Western New York’s dying forests

Older readers of this column will remember the once abundant American chestnut.

This magnificent tree dominated the Eastern landscape with quick-growing specimens that routinely reached heights of 100 feet. By the mid-1950s, chestnuts were a thing of the past. More than 3 billion of the trees (25 percent of the Appalachian forest) had succumbed to a blight inadvertently brought to North America from Asia.

Now, true American chestnuts are extremely rare -- only a select few with hardy genes can be found in areas off the beaten path. Those beleaguered trees almost never reach 50 feet in height and are always short-lived.

 
Similarly, baby boomers and some of their very oldest offspring will remember how the impressive American elm used to dot the countryside and line city streets. It was a long-lived tree with thick trunks and wide canopies.

Following the demise of the chestnut it, too, faced an invasive attack.

Dutch elm disease -- a fungal infection spread by an Asian beetle -- ravaged the elms over the second half of the twentieth century. It came close to but didn’t fully wipe out the elms, but it left behind a significantly-smaller population that could reach only a fraction of the age and size that they once did. For all intents and purposes, the elm is basically dead as we knew it.

A lot of folks look back with fondness on chestnuts and elms. Whether someone farmed or hunted alongside these once-great trees or as a child spent many a summer hour climbing or swinging from one of them, they gave us many great memories and also some great economic benefit: The chestnut was one of the best hardwoods for furniture and home construction and the wood of the elm had fantastic strength.

The devastation of our forests at the hands of foreign invaders is never-ending. It seems that once one species of tree sees its demise another begins to face its greatest threat. Now is no different. Two types of trees which are very abundant on the Niagara Frontier will be gone very soon – ashes and beeches.

Just 10 years ago, the ash was unmolested in our area. But, a lot can happen over a decade.

In 2009, the emerald ash borer was discovered in the southwest corner of the state after it had quickly made a destructive path from the upper-Midwest where it had already destroyed 40 million trees in short order: The Asian pest first appeared in the US in 2002.

These beetles bore through the inner bark of ashes, essentially girdling and ultimately killing the trees. Nearly 8 billion ash trees are at risk of extermination and we’re seeing it locally: After the woodlots of Niagara and Orleans County leaf out in the next two months, notice all of the skeletonized, leafless trees standing among them. It’s a frightening swath of arboreal death.

Not only will this have a detrimental impact on our environment, but it will also harm our economy: $25 billion of ash had been harvested annually in the United States before the beetles staked their claims. There is no known way to control the borer. Its eastward movement can only be slowed down by firewood and timber quarantines, which, sadly, did not work at all in WNY. It’s pretty much guaranteed that the beetles will demolish our forests.

Another pestilence that’s well under way is that faced by our beeches.

Everyone is familiar with these trees, they of the smooth grey/silver bark that is a perfect target for carvings of initials and love. They have fallen victim to beech bark disease, a two-stage ailment where a small insect known as a scale infiltrates the bark and is then followed by a deadly fungus. The bark cracks and falls off and then the malnourished tree topples over.

This disease has really put a stranglehold on the area since the turn of this century. Take a look at any forest or town park in the region. Most every adult beech tree has passed or is showing symptoms of infection. It’s hard to believe that just a few years ago they were healthy and vibrant. This will adversely impact the mammals and birds that feasted on the beech nuts. Mother nature can’t replace that mast crop.

Unfortunately, there’s nothing we can do to save the ashes and beeches. They will go the way of the chestnuts and elms.

In the meantime, get out in the woods and appreciate their beauty while you can. Take some pictures or harvest the timber before it’s too late to do either. The trees are dying and they will become memories of the past, further changing the look, economic viability and natural balance of the Niagara Frontier.

From the 01 April 2019 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Ambulance companies are responding to some existential emergencies

Ambulance companies across New York are facing significant threats from the federal and state governments. It’s something that citizens should pay attention to because the availability -- if not the very existence -- of ambulance services could be compromised, putting entire communities at risk.

Let’s begin with a look at an experiment undertaken by the Trump Administration.

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is launching a pilot program in select municipalities that looks to cut costs of Medicare by having responders determine if the patient can forgo a trip to the emergency room and be taken to a far less expensive doctor’s office or urgent care center.

It’s a well-intentioned idea as it mirrors what those under private insurance are encouraged to do by their insurers and employers and their own personal finances – everyone of us is charged to not go to ERs to save considerable money on premiums, deductibles, and copays. If an illness or injury is not limb- or life-threatening, you’re better served by skipping the trip to the hospital.

Despite the intentions of the HHS plan, there will be unintended consequences.

Here’s the kicker: With skin in the game due to those aforementioned costs as well as the hefty bill for an ambulance ride, the privately insured drive themselves or have someone drive them to a provider for non-emergent care. Under this fed’s proposed plan, Medicare users will be encouraged to have someone drive them to the doctor or an urgent care facility – that “someone” will be the local ambulance company. In this case, the ambulance becomes a glorified taxi service.

As more and more seniors hear of this program and it becomes regular practice (which is HHS’s goal) an entire generation of Americans will utilize first responders to take them to physicians and care centers for minor maladies and even appointments.

Such abuses are already happening.

Talk to any emergency medical technician or driver or pay close attention to recurring addresses on the police scanner. There are repeat offenders who once or twice a month feign a significant illness when calling 911 so an ambulance can drive them to the hospital for a pre-scheduled appointment or to treat a cold or headache. Some play ignorant about it while others openly admit to EMTs that’s what’s happening. You can do that without shame or guilt when Medicaid or Medicare is paying for that super-expensive shuttle service.

