White Nose; Declining Bat Populations Persists

10/29/2009 4:36:20 PM

By Alison Rogers

Tags: Wildlife, threatened and endangered species

Reports of the mysterious white nose syndrome, a fungal phenomenon that has reduced certain bat populations to near extinction levels, seem to have died down of late. Unfortunately, that doesn’t mean the disease is doing the same.

One species in particular has scientists worried. This fall, when the Virginia Big-Eared Bats return to their caves for their six-month hibernation, there’s some concern that they won’t emerge in the spring. Learn more about what the Smithsonian’s National Zoological Park is doing to keep the species alive (thanks to a grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service), and about white nose syndrome itself.

Photo by the New York Department of Environmental Conservation; Little Brown Bat showing symptoms of white nose syndrome.

What’s Your Walkability Score?

For tomorrow’s porch presentation, I plan to link porches to broader concepts of urban design and community character. There is a really fascinating website called Walk Score, which rates the “walkability” of your neighborhood, based on ease of transit without a car and proximity to amenities like food, shopping, etc. You can type in your own address to see your walk score, or you can compare different cities across the U.S. to see how yours measures up against the others.

In the below image of New York City, green areas are very walkable, whereas red areas are not very pedestrian friendly.

The top ten most walkable cities in the U.S., according to this website:

1. San Francisco
2. New York
3. Boston
4. Chicago
5. Philadelphia
6. Seattle
7. Washington, D.C.
8. Long Beach, Calif.
9. Los Angeles
10. Portland

Not all Porches are created equal

This article talks about the science of creating a good front porch. Steve Mouzon did a lot of observational research on porches and found that, “there is a clear distinction between porches people will sit on and ones they won’t, and it’s based on how close the front edge of the porch is to the sidewalk, and how far above the sidewalk it is.”

His original article is here and it details more of the specifications for porch building and the observations that he made- such as how usuable porches are either farther back from the sidewalk or raised above the sidewalk because otherwise people feel vulnerable. The railing height and hedge placement also play a role in making a livable front porch.

sesame street goes green

Sesame Street Goes Green at 40–But Warming “Too Scary”

“Grass people invade Congress”

 

Article.

My Experiences With and Thoughts on Lawns

Since I’ve lived in an apartment my whole life, my own experiences with lawns at home have been non-existent. However, I guess some of my first lawn memories are from first or second grade, when I used to go onto other people’s lawns to kick or blow dandelion seeds so that they’d disperse everywhere. When I visited my grandparents’ house in the Catskills of New York, their wide open lawn surrounded by woods was always the center of social activity. To my knowledge, they didn’t use pesticides, herbicides, or fertilizers. While many lawns are monocultures, at the time at least, their yard always seemed full of diverse little micro-habitats. In some areas, near the ferns, there would be soft, mossy patches, perfect for lying down to watch the stars or to pitch a tent and go camping. Closer to the road, there were lots of mushrooms, which were always a point of fascination for me, my brother, and my sister. On some nights, when we went camping behind the house, a particular species of fungus would light up. My grandparents also had a small garden; I loved to help by picking string beans or uprooting beets. Certainly, this was a lawn with a lot of personality.

I personally think that lawns have come to dominate far too much of the American psyche, eating up too many chemical inputs and money, and wrecking havoc on natural ecosystems. I am a strong advocate of using lawns for something more useful, like dedicating some space to small gardens. I also believe that public spaces are vital in any society; however, we should ask ourselves if the best land use is truly a monoculture of non-native grass. Perhaps we could also devote more space to native plants or grasses. Growing up in D.C., the shabbiness of the National Mall at times has been interesting to observe. Often, the grass can be brown in places, with some areas that are even bare dirt. The Mall gets a lot of usage, so this accounts for much of its condition. However, might it be possible to use different (native) grass species that are more adapted to the climate and rainfall of the region? Is it even worthwhile to have such a huge patch of lawn there? Perhaps parts of the Mall could be relandscaped to include other native shrubs and plants that produce food. Of course, enough space would have to be preserved for big gatherings.

In conclusion, I was fascinated by the fact that many lawn chemical companies actively try to discredit the consumption of dandelions. instead of incorporating these plants into your diet, many companies advocate spraying with pesticides to deal with the “problem”. For this reason, I’ve looked up a number of recipes for dandelions, including for wine, salad, syrup, and dressing. They are available here.

Gimme Green

more about “TERRA 440: Gimme Green PART ONE Video“, posted with vodpod

 

 

(above) Part One of a really good documentary on American Lawns. One thing that comes up in this segment is the Yard Of The Month Award. Here is one such program that is run to inspire community residents to “take pride in the appearance and upkeep of their yards”. If you are looking to win this prestigious prize and receive your own “Yard of the Month” sign for your lawn, here are the criteria that you will be judged on:   Evaluation Checklist1. Lawn mowed neatly; low spots filled with topsoil; no brown spots in grass?

