Mylar Ballons

[+Barefoot]

 

 

 

Ah those friendy silver baloons!

Why do I keep finding them along the trails.

Post your Baloon Pics/stories here.

Edited September 8, 2004 by Barefoot

[+Barefoot]

deleted

Edited September 8, 2004 by Barefoot

[+MissJenn]

As soon as I can figure out how to post pics to this tread, I'll be posting several pics

When you are writing your post, click on the button for IMG.

In the space provided, you should place the URL of the image you would like to use; i.e. these images need to already be hosted on the web somewhere. It seems like you have posted the images in your cache logs so it should be easy.

 

This URL usually looks like http://www.something.com/picturename.jpg and will subsequently appear inside of the IMG tags.

 

Try it.

Edited September 7, 2004 by MissJenn

[+New England n00b]

I don't have pics, but I got a pair of you're over the hill 40! party balloons. Hanging off a tree. Real nice nature walk. Got em in my car now. I'll toss them asap, but come on... yeesh.

[+Planet]

Ttepee and I grabbed a bunch of balloons from the shore of the Hudson the other day. I had to pop them with my walking stick to fit them in the garbage bag. Mopar and GeoHo had to CITO a whole bunch of red white and blue ones after George (what? me worry about looking like Alfred E. Newman?) Bush came through town.

[lowracer]

Save your Mylar. You never know when it might come in handy to bag one of those elusive webcam caches:

 

GCKE4G - In The Future, We'll All Wear Mylar Jumpsuits

 

In this case, the mylar baloons can be turned inside out, taped together to make a Mylar jumpsuit or just turned inside out and worn as a foil hat.

[+BooBooBee]

The mylar balloons are also reuseable as....mylar balloons! Call me cheap, whatever, but ever since discovering this I've saved every Mylar balloon that's crossed our threshold. When an occasion comes up, I find the appropriate balloons and have them refilled (along with some rubbery new ones). We don't have to shell out five bucks every occasssion and the kids are THRILLED with the resurrection of Mr. Sunshine, Pooh and others who would otherwise rot (well, not really) in the local landfill.

[+MissJenn]

The mylar balloons are also reuseable as....mylar balloons! Call me cheap, whatever

I'll just call you a Recycler!!

 

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

We started a ballon release that has caught on,have you found any with the notes and coordinates on them yet?

 

If so it was part of the release,to get the word out.

Of no matter how bad things are someone cares.(So when you see a balloon floating by it will remind you someone cares).

It is also a way of us passing on the wishes of the passed.

We released ours from Missouri to New Mexico.

Not a great number just a few.

I thought about the fact that this was or could be considered trash,but hoped that those who found them replied in some way.........it works either way.

Edited October 11, 2004 by GEO*Trailblazer 1

[+MissJenn]

I thought about the fact that this was or could be considered trash,but hoped that those who found them replied in some way.........it works either way.

How do you mean, "either way" ?

I'm not sure I follow your train of thought ...

[+Renegade Knight]

Kids have slippery fingers. Once the balloon is lose, pulling out the glock to shoot it down is a bad idea at that point. I've found more tide markers than ballons in the wild.

Edited November 6, 2004 by Renegade Knight

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

I thought about the fact that this was or could be considered trash,but hoped that those who found them replied in some way.........it works either way.

How do you mean, "either way" ?

I'm not sure I follow your train of thought ...

The ones we released had coordinates and a trinket attached.

And some had a poem.

 

The either way was if you think it to be trash,you could pick it up and throw it away like I would (if trash).

If not you would read the poem,be inspired and take the trinket,then throw away the ballon,or recycle it.

[+MissJenn]

We started a ballon release that has caught on,have you found any with the notes and coordinates on them yet?

I've read in several places that balloon releases are awful for the animal population. Animals will sometimes eat these balloons and choke on them, or their digestive systems are otherwise fatally damaged.

Edited November 6, 2004 by MissJenn

[+Renegade Knight]

We started a ballon release that has caught on,have you found any with the notes and coordinates on them yet?

I've read in several places that balloon releases are awful for the animal population. Animals will sometimes eat these balloons and choke on them, or their digestive systems are otherwise fatally damaged.

I wonder how they justify weather balloons.

 

These guy were an accident, but other things do get released to track currents.

[+g_team]

Weather baloons only kill the gluttonous animals, there by protecting the food suply.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

We started a ballon release that has caught on,have you found any with the notes and coordinates on them yet?

I've read in several places that balloon releases are awful for the animal population. Animals will sometimes eat these balloons and choke on them, or their digestive systems are otherwise fatally damaged.

