Let’s Talk Animals 2/27/20: Biosecurity

Producer/Host: Dr. John Hunt
Studio Engineer: John Greenman

Key Discussion Points
a) Pillars of Biosecurity- Sanitation, isolation, resistence
b) what small, backyard farmers can do
c) wildlife and biosecurity

Guest:
Dr. Anne Lichtenwalner, Director of University of Maine Veterinary Diagnostic Lab

About the host:
Dr. John Hunt produces 2 radio shows at WERU. A short called Pet Sounds, a 3-5 minute short essay on all aspects of pets, and animals in general at 7:30 am on Sundays, and this program, Lets Talk Animals: From Aardvarks To Zebras, which airs at 4pm every fourth Thursday. During this hour long program Dr. Hunt invites a guest to come in and talk about a particular topic. Some past topics have included; Seeing Eye dog training, Turkeys in Maine, Cat adoption, Reintroducing the Atlantic Salmon, Homing Pigeons, Veterinary Acupuncture to name a few.

Dr. Hunt is a retired veterinarian that practiced small animal medicine and surgery for 32 years. For twenty six of those years he owned and operated the Bucksport Veterinary Hospital. He graduated from Michigan State University Vet School in 1982, earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Natural Resource Conservation from the University of Connecticut in 1974, and a Masters in Zoology at Michigan State in 1976. Although he took special interest in pet behavior problems his primary interest was helping pet owners care for their pets by not only helping them when they were sick but educating, counseling and supporting the family to achieve good pet care.

Dr. Hunt was also a track coach at Bucksport High School for 20+ years, raised his 3 children and loved being part of the Bucksport community. His has written 2 books and currently teaches at the Veterinary Technician program at York County Community College.

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Notes from the Electronic Cottage 2/27/20: Fair Use – Fair Dealing Week 2020

Producer/Host: Jim Campbell

Most of us know that there is a system of copyright protection on original creative works but not all of us know part of our copyright law includes Fair Use. Fair Use/Fair Dealing Week, which is going on right now, is a good time to recall what Fair Use is and how all of us can make use of it as we create new works.

The web sites mentioned in today’s program are:
www.fairuseweek.org
web.law.duke.edu/cspd/comics/

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Power for the People 2/26/20: Case study of renewable energy

Producer/Host: Steve Kahl
Studio Engineer: Amy Browne

-Solar photo-voltaics
-Wind turbine
– Solar hot water

Guest: Scott Cowger, co-owner of Maple Hill Bed and Breakfast and Conference Center

About the host:

Steve Kahl is Professor of Science at Thomas College where he teaches environmental and energy courses and advises the student sustainability club. He writes the monthly ‘Sustainability Minute’ email which is distributed to over 1,200 readers. He is a member of the Quarry Road Recreational Area board of directors where he is advocating for a net-zero energy new welcome center. He has advised the board of WERU on the current plan for the station to become 100% solar powered in 2020. Steve is a member of the Green Campus Coalition of Maine, the working group of sustainability directors at Maine college campuses.

Steve’s past positions include Sustainability Director at Unity College where he developed a plan for the college to become 100% solar powered and earned the college the prestigious STARS Gold ranking with the American Association of Sustainability in Higher Education. Before that, he was Director of Environmental and Energy Strategies for the James Sewall Company of Old Town where he led a Maine Technology Institute research project that found that Maine could be 79% solar powered if all suitably-oriented rooftops had solar PV panels.

Prior to moving home to Maine, he was a member of the Energy Commission in Plymouth NH where he was obtained funding for the renovation of a town office building to net-zero energy and the installation of 160 KW of solar PV panels on town properties included a major PV array at the sewage treatment plant that offsets 40% of its electrical costs.

In his own home, he has installed two air-source heat pumps to completely eliminate heating oil, a hybrid hot water heater to reduce his water heating costs by 70%, and insulated the basement and attic to further reduce energy consumption and increase comfort. He would like to install rooftop solar panels but so far his shade trees that also produce maple syrup each year have convinced him otherwise. However, he has solar panels on his summer place at the lake and hasn’t paid for any electricity there since 2011.

Steve has a Ph.D. in Earth Sciences from the University of Maine.

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