Buckeye Basins Newsletter: Summer 2008

Buckeye Basins is produced by the Ohio State University Extension, Watershed Team. It is compiled quarterly for Watershed Coordinators, Extension Educators and Natural Resource Professionals to include within their newsletters, programs or however they see fit. Please, feel free to ask questions, share ideas, or provide feedback.

In This Issue:

• Welcome
• The Power of a Positive No
• The Hellbender: Ohio's largest salamander
• Ways of Knowing Water
• Credible Data - Moving Citizen Scientists to Legitimacy

The Power of a Positive No*

Book Review
By Joe Bonnell, OSU Extension

William Ury, co-author of Getting to Yes - one of the most popular books ever written on negotiation - has written a highly readable users guide to one of the most important and yet underutilized words in our vocabulary - NO! This book, along with Getting to Yes is a great tool for anyone like me who has a tendency to say yes, even when we know we should be saying no. I often hear from Watershed Coordinators and watershed group leaders who are overwhelmed by requests and opportunities coming at them every day from colleagues, concerned citizens, supervisors, and collaborators. Problem is, if we say yes to every request, we lose focus and the quality of our work suffers. If we say no too many times, we risk damaging critical relationships. With this book, Ury gives us a straightforward, step-by-step approach to saying no without damaging relationships. In fact, Ury argues that a positive No!, when delivered effectively, can help us be more effective and improve our relationships.

The foundation of a positive No begins with identifying the Yes! behind the no. In other words, if you're saying no to one opportunity or request, there must be something else that is of higher value to which you are simultaneously saying yes. To illustrate the basic steps to a Positive No!, let's look at a situation that, while fictional, is based on similar experiences that Watershed Coordinators have related to me. Maggie is the Watershed Coordinator for the Walnut Run watershed. Out of the blue one day an influential farmer in her watershed calls and insists that she must write a letter to the local newspaper expressing opposition to a new hog farm that may be coming into the watershed. Maggie is uncomfortable writing a letter on such a controversial and politically charged issue but this particular landowner is on her board of directors, is an opinion leader among local farmers and also happens to be married to a county commissioner whose support she'll need to promote a stream buffer project. How can Maggie say no without jeopardizing her relationship with the farmer and his wife?

The first step, according to Ury, is for Maggie to identify the Yes! underlying her No!. Maggie needs to identify the underlying values or interests that she is upholding by rejecting the request. For example, Maggie may want to honor the opinions of the other members of the board of directors. Acting without their consent could jeopardize her relationship with them. Also, the story about the hog farm is just a rumor at this point and no one has any information about the potential environmental impacts of the farm. So, after hearing the farmer's concerns, Maggie might say "Jack, I can't write that letter at this time. I'm concerned that the other board members haven't had a chance to express their opinions about this issue. I'm also concerned that no official notification related to this hog farm has been released and I wouldn't want our group to lose credibility by spreading rumors that we can't back up with facts."

Notice how Maggie was clear from the beginning that she was not willing to write the letter. According to Ury, whenever possible, it is best to state your No! clearly from the outset, but then quickly back it up with an equally clear statement about what you do support, what you are saying Yes! to in saying No!. So the first step in a positive no is to state your No!, followed by a positive statement that expresses the values or interests that you are upholding with your No!

The final step in delivering a powerful but positive No! is to propose an alternative to the request that you are rejecting. In our example, Maggie might say to Jack, "What I can do is give you time on the agenda during the next board meeting to raise this issue with the other board members. I can also speak to the District Administrator in the Soil and Water Conservation District Office to see if they have any more credible information about the hog farm." If Jack isn't satisfied with this proposal, Maggie may need to negotiate with him to find a best alternative to writing the letter. If Jack continues to insist that a letter to the editor is the only acceptable action, Maggie may need to reiterate her commitment to consult with the entire board and to only take action based on facts and not rumors. The key for Maggie is to be clear about the Yes! behind her No!

