By Dave King
Forest management is often the subject of controversy, yet often the anger and anxiety of opponents are due to misconceptions or incomplete information. I hope that by describing the effects of forestry on wildlife and biodiversity, I can help allay some of the concerns that arise from such misconceptions. Forest fragmentation might be a good place to start.
By Patty O’Donnell
The latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has reminded me yet again that no “Earth Matters” are more pressing than climate change. Earth’s systems are responding to anthropogenic (human-caused) increases in atmospheric carbon dioxide and, the report warns, no area of the world is likely to escape the consequences.
By Ted Watt
I like to go for a run in the mornings before I get ready for work. I often leave the house around 5:30 a.m. and part of the year it’s still dark. The other morning, as I ran past Garfield Street in Greenfield, I stopped short at a quiet sound from the side street — a gentle, quavering whistle, descending in pitch. It was an Eastern screech owl — right in a residential neighborhood! I just stood there listening in the predawn quiet, flooded with memories of other screech owls I have heard and seen.
By Katie Koerten
In an age when sustainable solutions to human problems have never been so important, wouldn’t it be nice to have a mentor to turn to for help and inspiration? Someone, or something, that has almost 4 billion years of experience solving life’s problems in a way that is sustainable for all living things? Someone who has truly seen it all, and is always in the process of figuring out life’s challenges?
By Elizabeth Farnsworth
Last summer, I had a close encounter with bears. A sow and her two yearling cubs ambled across my yard in Florence. (I quietly put down my gardening tools and stood stock-still as they made their way into the trees). Such meet-ups are not uncommon in the Pioneer Valley — we share the landscape with bears and hardly give it a thought unless our bird feeders get raided. Recently, however, I had another encounter with bears of an entirely different variety: water bears.
By David Spector
Next Thursday, March 20, is the day known in the northern hemisphere as the vernal equinox, when day and night are approximately equal in length. According to our calendars, this is the day spring begins. (In the southern hemisphere, it is the first day of autumn. Some have suggested the less ambiguous “Northward equinox” for this date and “Southward equinox” for its September equivalent.
By David Spector
Is the barred owl a common bird here in western Massachusetts? The answer depends on how the word “common” is understood.
By Tom Sullivan
In the last few years we’ve been hearing a lot about the loss of honeybees and their hives. A looming pollination crisis is stretching across the globe. If honeybees disappear, we’ll face an historic calamity threatening many of the seed-derived foods we need to survive.
By Casey Beebe
I have a dream of children who think all electricity comes from the sun, of children who are just used to composting toilets. I see hordes of children who know exactly where their food comes from, I imagine children who don’t know what a plastic grocery bag was.
By Patty O’Donnell
It was Sept. — the day after the autumnal equinox. I stood at the edge of my garden pond, counting the frogs that had recently been drawn to my very small shore; adult and juvenile green frogs, and juvenile leopard frogs. This day I counted six. Every fall I have observed that the green frogs seem to get browner this time of year.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
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