For at least 15,000 years, we residents of planet Earth have been living in a relatively stable and warm world. Before that, five ice ages came and went. “Glaciologically speaking,” the BBC’s online Science page tells us, we are experiencing an “interglacial” age, defined as such because the Arctic, Antarctica, and Greenland still exist – […]
Naturalist. It is a word synonymous with the great observers of nature like Charles Darwin, E.O. Wilson, Maria Sibylla Marien, and Henry David Thoreau. A title reserved for the history books when the natural world was uncharted and misunderstood. It is time to throw out that silly notion.
A new generation of naturalists
Technology has always been […]
Right about this time, 17,000 years ago, the Main Street distribution area was covered by hundreds of feet of ice. From the Housatonic to the Hudson, South Taconics to Catskills, the Laurentide Ice Sheet shaped our area at literal glacial speed, scouring bedrock and depositing minerals in places that would determine the character of this […]
A few years ago, a cryptic acronym began to appear in my social media feeds: “FKT.” Too lazy to look it up, I assumed it was expletive-based shorthand for the exasperated athletes who used it in association with stupidly long undertakings like ultramarathons and “Everesting,” where a cyclist attempts to climb the height of Mt. […]
“You’re off to great places, today is your day. Your mountain is waiting, so get on your way.” – Dr. Seuss
When I first moved back to New York after almost 20 years in Oregon, I felt like the outdoor scene was never good enough. The rock climbers weren’t badass enough, the buzz of cars from […]
There is something poetic, almost lyrical about compost, I’ve decided. True, most of the compost-conscious world focuses on prosaic matters like the ratio of nitrogen to carbon, feedstocks, and NYS DEC 360 permits. It elevates creatures that I’m guessing are voracious, called detritivores, and their taste for rotting food to levels that imply they are […]
It is a dilemma that everyone has most likely experienced. You lean back from the table as your food baby protrudes in front of you. Your plate still features the remaining forkfuls of food. Despite your best efforts you can’t bring yourself to finish the meal in an attempt to avoid the same fate as […]
This is a beautiful part of the country, it really is. At least once a week, a certain slant of light or the fleeting glimpse of a fox reminds me how lucky we are to live amidst such natural wonders.
But March?
This year, that fifth month of winter nudged me toward a madness that inspired the […]
When I began my journey into wildlife photography about ten years ago, I was assuming I was entering into a field in which I’d have a new way to create beautiful photographs. Although this turned out to be true, I quickly realized there was so much more. With each subject I captured, I returned home […]
When we think of the challenges that the Earth faces – and let’s be honest, most of them are man-made – it seems at times to be an uphill battle to turn it all around. But we quickly saw at the start of Covid how cities that once had been smog-filled had clean air within […]