Author: Lisa

Where, oh where have the hedgerows gone?

Written on February 3, 2013.

The last year or two, I’ve noticed changes to the farm fields I pass on my commute between Harvard and Woodstock each day. The hedgerows are thinning and in some cases, disappearing altogether. As used here, the term hedgerow...

Nature and the Economy

Written on January 28, 2013.

I heard an amazing speaker at MCC recently, Jon Erickson, Dean of the University of Vermont’s Rubenstein School of the Environment and Natural Resources. Erickson is an economist, which would normally have kept me away from...

Roundabout the Rotary

Written on January 21, 2013.

From an environmental perspective, I like highway rotaries (also called roundabouts). They allow traffic to keep moving, which cuts down on cars having to stop and start at a light or stop sign. That saves gas and results in...

Don’t take water for granted

Written on January 9, 2013.

I am fascinated by water. Humans can only survive a few days without it, and our bodies are 65% water. Less than one percent of the water on planet earth is available for people to use because the vast majority of water is...

“Snowflake” Bentley

Written on December 27, 2012.

I posted this once before, but thought the weather forecast warranted running it again! Hope you don’t mind! When first married, my husband and I moved to Vermont from Chicago, motivated by an image of that state as a...

What is Darkness?

Written on December 17, 2012.

While driving late one night between Woodstock and Harvard, it struck me how dark it seemed. Most house lights were out, so the landscape visible along Route 14 was dark. It was a new moon, so there was no moonlight from the...