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National Native Plant Month
Apr. 4th, 2026 02:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ysabetwordsmithApril 2026 is National Native Plant Month
Please help to spread the word that the month of April is Native Plant Month and plan activities in your community to make a real difference by planting native plants, removing invasive plants, and teaching others about the importance of native plants as a source of food and habitat for wildlife.
( Read more... )
Please help to spread the word that the month of April is Native Plant Month and plan activities in your community to make a real difference by planting native plants, removing invasive plants, and teaching others about the importance of native plants as a source of food and habitat for wildlife.
( Read more... )
Conservation
Nov. 18th, 2025 04:47 pmysabetwordsmithNew directory of 125+ tree-planting nonprofits makes it easier to contribute to reforestation around the world
The Global Reforestation Organization Directory provides standardized information about the public commitments and transparency of more than 125 major tree-planting organizations, making it easier for donors to compare groups and find the ones that match their priorities.
Save the world, plant some trees! :D Many birds need trees as habitat, especially keystones like oak trees. Coming into the holiday season, watch for organizations that offer gift options where you can plant trees in someone's name.
The Global Reforestation Organization Directory provides standardized information about the public commitments and transparency of more than 125 major tree-planting organizations, making it easier for donors to compare groups and find the ones that match their priorities.
Save the world, plant some trees! :D Many birds need trees as habitat, especially keystones like oak trees. Coming into the holiday season, watch for organizations that offer gift options where you can plant trees in someone's name.
Holiday Activities
Sep. 25th, 2025 03:23 pmysabetwordsmith13 Ways to Celebrate National Public Lands Day
National Public Lands Day is the nation's largest single-day volunteer effort for public lands. And this year, it falls on September 27, 2025.
National public lands include a lot of different protected natural environments in America. From national parks, memorials, and monuments, to wildlife refuges, conservation areas, trails, wilderness areas, seashores, lakeshores, and more, public lands are actually all around us!
National Public Lands Day is the nation's largest single-day volunteer effort for public lands. And this year, it falls on September 27, 2025.
National public lands include a lot of different protected natural environments in America. From national parks, memorials, and monuments, to wildlife refuges, conservation areas, trails, wilderness areas, seashores, lakeshores, and more, public lands are actually all around us!
Conservation
Jun. 10th, 2025 03:38 amysabetwordsmithFarmers are creating a brighter future for Bolivia’s red-fronted macaws
Once rural landowners learned they could generate income by protecting macaws, the endangered birds went from burdens to boons.
Progress!
Once rural landowners learned they could generate income by protecting macaws, the endangered birds went from burdens to boons.
Progress!
National Pollinator Month
Jun. 1st, 2025 01:43 pmysabetwordsmithJune is National Pollinator Month. The most famous pollinators are butterflies and bees. However, other animals such as bats and rodents also serve. Among birds, the best known are hummingbirds (North and South America), but sunbirds (Africa) and honeyeaters (Australia) are important too. Also bear in mind that caterpillars are nature's hot dogs, so attracting butterflies and moths will also feed birds. It takes about 10,000 caterpillars to fledge a clutch of chickadees! Here are some ways to celebrate National Pollinator Month ...
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
ysabetwordsmithOne of the rarest parrot species in Brazil doubles in population: 'An unlikely comeback'
Habitat loss and the illegal pet trade drove the red-tailed amazon (Amazona brasiliensis), endemic to the southeastern Brazilian coast, to fewer than 5,000 individuals by the end of the 20th Century
Thanks to a project to install artificial nests on an island on the Paraná coast, the number of parrots almost doubled in 20 years, taking the bird from “endangered” to “near threatened” status, the only case of its kind in Brazil.
It's good to see this kind of success story. \o/
Habitat loss and the illegal pet trade drove the red-tailed amazon (Amazona brasiliensis), endemic to the southeastern Brazilian coast, to fewer than 5,000 individuals by the end of the 20th Century
Thanks to a project to install artificial nests on an island on the Paraná coast, the number of parrots almost doubled in 20 years, taking the bird from “endangered” to “near threatened” status, the only case of its kind in Brazil.
