May 31 is Walt Whitman’s Birthday. You may remember him, as I do, from high school and college courses; his writings and poems dissected to discover meaning, metaphors, diction, syntax, form, rhyme scheme, and other literary techniques. But have you recalled his works when you’re alone in nature? Maybe, say, 25 years after college?

“The asphalt wraps itself round the mountain,
a black river ascending into the mist.
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Wet, moss-covered stone, flushed orange and yellow oaks,
shivering, stoic firs, and smoldering red maples cling
to the bosom of the Blue ridge as fall fades to winter.”

It’s time to recall voices from the past. Walt Whitman shares the Romantic poet's relationship with nature. To him, as to Emerson, nature is divine and an emblem of God. The universe is not dead matter, but full of life and meaning. He loves the earth, the flora and fauna of the earth, the moon and stars, the sea, and all other elements of nature. He believes that man is nature's child and that man and nature must never be separated.

“As a light rain glazes the skin of my outstretched arm
I can feel the chill of the Appalachian air electrifying
the hair on my neck, chilling my bones.

Soaring into another cloud, my beloved asleep on my shoulder,
I breathe in the cold air deeper, and then deeper still.

Ascending higher and delving deeper into the mountains I’m reminded
what it is that propels me ever onward, ever upward –
the Appalachian air instills something in me…something light.”

This summer, walk with confidence and knowledge in the natural world. Have you ever picked up a stunning rock and wonder what made it sparkle? Ever hear a beautiful bird call and wonder what little creature had just serenaded you? Take time to ask many questions and to discover the answers. Along the way, seek guidance from poets and storytellers. Recognize the vital connection between stories and places. Words and nature.  Learn the names and uses of local trees, plants, and animals. Learn skills of observation so you can continue to cultivate your wilderness knowledge. Take time to just be. 

Get out your gardening gloves, May 29 is National Learn About Composting Day! We all want to do our part to conserve natural resources and reduce our carbon footprint. Composting is not only an environmentally safe fertilizer but it can help you save water, energy, fuel and money! It also keeps noxious toxins from getting in our run-off and ground water through the use of chemical based commercial fertilizers. The use of a natural fertilizer made from compost will make your garden hospitable to wild life helpers like honey bees, hummingbirds and of course, worms!

So, what is compost? Compost is organic matter that has decomposed. In a garden, decomposition is a good thing! Compost can be made from kitchen scraps, lawn clippings, newspapers, leaves wood chips, coffee grinds…almost any food products. Composting saves resources, and because of its high nutrient content, it adds to soil stability and reduces soil disease. It will help your garden grow lush and promote healthy growth in seedlings and plants. It’s for all these reasons gardeners call compost “black gold”. Composting allows you to accomplish the big environmental three: Reduce, Reuse and Recycle.

This year the focus of compost day is awareness. Knowing what it is, why and how to do it. However, I have found there are reasons NOT too compost. I’ve asked lots of friends and relatives why not: their collective rationale being it’s gross, it’s annoying, it’s inconvenient, I don’t even see what difference it will make. The difference, annoyingly enough, is that the impact of diverting the entirety of food waste in the United States from landfills is equivalent to removing 7.8 million passenger cars from the nation’s streets, according to the U.S. Composting Council. The only benefit of not composting, particularly in a city with infrastructure in place, is that it is less bothersome to you.

Wow! Now you feel kind of bad. A little selfish. It’s OK! The entirety of human action toward environmental sustainability, justice, or anything else can be boiled down to quietly eroding your own selfishness.

I have been included in this group. Sometimes you’re going through it and don’t want to deal with the little chore. And fruit flies. And kids spilling it all over before it even gets to the compost tumbler. I’m in a rush and I don’t want to want mess around with it, etc.  But, I have always had a lot of motivation begin with financial savings. Have you ever paid for soil to build a good sized raised bed? Have you ever been frustrated that your plants look terrible despite the fertilizer you paid for and applied diligently? Have you ever had kids dig in your bought soil and throw it all over the yard? Have you ever paid way too much for cucumbers or tomatoes or peppers because yours aren’t thriving? Those are my motivations.

It’s free
To start your own compost pile will cost you nothing but a little effort, space, and time. Sure, you may want to invest in a tumbler (I did and it’s great!) or build a compost bin or system. Figure out the method you’d like to use to compost, and take items you may have thrown out or recycled and use them to create your compost pile! Once you’ve got the right mix of items, you only need to keep it slightly damp and turn it every once in a while and the process of decomposition will do all the work for you! Be patient and in few short weeks you can have your own black gold made from your household garbage. This is definitely a case of turning trash into treasure.

