Environmental News, Notes, and Events
By Meg Muckenhoupt
Reducing emissions can begin in your own backyard—but how? Well, if you’re tired of mowing your lawn, you have a good excuse to stop. Although grasses, like all plants, remove carbon from the air when they grow their leaves and roots, the greenhouse gas emissions from fertilizer and pesticide production, mowing, and leaf blowing make grass a poor proposition for our climate. You still have to do something with that land, but there are many other good choices that will look good and keep more carbon in the ground and out of our air.
As long as you’re rethinking your lawn, you can make your yard function better as an environment—not just as outdoor, wall–to–wall shag carpet. Start with your soil. Healthy soil will make all your plants more resilient to drought, heat, and heavy rain as our climate changes. A few plants that support local pollinators will make your yard more amenable to butterflies (not just to honeybees, which were brought over from Europe, and tend to get enough to eat anyway), and the butterflies help your new flowers set seed for future years.
Climate Resilience in Your Own Backyard
Wednesday, July 24, 7:30 PM
Wright–Locke Farm, 78 Ridge Street, Winchester
Soil is alive with more microbes in a teaspoon of healthy soil than there are people on this planet. This talk is a call for gardeners to learn to become stewards of the immense thriving world beneath our feet. These skills bring benefits not only for our gardens and the food we grow, but also for our local ecosystems, watersheds, communities, and the planet. Allison Houghton is a soil, plant, and natural world enthusiast. She recently wrote The Carbon Sequestering Garden: Gardening for the Planet While Growing Some of the Best Food Possible. She currently works at the Northeast Organic Farming Association with their soil technical assistance program. Free. For information on dinner before the program, contact www.wlfarm.org, info@wlfarm.org.
For Us and Them: Pollinators and Edibles
Wednesday, August 21, 9:30 AM–12:30 PM
Garden in the Woods, Framingham
While aesthetics have long ruled supreme in gardening, people increasingly select plants with ecosystem–based values in mind. The popularity of edible and pollinator gardens has skyrocketed, but the details are critical for success. Which plants attract which pollinators? Which edibles are resistant to diseases and pests? Join Dan Jaffe, photographer and author of Native Plants for New England Gardens, to learn how low-maintenance native plants can feed us and the pollinators together. $40 Native Plant Trust members, $48 nonmembers. To register, go to nativeplanttrust.org or contact information@nativeplanttrust.org, 508-877-7630.
Sometimes the challenges facing our yards, towns, nation, and planet can feel overwhelming. From flooding and pollution to invasive plants impoverishing our landscape, these problems often seem far too big for any one person to affect. At these times, take a moment to reflect and recharge. Remember that you are part of a distinguished tradition of effective activism. Our Bostonian predecessors started the first state Audubon Society, spurred the Land Trust movement, preserved Belmont’s Waverley Oaks, and much more. Or if you’d prefer to focus on the future of environmentalism, head down to the free Boston GreenFest on the Rose Kennedy Greenway.
Boston GreenFest & TechExpo
Friday–Sunday, August 16–18, Noon–6 PM
Rose Kennedy Greenway, Boston
Check out global eco-vendors, learn to plant a vertical garden, experience ecofashion, or test drive an electric vehicle. Free. rosekennedygreenway.org/events/
Afterwards, hop on over to the Charles River Esplanade to eat ice cream and mess around in boats. You’ll see dozens of families enjoying clean water in the river thanks to the efforts of thousands of conservation-minded people like you.
Water Chestnut Removal Community Days
Saturday, August 10, 10 AM–1 PM
Location given on registration
Help remove invasive plants from the Mystic River. Volunteers will head out in canoes to hand-pull water chestnut from the river or stay on land to help put the chestnuts in the dumpster to be composted. All supplies are provided. Bring sunblock and shoes you don’t mind getting wet. Free. Register at mysticriver.org or call 781-316-3438.
Invasive Plant Removal
Saturday, August 24, 8:30–10 AM
Mass Audubon’s Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, 10 Juniper Road, Belmont
Come help Habitat remove invasive plants, including buckthorn and bittersweet, that make it difficult for native plants to thrive. Children under 9th grade must be accompanied by an adult. Tools and gloves provided. Registration required. Community service hours provided. Register at massaudubon.org or call 617-489-5050.
“Plogging” Cleanup along the Charles
Saturday, August 24, 10 AM–Noon
Cafe on the Common, 677 Main Street, Waltham
Join the Waltham Land Trust for a trash pickup along the Charles River, in coordination with the Waltham Trail Runners, where we will take a crack at “plogging,” the Swedish fitness craze combining jogging and picking up litter. You can go at your own pace and cover up to 2 miles. Gloves and bags provided. Please dress to be outside and bring water if you need it. The event will last 1-2 hours depending on how much trash we encounter. Register at walthamlandtrust.org or call 781-893-3355.
After you’ve cleaned up the river, take some time to witness the local lives that depend on clean water and cool breezes: wood frogs lurking in vernal pools and the moths, insects, and arthropods that make up their food chain. Midsummer in Rock Meadow is always a cause for celebration, when New England’s dawdling, reticent flowers are finally persuaded that it’s warm enough to bloom.
Moth Night at Habitat
Tuesday, July 23, 8–10 PM
Mass Audubon’s Habitat Education Center and Wildlife Sanctuary, 10 Juniper Road, Belmont
Celebrate National Moth Week by working with Earthwise Aware’s project entomologist to gather data on insects and other arthropods (spiders, mites, etc.). The data will provide information about the diversity of urban wildlife, including our important pollinators, and will be entered into global data-bases. Register at earthwiseaware.org or contact citizenscience@earthwiseaware.org.
Fell’s Biobliss: Phenology & Botany at Long Pond
Sunday, July 28, 9:30–11:30 AM
Long Pond Parking Lot, Winchester
This Earthwise Aware program collects data about the impact of climate change on the synchronicity of fauna and flora phenophases, i.e., observable stages in the annual life cycle of plants and animals. This is a great opportunity to learn how to be in tune with our urban woodlands biodiversity and cycles. Register at earthwiseaware.org or contact citizenscience@earthwiseaware.org.
Wildflowers of Rock Meadow
Tuesday, July 30, 10 AM–2 PM
Rock Meadow Conservation Area, Belmont
Discover plants that can be used to cure poison ivy, plants that attract monarch butterflies, and plants that, according to ancient lore, were used to calm unruly oxen. Bring a bag lunch and a hand lens if you have one. $38 Native Plant Trust members, $46 nonmembers. Register at nativeplanttrust.org or call 508-877-7630.
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