continued… by Erik Baard Yet despite this powerful, primordial drive, we turn away from life at our feet when with some labor, it could be replenished. Why? Majora Carter has made the Herculean task of turning a truck-choked section of NYC into a greener, healthier place for families her daily [...]
Archive for April, 2008
Biodecathection 2: Biophillic Misdirection, and the “Cure”
Posted in Birds, Bronx, Brooklyn, Fresh Water, Gardens, New York Harbor, Parks, Plants, Queens, Water, tagged american littoral society, biodecathection, biophilia, biophobia, cathect, cathecting, city of water, david orr, disgust, e.o. wilson, earth, edward o. wilson, environmental degradation, environmentalism, erik baard, gaia, green collar, green heron, greenway, james lovelock, kathexis, macarthur fellow, macarthur foundation, majora carter, municipal art society, new york restoration project, partnerships for parks, pollution, sustainable south bronx on April 30, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
Biodecathection (Part 1)
Posted in Brooklyn, Estuary, Fish, Gardens, New York Harbor, Queens, Uncategorized, tagged bernie ente, biodecathection, biophilia, ecosystems, edward o. wilson, erik baard, frances kuo, green heron, hixon center for urban ecology, nature deficit disorder, newtown creek, pollution, psychology, stephen kellert, yale school of forestry and environmental studies on April 28, 2008 | 2 Comments »
by Erik Baard I often visit the Newtown Creek by kayak. When sentiment overtakes me and I talk to it, it’s without much expectation, much as with a dying elder who seems insensate. Its breast rises and falls with the mechanically reliable tides, but that life support won’t return vibrancy to the body at its [...]
Nature Community: The “Miracle” of Street Trees
Posted in Birds, Bronx, Brooklyn, Fresh Water, Manhattan, Parks, Queens, Recreation, Spring, Staten Island, Summer, Trees, Uncategorized, Water, Weather, Winter, tagged Asian Long Horn Beetle, blue jays, Callery Pear, cardinals, citizen pruner, drought, Ginkgo, Green Ash, Honey Locust, linden, Littleleaf Linden, London Plane, natalie schrape, Norway maple, nyc, pin oak, planyc, Red maple, Robert Moses, Silver Maples, sparrows, squirrels, starlings, street trees, Sycamore, tree census, turtle doves on April 25, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Editor’s Note: For Arbor Day, below is the story of New Yorker Natalie “Nasha” Schrape’s intertwined loves, romantic and arboreal, and her reflections on the centrality of trees in her life. Such personal accounts of active involvement in stewarding the fellow species of our city will be featured on the fully realized www.NatureCalendar.com website in our [...]
Manhattan’s Dusky Salamander, a Stealthy Survivor
Posted in Amphibians, Birds, Fresh Water, Geology, Insects, Invertebrates, Manhattan, Parks, Plants, Ponds, Spring, Staten Island, Streams, Summer, Trees, Uncategorized, Vertebrates, Water, Weather, tagged Amphibians, Bryant Park Project, carl gans, climate change, development, ecosystem, ellen pehek, extinction, fragmentation, habitat, Insects, Invertebrates, Laura Conaway, leaf litter, limestone, Manhattan, millipedes, northern duskie salamander, NPR, Parks, pillbugs, runoffs, salamanders, Sarah Goodyear, seepage, Staten Island, Staten Island Greenbelt, toxins, Vertebrates, Westchester County on April 24, 2008 | 3 Comments »
Editor’s note: We are thrilled that National Public Radio featured Nature Calendar’s quest for the Manhattan population of Northern Dusky salamanders (well camouflaged in leaf litter above) as part of its Earth Day coverage. Check out the online story produced by NPR’s hot new show The Bryant Park Project: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=89830807 __________________________________________________________________________________________ by Erik Baard Amphibians [...]
“Mackerel sky. Never long wet and never long dry.”
Posted in Atlantic Ocean, New York Harbor, Spring, Summer, Uncategorized, Water, Weather, tagged brian colle, cirrocumulus, clouds, earth day, earthfair, forecasting, goethe, institute for terrestrial and planetary atmospheres, lore, luke howard, mackerel, mackerel sky, meteorology, rain, sailing, sheep sky, sky, steve sanford, stony brook, suny, Weather on April 22, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
By Erik Baard Recently I ran up the darkened stairs of the E train World Trade Center subway station. When the bright sun hit my squinting eyes at street level I thought, “Uh oh. It might rain on the EarthFair.” The source of my concern was the southwestern sky, gently dappled with small [...]
CityBirder Gets Squirrely
Posted in Brooklyn, Mammals, Parks, Trees, tagged citybirder, Mammals, raptors, squirrels on April 21, 2008 | Leave a Comment »
A very bright spot in the human component of the Nature Community of NYC is the CityBirder blog. A recent entry about our “shadow tail” friends is particularly fun. Let’s hope there’s a very happy ending. Enjoy! http://citybirder.blogspot.com/2008/04/is-that-squirrel-in-your-pocket-or-are.html
Wild Eyed: The Falcon and the Smoker
Posted in Uncategorized on April 18, 2008 | 2 Comments »
Editor’s note: Wild Eyed will be the “celebrity” spotter section of the fully realized Nature Calendar site, and will be featured in our blog ahead of that. We invite readers to share their encounters with the species that reside in this city with us. Sometimes we’ll post something as simple as a quick tip: “Check out the giant squid attacking the Staten Island [...]
Make Way for Gribbles
Posted in Spring, Summer, Water, tagged bacteria, Estuary, Fungi, gribbles, harbor, symbiosis, wood on April 14, 2008 | 2 Comments »
By Erik Baard Today we celebrate the 14-legged messenger of estuarine recovery, the gribble. Gribbles might look like Pikachu (the preview box doesn’t work for this link, but clicking it will lead to an image) but countless of these speck-sized crustaceans (photo by Seattle Department of Transportation, click to enlarge)are devouring piers throughout New York Harbor, [...]
NYC Nature Walks: Clay Pit Ponds
Posted in Amphibians, Birds, butterflies, Edible Plants, Fall, Fish, Flowers, Fresh Water, Geology, Grasses, Insects, Invertebrates, Parks, Plants, Ponds, Reptiles, Spring, Staten Island, Summer, Trees, Vertebrates, Water, Winter on April 3, 2008 | 1 Comment »
Editor’s introductory note: When the full website for Nature Calendar launches this summer, we will feature a special section, and hopefully a podcast, called “Nature Walks With Sheila Buff,” to take readers by the hand through some of the best green escapes in our metropolitan region. During our blog startup phase we will feature periodic [...]
Seals Retake New York Harbor
Posted in Atlantic Ocean, Brooklyn, Crustaceans, Estuary, Fish, Long Island Sound, Mammals, Manhattan, New York Harbor, Parks, Recreation, Staten Island, Water, Winter, tagged atlantic, Brooklyn, Estuary, Fish, gateway national recreation area, kayak, Manhattan, mercury, new york city department of parks and recreation, New York Harbor, nyc, organic chlorines, seals, Staten Island on April 1, 2008 | 2 Comments »
by Erik Baard Three kayakers launched into the Hudson River estuary from the 56th Street annex of the Downtown Boathouse late Saturday afternoon for a leisurely outing. The paddle was fun but unremarkable. It was upon their return near sunset that things became quite unusual. As one of the paddlers, Tim Gamble, shared with others [...]