It's good to see this kind of success story. \o/
We Are the ARK
Mar. 20th, 2025 12:31 amysabetwordsmithActs of Restorative Kindkess (ARK) is a project devoted to rewilding the land and making space for wildlife.
Compare with my laissez-faire permaculture approach. I favor native plants, but I include other things too, some ornamental and others edible. I have small gardens and containers, but most of the space is loosely managed. The prairie garden is mostly wild and so is the forest garden.
Wildlife comes and goes as it pleases. I saw a skunk today wandering through the savanna after a storm. He wasn't bothered by my presence at all. We just shared the space, each going about our business. There are birds everywhere -- blackbirds, sparrows, finches, doves, crows, all kinds. Soon they'll be nesting, which is always fun to watch. Already there are a lot of bees out. Not many native flowers bloom this early, but I've got crocuses and other bulbs that the bees swarm eagerly.
So it's pretty nice. It's also very jungle-esque (I have an actual emergent layer) as the ARK is described as "untidy." One of my gardening hats came from the North American Dandelion Appreciation Society, which is about loving the weeds and the wildness. :D It's all fine.
Compare with my laissez-faire permaculture approach. I favor native plants, but I include other things too, some ornamental and others edible. I have small gardens and containers, but most of the space is loosely managed. The prairie garden is mostly wild and so is the forest garden.
Wildlife comes and goes as it pleases. I saw a skunk today wandering through the savanna after a storm. He wasn't bothered by my presence at all. We just shared the space, each going about our business. There are birds everywhere -- blackbirds, sparrows, finches, doves, crows, all kinds. Soon they'll be nesting, which is always fun to watch. Already there are a lot of bees out. Not many native flowers bloom this early, but I've got crocuses and other bulbs that the bees swarm eagerly.
So it's pretty nice. It's also very jungle-esque (I have an actual emergent layer) as the ARK is described as "untidy." One of my gardening hats came from the North American Dandelion Appreciation Society, which is about loving the weeds and the wildness. :D It's all fine.
The Butterfly Apocalypse
Mar. 6th, 2025 10:41 pmysabetwordsmithStudy raises the possibility of a country without butterflies
A sweeping study for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: Butterflies -- all of them -- are disappearing.
Butterflies are disappearing in the United States. All kinds of them. With a speed scientists call alarming, and they are sounding an alarm.
A sweeping new study published in Science for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: between 2000 and 2020, total butterfly abundance fell by 22% across the 554 species counted. That means that for every five individual butterflies within the contiguous U.S. in the year 2000, there were only four in 2020.
( Read more... )
A sweeping study for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: Butterflies -- all of them -- are disappearing.
Butterflies are disappearing in the United States. All kinds of them. With a speed scientists call alarming, and they are sounding an alarm.
A sweeping new study published in Science for the first time tallies butterfly data from more than 76,000 surveys across the continental United States. The results: between 2000 and 2020, total butterfly abundance fell by 22% across the 554 species counted. That means that for every five individual butterflies within the contiguous U.S. in the year 2000, there were only four in 2020.
( Read more... )
Grand Prairie Friends
Mar. 4th, 2025 12:52 pmysabetwordsmithGrand Prairie Friends is our local nature organization, currently managing about 1200 acres of land around central Illinois. The biggest is the Warbler Ridge Conservation Area at 1059 acres. Some is actual prairie with native grasses and wildflowers. Some is a mix of upland forest and riverbottom; we have multiple riparian zone patches. If you're in the neighborhood, drop by for a hike, forest bathing, or some creative inspiration!
Here's an update on federal funding in the current situation -- it's okay for now, and backup plans are in place should it disappear. There are links where you can donate or otherwise support the cause if you are concerned about its economic safety and/or just want to support healthy habitat.
How are your local nature organizations doing now?
Here's an update on federal funding in the current situation -- it's okay for now, and backup plans are in place should it disappear. There are links where you can donate or otherwise support the cause if you are concerned about its economic safety and/or just want to support healthy habitat.
