By David Spector
A few years ago, as I sat grading papers near midnight, I heard a thump. The sound did not seem quite to match that of the house settling or of a flying squirrel landing on the outside wall. I didn’t know what to make of it. The next morning, as I sat in the same room and looked out the window, I saw a ghostly image on the glass, which gave me a clue.
By Joshua Rose
I am a cat lover. I have lived with cats for 34 of my 43 years. I try not to think about how many hair balls and litter box clumps I have cleaned up. We moved one of our current cats halfway across the continent, twice, even though she requires daily medication and has repeatedly urinated on furniture. Our cats sleep with us and with our kids. But we never let them go outside.
By John Foster
What makes a particular spot a great place to hike and explore? Diversity, ecology and topography are what grab me, and Putney Mountain in Putney, Vt., with its long ridgeline and forested slopes, has them all. The entire reserve comprises some 1,800 acres and 14 miles of trails, so I can only give you a glimpse here of the pleasures in store for the visitor.
By Lawrence Winship
One of my favorite Pioneer Valley bumper stickers proclaims: “No Farms, No Food!” Perhaps we should modify this slogan by adding: “And No Soil, No Farms!” Of course, farms can’t function without soil. But I’ll go much further. Nothing else can function without soil, either. Soil is much more than a place for our crops to grow: It is the foundation for human civilization. Productive, healthy soils, support food production, but also the life of all the terrestrial and wetland systems that provide essential ecosystem services — for nature itself! And those services make possible all life, including our own. For the most part, though, we’re unaware of the part that soil plays in our daily existence.
By Elizabeth Farnsworth Gazette Contributing Writer
When we lived in Holyoke, we looked forward to the annual fall migration of winged things: birds, monarch butterflies and… ants. On a warm, autumn evening every year, we would sit on our deck and watch platoons of ant queens lining up for take-off, like jets at Logan Airport. These insects weren’t launching off to exotic locales in the tropics like birds and butterflies. Instead, each hopeful queen, replete with fertilized eggs, was setting out on a wing and a prayer to find a perfect spot to found a new colony, perhaps only a few hundred feet from the nest where she was born. Of all the queens taking flight, perhaps only one in a million would make a new nest; the rest would serve to fatten up birds.
By Katie Koerten Gazette Contributing Writer
When I was a kid, my father guided my earliest forays into the woods, meadows and streams of the Blackstone Valley in central Massachusetts where I grew up. He was the one who first taught me the names of the plants and animals around me.
By Joshua Rose August 18, 2012
Residents of Amherst have been debating about dogs and leashes for the past several months. According to some residents, the argument has actually been going on for a decade or two. Amethyst Brook Conservation Area in particular is a hugely popular site for dog walking, and has become a flash point of the conflict, even more so since the town limited the hours of approved off-leash activity. But frequently lost in the contention over leashed vs. unleashed, how many hours and when is another issue: Should pets be allowed at all, let alone encouraged, in a conservation area?
By Michael Dover
Let’s try a little experiment. When you see the words “air pollution,” what pictures come to mind? Perhaps you envision a belching smokestack from a factory or power plant, or a tailpipe on a car or truck spewing exhaust. But what if I asked you to look in your own home? You might be surprised to learn that your laundry room is a possible source of toxic air pollution, and that you could be wearing the problem every day.
By Elizabeth Farnsworth
I have this really troublesome neighbor. First, right after he moves in, he clears most of the trees on his land. Then he dams up the stream that runs along our shared property boundary to create a pond, with no permit from the Conservation Commission. Sure enough, the water table in my basement is rising and, during heavy rains, our street floods! I guess I shouldn’t complain so libelously in a newspaper article. But I don’t have to worry – he can’t read English, or even speak Human. He’s a beaver.
By David Spector
The great southbound migration of birds starts around the last week of June and continues for about half a year, with hundreds of millions of birds flying south across North America. This southward movement reaches its greatest intensity in August, September and October, and continues into early winter. Not all birds, though, follow the pattern. In the late summer, here in western Massachusetts, we can sometimes see spectacular birds that have flown north from the southern states.
Hitchcock Center for the Environment
at Hampshire College
845 West Street | Amherst MA 01002 | 413.256.6006 | 413.253.2809 fax