The Dirt Blog

Exploring the New Trails at Horton Grove

December 4, 2014

This fall, Triangle Land Conservancy staff stepped out of the office for a few hours on an afternoon adventure in preparation for an upcoming special event at Horton Grove. Our first stop, however, was Pompieri Pizza in downtown Durham, a restaurant making just about everything from scratch and mostly from locally-sourced ingredients. Owner Seth Gross, […]

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In the Kitchen with TLC: Persimmon Pudding

December 1, 2014

By Gphoto [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons The fairly common native American persimmon tree (Diospyros virginiana) grows from Connecticut south to Florida and west to Kansas. Scattered throughout woodlands as well as home gardens, these attractive trees provide a brilliant fall display of leaves and orange, hanging fruits. The fruits, which persist after the […]

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Buying Local this Holiday Season

November 28, 2014

As we enter the holiday season, shoppers everywhere should consider buying local, not only for holiday presents but also for produce, meats, and dairy for holiday meals and celebrations. However, it is often difficult to know where to start when shopping for local, sustainable gifts. In this addition of TLC’s “The Dirt” blog, we will […]

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TLC’s New Strategic Plan

November 25, 2014

Several weeks ago, I took my daughter Harper to our Horton Grove Nature Preserve in northern Durham County to hike some of the new trails our Conservation Corps just completed. It was a gorgeous, sunny fall day and the beeches beamed bright yellow. We stopped at the new wildlife viewing platform by the “prairie” and […]

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Building Trails at the New Horton Grove Nature Preserve

November 21, 2014

Photo by Chelsea Clifford It was a perfect afternoon as the three Duke Conservation Society volunteers and I stepped out of the car. It was just after 12 p.m. on a Wednesday, with the temperature hovering around 70 degrees. No clouds blocked the sky, and the sunlight streamed through the leaves that were just beginning […]

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Land Protection Wins in Last Week’s Election

November 11, 2014

Although people are generally dismayed with politicians and Congress, there is real, broad support for open space protection around the country. In total, voters approved over $29 billion in funding for land and water protection across a range of states and local governments last week. Some of the examples include: ●  Rhode Island – voters […]

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Tales from the Field: A Walk Among Giants

November 9, 2014

by Kyle Obermiller Earlier this week, I spent an entire workday by myself at White Pines Nature Preserve  in Chatham County, and by the end of the day, my handheld GPS unit had logged 7.5 total miles of walking. This trip continued my mega-monitoring-Monday extravaganza, designed to complete routine maintenance of the hiking trails on […]

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In the Kitchen with TLC: Do Chua and Spring Rolls

October 27, 2014

I immediately fell in love with the Durham Farmers' Market when I spotted one of my favorite, often overlooked vegetables, the pale, knobby daikon. This Asian radish, also known as Japanese horseradish, has a milder flavor than the more common red radishes while retaining a nice, crisp crunch perfect for many different applications. (This Wikipedia […]

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Fire in the Field

October 24, 2014

by Kyle Obermiller A few weeks ago, I attended the North Carolina Certified Burners course offered by the North Carolina Forest Service, at Montgomery Community College in Troy, NC. State employees, federal employees, private landowners, private business owners and workers, and one lone non-profit employee (that would be me!) all attended the class. The purpose […]

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