World Water Day
A friend of mine, Debra Shore, is on the board of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District which oversees management of the stormwater and sewage treatment and disposal systems in much of Cook County. In honor of World Water...
Private Land Conservation Grows in Illinois, Locally
Illinois conservation land trusts have helped preserve more than 200,000 acres of open land in Illinois over the last 50 years. The conservation land trust movement is gaining momentum and is supported by private landowners...
Geese love the suburbs!
I heard them before I saw them, hundreds of Canada geese. A raucous honking as the birds circled a pond, vying for a spot to spend the night. The sun was near the horizon, and as I drove home, I noticed ribbons of the birds...
The Nature of Natural Selection
In my last post – the one with the poem about cardinals – I revealed that while cardinals mate for life, they are not necessarily faithful to their mates. Studies have shown that 9-35% of cardinal hatchlings are not genetically...
A Valentine’s Day poem
When most people think of Valentine’s Day, they think of hearts and flowers, boxes of chocolate, valentine’s day cards, Cupid and his arrow — all that stuff. Some years ago I heard a different Valentine’s...
Where, oh where have the hedgerows gone?
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...