inquirer op-ed further makes the case with scientific arguments.
Continue reading “DELVAL OUTDOORS NEWS ROUNDUP, APRIL 26, 2020”