How are your local nature organizations doing now?
Roof Gardens
Feb. 26th, 2025 01:07 pmysabetwordsmithGray Slums of Brazil Turn Green with Rooftop Garden Project in Full Bloom
From the rooftop of a Rio de Janeiro slum, amid sheet after sheet of corrugated iron, one man reclines amid succulents and ficus.
His name is Luis Cassiano Silva, and he is the progenitor of the Teto Verde Favela, or Green Roofs Favela initiative, described by one academic as an exercise in “insurgent citizenship.”
[---8<---]
Taking responsibility for improving the lives of the community, in 2014 Cassiano began teaching and planting, gardening and growing, all over Parque Arara, one of Rio’s large favelas. Green roofs are used widely in Europe to climate-proof buildings.
They not only lead to a reduction in the heat island effect, but also contribute to slowing rainwater runoff, keeping indoor areas cooler, and keeping outdoor air cleaner and more moist.
( Read more... )
From the rooftop of a Rio de Janeiro slum, amid sheet after sheet of corrugated iron, one man reclines amid succulents and ficus.
His name is Luis Cassiano Silva, and he is the progenitor of the Teto Verde Favela, or Green Roofs Favela initiative, described by one academic as an exercise in “insurgent citizenship.”
[---8<---]
Taking responsibility for improving the lives of the community, in 2014 Cassiano began teaching and planting, gardening and growing, all over Parque Arara, one of Rio’s large favelas. Green roofs are used widely in Europe to climate-proof buildings.
They not only lead to a reduction in the heat island effect, but also contribute to slowing rainwater runoff, keeping indoor areas cooler, and keeping outdoor air cleaner and more moist.
( Read more... )
World Migratory Bird Day
Oct. 12th, 2024 11:28 pmysabetwordsmithToday is World Migratory Bird Day. Fall is the period when birds fly from their summer breeding grounds (usually toward the poles) to their winter sanctuaries (usually near the equator). During this trip, they need food, water, and places to rest. Here are some ways to celebrate this holiday and help migrating birds.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Great-Billed Seed Finch
Jul. 7th, 2024 11:56 pmysabetwordsmithBrazil's most trafficked endangered bird makes a comeback with rewilding success
The great-billed seed finch (Sporophila maximiliani), thought to be the most trafficked endangered bird species in Brazil, has long been coveted in the caged-bird trade, which has caused the local extinction of the species over most of its former range in the Cerrado savanna.
[---8<---]
With support from these experts and local communities, the species is being reintroduced in the Cerrado within the Grande Sertão Veredas region between the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia.
This is a promising development for wildlife conservation.
The great-billed seed finch (Sporophila maximiliani), thought to be the most trafficked endangered bird species in Brazil, has long been coveted in the caged-bird trade, which has caused the local extinction of the species over most of its former range in the Cerrado savanna.
[---8<---]
With support from these experts and local communities, the species is being reintroduced in the Cerrado within the Grande Sertão Veredas region between the states of Minas Gerais and Bahia.
This is a promising development for wildlife conservation.
ysabetwordsmithThis year in Three Weeks for Dreamwidth, I'll be posting questions from the new 2024 questionnaire that I made. If you like the questions, feel free to follow along. You can post your answers in a comment below, or make a post in your own blog and link to it in a comment.
Question 19: How would you spend $1,000 to give the most happiness to the most number of people possible?
( Read more... )
Question 19: How would you spend $1,000 to give the most happiness to the most number of people possible?
( Read more... )
Giving Tuesday
Nov. 28th, 2023 06:12 pmysabetwordsmithToday is Giving Tuesday. This holiday is about charity in all its forms. You can give money, time, goods or services, whatever you have to share.
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
Buy Nothing Day
Nov. 24th, 2023 04:20 pmysabetwordsmithToday is Buy Nothing Day. Take a break from being a consumer, and be a creator for day. How do you celebrate Buy Nothing Day? Here are some bird-themed and general ideas...
( Read more... )
( Read more... )
