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Show Wednesday, August 29, 200i A5 Dinosaur National Monument welcomes youngsters on Junior Ranger Day L Vernal Express 1 i "Sept. 1 is Junior Ranger Day at Dinosaur National Monument," Monu-ment," said Mary Risser monument monu-ment superintendent. "The highlight of Junior Ranger Day is the unveiling of the newly created Junior Ranger activity booklet along with a new Junior Ranger badge at 1 p.m. As part of the celebration, visitors will not be charged the park entrance fees." Beginning at 1 p.m. at the visitor center near Jensen, events will include the unveiling of the new Junior Ranger booklet and special activities led by Dana Chandler, the program's creator, cre-ator, aimed at helping children complete the Junior Ranger booklet. Children who complete the activities in the booklet will take an oath to become new Dinosaur Dino-saur National Monument Junior Rangers and will be presented a certificate and badge. The booklet, book-let, certificate, badge and guided activities are free for each child wishing to participate. Through a grant provided by the National Park Foundation, Dinosaur National Monument sponsored Dana Chandler, a summer Junior Ranger Ambas- Wastewater can ID citywide drug use Researchers have figured out how to give an entire community a drug test using just a teaspoon of wastewater from a city's sewer plant, the Associated Press reported. re-ported. The test wouldn't be used to finger any single person as a drug user. But it would help federal law enforcement and other agencies track the spread of dangerous drugs, such as methamphetamines, across the country. Oregon State University scientists tested 10 unnamed American cities for remnants of drugs, both legal and illegal, from wastewater streams. They were able to show that they could get a good snapshot of what people are taking. "It's a community urinalysis,'' Caleb Banta-Green, a University Univer-sity of Washington drug abuse researcher who was part of the Oregon State team, told the AE The scientists presented their results last Tuesday at a meeting meet-ing of the American Chemical Society in Boston. Two federal agencies have taken samples from US. waterways water-ways to see if drug testingawhole city is do-able, but they haven't gotten as far as the Oregon researchers. re-searchers. One of the early results of the new study showed big differences dif-ferences in methamphetamine use city to city. One urban area with a gambling industry had meth levels' more than, five times higher than -other cities Yet methamphetamine- levels were virtually nonexistent in some smaller Midwestern locales, lo-cales, said Jennifer Field, the lead researcher and a professor of environmental toxicology at Oregon State. The ingredient Americans consume and excrete the most was caffeine, Field told the AP Cities in the experiment ranged from 17,000 to 600,000 in population, but Field declined to identify them, saying that could harm her relationship with the sewage plant operators. She plans to start a survey for drugs in the wastewater of at least 40 Oregon communities. The science behind the testing test-ing is simple. Nearly every drug legal and illicit that people take leaves the body. That waste goes into toilets and then into wastewater treatment plants. "Wastewater facilities are wonderful places to understand what humans consume and excrete," ex-crete," Field told the AP In the study presented last Tuesday, one teaspoon of untreated un-treated sewage water from each of the cities was tested for 15 different drugs. Field said researchers can't calculate how many people in a town are using drugs. She said that one fairly affluent afflu-ent community scored low for illicit drugs except for cocaine. Cocaine and ecstasy tended to peak on weekends and drop on weekdays, she said, while methamphetamine meth-amphetamine and prescription drugs were steady throughout the week. Field said her study suggests that a key tool currently used by drug abuse researchers self-reported self-reported drug questionnaires underestimates drug use. David Murray, chief scientist for US. Office of National Drug Control Policy, told the AP the idea interests his agency. Murray said the US. Environmental Envi-ronmental Protection Agency is testing federal wastewater samples just to see if that's a good method for monitoring drug use. But he didn't know how many tegyvfim conducted ,'jor, where.t 'V iThe.HSPA jwiil ?flunn .out the details" on testing, Benjamin Grumbles joked. The EPA assistant as-sistant administrator told the AP the agency is already looking at the problem of potential harm to rivers and lakes from legal pharmaceuticals. The idea of testing on a citywide basis for drugs makes sense, as long as it doesn't violate people'sprivacy.saidTomAngell of the Students for Sensible Drug Policy, a Washington-based group that wants looser drug laws. "This seems to be less offensive offen-sive than individualized testing," he said. Huntsman orders helo stand-down After the Apache helicopter crash last Mondaynight, Gov. Jon Huntsman Jr. called for a mandatory man-datory stand-down of the Utah Army National Guard's aircraft. The stand-down, with necessary exception, will continue through a preliminary review of the incident and any appropriate inspection of all helicopters. Huntsman issued the following follow-ing statement: "Mary Kaye and I are saddened sad-dened by the terrible loss of the two Army National Guard pilots. We extend our deepest sympathies to the families on behalf of a grieving State. "This is another terrible tragedy trag-edy for Utahns to bear this black August. As commander in chief of the National Guard, I grieve for the families and the whole Utah National Guard family. . "I think this is particularly difficult to bear considering both pilots safely returned in 2005 from their tour of duty in Afghanistan. "We must remain vigilant in our support of the troops and all that they are doing. But our most important priority is to ensure all safety precautions are being taken." Housing Continued from A3 with funding resources to develop de-velop affordable housing for a growing community." "One of the solutions is creation of a housing specialist who will be the central point of contact for individuals and developers to work directly with banks and financial institutions, and interface with citycounty officials," said Walker. "If we can work with communities and have them identify the projects and then have the developer come, then half of the work has already been done." City and county officials agreed to develop an RFP for the housing initiative to draw in groups like Walker's, create a position for a housing specialist and fund that position for two years with additional funding to be raised through grants and aid. The timeframe for establishing the position and writing the plan were agreed to be on the fast trak. f k The Children, .-grandchildren .-grandchildren & great-grandchildren of Robert "Dun" Meadows would like to invite all ! friends and family to celebrate his 80 birthday at his cabin i Saturday, September sador, to develop and improve the Monument's Junior Ranger program. The Junior Ranger program is aimed for children 4 to 13 years old. ' "Through the Junior Ranger program, I have attempted to help children realize there is more than just dinosaurs to discover at Dinosaur National Monument. I have enjoyed my time at the monument, monu-ment, interacting with children and families as I developed the program," said Dana Chandler, Junior Ranger Ambassador. The Junior Ranger program, created by the National Park Service in the 1960s, engages kids in age-appropriate activities that introduce them to the treasures of the national park system and allow them to discover the significance signifi-cance of these special places and to understand the importance of protecting them. Today, the Junior Ranger program serves 383,639 children in 297 Parks. It also includes an online component, com-ponent, WebRangers (www.nps. govwebrangers), which receives over 1 million visitors annually. r ft Junior Ranger Ambassador Dana Chandler poses among the dinosaur displays and four children who helped her test some of the activities included in the new Junior Ranger booklet. The Junior Ranger Pledge is: "As a Dinosaur National Monument Junior Ranger, I promise to do all I can to help preserve and protect Dinosaur's natural and cultural features. I will continue to learn about these important parts of my heritage even after I leave Dinosaur National Monument." j Q )l & j N k X ' isj -ma mm a m.j ma m u m m upwi m 0 nS 1st at 1:00 pm. id |