I have picked up more poisions from the enviroment than I have ever released in a simple mylar ballon or two.

 

Your(my) car realeases enough poision to kill almost anything in just one 8 hour day.

The coal plant down the block well I hope you get my meaning.

 

I have seen animals eat things you think would kill them but don't.

And then I have seen animals poisened by man,killed by man,trapped by man.

 

More Deer get hit every year by motorists that die from mylar poisioning.

 

I hope I do not seem to be unruly,but it makes me wonder at times how people think.

 

Where did you read this at?

[+MissJenn]

Where did you read this at?

Honestly, I don't remember. It was not something that I noted down as a bibliographical reference I would need later on.

[+twilliams]

We started a ballon release that has caught on,have you found any with the notes and coordinates on them yet?

I've read in several places that balloon releases are awful for the animal population. Animals will sometimes eat these balloons and choke on them, or their digestive systems are otherwise fatally damaged.

I have picked up more poisions from the enviroment than I have ever released in a simple mylar ballon or two.

 

Your(my) car realeases enough poision to kill almost anything in just one 8 hour day.

The coal plant down the block well I hope you get my meaning.

 

I have seen animals eat things you think would kill them but don't.

And then I have seen animals poisened by man,killed by man,trapped by man.

 

More Deer get hit every year by motorists that die from mylar poisioning.

 

I hope I do not seem to be unruly,but it makes me wonder at times how people think.

 

Where did you read this at?

Ok this pissed me off a bit. First let me say that I think I hear the point you are trying to make about the scale of things people/toxins do to animals and where balloons may fit in that curve. I think most people probably don't think that balloons are that problematic.

 

However, there is a narrow area along our coasts which support the majority of local sealife. Balloons, especially shiny ones, are commonly mistaken for food. Sea turtles apparently mistake them for jellyfish. And, you may be suprised, there are a huge number of balloons.

 

I like to sail. I see these balloons floating around a stunning amount from, San Francisco to San Diego. These things (believe it or not) have killed baby sperm whales, sea turtles, sea birds, dolphins which are believed to mistake it for prey. Apparently over 250 species have proven susceptible. Even compared to floating PVC plastic, balloon latex and mylar tends to be favored for injestion and therefore more lethal (go figure).

 

There's a reason it's illegal to release mass ballons in all or parts of CA, VA, MD, NY, other states and Caribbean islands. But you don't live near a coast? Wisconsin school kids each released a balloon in one class with an id letter attached. Several have been reported by fishermen in the Altantic.

 

Look I'm not saying that balloons are the worst problem of marine pollution but they are suprisingly significant in the problems they cause to coastal wildlife. And unlike corporate polluters most of these balloons were released by peope like us.

 

Now I feel silly for complaining about balloon pollution!

 

-t-

Edited November 16, 2004 by twilliams

[+Isonzo Karst]

We started a ballon release that has caught on,have you found any with the notes and coordinates on them yet?

 

What a horrible idea. First, everything twilliams said about Marine wildlife. In addition Mylar balloons as they deflate tend to snag in trees and shrubs, where they frighten wildlife, cattle and horses as well.

 

Two incidents from my own experience in just the last year - a woman in the trail riding group I belong to (horseback) was thrown from her horse when it startled violently away from a dancing Mylar along the trail. Her pelvis was broken and she will be wheelchair bond for the rest of her life. Somehow the "somebody cares" message may not have gotten through.

 

In the Withlacoochee State Forest there is a nesting population of endangered Red Cockaded Woodpeckers. One of the volunteers who monitors nests reports that an egg-filled nest was abandoned by the parents as a Mylar balloon became entangled in the branches near the nest. The entire breeding season was for that pair was lost.

 

Please stop.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

Ok on my end,to be diplomatic.

I will not release any more mylar ballons.

I appreciate everyone's concerns in the matter and respect them as well.

 

I own horses and cattle.No problems here,and you are suppose to be in control (have dominion over) all animals.

I am sorry someone got hurt but it is not all the ballons fault,I have been bucked off,raked of fell off and many other horse related fatalities and blame it on me,the rider.

 

Maybe we could come up with an enviromental friendly solution,I will think on it.

 

But IMHO this has been stretched out of porportion,by me for one....and am in the process of rectifacation.

Sorry to those I have offended in any manner,my opology.

 

Just a side bar,I just seen where that great white hit another person surfing just off the coast,

maybe the mylar toxicity is affecting the marine sociological-biology!!

 

I wish our Toxicity problem was as simple as mylar ballons,but the fact of the matter the METH LABS DUMPS ARE HORRIBLE!!!!!!!

