Oil spill cleanup is under way

Oil spill cleanup is under way at many beaches along the Gulf Coast, and beach-bound travelers are keeping a close eye on coastal conditions.

Here are some of the latest updates from destinations affected by the oil disaster:

Florida’s Emerald Coast

Oil cleanup Coast, beach-bound conditions.

Here disaster:

Florida’s Coast

Small weekend, bureau. ” removed, spotted,” bureau’s website.

The area, Destin, Island, visit.

” white-sand emerald-green clear. addition, strong, water,” said.

Destin ” Sam” few, unusual.

” balls, we’ll few. That’s Mexico, said.

Beachgoers usual, said.

Pensacola Key, Florida

The fishing, Bureau.

The afternoon. Florida-Alabama Key, said. advised.

Mike McHugh, contributor, video Beach. ” Johnson’s in. 4:30 p.m., gone. balls, [they] find,” wrote.

James Amerson, iReporter, tracking oil Pensacola. Beach, inches, said.

” stuff, old, [on] sands,” iReport.com.

The precautions. ” [the Administration], person, up," said.

Gulf Seashore, Florida

All open, website. Tuesday, Florida, Key. areas.

Health spill.

Gulf Beach, Alabama

In Alabama, Shores, Morgan. open. sightseeing, Bureau.

The fishing.

Grand Isle, Louisiana

Oil coast, emergency website.

Grand beach, website.

Natasha Combs, iReporter, observe efforts.

" military. [hazmat] suits. beach, pools," said.

Perhaps you’ve seen him riding down the side of U.S. Highway 90 wearing a kilt and asked yourself, “Who is that guy and what is he thinking?”

He goes by the name Rob Roy McGregor, and he is riding his bike to help raise environmental awareness and save the world’s rain forests.

McGregor’s journey began in Orlando in January 2009 at the 32nd Annual Scottish Highlands Festival. The cultural anthropologist and father of four set off on a journey throughout Florida to spread his message.

After pedaling nearly 1,000 miles across the state, McGregor ended his ride on Feb. 7 in his hometown of DeFuniak Springs.

“I am biking and creating art to draw attention to our most critical global problem created by our daily decisions,” he says. “The current focus of my bike ride and art exhibition is global climate change.”

McGregor is currently riding across his ancestors’ hometown of Glasgow, Scotland, and working on a new exhibit, “The 13 Acacia Trees of Life Art Project.”

“The tree of life in art has been a mystical concept alluding to the interconnectedness of all life on our planet,” McGregor says. “In Egyptian mythology, it is said that Isis and Osiris emerged from the Acacia Tree of Saosis, the Egyptian tree of life. In the Hebrew/Christian bibles, the tabernacle and the Ark of the Covenant were both made of acacia wood, and the burning bush was an acacia tree.”

When completed, 13 acacia trees built completely from construction waste will be put on display for the exhibit. The acacia trees, one of the last remaining traces of the fading rain forests, serve as a metaphor for the degradation of an entire ecosystem.

McGregor recently talked with us about his passion for the globe.

ECN: Where did you study anthropology?

RM: I graduated from the University of Tennessee Knoxville in ’97 with a B.A. in liberal arts from the school of anthropology. I study how our culture lives. I study corporate culture and see how our material culture drives our spiritual culture. Our spiritual culture can be seen in our art.

ECN: What kind of bike do you ride on the tour?

RM: Right now I am riding a German mountain bike that I bought from Common Wheels, Glasgow, which saved me on the Rob Roy Challenge more than once. In Florida I rode a Giant 24-speed tour bike.

ECN: Do you prefer to ride a mountain, road or hybrid bike?

RM: I prefer a hybrid for Florida flats. When in Scotland, I use a mountain bike with lots of gears. The hills here are intense and Scotland is home to the best bike trails, routes and courses I have ever seen.

ECN: What is the most detestable action against nature in your opinion?

RM: I am most disturbed by roads.

ECN: What is the most amazing thing you’ve seen on tour in Florida?