My other motivation is to show my kids the value of reusing our waste. I struggle with wanting the best for my babies and boiling with rage when they complain about wanting more stuff or saying “ew” to small steps we take to reduce our footprint. I want them to understand that we are part of a much bigger system that depends on us to do our part.

It’s environmentally friendly
By utilizing your household organic and paper trash, you reduce the amount of garbage going to our landfill. When organic waste is put in the trashcan, the trash is driven to a disposal site where it can take years to decompose because it’s been encased in a plastic bag. Using compost in your garden or on a farm also reduces the amount of dangerous commercial fertilizers used to encourage growth in crops, and conserves water by improving the stability of the soil in which you’ve planted your fruits, vegetables, flowers, and shrubbery.

Don’t get weighted down by the “rules.” Be open to learning about the process. Be open to learning what works for you. Don’t make it a chore; have fun learning about composting and your contribution to the planet!
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It’s fun
There is a feeling of total satisfaction when you take something that could have been put in the garbage and transform it into a usable substance. It’s almost like magic! Also the use of compost will increase the worm population and if you have children, you know worms are, in fact, fun to watch and have wiggle in your palm! You know the worms are doing the work of aerating the soil and increasing nutrients in the dirt, but your kids just think worms are cool.

It's Endangered Species Day. You may be jump to the conclusion that saving a species is a big job that demands a complex myriad of policies, partners, and funding. Sometimes it does. But there are little things you can do everyday.

Species loss threatens to reduce biodiversity, the presence of a variety of species in a given area, which is key to sustaining both local ecosystems and the global ecosystem more broadly. Biodiversity helps ensure that certain specific and necessary functions are carried out within an ecosystem — think about how pollination allows plants to flower and predators eliminate pests.

​Biodiversity ensures that if one species goes extinct or leaves a particular region, another is there to take its place. Ultimately, the collapse of ecosystems can lead to even bigger problems like the worsening of climate change, because of the increased release of carbon dioxide.

Many species also play key cultural and economic roles that if lost would threaten local communities. Endangered bees play a key role in pollination for agriculture. Coral reefs play a key role maintaining coastal fisheries. African elephants attract tourists to sub-saharan Africa.

1. Help Native Pollinators. Pollinators, are the key to reproduction for most flowering plants which are foundation to the survival of many species on our planet. This is why the criteria of Biodiversity Hotspots gives so much weight to the number of plants in an area. Give pollinators an extra boost in your backyard by: reducing or eliminating the use of pesticides, providing nectar sources by planting a variety of wildflowers and native plants that will bloom throughout the season, leaving logs and rocks in your yard or build bee boxes for native bees to make their home, encouraging your City to stop weed-whacking median strips and sidewalk edges and let native wildflowers grow to create pollinator corridors. Visit the Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation to learn more.

2. Reduce or eliminate pesticides and fertilizer. Consider getting rid of your lawn, especially if you live in an arid region. Instead, plant native plants that are well adapted to your area. This will reduce the need to use pesticides and fertilizers. Don’t buy plants from nurseries that use systemic pesticides such as neonictinoids. When applied, they persist in all parts of the plant from the seed to the stem to the blossom and reek havoc on already stressed pollinators. Use organic compost and soil additives instead. Soil health is the best prevention for pest infestations, but if you do get visited by unwanted guests, learn how to care for your plants with organic pest control.

3. Restore habitat in your yard. If you have a yard, consider turning it into a mini-wildlife sanctuary. National Wildlife Federation has a program to help you attract wildlife whether you have a balcony or a 20-acre farm. In a world where habitat loss is the number one cause of biodiversity loss, providing wildlife with water, food, cover, and a place to raise their young can go a long way.

4. Restore habitat in your community. If you don’t have a yard, consider volunteering on an ecological restoration project in your area (ASPI has 200 acres, just saying). You’ll spend time outdoors and learn about the native plants and animals.

5. Reduce your consumption. This is arguably the action that will have the biggest positive impact on the environment. The more we reduce our demand for new resources, the less habitat will be destroyed to get those resources or the energy to make those products, and the less waste goes into the landfill. Become a minimalist. Most “minimalists” choose to live a simple life to free up their time to do the things they love rather than spending time shopping and repairing stuff. The idea is “Own Less, Live More.” But it’s undeniable that the minimalist lifestyle also greatly benefits the environment.

6. Reuse and recycle. Composting is key here. It reduces the amount of waste going into landfills and the space needed to hold that waste. Look into ways you can use those purchases intended for single-use. Keep up with what is recyclable in your area. As new markets for recycled products open up, even small towns like mine can increase the numbers of items that they are able to collect.

