Sharing my finds, with the hope that you will share yours as well.
It's been a while since my last post. In my defense, I've been working on a long piece on meadows which will likely be posted within the next month. Which is not to say that I have not been reading about other things over the past four months...
In the world of plants and animals.... Atlas Obscura published beautiful photographs of the Thain Family Forest, an old growth forest in the Bronx. A blogger in Maryland posted an example of the invasive potential of Miscanthus sinensis, a plant I've kept out of my planting plans for years. Weather weirding continued from summer through fall. We experienced record-breaking deep freezes, which led me to wonder how plants and animals adapt to these conditions. The Nature Conservancy published a guide on observing how wildlife survive the winter, and another piece looking at how specific species adapt. Ecologist William H. Schlesinger discusses the interplay between climate change and shifting forest composition (check out the references list). Listen to this radio piece on wildlife in D.C. I am finishing up a book that my husband bought me for Christmas titled, The Hidden Life of Trees; the author explores little known but fascinating facts about tree biology and forest ecology. After a winter storm flooded areas of Cape Cod and Boston, a piece in the Boston Globe reacts to winter flooding and explores what the city of Boston is doing to cope with rising sea levels. Read about how villages in Fiji are planting mangroves and moving homes in preparation for rising seas. A piece in the NYT suggests how gerrymandered flood zones increased the vulnerability of Texas homes to flooding. Check out this ESRI Storymap about the wildlife and culture of the U.S./Mexico borderlands.
An interesting piece in the Detroit Metro Times suggests that some urban farming initiatives can contribute to power disparities. A community group in San Francisco is exploring how a public space can be designed for protests, vigils, and other expressions of activism. Yes! Magazine shares essential reads for understanding racial justice.
In landscape architecture news, a post in the Dirt presents examples of therapeutic design in healing environments. Another Dirt post shares comments made by Neil DeGrasse Tyson at the 2017 Greenbuild conference about light in the city; be sure to watch this video of sunrise in Manhattan. Charles Birnbaum of the Cultural Landscape Foundation questions the design proposal for the historic Jackson Park in Chicago. Watch this video about a landscape architecture firm partnering with a school in Baltimore to offer environmental education. An old airport is converted into a mixed-use development with prairie plantings in Denver.
