Photo credit: WBUR

"...the Massachusetts Senate on April 14 passed a major bill, S.2819, An Act Driving Climate Policy Forward, or the Drive Act. The bill addresses climate change in three primary areas—clean energy, transportation, and buildings—with the aim of achieving the Commonwealth’s ambitious goal of reaching net-zero emissions by 2050, which the Legislature codified into law in 2021. [...] The Senate also passed S.2821, An Act relative to the remediation of home heating oil releases. Over 650,000 homeowners across Massachusetts use home heating oil to heat their homes. Every year, more than 100 of those homeowners report to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) that there has been an oil spill associated with their home heating oil tank. [...] The bill adopted by the Senate today addresses this problem by requiring that all homeowner insurance policies cover a potential home heating oil spill. [...] In addition, the Senate passed S.2820, An Act preserving open space in the Commonwealth. This bill would prevent the loss of natural resource lands that are covered under Article 97 of the Massachusetts constitution. The bill requires that any municipality or state agency that is disposing or changing the use of any Article 97 protected open space must replace that land with comparable land, which would protect open spaces across Massachusetts. Read More

"There’s been considerable focus in recent years on enhancing bee habitat through meadow restoration and gardening with pollinator-friendly plants. But forests are also important to many bee species. New research by Rachael Winfree of Rutgers University shows that forest bees are also integral to the health and productivity of ecosystems across the region. In a 2021 study, Winfree’s lab compared bees in forests to those in more familiar open habitats such as fields and developed areas. The researchers were hoping to determine how many species were found only in forests (termed forest-associates) and how other factors, such as forest size and age, affect the diversity of bee populations. [...] In larger forests, the team found a higher number of different species and a greater abundance of forest-associates. The researchers’ museum analysis also showed that the richness of forest-associates has increased markedly from 1872 to 2011, which they attribute to a 43 percent increase in forest cover during that time period, as former agricultural and open land has reverted to forest. [...] The team’s findings underscore the importance of large, intact forests to maintaining healthy bee populations. [...] As for the most effective way to support forest bees in the Northeast, Winfree said, 'It’s really about habitat. If the plants and habitat the bees evolved with are there, the bees will be there.'" Read More

"The percentage of Massachusetts residents who believe climate change is a very serious concern has decreased since 2019. That’s just one finding from a new poll, a collaboration of The Boston Globe and the MassINC Polling Group. MassINC has surveyed residents about climate change periodically since 2011. For the new poll, the firm surveyed 1,890 Massachusetts residents between March 23 and April 5 on the phone and online. [...] Here are 12 of the biggest takeaways from the new survey." See Graphics & Read More

"1. Research where you will be hiking (aka “Know before you go”); 2. Hike in the center of the Trail; 3. Step off the Trail smartly; 4. Keep your pup on a leash; 5. Share the views; 6. Don’t leave behind “compostable” food; 7. Leave the Trail one piece cleaner (or more) than when you started; 8. Don’t burn your trash; 9. Store your food and “smellables” properly; 10. Don’t use soap directly in water sources; 11. “Broadcast” waste liquid or use a designated washpit"

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"Spring Beauty is one of the early woodland ephemerals that greet us before tree buds have opened and released the leaves that will soon shade the forest floor. With April showers plentiful the ground is often damp, encouraging the growth of Spring Beauty Rust (Puccinia mariae-wilsoniae), a species of rust fungus that grows on both species of Spring Beauty (Claytonia caroliniana and C. virginica) that we have in the Northeast. There are approximately 7,000 species of rust fungi, all of which are parasites of plants from which they obtain nutrients and on which they reproduce and complete their life cycles. Spring Beauty Rust can be recognized by the scattered clusters of reddish-brown sori (clusters of sporangia, structures producing and containing spores) that cover the surface of Spring Beauty’s leaves, stems and the sepals on the outside of flower buds." Read More