While many of the requests that are presented to us on a daily basis require nothing more than a simple "No thanks" or "Sorry, but I can't today," The Power of a Positive No is a helpful guide for those situations when a simple "No" could result in a damaged relationship or worse. Ury builds on many of the negotiation strategies first introducced in Getting to Yes, but this book stands alone as a basic, yet very helpful guide to negotiation in your personal as well as professional life. In addition to the basic steps to crafting a powerful and positive No!, the book will provide helpful insights on how to identify the core values and interests that you are saying Yes! to and also offers advice on how to ensure that agreements will be honored once they are reached. Learning to say No! effectively may be one of the most important skills we can learn. Saying No! more often means being able to focus our time and resources on those things that will help us achieve our goals and ensure that our work leads to improvements in water quality. After all, isn't that what it's all about?

*Ury, William. 2007. The power of a positive no: Save the deal save the relationship - and still say no. New York. Bantam Books.

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The Hellbender: Ohio's Largest Salamander

By J.P. Lieser, OSU Extension

Introduction

Here is a riddle for you. What has four legs, little beady eyes, a large flat head, and is known by such colorful names as "Allegheny alligator," "devil dog" and "snot otter"? Answer: The hellbender salamander (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis). It is Ohio's largest amphibian reaching lengths of 25 inches and although it can appear menacing due to its large size and appearance, it is really quite docile and harmless to humans.

Today, hellbender populations generally occur in small pockets of habitat that are isolated from human development. Thus, most are restricted to the rugged mountainous areas within West Virginia, Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Georgia. However, they can still be found in Ohio, but are declining in most places because their streams are not adequately protected from sediment runoff and other sources of pollution. They are listed as endangered by the Ohio Division of Wildlife.

Life History

Ohio's hellbender populations were historically found throughout the Ohio River drainage. Today they are found mostly in the unglaciated Western Allegheny Plateau ecoregion of Ohio which covers the south and eastern part of the state. They prefer medium to large, clear, streams where there is some flow even during the driest times of the year. Hellbenders are most often found under very large rocks.

They feed almost entirely on crayfish (approximately 90%), but will also eat small fish, invertebrates, and other hellbenders. Despite a common myth among anglers, they do not consume large quantities of adult game fish. They are able to reproduce at 5-8 years of age, and are suspected to live over 35 years. One individual, captured and marked 35 years ago in a Missouri stream, continues to be recaptured by researchers there.

Images courtesy of the Ohio Division of Wildlife

Threats to Survival

Hellbender populations have declined dramatically since European settlement. However, due to a lack of baseline data, conservation biologists don't know exactly how widespread their populations once were. Studies of hellbender populations are not known to exist for the 1700s, 1800s, or even into the early 1900's. However, biologists know that they have declined in many streams over the past few decades and are gone from large portions of their original range. In Missouri, once the state with the most abundant populations, hellbender numbers have declined by 80% since the mid-1970's.

Threats to Hellbender Populations:

• Pollution caused by siltation. Silt is a fine-grained soil that runs into waterways via erosion. Siltation can be traced back to human activities like housing construction, poor logging and farming practices, and road construction.
• Degradation of stream habitat, such as the removal of rocks, stream channelization and damming.
• Chemical contaminants and diseases.
• Anglers killing them out of fear and ignorance.
• Collection for the pet trade

Conservation Efforts

In Ohio, Biologists Greg Lipps and Ralph Pfingsten encountered thirty-five hellbenders in seven streams in 2006-2007. Comparatively, during the last survey, performed from 1986 to 1988, 138 hellbenders were found in 16 streams. Like Missouri, Ohio's hellbenders have declined by nearly 80% since the last surveys of the 1980's. Equally alarming is that they found Captina Creek, located in Belmont County, to be the only Ohio stream in the past decade to have a successfully reproducing population. All other Ohio streams where hellbenders have been found have had only a few large adults. Ongoing research is examining the effects of siltation, a pathogenic fungus (Batrachochytrium dendrobatidis), and endocrine disrupting pollutants on Ohio hellbender populations.

Veterinarians from The Wilds near Zanesville are currently monitoring the health of hellbender populations and their habitats in Ohio watersheds. They are comparing their data on Ohio's hellbender populations and habitats to those in Buffalo Creek, WV which supports a healthy population of hellbenders. The project's goal is to identify threats to hellbenders in Ohio and thus improve the conservation of hellbenders in the state and surrounding region. In addition, the Wilds is designing an artificial stream in hopes of creating an ideal habitat for breeding the endangered salamander.

