A 'well-put-together bear': Orphaned cub from Greenfield grows up, with release set for next spring

Nancy Eve Cohen | New England Public Media

"A black bear cub, who was rescued by the Greenfield, Massachusetts, police in April, has grown from about the size of a football to about 60 pounds and over 3 feet tall. The bear and 46 other orphaned cubs are being raised at a wildlife rehabilitation center in Lyme, New Hampshire. The center raises orphaned, abandoned and malnourished bears. The cub, known as Alma, witnessed her mother and siblings getting killed by a car in Greenfield. When she first arrived at the Kilham Bear Center, Ethan Kilham described her as 'serene' with a sad look in her eyes. Now, Kilham said, 'she's still a quiet and well-put-together bear. She's pretty good at fending for herself and taking care of her own needs.' [...] Unlike wild bears who hibernate in November to conserve energy when food becomes scarce, these bears won't hibernate until January — and even then, only for a month or two. [...] Last year's bears excavated a cave of sorts for hibernation under a slab of granite in the woods, where about 10 could sleep. Kilham built another den for 20 or so. But with 47 bears this year and more cubs coming, he plans to build even more. By May or June, the center, along with wildlife officials, will release Alma and the other cubs back into the wild. Kilham suggests people all over New England be more mindful about securing chicken coops and garbage. Which can lead to human - bear conflicts and more orphaned bears." Read More

Join Helia's Carbon Offset Initiative

Helia Native Nursery

"For the 5th year, we’re excited to invite you to join Helia’s own Carbon Offset Initiative to rebuild habitat & sequester carbon. Together, our collective effort can improve the health of our community, as well as our changing planet! Each year, we take direct action to offset carbon emitted from Helia’s work vehicles & those of our employees. To expand our impact & make it easy for others to do the same: we’re offering to help you plant 5 trees to offset the carbon of each vehicle used over the year. (Those interested in joining the planting in person can email for details.) Whether you’re seeking balance for yourself, or want a meaningful holiday gift for others - this is a simple way to replenish nature. Buying 5 trees ($185) will offset carbon emitted by 1 car over the course of a year. Deadline to purchase is November 7th. (Any purchase after will be included in our Fall 2023 campaign.) Request official certificates to share as gifts!" Read More

Identify Common Trees in Vermont

Vermont Land Trust

"...We’ll look at leaves, buds, and bark so you will be able to distinguish them in all seasons. [...] While red maples and sugar maples have very similar leaves, to tell the difference, pay attention to the margins of the leaf. There are teeth along the edge of a red maple leaf. [...] Bark on young, fast growing trees is smooth and gray, but the texture of older trees is rougher. As the trees age, the bark breaks up into strips, called plates. [...] Gray birch bark is chalky to the touch and comes off in short threads. Yellow birch bark comes off in small, thin pieces reminiscent of rice paper, and paper birch bark peels off in sheets." Read More

Across New England, a group is working to find – and save – native plants

Patrick Skahill | Conneticut Public

"Before you can save a seed, you have to find it. [...] 'We’re looking for muhlenbergia capillaris, which is the hair cap muhly,' said Michael Piantedosi, director of conservation at the Native Plant Trust. Piantedosi's group travels across New England to search for – and save – native plants. Earlier this summer, New England lost a plant to extinction – the smooth slender crabgrass, which state officials in New Hampshire said is one of a handful of documented plant extinctions in the region since European settlement. But many more species are at risk. The Native Plant Trust estimates more than one-fifth of the region’s native plants are in danger from development, climate change, rising temperatures, and storm surges. [...] Across the region, Piantedosi said there are spots that are too rugged to be developed for businesses or housing, which turns them into special places for native plants. [...] Piantedosi said the work of hunting for and saving rare seeds is like an insurance policy for plants. 'If a plant does take a downward trend in its population numbers, or if it blinks out and becomes locally extirpated, we can assist it by … allowing it to eventually maintain itself,' he said. A few weeks after we hunted for grass, I met up with Piantedosi at Nasami Nursery in Massachusetts. This is where wild-collected seeds from hundreds of different plants are cleaned and stored. Some will eventually get replanted for habitat restoration. [...] Uli Lorimer, director of horticulture at the Native Plant Trust, said native plants can play a key role in habitat restoration work – because local plants are attuned to local biology." Read More