RM: The tree I photographed out in front of the Frazier Museum in West Palm Beach. It was beautiful and the roots created rooms like a house. I thought to myself … I could live in this tree.

ECN: Do you have any relation to Scotland’s famous Rob Roy McGregor?

RM: Yes, through my mother, who was a Campbell. McGregor was an alias — his real last name was Campbell. My father is a McGregor.

ECN: What are your future plans?

RM: I am really thinking about making my next bike tour start in El Salvador and then biking down to Brazil into the rain forest. I am praying about it. I also want to bike in the Middle East, Russia and China eventually.

Adopting a “green” lifestyle usually brings to mind taking eco-friendly steps such as improving how you heat and cool your home or choosing a more fuel-efficient vehicle. However, you also can minimize your impact on the planet by maintaining your lawn with products that promote a more environmentally sound way of life.

Last year, members of our Test Drive Team decided to try their green thumbs at lawn care. Our mission was to determine if organic weed-and-feed products could produce vibrant, lush, pest-free lawns that matched up against other lawns treated with synthetic chemicals.

We created three separate test areas on a one-acre parcel of land on which we tried three organic lawn products: Neptune’s Harvest Organic Fish/Seaweed Blend 2-3-1 Fertilizer, Nature’s Turf 8-1-9 Complete Organic Lawn Fertilizer and the Cockadoodle Doo 4-Step Organic Lawn Care Program. Our test site had been chemical-free for more than two years.

After all was said and done, our top test product was Neptune’s Harvest. It was easy to mix, simple to apply with a standard liquid sprayer, and provided the greenest, most weed-free yard of all the organics. The blend of fish hydrolysate and seaweed ensured a complete fertilization program in one bottle.

We followed the package directions, mixing 1 quart of concentrate with sufficient water to cover 2,000 square feet, and fed the test plot monthly from early spring to the end of July and again in late October. The results were significant: The centipede grass flourished and stayed a brilliant green well into December. A gallon of the Neptune’s Harvest Fish/Seaweed Blend 2-3-1 costs $37.99 and is available online at greennationgardens.com or by calling (866) 496-2540.

Running a close second was Nature’s Turf 8-1-9.

This is a granular variety that provides key nutrients and enlivens biological activity in your lawn. This product is especially healthy for the sandy soils of the Emerald Coast. The 8-1-9 in its name indicates a high level of nitrogen (the first number), a low level of phosphorus (the second number) and an acceptable level of potassium (the third number). Since our 2,000-square-foot test plot was low on organic matter, we broadcast 24 pounds of Nature’s Turf at monthly intervals from April to October. We noticed significant greening of the test plot by the end of June, as well as minimal weed growth. A 50-pound bag of Nature’s Turf 8-1-9 runs $39.95 and is available at extremelygreen.com.

Coming in third in our organic performance trials was the Cockadoodle Doo 4-Step Organic Lawn Care Program. Step One is a pre-emergence organic herbicide labeled “Super-Premium Organic Weed Control.”

We applied this product when soil temperatures reached 55 degrees — late February in the Emerald Coast — using a rotary spreader at the rate of 45 pounds for our 2,000-square-foot lawn. Thirty pounds of Super-Premium Organic Fertilizer was applied 60 days later. In early August, we again applied the weed-control product. In late October, we broadcast the fertilizer, feeding our lawn over the winter and saturating it with vital nutrients, which jump-started early spring growth. Our centipede plot did well with this four-bag program, but the substantial cost and storage requirements resulted in its lower ranking. The Cockadoodle Doo 4-Step Organic Lawn Care Program runs $139.99 and can be ordered from purebarnyard.com/cockadoodledoo or by calling (877) 873-6742.

Compared to another nearby site that had been treated over the same time period with a well-known chemical-based product, our test lawns fared well, though they weren’t quite as lush or as green. In our testers’ opinions, however, the tradeoff of a healthy and safe yard is more than enough reason to recommend that any gardener should consider these planet-preserving products.