This Month’s Featured Articles…

Many of us are making choices about how we live that are more environmentally sound and kinder to the Earth. These decisions can include the end of our lives too. There are many options for making your final journey a green one. While green practices might seem at odds with traditional ones, perceptions and perspectives on green funerals and burials are evolving, and more people are embracing green funerals as part of their final wishes. Tons of steel Let’s get some numbers on the table [...]

The concept of sustainability touches many aspects of society. From personal growth to economic development, the idea of maintaining a certain standard of principled development is viewed by most as one of the keys to existence. The same can be said of our environment and the ways in which we impact the natural spaces we occupy. For decades, modern conservation movements have modeled their efforts around the principles of sustainability. That is, both continuing the proactive work toward effecting change for a cleaner physical world [...]

History is the greatest irony that pervades the human experience. It defines who we have become and is the method of transportation toward our future – yet often forgotten in the present. For those who watch history’s tidal cycles, it has become the answer to a very familiar riddle: Die without me, Never thank me. Walk right through me, Never feel me. Always watching, Never speaking. Always lurking, Never seen. What am I? Much like the oxygen we breathe and the natural world in which [...]

The Siegel-Kline Kill Conservation Area is one of ten that is maintained by the Columbia Land Conservancy (CLC) in Columbia County, NY. It might be one of the smallest, and it might be one of the least varied, with its simple mile-long loop that is mostly flat. It’s easy to miss when you’re driving out of Ghent on County Route 21, which is a main thoroughfare to Valatie and points north. From the road it looks like, well, a big field and not much more. [...]

Colorful blooms in shades of red, blue, white, and other vibrant hues are the focus of business for F.W. Battenfeld & Son – a family-run farm in Red Hook, NY. The company, which is currently helmed by Fred Battenfeld, his son Lance and daughter Morgan, traces its history back to 1906. Fred represents the fourth generation of the family presiding over the farm while Lance and Morgan claim fifth-generation status. It was their relative Conrad Battenfeld who planted the initial seeds for the family farming [...]