Why experts say you shouldn't bag your leaves this fall

James Doubek | NPR

"As leaves across America make their annual autumn pilgrimage from the treetops to the ground, lawn and wildlife experts say it's better to leave them around than to bag them. First, because it keeps leaves out of landfills. Every year, about 8 million tons of leaves end up there. And second, because leaves help the grass. Leaves are full of nutrients, including nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium. [...] They also provide a habitat for insects, spiders, slugs — and depending on where you live — possibly turtles, toads and small mammals, according to the University of Delaware's College of Agriculture & Natural Resources. In order to optimize your fallen leaves, some maintenance is recommended. It's best to run over a thin layer of leaves with a lawn mover or cut them up via other means so that they will break down more quickly. Thick layers of leaves are actually bad for the grass as well. [...] Rake excess leaves into a landscape bed and it will turn into mulch. Shredded leaves can also be piled into a garden. [...] Some cities actually collect leaves for composting at a central facility, where it turns to mulch that residents can collect for free. On the other hand, leaves in landfills that don't have enough oxygen to decompose will end up releasing a significant amount of methane. How people deal with leaves is just one part of a longer-term issue of environmental sustainability. 'We want to think about those leaves as being a resource,' and not a problem, Barton said." Read More

Environmentalists Fear a Massive New Plastics Plant Near Pittsburgh Will Worsen Pollution and Stimulate Fracking

Jon Hurdle | Inside Climate News

"Fifteen years after Pennsylvania’s natural gas industry began to raise worries about air and water pollution, the industry’s critics now fear a new source of harmful emissions from the fledgling petrochemical industry, which is poised to become a major customer for the state’s abundant gas reserves. In a state that has long nurtured the extraction of oil, coal and now gas, environmentalists warn that a vast new Shell plant on the banks of the Ohio River 30 miles north of Pittsburgh will add to air and water problems in a region that has endured decades of pollution from the steel and coal industries. The plant, which is expected to open before the end of 2022, will convert ethane, a form of natural gas, into ethylene, a building block for plastics. The operation will produce millions of tons of tiny plastic pellets called 'nurdles' which opponents predict will leak into the Ohio River and beyond during shipment, and will contribute to a flood of plastics that are polluting the world’s oceans and clogging landfills. After being lured to Pennsylvania with the promise of $1.6 billion in state tax credits, and being awarded a state air permit to issue more volatile organic compounds than that emitted by the Clairton Coke Works, a notorious local polluter, the 'cracker' plant appears to be getting the same easy ride from state officials as the fracking industry did starting in the mid-2000s, critics say. [...] Pennsylvania’s fossil fuel industry has long been favored by the Republican-controlled state legislature. In 2012, it passed the wide-ranging Act 13, which curbed local government rights to use zoning to control gas-industry development in their towns, authorized the state to preempt local ordinances, and allowed the industry to prevent the public disclosure of fracking chemicals that were suspected of harming public health." Read More

Researchers Report a Staggering Decline in Wildlife. Here's How to Understand It.

Catrin Einhorn | The New York Times

"...Counting wild animals — on land and at sea, from gnats to whales — is no small feat. Most countries lack national monitoring systems. One of the most ambitious efforts to fill this void is published every two years. Known as the Living Planet Index, it’s a collaboration between two major conservation organizations, the World Wide Fund for Nature, widely known as the WWF, and the Zoological Society of London. But the report has repeatedly resulted in inaccurate headlines when journalists misinterpreted or overstated its results. The assessment’s latest number, issued Wednesday by 89 authors from around the world, is its most alarming yet: From 1970 to 2018, monitored populations of vertebrates declined an average of 69 percent. That’s more than two-thirds in only 48 years. [...] So, have wild vertebrates plummeted by 69 percent since 1970? No. The study tracks selected populations of 5,320 species, vacuuming up all the relevant published research that exists, adding more each year as new data permits. [...] This year’s update includes almost 32,000 such populations. There’s a temptation to think that an average 69% decline in these populations means that’s the share of monitored wildlife that was wiped out. But that’s not true. [...] Imagine, the authors wrote, we start with three populations: birds, bears and sharks. The birds decline to 5 from 25, a drop of 80%. The bears fall to 45 animals from 50, or 10%. And the sharks decrease to 8 from 20, or 60%. That gives us an average decline of 50%. But the total number of animals fell to 92 from 150, a drop of about 39%. The index is designed that way because it seeks to understand how populations are changing over time. It doesn’t measure how many individuals are present." Read More