The Rat of the Land

...ry and Global Positioning System (GPS) rarely work because of interference from buildings and hard surfaces. At the end of his blog post Frye has a nice collection of research papers on urban wildlife. I highly recommend one of those articles, which was published in Science a few years ago, Evolution of life in urban environments....

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My Fellow Californians, Please Water Your Trees

...said, Water the trees. Trees form the infrastructure of our landscapes and urban forest, and are their permanent or, at least, most long-lived and valuable components around which the other plants intermesh, if not depend. Mature trees are among the most valuable and difficult-to-replace plants in urban areas. Their loss would be devastating. Trees can be likened to the steel framework of a building; how could the building exist without it. So, ke...

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Saturday Tweets: Cutting Through the Kudzu

...sal http://t.co/ZnUwxviSBp via @DiamondBarPatch http://t.co/UeoVXo2uuu — UCUrbanAg (@UCUrbanAg) August 26, 2015 Oslo builds world's first bumblebee highway http://t.co/ZbSwjYWW9E via @TheLocalNorway — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 26, 2015 Plant from 130 million years ago is among 'first flowers': study http://t.co/cPjiftSKZK via @YahooNews — Root Simple (@rootsimple) August 24, 2015 Summer of Science | Even When You Go Off the Grid...

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Garden Swap

...neighbors who have yard space in order to grow and share in the profits of urban food gardens. Urban gardens are not only fun; they support low-carbon food production, create economic development, inspire healthful eating, build community, create opporunities for education, address watershed health concerns, create productive green open space, and beautify communities. CSC is currently taking requests for participation in this program. If you’d li...

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So Much Poultry, So Little Time

.... -Someone needs to put together an urban version of the 4-H club to bring urban agriculture programs to the inner city. Maybe it’s already been done, but from what I’ve been told urban 4-H clubs are all about nutrition, science fairs, and maybe training guide dogs. Kids desperately need contact with nature and animals. Let’s grow some food! But we may need to hippify the uniforms a bit . . . -When the economy hits the skids people start thinking...

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