[+The red-haired witch]

you are suppose to be in control (have dominion over) all animals.

 

Have dominion over? This sounds suspiciously like something out of a religious text. And religious texts are never good arguments to prove anything in my opinion. Now, if you mean that a rider should be in control of their horse, fine, I agree, but unless you are a trained rodeo rider (maybe) you probabably can't stay on a panicking horse. And no matter how good a rider you are, sometimes you can't stop a horse from panicking over some strange light or sound (or a wasp or a snake... not all accidents are someone's fault... sometimes they are, well, accidents). You're certainly not saying that humans can mind-control animals and stop them from being scared and that those biologists should have somehow forced the endangered birds to go back to their nest and take care of it?

 

 

Maybe we could come up with an enviromental friendly solution,I will think on it.

 

Well, I hate to point the obvious, but the environmentally friendly solution is to not release any mylar balloons. If you want to use them as decorations, only do it inside. If your kid wants one, tie it to his wrist so that it doesn't "escape into the wild". I mean, there are difficult environmental problems to solve, such as how to reduce pollution when producing the energy we need. But nobody really "needs" Mylar balloons...

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

I will not release any more mylar ballons.

 

I own horses and cattle.No problems here,and you are suppose to be in control (have dominion over)

 

Maybe we could come up with an enviromental friendly solution,I will think on it.

 

I said that.

 

You brought the religious point up.

 

I have worked and handled cattle,horses,dogs,sheep,goats,chickens,fish,wild animals,snakes,and I just can't remember all the critters I have doctored up over the years ,for about at least um 35 years I dunno about bein a pro.

 

In one of the very first posts I ever did within 100 of the old forum I told of the story while I was out geocaching/hiking a coyote chased a fawn right up to me and the deer stopped at my feet,I had to chase the coyote off the deer who was damaged on the back leg.

I took it home,set and fixed it's leg and re-released it to it's waiting mother.

It hopped off happy to see her.

 

Then comes deer season,I seen it it is still there.

 

And yes there is an extra sense with animals and people.

 

I vented a little and apologized,we all have extremes sometimes and we do not communicate the right meanings of what we are trying to say.

 

exit stage right.................>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

[+MissJenn]

Let's focus on MYLAR BALLOONS, please. That is what this thread is about.

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

I will not release anymore polyester made in extremely thin sheets of great tensile strength and used for recording tapes,insulating film,fabrics,etc. this substance.

[Grimstone]

I use mylar dust jacket covers on my personal library.

 

That's all I have to say about that.

[geotrouvetout]

We started a ballon release that has caught on,have you found any with the notes and coordinates on them yet?

 

What a horrible idea. First, everything twilliams said about Marine wildlife. In addition Mylar balloons as they deflate tend to snag in trees and shrubs, where they frighten wildlife, cattle and horses as well.

 

Two incidents from my own experience in just the last year - a woman in the trail riding group I belong to (horseback) was thrown from her horse when it startled violently away from a dancing Mylar along the trail. Her pelvis was broken and she will be wheelchair bond for the rest of her life. Somehow the "somebody cares" message may not have gotten through.

 

In the Withlacoochee State Forest there is a nesting population of endangered Red Cockaded Woodpeckers. One of the volunteers who monitors nests reports that an egg-filled nest was abandoned by the parents as a Mylar balloon became entangled in the branches near the nest. The entire breeding season was for that pair was lost.

 

Please stop.

I think these balloon should be made illegal. I never saw them anywhere else than in the US (and I traveled a little). Same problem with the shopping plastic bags. I never through them away, I reuse them (doubled) as trash bags so I don't have to buy trash bags (less plastic). If I have too much I give them to the store, some recycle them. Every time I see lacerated shopping bags trapped in trees it gives me a fit. I am from France, which is not particularly clean compared to Switzerland but I rarely had that horrible sight before I came in Illinois.

Edited November 18, 2004 by geotrouvetout

[+twilliams]

Ok on my end,to be diplomatic.

I will not release any more mylar ballons.

I appreciate everyone's concerns in the matter and respect them as well.

 

Cheers! I'm impressed at the way you thought about seemed to seriously consider this with an open mind. Even if you had come to a different conclusion you ought to be commended. Hope I can approach more discussions this way.

 

I like the idea you bring up of personally taking broader personal responsibility, although it often does feel like it has little if any overall impact at least we can feel good about a "do no harm" approach.

 

I have nothing against snakes but it's suprising to believe anyone would doctor up a snake? Can you use spackle?

 

-t-

[+GEO*Trailblazer 1]

No you have to use scales made of mylar.