https://www.podbean.com/media/share/pb-d5mjb-13db0ac

Episode 56BZA. April 9, 2023. Camping in my own backyard. Vote 4/10 to 4/13/2023 at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/wcc/springhearing !

Vote early online at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/wcc/springhearing, and please vote in favor of my two Resolutions, which are 1) The Wisconsin government should hand out PM2.5 monitors to any near neighbor of a Residential Wood Burner who complains about the smoke (PM2.5) from that burning. 2) The Wisconsin government should use the data from PM2.5 monitors as evidence to shut down Residential Wood Burners because they cause air pollution which affects near neighbors’ health and lives.

https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/wcc/springhearing  The Wisconsin Conservation Congress and Department of Natural Resources will offer their annual opportunity for the public to provide input on a variety of natural resource related questions and proposed rule changes beginning on April 10, 2023, at noon. The online questionnaire will be available through a link on this webpage from April 10 at noon through April 13 at noon.

I bought a pop-up tent, a self-inflatable mattress pad and a shiny foil sleeping bag from Amazon yesterday and today I will begin to camp in my backyard. These are the words of a tentative urban camper, a tenderfoot, and a weekend warrior. I have a feeling that I will only have the drive to follow through about two days a week. I grew up camping across the contiguous U S states, ending up through rain and shine lying on rough ground on a conventional air mattress inside a conventional sleeping bag, inside a canvas tent that took an hour to set up. At campgrounds, I thankfully ate hot stew, infused with as few as possible once-curious mosquitos, heated over a Coleman gas stove. Camping happened because motels and certainly hotels were not affordable on car trips to national parks, and to campgrounds on the outskirts of major cities in order to visit historic museums. In the outdoor classroom of my childhood, nature could be cruel, capricious, terrifying, and only occasionally beautiful. The campground air was only breathable if there were no wood-burning fires in the vicinity. Even as a child I was observant and analytical, with a scientific bent.

Why start camping again at age 65? Because I can! I feel that the air in my own backyard will be breathable because I inexplicably feel wood burning by my residential wood burning neighbor will have stopped. The temperature will be in the 60s. Given my wood burning neighbor’s history of wood burning rain or shine, 80 degrees or zero degrees, this is unfounded optimism. But it’s Spring and the weather is beautiful! Maybe I can spend time outdoors without choking on air that could cause me cataracts, asthma, lung damage and early death.

Maybe I have a more positive view of camping because Michigan is going to start offering no-wood-fire campgrounds to the public in 2024. Maybe I have a more positive view of camping because I believe Residential Wood Burning can be stopped. You may not hear another word about my backyard “camping” in the future, because it will have been called on account of smoke. In that case, I will take camping on the road a bit, and use it for overnights to far-flung or nearby locations, away from my own backyard. For heating food, I will use a portable solar heater or a breathtakingly modern small portable wind turbine. If necessary, I will use a heater powered by propane. I will feel virtuous and cutting edge, and if I can eat in peace and breathe clean air, at the same time, I will be grateful.

I spoke at the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources Dane County open house on 4/6/2023. I ran twice, for two positions, to be a delegate to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress, and lost both times, obtaining only 10% to 12.5% of the vote against incumbents. As a supporter said, maybe “you will do better in the future”. I made some friends from conversations before and after the meeting and handed out the online addresses of Residents against Wood Smoke Emission Particulates (RAWSEP) podcasts on Spotify and Podbean, and videos on Youtube and Tiktok. There are no dances on my Tiktok videos, however! So, my strategy is there for all to see, friend or foe. Everyone’s strategy is there for all to see, here on these podcasts and videos, hopefully, and I hope to refine the message and make it shorter and punchier for those with short attention spans. This issue is truly only important to me because I suffer the effects of wood smoke as a neighbor of a Residential Wood Burner. I hope others have a broader interest in air pollution and can imagine what breathing wood smoke is like, and how it robs people of their breath, and ultimately their ability to live. Think of smoke inhalation during a conventional house fire. During a house fire, smoke inhalation kills more people than actual flames consuming their bodies.

I am also going to speak with Wisconsin State Legislators this month along with the American Lung Association.

So what follows is the standard message of Residents Against Wood Smoke Emission Particulates (RAWSEPresidents). I gave this message to the Department of Natural Resources and the Wisconsin Conservation Congress at the DNR open house on 4/6/2023, and there will be a vote on my 2 resolutions to the Wisconsin Conservation Congress from noon 4/10/2023 to 4/13/2023. Vote early online at https://dnr.wisconsin.gov/about/wcc/springhearing , and please vote in favor of my two Resolutions, which are 1) The Wisconsin government should hand out PM2.5 monitors to any near neighbor of a Residential Wood Burner who complains about the smoke (PM2.5) from that burning. 2) The Wisconsin government should use the data from PM2.5 monitors as evidence to shut down Residential Wood Burners because they cause air pollution which affects near neighbors’ health and lives.

Why vote for these two resolutions?

PM2.5, particulate matter of 2.5 micrometer size, the perfect size to infiltrate the human lung setting off a cascade of human health problems. Wood burning emissions are 90% PM2.5 and PM2.5 from the stack of a residential wood burner enters the yards and infiltrates the homes of near neighbors. PM2.5 monitors such as PurpleAir can measure the PM2.5 pollution at the stack or at the fence line, the neighbor’s yard. It is preferable to measure the actual emissions every 10 minutes and have historic data saved on PurpleAir online maps available to the general public and government authorities, to be used as evidence of pollution limits exceeded which should result in shutdown of the residential wood burning stove. Since the PM2.5 data for each resident owned PM2.5 monitor can be downloaded during normal government working hours, if laws were in place, residential wood stoves could be shut down without entering wood burning residences nor checking the certification of residential wood stoves. The Office of the Inspector General (O I G). “watchdog” of the Environmental Protection Agency (E P A) published a report in February 2023 stating that the certification program for residential wood stoves is flawed with loopholes for industry, so that wood stoves are being certified and sold while being highly polluting. The new E P A PM2.5 particulate “safe” levels are expected by 2024 to be 8 micrograms per meter cubed annually and 25 micrograms per meter cubed daily. Wood burning produces more particulates PM2.5 than fossil fuel coal burning and 450 times the PM2.5 as the cleanest fossil fuel natural gas burning for home heat. Even certified wood burning stoves are highly polluting, and the solution would be to ban residential wood burning to stop PM2.5 air pollution problem at its source. PurpleAir PM2.5 monitors, to be placed in yards of near neighbors of residential wood burners, should be handed out by the government to any neighbor of a residential wood burner who complains of air pollution from their neighbor’s hyper-localized wood burning. PM2.5 harms the health of near neighbors and all who breathe it, and PM2.5 pollution contributes to climate change. Biomass (wood) burning and residential wood burning produce the same PM2.5 and wood burning is not Carbon Neutral. Replacement of trees after cutting them down to burn, are replaced only after many decades or even centuries, and in the meantime, the burning of wood contributes more PM2.5 to the air than, for instance, the fossil fuel Coal. Wood burners who are indigent can obtain help in switching to clean sources of home heating from the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (L I H E A P). There are wood stove exchange programs that exchange wood stoves for the clean alternative of new Heat Pumps that work at temperatures well below zero.

Residents Against Wood Smoke Emission Particulates (see RAWSEPresidents.wordpress.com and Scroll Down for PDFs of articles with U R L’s to search on, and on the website are links to 10 minute Tiktok and Youtube videos and 30 minute podcasts on Spotify and Podbean).