Realize that every time this happens, an ambulance is removed from serving its community for an hour to three at a time. In rural areas, where volunteer crews are small and spread thin, the town is put at great risk. If a real emergency occurs -- like a car accident, heart attack, or industrial or sports injury -- there’s no one to respond because they were forced into providing an unnecessary ride.

Now, if this happens quite regularly from abusers of the system, imagine what will happen when a system is in place that encourages a call to 911 for run-of-the-mill ailments. Understaffed ambulance crews will constantly be called into action for non-emergencies. They could be out of their districts many hours of the day. What this will do to public safety is pretty scary.

What’s also scary is Governor Cuomo’s budget proposal which would change the payment model for ambulance companies.

Currently, if they serve a patient who is on both Medicaid and Medicare, the ambulance company is reimbursed for the service by both government programs – 80 percent by Medicare, 20 percent by Medicaid. Cuomo would like the Medicaid reimbursement scratched entirely.

Volunteer ambulance companies will be hard hit. While lacking labor costs they still have to cover gas, vehicle and building maintenance, medical supplies, insurances, training, and investments in new equipment.

Paid services will take a more significant beating, one that puts them at risk of folding. Not only do they have all of those overhead costs, but they have to also pay their workers while providing competitive wages and benefits. It’s not an inexpensive undertaking.  

The United New York Ambulance Network (UNYAN) claims that paid, non-government emergency services will be denied $14 million annually.

Mind you, this is on top of the $31.4 million a year that they are already shorted by New York’s deficient Medicaid reimbursement policies.

So, when you ask why EMTs seem so underpaid relative to their responsibilities, the state’s underfunding is a major -- if not the -- reason why: The state is shortchanging them by $31.4 million now and if Cuomo’s proposal passes it will surpass $45 million. That’s not chump change.   

Many of UNYAN’s member organizations say that if the Legislature buys-in to this plan they will have to cut back on staffing and some companies in upstate – where there is an inordinately high population of senior and low-income residents -- might have to close altogether due to insurmountable funding gaps.

Underserved, or entirely unserved, communities are a very real possibility if Trump’s and Cuomo’s plans go through. If they do, pray to God you never need to dial 911.  

From the 25 March 2019 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News

Open doors, open minds: Investing in our future

You might have seen me on WKBW’s newscast last week. The station was at Confer Plastics to do a story about seventh graders from West Buffalo Charter School who came to the plant to film footage of our processes and interviews of our people as a part of a contest called “What’s So Cool About Manufacturing?” which pits middle schools against one another in producing a flashy video about local factories.

The contest is a wonderful thing. It gives young men and women the chance to intimately explore a workplace on the plant floor and behind the scenes, giving them an understanding of what drives our economy and what is there for them in the future, showing them a clearer path to personal and professional success and fostering ideas about educational paths to pursue, be it college or trade school.

Kids need more of those experiences.

So do employers.   

Here is my challenge to the latter: Business owners and managers who routinely complain about the deficient workforce and the lack of available personnel need to do something other than whine. Get involved.

There is no doubt a crisis in the job market. Well-paying full-time jobs with good benefits are go unfilled with managers of blue-collar companies (factories, farms, trucking firms, the building trades) having a difficult time finding skilled workers or even apprentices interested in that line of work.

It’s an outcome of a few decades of misplaced priorities in society and education. Adults, whether in the home or in the classroom, had purposely driven kids away from the trades, thinking that such careers are demeaning and low-paying, on the path to extinction, and that college is the unquestioned key to success.

None of those beliefs are true nor have they ever been. Now, the adults who once believed them are waking up to that, especially since recent college grads find themselves crushed by debt and unable to find a good job due to an overabundance of college degrees, alleged over-qualification, and a lack of opportunity.

Teachers, counselors, policymakers and parents have done a 180 over the past half-decade or so, changing the culture that their predecessors had put into play for far too long. They are seeing the value in all work and all trades and doing what they can to promote them among today’s students.

But, after decades of society going in the other direction, it’s a tough sell and a slow one.

That’s where employers can help out.

They need to do as they do in their workplaces – get their hands dirty, get involved. They need to reach out to the schools and put themselves out there. Guidance from real world people can go a long ways in getting students interested in skilled work and settled on a career that will keep them comfortable for life.

It’s an easy and effective pursuit, one that we’ve practiced for some time at the plant and I strongly encourage other employers to follow suit. There are two simple ways that you can do this: host tours and let kids shadow.

Experiential learning is the best way to garner interest and that’s why tours are so effective. The kids can see people working, machines functioning, and goods being produced. The awesomeness of what you do every day can be an attention-grabber. It doesn’t matter if you manufacture kayaks, milk cows, or build houses – kids will eat it up. I’ve had students from fifth grade through college students go through the factory, all of them with wide eyes and keen interest.

Shadowing takes tours to another level and to make it happen it generally requires a full day and your willingness to share a lot of your time and knowledge -- and that of your coworkers – with students. We’ve done this quite a few times with students from schools like Barker and the former Niagara Catholic and with an Explorer Post we hosted on-site. They were able to choose from various career paths and observe what our folks do while hearing of the finer details of why they do it from various mentors.       

While most employers won’t directly benefit from such activities -- the chances of you recruiting someone for your company is slim (and it should not be your goal) – those kids with whom you speak will. It will give them interest, purpose, and direction.

If you are serious about the quality of our workforce, the future of our kids, and the health of our economy, partner with our local schools and open your doors and open your hearts -- doing so will open the students’ minds. Your investment of time is in an investment in the future.

From the 18 March 2019 Greater Niagara Newspapers and Batavia Daily News