The Dirt Blog

Exploring the Little River Park and Natural Area

February 24, 2014

The weather was perfect for a morning walk outside. After a week of snow and sleet, the temperature gods had smiled upon us North Carolinians and granted a gorgeous weekend of sun. It was the ideal time to explore someplace new, and I chose the Little River Park and Natural Area. The park is managed […]

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Big Business: New Driver in Efforts to Stop Deforestation?

February 20, 2014

Unilever, a multinational company that owns brands such as Ben & Jerry’s, Dove, and Hellman’s mayonnaise, has emerged as a global leader in arresting deforestation. As an industry giant, “Unilever alone purchases about 3 percent of the total global palm oil output,” writes Tiffany Stecker in an article posted by Scientific American. As such, their […]

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Counting Birds (and not just crows!)

February 17, 2014

I arrived in mid-morning to the Johnston Mill Nature Preserve, my designated Great Backyard Bird Count site. The air was chilly but the sun was shining with the promise of warmer temperatures, and I could practically hear the snow melting from the forest floor and running into New Hope Creek. Even from the parking area […]

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The Search for Sustainable Bioplastics

February 14, 2014

Recycling is good. By placing glass, aluminum, plastic, and other materials in designated recycling bins or dropping them off at recycling centers, we are attempting to do our part for the environment by reducing waste. Still, according to the Container Recycling Institute 60 million water bottles are thrown away each day in the U.S., and […]

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Comfort: Hominy Bison Chili

February 12, 2014

A few years ago I took an epic journey to the Southwest – boarded a plane from Tampa to Chicago and then took the Amtrak Southwest Chief through America's heartland into Albuquerque, New Mexico. For two weeks, I traveled across the mystical lands of desert, buttes, canyons, and pueblos. In search of nature. In search […]

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New Farm Bill Signed by President – Conservation Update

February 8, 2014

  The Farm Bill, the massive federal legislation that funds everything from nutrition assistance to crop insurance to conservation, is being signed into law by President Obama today. Like any big piece of policy, there’s plenty of debate on the merits of the bill, which authorizes $956.4 billion over 10 years (see a good overview […]

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Restoration of Europe’s Great Rivers

February 6, 2014

“Europe’s fluvial highways are becoming the test bed for conservation biologist Edward O. Wilson’s dream that the 21st century should be ‘the era of restoration ecology’” – Fred Pearce, Yale Environment 360 Europe’s rivers are a mess. After centuries of dams, levees, straightening, and pollution, the 2000 European Union’s Water Framework Directive required “that all […]

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Competition to Increase Urban Biodiversity

January 28, 2014

Envision a world where major city mayors are competing, not over their multi-million dollar sports teams, but over which city has more biodiversity, more green space, better butterfly habitat. While we’re not there yet, Richard Conniff in an article for YaleEnvironment360 writes that a fledgling urban wildlife movement may make it possible. Urban planners and […]

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