default blog post image

Resilient Design Can Ameliorate Extreme Storm Impacts

By Joyce Maschinski / On May 7th, 2012
Variable climate patterns are predicted to be the new norm in today’s changing climate.  No longer can we rely on our normal precipitation levels or temperatures.  Models foretell increased storm frequencies and intensities as sea surface temperatures climb.  The impacts of climate change affect all of us and our planet’s rare fauna and biota.  Yet we often don’t appreciate the immense responsibility we hold until we’ve had personal experience with an extreme event.
default blog post image

The Wonders and Surprises of the Unintentional

By Steven I. Apfelbaum / On May 3rd, 2012
Stone Prairie Farm, the eighty acres of prairie, wetland, savanna and headwaters stream that we have restored serves as a snow fence. It captures snow and prevents drifting across neighboring county roads. The accumulating snow remains within the dense vegetation cover now growing on the restored undulating landscapes, including the high ridge tops and sloping expanses.
default blog post image

Preparing Autumn Buttercup for Reintroduction: It Takes a Village

By Kristin E. Haskins / On May 1st, 2012
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.
default blog post image

The Toxification of Words

By Emily Monosson / On April 26th, 2012
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:
default blog post image

Poor safety record no bar to winning government construction contracts

By Elizabeth Grossman / On April 24th, 2012
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?

By Alan Haney / On April 23rd, 2012
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
default blog post image

Earth Day 2012: Is there still time to save spaceship earth?

By Dominick A. DellaSala / On April 20th, 2012
“. . . 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.
default blog post image

Almost, a Welcomed Surprise

By Steven I. Apfelbaum / On April 20th, 2012
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.
default blog post image

Lessons from Los Angeles: Make Transit Hip

By Darrin Nordahl / On April 18th, 2012
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.

Pages