Wildlands, Woodlands, Farmlands & Communities

Happy Thanksgiving!

How are we doing? Please take From the Ground Up's reader survey: https://buff.ly/40VfwmQ #conservation #newengland #northeast #landconservation #wwfc #fromthegroundupne

Monhegan’s history offers lessons for us all. The Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island: The Monhegan Wildlands exhibition at the Bowdoin College Museum of Art in Brunswick, Maine, brings together artwork, objects of ecological inquiry, and historical documents and photographs to chart forest conversion and recovery on the island. Selected works from Sears Gallagher, Samuel Peter Rolt Triscott, Mary King Longfellow, Rockwell Kent, and many others will be on display from December 12, 2024 to June 1, 2025. The exhibition is co-curated by Barry Logan, Samuel S. Butcher Professor in the Natural Sciences and Chair of Biology Department, Bowdoin College; Jennifer Pye, Director of the Monhegan Museum of Art & History; and Frank Goodyear, Co-Director of the Bowdoin College Museum of Art. It is accompanied by a fully illustrated catalog published by Rizzoli International Publications Electa. See the full slate of participating artists and more exhibit details: https://buff.ly/3ZfFQHf #conservation #newengland #northeast #landconservation #wwfc #painting #monhegan #monheganisland #maineart

Each issue, we ask From the Ground Up's editors and community to contribute book titles that they see as essential reading for our times. Just in time for the weekend, we present their thought-provoking reading recommendations: >> Art, Ecology, and the Resilience of a Maine Island: The Monhegan Wildlands by Barry A. Logan, Jennifer Pye, and Frank H. Goodyear (2024) >> Dawnland Voices: An Anthology of Indigenous Writing from New England by Siobhan Senier, ed. (2014) >> Food Margins: Lessons from an Unlikely Grocer by Cathy Stanton (2024) >> The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth by Zo? Schlanger (2024) >> Planning Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems: From Soil to Soil by Julia Freedgood (2024) See cover art and summaries for all of these titles, as well as previous issue recommendations: https://buff.ly/3vjt8Lt #conservation #newengland #northeast #landconservation #wwfc #bookrec #booktok #environment

“Since 1970, 3 billion birds have disappeared from North American skies. Some corners of the avian world are faring worse than others. Grasslands have lost more birds—700 million, more than half their total population—than any other biome has,” writes Michael Parks in Sierra Club magazine. “For migrating prairie birds, flyover country is an increasingly hostile place.” The central grasslands of the United States are now about 40 percent of their size before European settlement. Cities, woodlands and agricultural plowing and pesticides contribute to the habitat loss, which makes it difficult for grassland birds like Sprague’s pipit–a species known for its melodious call and aerial acrobatics– to survive. But there is hope. Native nations, government agencies, ranchers, nonprofits, and energy and agricultural companies are banding together to conserve grasslands and the species that rely on them. Read the article: https://buff.ly/3ARivlF #conservation #landconservation #wwfc #environment #biodiversity #grassland #grasslandbirds #birds #northamerica #migration

From the Ground Up's interview with Grace Haynes, Extension Aide for the New York State Hemlock Initiative at Cornell University College of Agriculture and Life Sciences is brought to life in a quick new video. In it, she explains how the hemlock woolly adelgid, an invasive species, has decimated eastern hemlock forests, and what partners including The Nature Conservancy, New York State Hemlock Initiative, and the Hemlock Restoration Initiative are doing to give these important trees a chance to rebound. Watch it here: https://buff.ly/3AZ9lDH #conservation #newengland #northeast #landconservation #wwfc #environment #hemlock #invasive #invasivespecies #hemlockwoollyadelgid #hwa

Earlier this year, Vermont’s Fish and Wildlife Department, Vermont Land Trust, and the Vermont Housing & Conservation Board partnered to conserve a 110-acre parcel in Cornwall that became part of the Lemon Fair Wildlife Management Area. Though the property is open to the public for recreation, it was protected with grassland birds like Bobolinks and Eastern Meadowlarks–whose populations are in steep decline–in mind. Habitat protection and nuanced management are necessary for these birds to survive. Read the full, feel-good news of this land protection project in VTDigger: https://buff.ly/3ywZnba and access more curated content in the Read, Watch, Listen section of From the Ground Up here: https://buff.ly/4gNQwU2. #conservation #newengland #northeast #landconservation #wwfc #environment #biodiversity #bobolink #easternmeadowlark #agriculture #farming #grassland #grasslandbirds

In the Hot Farm podcast series, The Food & Environment Reporting Network travels across the Midwest, talking to farmers about what they are doing, or could be doing, to combat climate change. Does local eating and a more plant-based diet really help move the needle? How can we improve crops to withstand changing conditions? What role can agroforestry play? Check out this thought-provoking free podcast: https://buff.ly/3dHngTi And, find additional curated content in the Read, Watch, Listen section of From the Ground Up here: https://buff.ly/4gNQwU2 #conservation #newengland #northeast #landconservation #wwfc #solutions #food #community #agriculture #farming

"Northeast Wilderness Trust (NEWT) helps nature rewild by protecting wilderness areas. It is the only regional conservation organization in the Northeast that puts wildness first and focuses exclusively on forever-wild conservation. There are hundreds of land trusts doing great work across the region, but only NEWT can say that every place protected is a rewilding into a future old-growth forest." This excerpt from NEWT's 2025-2030 Strategic Plan describes the organization's important role preserving the wild in New England, and promoting it as space where all species are recognized as having inherent rights. Read how they plan to enact four strategic pillars--Protect, Learn, Champion, and Sustain--over the next five years to dramatically increase the pace and scale of wilderness protection across the Northeast: https://buff.ly/4eAbnbq #conservation #newengland #northeast #landconservation #wwfc #rewilding #wilderness