Category Archives: nature

10 things to love about dirt

Posted on April 5, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

It cleanses toxic chemicals from the air. It will decompose me, you, and everybody else. It turns cowpies to cowpeas and “crap to carrots” (thanks to Upamanyu Chatterjee for this fine phrase). It inactivates pathogens. It purifies water. It feeds … Continue reading →

Posted in nature | Tagged composting, earth, soil | 4 Comments

Birds were here first

Posted on April 2, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

Having had my heart stolen by a cockatoo (yesterday’s story), I was delighted to discover the YouTube star Snowball, who made his debut a couple of years ago dancing to the Backstreet Boys: Snowball made a splash because we don’t … Continue reading →

Posted in nature | Tagged animal behavior, birds, cockatoos, Frans de Waal | 2 Comments

Pearly finds a home

Posted on April 1, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

My friend Meredith and I were near the end of our Saturday birdwalk at the Coyote Hills Regional Park wetlands along the San Francisco Bay shoreline. The November morning was crisp, and we’d enjoyed the usual show of white-crowned sparrows, … Continue reading →

Posted in nature | Tagged bird rescue, birding, birds, birdwatching, cockatoos | 4 Comments

8 reasons to go native in your yard

Posted on March 30, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

A couple of years ago, my first spring in Boulder, I found myself doing something I abhor—mowing the lawn. It wasn’t the workout I minded, though I could have done a lot more fun things to get some exercise. And … Continue reading →

Posted in nature | Tagged biodiversity, climate change, gardening with native plants, global warming, lawn care, lawn mower emissions, native plants, wildflowers | 4 Comments

Good news for creeks

Posted on March 25, 2009 by Priscilla Stuckey, PhD

This week the Environmental Protection Agency took a step to slow mountaintop removal coal mining by writing letters to the Army Corp of Engineers expressing serious concerns about two mining operations in the Appalachians. In mountaintop removal, mountains are blasted … Continue reading →

Posted in nature, politics | Tagged creeks, EPA, mountaintop removal, natural resources, streams, sustainability, water policy, Wendell Berry | Comments Off