2. Lawn and flowerbeds are free of leaves and grass clippings; area walks swept?

3. Sidewalks and driveways edged? (includes around foundations, patios, trees …)

4. Very few weeds in lawn and cracks of sidewalks/driveway?

5. Mulching flowerbeds/bushes/trees?

6. Appearance and condition of flowers?

7. Bushes trimmed neatly (no higher than bottom of window sills except for corner or “Specimen” bushes & trees)?

8. Name properly displayed? (rank, last name, first initial)

9. Front yard clear of clutter, garbage cans, litter, etc. (most visible area from street)?

10. Overall appearance 

 

Personally, my biggest problem with all of this concern over lawns (after the waste of water and use of harmful chemicals) is the noise pollution from all the lawn mowers. I live in a suburban neighborhood and my neighbors all have fairly large lawns that are kept neat and tidy. In order to maintain these perfect green spaces though it seems there is always someone cutting or weedwacking their grass. Very rarely can you enjoy a summer afternoon, weekends are just hopeless, without the awful background noise of lawnmowers. The worst is when you are trying to have a picnic or a party and all you can hear is that mower. Can we have some mower etiquette please.

 

 

 

Lawn, How Do I Love Thee? Let Me Count The Ways…

You were a place for me to dig a hole to china. And you understood when it only reached 3 feet deep.

You were there for me to role play—Power Rangers would not be the same without you.

You allowed me to pick your yellow dandelions, and make them into crowns.

You were a place for my Dogs to run, Dogs who left presents. Dad called them fertilizer, all I knew was I had to watch my step.  

You held the two sugar maple trees in front of my house.

You were a place to rake leaves into piles to jump in.

You taught me that Dad preferred the gas lawn mower, although mom wished he would use an electric mower

You let me test my “weed-wacker” skills.

You help me learn how to have a garden, how to weed, and the magic of miracle grow.

Memories from Lawn-America

I grew up in Delaware in a suburban neighborhood.  My family home is situated on about 1/2 to 3/4 of an acre of lawn, and even though my mother is an avid gardener – not even she could manage more garden then grass.  Trust me, she tried.  So, in the end, we had about half an acre of grass – kentucky bluegrass.  We watered, fertilized, sprayed, mowed, areated, etc.  We kept care of the lawn, and in return we had a large space to play in.  My three older brothers and I would constantly be outside in our yard playing some sport or game.  (Most of the time they involved escaped aliens or robots that we were hunting down and shooting – also with imaginary guns and ammunition.  This in not way prevented the lobbing of hand grenades and the explosions of radioactive material – occurances that caused such widespread destruction it was necessary to refuel on juice in the kitchen.)

However, even with the largest lawn nearby, we were not the craziest family about keeping it nice.  Our neighbor – we’ll call him Mr. Jones – was crazy about his lawn or his lawn-care equipment.  Mr. Jones would be up at 9:00 on a weekend to being working on his lawn.  He would start with cleaning all of his machines – including the riding mower and the push mower. Then, byt atleast 10:00 we would hear the lawn mower.  Mr. Jones would be out, working on his lawn, for atleast six hours on the weekends.  And, after everything was perfect, he would go inside and no-one in his family was allowed out on the grass.  This, unfortunately, was really only seen as strange to my family and myself.  (Unfortunately, we had a lot of fun at Mr. Jones’s expense.  For instance, we would bet to see if Mr. Jones would get out and mow his lawn on the first sunny day after rains during the spring at 5:00 or 6:00pm on a weekday.  Gotta get out there and stop that grass from growing!)  However, what always puzzled us was that Mr. Jones would never water his grass – when it got hot and dry the lawn would turn brown with no aide from Mr. Jones. 

What is unsettling is that there are Mr. Jones’s in every neighborhood.  Men and women who compare thier status in a neighborhood to others’ by the color of thier lawn.  These people look at brown spots and dry patches as diseases moving from one lawn to another, contaminating the homeowners as they go.  Is this really natural?

Ethiopia drifting away from African continent?

Article.

In 2005 a 35-mile long rift opened up in the Ethiopian desert. At the time, most people thought this process had taken a long time and was due to local seismic activity. Professor Ayele of the Addis Ababa University proved that the rift had opened up in a matter of days. This led many researchers to speculate whether what had happened in Ethiopia was analogous to how rifts form in the deeps of the ocean. The location of the rift allows many possibilities in research, as ocean floor rifts are inaccessible due to physical limitations.