NEW STUDY: Growing Solar, Protecting Nature

Building the solar Massachusetts needs while protecting the nature we have

Mass Audubon and Harvard Forest

Holiday Balsam Fir Wreath Sale to Benefit Friends of the Dyken Pond Center

Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center | Press Release

"The Friends of the Dyken Pond Center are selling beautiful holiday balsam fir wreaths in time for the season. Proceeds from sales are used to support the Dyken Pond Environmental Education Center activities, such as scholarships for school classes to attend field trips and trail improvements. Each lush 18-inch wreath will be crafted with aromatic balsam fir, pine cones, berries, a large red bow and a collectible handmade nature ornament to be cherished for years to come. This is a pre-order sale and all wreaths must be ordered by November 13th. Cost is $30. Larger wreath sizes available upon request." READ MORE

Nearly 1,000 migrating songbirds perish after crashing into windows at Chicago exhibition hall

Todd Richmond | The Boston Globe

"David Willard has been checking the grounds of Chicago’s lakefront exhibition center for dead birds for 40 years. On Thursday morning, he found something horrible: Hundreds of dead songbirds, so thick they looked like a carpet. Nearly 1,000 songbirds perished during the night after crashing into the McCormick Place Lakeside Center ‘s windows, the result, according to avian experts, of a deadly confluence of prime migration conditions, rain, and the low-slung exhibition hall’s lights and window-lined walls. [...] Researchers estimate hundreds of millions of birds die in window strikes in the United States each year. Scientists with the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute and the US Fish and Wildlife Service released a study in 2014 that put the number between 365 million and 988 million birds annually. Window strikes are an issue in almost every major US city. Birds don’t see clear or reflective glass and don’t understand it’s a lethal barrier. When they see plants or bushes through windows or reflected in them, they head for them, killing themselves in the process. Birds that migrate at night, like sparrows and warblers, rely on the stars to navigate. Bright lights from buildings both attract and confuse them, leading to window strikes or birds flying around the lights until they die from exhaustion — a phenomenon known as fatal light attraction. In 2017, for example, almost 400 passerines became disoriented in a Galveston, Texas, skyscraper's floodlights and died in collisions with windows. [...] Predawn rain forced the birds to drop to lower altitudes, where they found the McCormick Center’s lights on, Willard said. According to the field museum’s count, 964 birds died at the center. That’s about 700 more than have been found at the center at any point in the last 40 years, Willard said. Members of 33 species died, according to the field museum; most of them were palm and yellow-rumped warblers. A call to the McCormick Center’s administrative offices rang unanswered Friday. Window strikes and fatal light attraction are easily preventable, said Anna Pidgeon, an avian ecologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Building managers can simply dim their lights, she said, and architects can design windows with markings in the glass that birds can easily recognize. People can add screens, paint their windows, or apply decals to the glass as well." READ MORE

The Rusty Anvil: connecting Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to nature

Raei Bridges | Press Release

"The Rusty Anvil is an educational platform that connects Black, Indigenous, and People of Color to nature through mindful wilderness trips and ancestral skills workshops. Our mission is to empower people of color with the knowledge, gear, and support they need to feel confident in the wild and find new ways to experience a sense of belonging. By integrating mindfulness and collective intention into our programs our goal is that people of color will not just learn how to survive in nature, but thrive. In 2024 we've got exciting new programs like a week-long basket weaving retreat where we will get into all kinds of willow weaving projects and connect with willow through meditation and play. We've also got more BIPOC Forest Immersion trips next year! On these 4-day trips we venture into the forest to surrender to the elements and find a sense of belonging. And of course fire! We've got more friction fire workshops! Join us for this overnight campout and learn how to carve your own bow drill or hand drill kit and birth a coal!" LEARN MORE

Area Groups Form Plastic-Free Mass

Independent Staff | Everett Independent

"Over a dozen community and environmental groups have joined forces to form Plastic Free Mass, a new coalition dedicated to ending the use of polluting plastic. The group will push for new policies to protect our Commonwealth’s residents and natural resources by ending our plastic addiction and moving us toward a cleaner future. The data couldn’t be clearer. Nearly 40% of the plastic produced annually is for single-use plastics and packaging. Very little plastic – between 5-6% in the United States – is actually recycled. Plastic is toxic and polluting at every stage of its lifecycle – from extraction and manufacturing, to use, recycling, and disposal. Many single-use plastics can be easily reduced, redesigned for reuse, or replaced with nontoxic alternatives. [...] The members of Plastic Free Mass include Berkshire Environmental Action Team, Berkshire Zero Waste Initiative, Beyond Plastics, Clean Water Action, Conservation Law Foundation, Container Recycling Institute, Environmental League of Massachusetts, Friends of the Malden River, Just Zero, Metropolitan Area Planning Council, MetroWest Climate Solutions, Mothers Out Front, Oceana, Progressive Democrats of Massachusetts, Seaside Sustainability, Slingshot, and Story of Stuff. 'The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is an environmental leader in so many ways, so it’s particularly disappointing to see us fall behind in the area of solid waste. For example, our state is one of the only states in New England without a statewide plastic bag ban, and our bottle bill has one of the lowest redemption rates in the country. We must move quickly and decisively to remedy these shortcomings or we risk falling even further behind in the fight to curb the climate crisis,' said Kirstie Pecci, Executive Director, Just Zero." READ MORE

When it comes to urban trees, more isn't always better

Alexander Kobald | Bloomberg

"As record-breaking heat scorched cities across the Northern Hemisphere in the summer of 2023, urban trees — and their ability to mitigate high temperatures — were thrust into the spotlight. Cities of all sizes, ranging from Cedar Rapids to New York City, have proposed ambitious planting targets to increase their tree canopy, motivated by a $1.5 billion allotment for urban forest improvement in the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The problem with many of these initiatives is that they are focused on simply adding more trees. And in the face of the challenges of climate change, more will not be enough. Instead, cities need to invest in planting new trees with a focus on where they can have the biggest impact — providing the most shade where it’s most needed. To accomplish this, cities need better tools. For decades, urban communities have planted trees in uniform rows along streets, driven by goals of city beautification and economic development. These historic priorities have resulted in tree canopies that are inequitably distributed. Leafy 'millionaires’ rows' like Boston’s Commonwealth Avenue, New York’s upper Fifth Avenue and Cleveland’s Euclid Avenue contrast with far more sparsely planted lower-income neighborhoods nearby. In cities such as Baltimore, the impact of racially discriminatory redlining can be seen clearly in its correlation with urban canopy coverage. The historic priorities of tree planting are failing to meet the needs of the moment. [...] In our work at Cornell University’s Design Across Scales Lab in the College of Architecture, Art, and Planning, we are building tools to better understand and quantify the local impact of urban trees. Tree Folio NYC is a digital twin of New York City’s tree canopy, built in collaboration with the Jacobs Urban Tech Hub at Cornell Tech: It extracts 3-D models of urban trees from public data repositories of high-resolution LiDAR scans, simulates their local shading environments, and quantifies the amount and quality of shade they provide." READ MORE