If there were a title for “master monarch butterfly whisperer,” University of Connecticut’s Alice Ely would have already taken the prize. In a…
The Westchester Land Trust has accepted a conservation easement on Pound Ridge Land Conservancy’s Olesen Preserve, according to a statement released by the organization this week. The move helps ensure that the environmentally sensitive property will be preserved in perpetuity.
At a meeting on Thursday, June 11, the Three Lakes Council Board made the decision to close Long Pond Preserve, located on the west end of Lake Waccabuc on Mead Street, to all visitors until further notice.
In the northeast we are fortunate to have our forests growing older. As forests age, soils become more complex, topography more undulating, species composition more diverse, and the layering of the forest more apparent — herbaceous, understory and overstory habitats more defined. One indicat…
The influx of people on local preserves is no surprise to Pound Ridge resident Sansan Harashima, who understands the notion of turning to nature for solace and comfort during crisis quite well.
Nature enthusiasts around the world were busy bees the last weekend of April, participating in the iNaturalist City Nature Challenge to document biodiversity in their communities.
Often I write about my successes as a naturalist. There was my time in Tasmania, for instance, when I got up before dawn, staked out a platypus and actually saw one. I’ve sat in a blind, and witnessed and photographed the drumming of ruffed grouse. I also recounted the memorable day during m…
As the weeks of mandatory social distancing and self-isolation turn to months, people are
Now is an ideal time to prune trees and shrubs, while they are still dormant. Bare branches let you easily see what cuts to make.
Long ago, on a particular day when John F. Kennedy was president of the United States and I was a little boy, my mother took me to the doctor’s office. There I was encouraged to swallow what I remember to be a thimble-sized cup of sweet yellow or orange fluid. It was a polio vaccine, made fr…
The New York New Jersey Trail Conference recognized George Scott at their Volunteer Appreciation Event on March 8 at the New Jersey Botanical Gardens. He received the organization’s Dedicated Service Award, along with nine others, which honors volunteers who demonstrate exemplary service to…
The Hudson Valley is known for its lush vegetation and impressive forestry, but local environmentalists are becoming increasingly concerned this distinguishing feature might literally die away. That’s because our trees, all while producing oxygen and food and providing shade, are battling ag…
The coming of spring brings Westmoreland Sanctuary’s annual SugarFest. Now in its 15th year, the festival takes place Saturday and Sunday, March 14 and 15.
If you’re going to buy just one tool for pruning, make it a pair of hand-held pruning shears. This is the tool you’ll use for pruning roses and for the majority of cuts on fruit plants, houseplants, and young ornamental trees and bushes.
Whether you call these birds woodpeckers, as I do, or peckerwoods, as some of my neighbors in Mississippi did when I worked as a park ranger at Gulf Islands National Seashore, they peck wood for their livings, each species in a distinctive way. There’s the yellow-bellied sapsucker, for examp…