7. Reduce your energy demand. Burning fossil fuels is the number one driver of climate change which is exponentially quickening biodiversity loss by presenting unparalleled challenges to the world’s plants and animals. Start by conserving energy in your home. A Home Energy Audit can help raise your awareness about where you can reduce energy use in your home. Then incorporate renewable energy. Solar!

8. Buy local foods. Buying from your local farmer at a farmer’s market or through a farm stand gives you the ability to find out how your food was grown and make requests for different practices such as no pesticides, or a greater diversity of produce. It’s easier to ask someone you have a relationship with to change their practices than a big corporation.

9. Buy organic foods. While organic certification doesn’t guarantee that your food is 100% free of pesticides, organic growers are held to criteria of minimal pesticide use.

10. Donate to conservation efforts. Species extinction is happening at an unprecedented rate and there never seems to be enough money to save everything. Prioritize your charitable giving to support conservation efforts in the world’s biodiversity hotspots.
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11. Advocate for Biodiversity.

• Educate yourself about the importance of biodiversity and be able to answer the questions, “Why does it matter so much?” and “Why should we make sacrifices to protect it?”
• Genetically modified crops pose multiple serious threats to biodiversity. Support the International Union of Concerned Scientists recommendations on GM crops.
• Make connections. Get to know wildlife and conservation biologists as well as political activists and community leaders in your area. Use social media to connect with experts and campaigns.
• Lobby your government. Sign or create petitions. Support politicians who support measures to protect biodiversity.
• Share your message. Talk to your friends in person. Use social media. Start a blog. Speak at local events.

Historic preservation is a conversation with our past about our future. It provides us with opportunities to ask, "What is important in our history?" and "What parts of our past can we preserve for the future?" Through historic preservation, we look at history in different ways, ask different questions of the past, and learn new things about our history and ourselves. Historic preservation is an important way for us to transmit our understanding of the past to future generations. Our nation's history has many facets, and historic preservation helps tell these stories.

It helps the environment. Historic preservation can prevent sprawl.  Since historic buildings already exist, and since most are in built-up areas, each one that is rehabilitated and used eliminates the need for a new building in an area that is not yet built up. Here are some good reasons to preserve and protect:

• It preserves the historic, architectural, and aesthetic character and heritage of a community or area, and helps to provide a sense of place and continuity. As suburban sprawl and roadside development make more and more places look the same, it becomes important for communities to keep their identities intact. Even one or two striking historic buildings can help to define a community and hint at its past. If whole neighborhoods or rural areas can be preserved, the effect is that much greater. The sense of history can contribute to community pride, and to a better understanding of the community’s present.

• It is an efficient use of resources. Historic preservation conserves resources, reduces waste, and saves money by repairing and reusing existing buildings instead of tearing them down and building new ones.
• It preserves old methods of workmanship. Because many modern buildings are built on the assumption that they will only be needed for a relatively short time before they are replaced, workmanship and building methods of all but the most significant buildings are not as careful or durable as methods used in the past, when buildings were expected to last indefinitely. By working on historic buildings, new generations of craftsmen learn the techniques to improve modern buildings as well.
• It can change the nature of a neighborhood or area. An area restored to its original appearance could serve as a magnet for tourists, and provide jobs for local residents. Local residents could also be employed in rehabilitation or restoration as artisans or workers, if they have the skills, or as trainees. In the latter case, by the end of the project, many may have developed enough competency as carpenters, masons, or the like to start new careers.

• It can provide an opportunity for the imaginative or creative use of a building that has stood empty because it outlived its previous use, and at the same time solve a community problem. An empty historic industrial building turned into an affordable or mixed-income residential development both rescues the building and provides much-needed housing for the area.  An old hotel rehabilitated as a public school might address both overcrowded classrooms and the question of what to do with a large, unused building.
• It can be a good investment. Historic buildings can be relatively cheap for businesses to rehabilitate because of the possibility of tax incentives, grants, and other support for that activity.  In addition, they may attract business in and of themselves, simply because people are often fascinated by them.  Just as many tourists like to stay in old houses that have been restored as bed-and-breakfasts, others might be excited to stay in a hotel that was once an old mill (or in a restored once-famous hotel, for that matter), or to eat in a restaurant that was a railroad station or a church 100 years ago.  An interesting office or commercial building, by the same token, especially one that clearly started out as something else (a railroad roundhouse or a high school), might attract clients to an architect or designer, or customers to a complex of stores and restaurants.

