Earth Matters

When do we find our place in the landscape?

by John Stinton for the Gazette

I recently went cycling with a friend who told me that he’d had a wondrously strange experience — the world around him suddenly became intensely bright and immediate to his senses. How could that be, he asked? After 70 years of living, what had he been missing?

In memoriam, Elizabeth Farnsworth, writer, illustrator, scientist, naturalist

By Michael Dover For the Gazette

Elizabeth Farnsworth died suddenly at the end of October. I’m certain that anyone who has read even one or two of her many Earth Matters columns shares my sadness of this momentous loss.

How seeds survive the winter

By Elizabeth Farnsworth For the Gazette

In an “Earth Matters” column this August, I marveled at the myriad methods by which seeds get around. Imagine you’re a seed that has traveled far and landed in a happy place, rich in soil and free of other competing plants. Now you face a new challenge as the days shorten and the weather gets colder. How will you survive the winter?

Giants among us (silkworm moths, that is)

By Joshua Rose For the Gazette

Being a naturalist means regularly receiving messages asking “What is this thing?”

I received one on June 1 from a fellow Hampshire Bird Club member. Her husband was doing tree work on a town common, and photographed a huge moth nearby. I recognized it as a polyphemus moth (Antheraea polyphemus), a member of the family Saturniidae, the giant silkworm moths.

A naturalist contemplates hunting

By Lawrence J. Winship For the Gazette

Some months back I talked with a friend about the challenges of growing vegetables in the Pioneer Valley and ways to deal with deer and woodchucks. Despite all attempts at fencing and repellent, entire sections of her garden were destroyed — just too many hungry mouths, leaving little for her family.

Talking about climate change: What Buddhist teachings offer

By Mark D. Hart For the Gazette

I wince a little when I recall an email exchange with an old college friend. He responded to my annual Christmas letter, where I had revealed my political involvement against climate change. It turns out he is a “climate skeptic” and has written articles for conservative journals.

Marveling at the wondrous power of seeds

By Elizabeth Farnsworth

Seeds are the beginning of life for so many of the plants that give humanity life: the oxygen we breathe, the food we eat, the medicines that save us from disease. I am awed by all of nature, but nothing speaks to me of the miraculous so much as a seed.

‘What is a bird?’ Easy question, complicated answer

By Henry Lappen

When I do my educational performance “A Passion for Birds,” I always ask the audience “What is a bird?” Depending on the age of the audience, I get quite a variety of answers. Someone usually starts with “It’s a flying animal.” I respond by pointing out, “Under that definition, bees and bats are birds.”

What Thoreau can tell us about climate change

By Patrick O’Roark

Recently, Ted Watt, my colleague at the Hitchcock Center for the Environment in Amherst, said something that really stuck with me: Naturalists, the experts on the plants and animals sharing the land with us, are important figures in the struggle to curb and adapt to climate change.

A ripple effect: Henry David Thoreau turns 200

By Reeve Gutsell

July 12 marked the bicentennial of Henry David Thoreau’s birth. Though not widely read in his day, this essayist, abolitionist, naturalist, tax resister, land surveyor and native son of Massachusetts is now well known throughout America and the rest of the world for his influence on both modern-day environmentalism and civil resistance movements.