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Preparing Autumn Buttercup for Reintroduction: It Takes a Village

Conservation practitioners face many different hurdles on the path to a successful species’ reintroduction. One of those challenges is having enough propagules.  Studies have shown that reintroductions conducted with mature plants are often more successful than those conducted with either seeds or seedlings.
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The Toxification of Words

Disclaimer: Some words may have been harmed in the process of writing this blog As a scientist who fled from college course offerings beginning with ENG I fully regret this decision, particularly when sheepishly resorting to the synonym key, followed by a quick dash to Wikipedia for further advice on how to use words.  Words matter, particularly if one decides to go public with them. And so, it was with some chagrin that I read a recent email, taking me to task for my use of the word “toxics,” which I’ve pasted verbatim - for lack of better words:
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Poor safety record no bar to winning government construction contracts

One might assume that when a government agency awards a private company a contract to do construction work - for bridge or sewer work or other public utility repairs, for example - evaluating the company's safety and health record would be a prerequisite. This is, however, not the case. As the government watchdog organization Public Citizen details in a new report, numerous government contracts have been awarded to companies with chronic poor health and safety records.

Will Climate Change Ruin Pancakes?

In spite of the wintry landscape, the steady tap-tap-tap of maple sap dripping into a bucket announces spring with greater assurance than the calendar.  Black-capped chickadees have been si
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Earth Day 2012: Is there still time to save spaceship earth?

“. . . the planet is quite fragile. It reminded me of a Christmas tree ornament . . . . We’re not the center of the universe; we’re way out in left field on a tiny dust mote, but it is our home and we need to take care of it.”   Apollo 8 Astronaut William Anders lamenting about his December 1968 “Earthrise” photo – the first image ever taken of Earth from the moon.
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Almost, a Welcomed Surprise

The dustings from most previous storms, and atypical warm conditions, and storm paths that have gone around our southern Wisconsin farm, have left us in an extended “fall or spring-season-like trance”.  Fields of standing upright plant stalks blow and shake in the wind, brown, gray and straw colored. Finally, after much of the winter without winter-like conditions, Stone Prairie Farm is under a blanket of deep snow. Usually, the first heavy snows arch these stems to the ground.
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Lessons from Los Angeles: Make Transit Hip

There will be many accolades bestowed upon Los Angeles at this year’s American Planning Association conference. And no doubt many of them will be reserved for L.A.’s forward-thinking transportation policies; well deserved, since public transit generally lurks in the collective blind spot of Los Angelenos. But there is one strategy transit strategy that will likely get overlooked at the conference, and it is perhaps Los Angeles’ greatest feat. In L.A., where image is everything and the car is king, Metro is doing what might be considered Mission Impossible: make transit hip.
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From Carton to Carpet: Recycled Homes

North Americans are doing their fair share in reducing the millions of tons of domestic garbage that the country generates.  Each week they carefully sort their own waste and place it in a box near the curb for a pickup.  When the program began, some argued that recycling is no more than fancy garbage collection.  They were wrong.  Not only has recycling eased the pressure on our landfills, recycled products became the prime component in many construction products.
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A New Year, But Old Problems Persist: Reports of Child Labor and Export of Toxics Continue

Next month will mark the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth. Given the last two centuries' stratospheric advances in technology and the past century's progress in human rights policy, one would think that child labor, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, and the export of hazardous industrial refuse to poor countries and communities would be a thing of the past. But as several reports released last month show, Dickensian working and living conditions are still very much with us. Children continue to be engaged in hazardous manual labor instead of attending school.

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