Good Neighbor Leaf Burning Tips

As the trees begin to display their fall colors, another leaf disposal season is on its way. If leaf burning is allowed in your community and you must burn, the Lake County Health Department/Community Health Center recommends the following "Good Neighbor Leaf Burning Tips" to minimize the impact to neighbors and the environment.

• Be courteous and respectful to your neighbors, especially those with breathing problems.  Let them know when you plan to burn.
• Do not burn on windy days, especially, when the wind is blowing towards your neighbors.
• Do not burn wet leaves.  Smoke from such fires stays closer to the ground and lingers in people’s breathing zone.
• If you must burn, the best time of day to burn is from mid-morning to mid-afternoon.  The smoke clears faster during this period

• If you can, burn several small fires instead of one large fire.  Leaves will burn faster and release smoke for a shorter time.
• Always attend, manage and control your fire.  Always have a hose or water source nearby.
• Do not burn in ditches, drainage ways or within 25 feet of a body of water.  The ashes provide fertilizer for algae and nuisance aquatic plants in lakes and streams.
• Open burning of anything other than yard waste, such as garbage, is not permitted. 
• Contact your local fire department or village for rules, regulations and/or a permit.

Lake County Health Department and Community Health Center

Here are some tips if you're considering switching to an Internet-based phone provider:

*Internet-based phone services might not work with home sercurity system or other services requiring a phone.

*Ask the provider if 911 service works the same as it does with tradditional phone service.

*If you get a new phone number with an Internet-based phone service or transfer a phone number to such a service, you might not be able to transfer it later to another phone company.

*To transfer your phone number to another phone-service provider, do not cancel your existing phone service - other wise, you will lose the phone number. Instead contact the new phone company, which will transfer your phone number. Then call to cancel your previous service.

*Visit www.voipreview.org where customers rate each service with up to five stars.

*Complaints about Internet-based phone service should be sent to the Federal Communications Commission by visiting www.fcc.gov or calling 1-888-CALL-FCC.

Feeding deer could kill them, state warns
Officials say humans may be aiding spread of chronic wasting disease

By John Biemer
Tribune staff reporter

November 23, 2006

After the leaves fall and the grass turns brown, some suburbanites offer morsels to the furry and feathered creatures that visit their back yards to help them through the harshest months. But this winter, state conservationists are warning animal enthusiasts that feeding wild deer is not only illegal--it could also kill the animals.

For the last five years, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources has been monitoring chronic wasting disease, a fatal neurological illness first detected in Illinois deer northeast of Rockford in 2002. Since then, almost 150 affected deer have been found in five northeastern counties in the state.

The disease could spread farther as deer gather and eat from the same food, salt and mineral blocks, even if well-intentioned humans lay out the meals for them, the Department of Natural Resources says.

"As they slobber all over those food piles in folks' back yards they're transmitting the disease to all the other deer that come into contact with that food pile," said Tom Micetich, the department's deer project manager.

Since 2002, feeding deer has been illegal in Illinois and could bring fines ranging from $75 to $1,000 (feeding birds or squirrels is legal). But department officials say many people are not aware of the law, so the state is pushing to raise awareness of it.

The effort follows a recent study that suggests swapping spit may kill the deer. The study, conducted by Colorado State University biologists and published last month in the journal Science, demonstrated that the blood and saliva of deer with chronic wasting disease carry enough of the infectious agents known as "prions" to transmit it.

The disease is related to mad cow disease and affects deer and elk similarly. But it seems to spread more easily than its bovine counterpart, according to the study, conducted on captive white-tailed deer fawns.

Chronic wasting disease affects the brains of infected animals, causing them to become emaciated and display abnormal behavior such as demonstrating no fear of humans, hanging their heads low and stumbling. Eventually they die--or are killed by predators because they can't flee.

The disease is not known to be contagious to livestock or humans--but as a precaution the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warn people not to eat CWD-infected venison.

Since 2002, 148 deer have tested positive for the disease in Illinois--all in Boone, Winnebago, McHenry, DeKalb and Ogle Counties--a drop in the bucket of a statewide population of 750,000 or more. But state biologists believe the disease is threatening enough to warrant monitoring it, and their best means of surveying comes during firearm deer season, which began last week.

Hunters in those five counties as well as neighboring Kane and Stephenson Counties are required to take deer they shoot to check stations where brain stem and lymph node samples are taken for laboratory analysis.

Wisconsin has taken aggressive steps to slow the disease from spreading since it was identified there in 2002--but the more than $32 million in state measures apparently have not worked. According to a report released last week by the state's Legislative Audit Bureau, the number of infected deer in the southern part of the state where the disease is found has grown from about 26 per square mile in 2002 to 38 in 2005.

The disease may have spread farther than surveys have detected in Illinois too, so the Forest Preserve District of DuPage County also is stepping up its campaign to deter residents from feeding deer--even as some stores sell salt licks specifically for them.

Feeding deer can have other negative effects beyond spreading the disease, according to district animal ecologist Scott Meister. Human feeding can alter a wild animal's natural behavior, causing it to lose its fear of people and maybe emboldening it to enter yards and munch away at gardens.

It also can lead to phone calls like the one the district received from a Wood Dale resident who had a large buck peering into her glass patio door. She set off the house alarm and tried to scare it off, but the stag would not budge.

"She was afraid to even let her kids out of her house," Meister said. "So it's likely someone in her neighborhood was feeding the animals."

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jbiemer@tribune.com

Copyright © 2006, Chicago Tribune

Deer-vehicle crashes drop, but deaths double

October 13, 2006 Chicago Suntimes

The number of vehicle accidents caused by collisions with deer has dropped, but deaths from these accidents have nearly doubled, [Illinois] state officials said Thursday.

Fall is the busiest season for these types of accidents because deer
are seeking mates and food sources. Statewide, there were 23,694 deer-vehicle accidents reported in 2005, down 8 percent from 2004. Of those, 11 resulted in motorist fatalities. In 2004, six people were killed.

© 2006 Chicago Sun-Times, Inc. Mobilized by Unified Mobility

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