Category: Uncategorized
Ukraine: “This is a Fossil Fuel War”
March 14, 2022[caption id="attachment_274792" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A gas-powered power plant and thermal power plant in snow-covered Anadyr, Siberia, Russia.[/caption]
We’ve all been watching the increasingly grim war in Ukraine with a mixture of horror, outrage, and sadness at the needless loss of life and the tragic outpouring of refugees. Given Vladimir Putin’s relentless resolve in pushing forward at all costs, I’m guessing the situation only worsens between my writing this on Friday and your reading it next week.
Svitlana Krakovska has a unique lens to view the war. A Kyiv resident, she’s Ukraine’s leading climate scientist and the head of the country’s…
The Life, Death, and Rebirth of a Great American Tree
March 7, 2022[caption id="attachment_274766" align="aligncenter" width="600"] A chestnut tree showing its open bur and those famously alluring fruits, craved by both people and a diverse assemblage of animals, from deer to passenger pigeons. Photo courtesy of the American Chestnut Foundation.[/caption]
Walk through a local forest, and you’ll see a diverse assemblage of trees-- tuliptrees reaching straight up into the sky, sassafras wiggling their trunks through the canopy, black cherries sporting their chipped bark, beeches seemingly standing like huge immovable elephants, massive smooth gray trunks imitating pachyderms.
But you won’t see any American chestnut trees, once one of the most common trees in…
The First Wildflower of Spring is Here!
February 16, 2022[caption id="attachment_274103" align="aligncenter" width="400"] Skunk cabbage, one of the first wildflowers to bloom during spring, sprouting on our Ravine Loop.[/caption]
In this weird winter of seesaw weather-- 60 degrees one day, 20 the next with an inch of snow to boot-- last week I walked the Ravine Loop in search of one of my Holy Grails, one of my key markers in the natural year's calendar. I was searching for the very first flower of spring, one that appears as early as mid-February, the first flower in a long march that concludes in the late summer with goldenrod and aster,…
North Light Weathers the Viral Storm
February 7, 2022[caption id="attachment_273862" align="aligncenter" width="600"] North Light's Jared Poindexter helps one of his students in the community center's after-school program, one of the many services the center provides.[/caption]
Remember when the pandemic hit back in March 2020, and non-profits like the Schuylkill Center and North Light Community Center shuttered our doors, assuming we’d close for a few weeks, “flatten the curve,” and reopen in April? Well, that didn't happen.
Instead, non-profits have been battered financially and programmatically by choppy waves in the viral ocean. Some of us have swum these pandemic seas-- not always gracefully-- but many non-profits have sunk, disappearing…
The Hidden History of Groundhog Day
January 31, 2022[caption id="attachment_273823" align="aligncenter" width="600"] Punxsutawney Phil meets his adoring masses in 2020, when he called an early spring. What will he say this year?[/caption]
Early Wednesday morning, way out there in the small town of Punxsutawney, a portly aging man in top hat and tails will unceremoniously yank a grumpy groundhog from his winter den and present it to a roaring crowd numbering in the tens of thousands. The man then will whisper to the groundhog in a secret, shared language, what he calls “Groundhogese”…
And, for the 136th year since 1886, Punxsutawney Phil, the most famous rodent besides a…
The Schuylkill Center’s Year of Restoration
January 17, 2022[caption id="attachment_273776" align="aligncenter" width="360"] Many hands make restoration possible. Join our Restoration Work Day.[/caption]
We have named 2022 as our Year of Restoration, dedicating our programming to restoring so many things, starting with the forest habitat that our nature center calls home. But we are also looking to restore our climate, the planet in total, and several things lost in pandemic confusion: our sense of awe and a balance in our relationships with nature and each other.
The 11th annual Richard L. James Lecture, named for our founding director, will be held virtually in March and will focus on restoring…
Countdown: 10 Things I Love About Winter
January 10, 2022Last week, the first full week of the New Year, was a weird one weather-wise. It was supposed to snow last Monday for like 24 hours straight, but the snow slipped east and south instead, slamming DC and the Jersey shore. Then on Wednesday, the morning commute was icy, and finally, on Friday, we saw our first real snowfall of the year, a nice covering of three to five inches hereabouts.
Philadelphians LOVE to complain about weather, and winter gives us a lot to complain about. But TV meteorologists don’t help, always acting surprised when winter weather is cold, or…
All We Want for Christmas
December 20, 2021[caption id="attachment_273543" align="aligncenter" width="350"] Santa visited Ridge Avenue two Saturdays ago to spread his Christmas cheer-- but what will he leave under Roxborough trees this year?[/caption]
With Christmas coming at week’s end, I asked a group of Roxborough leaders, community activists, nonprofit executives, and old friends what they wanted Santa to leave under their organization’s Christmas trees. As expected, they gave thoughtful, funny, and even surprising answers. Enjoy!
Michael Devigne, executive director of the Roxborough Development Corporation, told me via email, “This holiday season I would like to see Roxborough residents strolling Ridge Avenue and visiting our many shops and…
The First Thanksgiving Menu: Venison, Lobster, and… Passenger Pigeons?
November 22, 2021[caption id="attachment_273481" align="aligncenter" width="470"] The versatile and colorful Indian corn, widely used among Native Americans for porridge, bread, and more, was likely consumed during the 1621 Thanksgiving feast. Turkey, however, might not have been.[/caption]
As we gather with family for Thanksgiving feasts this week, it will be especially poignant, as for many families (like my own), this is the first live Thanksgiving dinner in two very long years.
Most likely a turkey will occupy a place of honor in your feast; for me, the reveal of the roasted turkey on a platter is the singular moment of the day. For…
Mindy Maslin and Philadelphia’s Forest
November 15, 2021[caption id="attachment_273419" align="aligncenter" width="255"] The PHS's Mindy Maslin, founder of Tree Tenders, is being honored for helping plant 20,000 trees across the region.[/caption]
Philadelphia has a bold plan for reforesting the city, making sure 30% of our city is blanketed under a canopy of trees, which will go a long way to mitigating heat waves and cooling our city's rapidly changing climate. It’s also an environmental justice plan, as-- no surprise-- economically challenged portions of the city have fewer trees than more advantaged neighborhoods.
Mindy Maslin supports this ambitious goal. As the founder and director of Tree Tenders, an important…
