State of Indiana sent this bulletin at 06/30/2020 04:05 PM EDT
Indiana is currently in Stage 4 of the Back on Track Plan. Masks are recommended to be worn in public, 250 people can gather practicing social distancing guidelines and restaurants can open at 75% capacity.
Earlier this month, FFA members from across the state virtually tuned into the 91st Indiana FFA State Convention. During the final session of the convention, the new 2020-2021 Indiana FFA State Officer team was installed, beginning their year of service. The new Indiana FFA State Officer team is as follows:
President: Julia Hamblen, Shelbyville Central Secretary: Kylie Schakel, Hamilton Heights Northern Region VP: Blayne Vandeveer, Tri County Southern Region VP: Loren Matlock, Eastern Hancock Treasurer: Evan Coblentz, Wawasee Reporter: Derick Williams, Union City Sentinel: Luc Sproles, Frontier
Best of luck to the 2020-2021 Indiana FFA State Officers as they begin their year of leadership.
Recently, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration released some news regarding the Gulf Hypozia Zone. NOAA scientists are forecasting this summer’s Gulf of Mexico hypoxic area or “dead zone” – an area of low to no oxygen that can kill fish and other marine life – to be approximately 6,700 square miles, larger than the long-term average measured size of 5,387 square miles, but substantially less than the record of 8,776 square miles set in 2017. The annual prediction is based on U.S. Geological Survey river-flow and nutrient data.
The annual Gulf of Mexico dead zone is primarily caused by excess nutrient pollution from human activities in urban and agricultural areas throughout the Mississippi River watershed. When the excess nutrients reach the Gulf, they stimulate an overgrowth of algae, which eventually die and decompose, depleting oxygen as they sink to the bottom. The resulting low oxygen levels near the bottom of the Gulf cannot support most marine life. The Gulf of Mexico dead zone occurs every summer.
While the hypoxic zone forecast assumes typical coastal weather conditions, the measured dead zone size could be disrupted and its size could be changed by major weather events, such as hurricanes and tropical storms, which mix ocean waters, as occurred in 2018 and 2019. A NOAA-supported monitoring survey, scheduled for later this summer, will confirm the size of the 2020 dead zone, and is a key test of the accuracy of NOAA’s models.
To help address the issue of the large hypoxia zone in the Gulf of Mexico, each of the states must do their part to reduce sediment and nutrient pollution in their waters. Each of the 12 states that are part of the Gulf of Mexico Hypoxia Task Force (HTF) are doing just that by the development of state nutrient reduction strategies. These strategies are part of a national goal developed by the Gulf of Mexico HTF to reduce the size of the hypoxia zone by targeting a 20% nitrogen and phosphorus load reduction in the Gulf by 2025.
Indiana’s State Nutrient Reduction Strategy (SNRS) began development in 2011 and has been updated and revised several times since. It encompasses all waters of the state that drain to the Mississippi River, including the Wabash, White and Kankakee River Systems, as well as to Lake Michigan and Lake Erie. The Indiana SNRS represents the state’s commitment to reduce nutrient runoff from point sources and non-point sources alike. The strategy acknowledges that the potential to reduce nitrogen and phosphorus entering our waters is great, and is dependent on a number of complex factors. It serves as a renewed effort to encourage outreach and education to conservation partnerships and the public regarding stewardship of Indiana’s waters.
For more information on Indiana’s State Nutrient Reduction Strategy click here.