Acknowledgements

• A special thank you to Greg Lipps for fact checking as well as contributing to the article.

References and Further Information

• http://www.ohioamphibians.com/salamanders/Hellbender.html
• http://www.hellbenders.org/
• http://www.dnr.state.oh.us/Home/species_a_to_z/speciesguide_default/ hellbender/tabid/6659/Default.aspx
• http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/science/stories/2007/10/16/ sci_hellbent.ART_ART_10-16-07_B4_GQ861BJ.html?sid=101
• http://www.clemetzoo.com/conservation/grants/small/2006/wolfe.asp

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Ways of Knowing Water

By Anne Baird, OSU Extension

Ways of Knowing Water is a partnership between the Institute for Collaborative Research and Public Humanities (ICRPH) and the OSU Extension Watershed Management Program to build capacity for environmental education on the Scioto River watershed. Rick Livingston, Associate Director ICRPH, Louie Ulman, Dept. of English, Anne Baird, and Joe Bonnell OSU Extension, and Prudence Gill, Dept. of Art received an OSU Cares grant to help fund the following: a summer exhibit at the OSU's Urban Art Space at the Lazarus building, a website supporting an on-line watershed stewardship with teachers and students, and a teacher and youth educator institute exploring Central Ohio's Rivers using an interdisciplinary curriculum.

The Ways of Knowing Water exhibit at the OSU Urban Art Space will focus on Central Ohio, and the city of Columbus' relation to its waterways. The exhibit opened June 23 and will run through the summer. You can access the website for more information on the OSU Urban Art Space at http://arts.osu.edu/3news_events/i_uas/uas_information.php.

For more information on the teacher and youth educator institute and website you can contact Rick Livingston or Anne Baird (baird.41@osu.edu) this summer.

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Credible Data - Moving Citizen Scientists to Legitimacy

Dana Oleskiewicz, OSU Extension

Dedicated citizen volunteers throughout the U.S. spend countless hours gathering water quality data on rivers, streams, and lakes, thus documenting our Nation's water conditions. Volunteer collected information is relatively inexpensive, compared to university or agency generated data, and a great resource that can compliment the monitoring efforts of state and local governments. These citizen scientists have a true passion to learn and explore their local water bodies of interest. Often they have the access and ability to be involved long-term and with greater frequency than what the professionals can do. Plus, participation in volunteer monitoring programs fosters stewards for our important water resources.

The Ohio Water Volunteer Monitoring Program managed by the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency (OEPA) offers legitimacy to volunteer collected data by establishing it as 'credible' using a certification process. Classroom and field instruction is offered to individuals interested in becoming a Qualified Data Collector (QDC) and, upon passing a test requirement, these QDCs can collect and submit data to OEPA so that it may be used in evaluating water conditions and management efforts.

Credible Data is collected at three different levels that will define its use. Level 1 is collected for the purpose of public awareness and educational activities. Level 2 is used to evaluate the effectiveness of pollution controls and as an initial assessment of water quality problems that may then lead to additional study by practitioners. Level 3 data is defensible in court and used for regulatory purposes. Each level has different training and skill requirements. Individuals interested in this voluntary program can attend workshops geared specifically to a QDC Level 1, 2, or 3 and for a river or lake ecosystem.

For more information about the Ohio Water Volunteer Monitoring Program, contact Jeff Reynolds, OEPA, jeff.reynolds@epa.state.oh.us or 614-644-3635.

For information on river monitoring workshops, contact Jerry Iles, iles.9@osu.edu 740-289-2071 x116, or for lake monitoring workshops, contact Dana Oleskiewicz, oleskiewicz.1@osu.edu or 330-466-5631.

Additional information on volunteer monitoring and credible data can be found at:

• http://www.lsc.state.oh.us/analyses125/h0043-rh-125.pdf
• http://codes.ohio.gov/orc/6111.52
• http://www.epa.state.oh.us/dsw/rules/3745-4.html
• http://ohioline.osu.edu/ws-fact/pdf/WS_5_08.pdf

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