What is there that’s more interesting than space? Never ending, always expanding, full of stars and suns and planets and untold mysteries – as long as we live, we won’t know all the secrets that this great vacuum holds. But that doesn’t stop us trying to learn absolutely everything we can about it!
 
On the first Friday of each May, space and science fans alike celebrate space with a dedicated day of observance to everything in the great beyond. Because there’s so much out there in space, you can be sure that there’s always going to be enough to celebrate on this day as every year comes!

This day is dedicated to the extraordinary achievements, benefits and opportunities in the exploration and use of space.  The goal of National Space Day is to promote math, science, technology and engineering education in young people to inspire them to pursue a career in science, especially a career in space-related jobs.

But it's also Fellowship Day. A day to celebrate your friends. Why not celebrate with a story about friendship and space?

Constellation: Cycnus, The Swan

Cycnus was a devoted friend of Phaethon, the mortal son of Helios, the charioteer of the Sun.  Phaethon was a bold and head strong teenager, and like most teenagers, he thought he knew more than his “Old-Man.”  One night his bold nature got the better of him, and despite the advice of his friend Cycnus, and the warnings of his father, Phaethon took out the family car for a bit of a joy ride.  The trouble was, the family car was the Sun Chariot and its horsepower was provided by real horses, Phaethon realized very quickly that his joy ride was a mistake, but it was too late.  The horses that pulled the Sun Chariot were strong and wild, and only the strength of Helios could control them. 

Phaethon’s wild ride took him dangerously close to the vault of the heavens and threatened to singe the earth and destroy the inhabitants of both.  Cycnus pleaded with Jupiter to stop this destruction, and with all of creation endangered, Jupiter sent a thunderbolt toward the rampaging chariot and its occupant.  With a terrible explosion Phaethon was thrown from the chariot and the fiery steeds were stopped long enough for Helios to gain control and guide them back to their stables.  Phaethon, being mortal could not survive the force of a thunderbolt and fell to earth like a shooting star, his charred and lifeless remains landed in the river Eridanus.

Cycnus could not leave his friend to the creatures of the river to feed on, and wanted to give Phaethon a proper burial.  Cycnus dove repeatedly into the river to gather the charred remains of his friend.  Jupiter, watching this selfless display of devotion was moved, and when Cycnus had completed his task of love and honor.  Jupiter decided to give Cycnus a gift of immortality and changed his name to Cygnus and him into a glorious swan.  This swan would be placed forever in the heavens amidst the scorched path of Phaethon’s disastrous ride, the Milky Way.

There are other stories that may be related to this constellation, early Christians saw it as the Cross of Calvary and it is also known as the Northern Cross.  

More stargazing tips:

Before dawn this weekend – May 5 and 6, 2018 – the Eta Aquariid meteor shower reaches its annual peak. Here’s the bad news. A bright moon will interfere with meteor-watching. Here’s the good news. There are some tricks to watching in moonlight. 

If you’re watching in the prime hours before dawn – when the Eta Aquariid radiant point is highest in your sky, and the most meteors will be flying – try sitting in a moonshadow. That could be the shadow of a barn or large solitary tree or even a mountain, anyplace you can create some extra darkness for yourself while gazing up at an open sky.

Get out there and enjoy your friends and space!!

It’s National Wildflower week. Time to test your knowledge of native plants!  Native plants are threatened at an alarming rate due to human activity, such as urban development, agribusiness and chemical application. Over the past decades, loss of native plant communities in Central Texas has led to wildlife habitat loss, erosion, reduced genetic diversity necessary for a balanced ecosystem and a disconnection of people to the land.

These problems are compounded when native plants are replaced with non-native species in landscape plantings. The continual use of a limited palette of non-native plants readily available across the U.S. had produced a homogenized landscape susceptible to pests and diseases. Non-native species often require large amounts of water, fertilizer and herbicides for their maintenance, and those that escape cultivation and become aggressive often out-compete native plants for resources.

While preserving natural stands of native plants is important, you can help reestablish native plant communities in your yard and community by choosing to landscape with native plants as well. Regardless of the scale of the project, you can help conserve water and other natural resources while restoring and celebrating your region’s character.

But what is a plant without a pollinator? 

According to the Pollinator Partnership, between 75% and 95% of all flowering plants on the earth need pollinators. Pollinators provide pollination services to over 180,000 different plant species and more than 1200 crops. That means that 1 out of every three bites of food you eat is there because of pollinators.

During National Wildflower Week, reflect on the plants in your region and the amazing, nearly invisible, ecosystem service that is a precious resource. The ecosystem requires attention and support. As you plant this spring, help pollinators and native plants survive. We depend on them!