fabiochiu/medium-articles huggingface dataset:
Knowing It and Knowing About It: the Nonverbal and the Verbal
By: Nanda Jurela
Tags: Language, Words, Mystery, Process, Love

The less mysterious it is, the easier you can talk about it.

But life without mystery is an illusion, merely a head trip.

And love without mystery, are you kidding me, can that even be called love?

And so what is most precious to us can not be (fully) put in words. Even the best words won’t do.

Approach life, or love, like a scientist, a geek, a fan, a lover, and you learn more each day, but you never know all, and you never find the words that say all that you know. For language is only a part of knowing; and it demands a certain detachment from your topic.

You choose life over detachment — always. You choose love over detachment too. We are wired this way. (Until we unlearn it, but that is another story. Many of us stay natural and instinctively choose love and life over detachment and keep doing it, because it feels right.)

…

Now here is an interesting observation… Do with it what you like:

The more involved you are with life, or with a love, the more you struggle with the verbal to define it.

The easier you talk about it, the less involved you are.

A writer and a good speaker could be even more aware of it than a person who doesn’t need to communicate:

The more intimate you are with life, with love, any alive thing, the less inclined you are to limit it with language.

Unless you are determined to meet the challenge to describe it — for someone else to know about it.

So we talk of things that we know are vital and that the verbal mind can retell only humbly and incompletely. And while we share, we trust mystery to reveal to us another layer of itself.

7 June 2015
I left books for my career. Here’s what happened.
Tags: Reading, Words, Advice, Books, Productivity

I’m a sucker for words. I actually find them quite attractive. I wonder if that’s a thing in the real world as nowadays there’s a name for almost everything. I guess I’d have to google something like “why do words make me drunk?”

But anyway, so I stopped writing and reading altogether about 9 months ago. I wanted to focus on my career; which apparently is quite different than writing or reading. I’m a coder. That’s right. A techie. I love that too though.

There’s this dialogue I absolutely adore from a Korean drama series. “Keep your first love as your hobby and make your second love, your profession.”

It kind of doesn’t make any sense and that’s why makes perfect sense. Just like this sentence.

But anyway, let’s get back on track. I really have a terrible habit of getting distracted a lot.
Top 4 Best Crossword Apps For Android , IOS , Huawei
By: Az Hub
Tags: Crossword Puzzles, Puzzle, Words, Crossword, Anagram

Search through popular crossword puzzles for clues and answers. Search the New York Times crossword, USA Today, the Guardian and many more!

Free App

Daily updating

Since 1970

Easy to use

List of puzzles supported :

New York Times

Wall Street Journal

Universal

Jonesin

USA Today

Thomas Joseph King Feature Syndicate

Eugene Sheffer King Feature Syndicate

Premier Sunday King Feature Syndicate

Newsdaycom

LA Times Daily

Canadiana

The Washington Post Tuesday

The Washington Post Sunday

The Chronicle of Higher Education

Irish Times Crosaire

Irish Times Simplex

The Guardian

The Times Cryptic

The Times Concise

The Times Specialist

The Telegraph Quick

The Telegraph Cryptic

The Telegraph Toughie

The Telegraph General Knowledge

BuzzFeed

The Sun Two Speed

Rock and Roll

Family Time

Android :

IOS :

Huawei:

https://appgallery.huawei.com/#/app/C103104273

Site :
Long-Distance Love
By: Patrick M. Ohana
Tags: Words, Illumination, Poetry, Long Distance Love, Love

Long-Distance Love

Photo by PublicDomainPictures on Pixabay

She gets off on all the love in my words

I, on the love they promise I will have

She lives overseas with love and by strife

What hope in heaven or hell can I have

Words are sent in the Moon’s love language codes

I comprehend them all, that’s all I have

I count the hours, I tabulate the days

What’s the point, I wonder, what will I have

I don’t sleep well, cannabis doesn’t help

She’s stronger than God’s plant, that’s what I have

She’s red-hot in bed, that’s all I can hold

That’s how I behave, what else can I have

She smiles on the screen of every gadget

What wouldn’t I give for her smile to have
What Inspires Me
Tags: Life, Words, Quotes, Motivation, Inspiration

What Inspires Me

I am type of girl that when I want to accomplish and do something, I do research and make a plan to get the task done.

Lately, this year I have been the most inspired to be myself, let things go, and live my life. I never looked at life in that way because, I always been afraid of criticism. I am always putting myself down easily and never gets back up.

Today, I want to share with you things that have inspired me to live the best. I hope it inspires you as well.

Quotes

¨Never bend your head. Always hold it high. Look the world straight in the eye.¨- Helen Keller

¨No matter what youŕe going through, thereś a light at the end of the tunnel.¨- Demi Lovato

¨It is never TOO LATE to be what you might have been.¨-George Eliot

¨You get what you give¨- Jennifer Lopez

¨You are enough just as you are.¨- Meghan Markle

¨Each person must live their life as a model for others.¨- Rosa Parks

People

My parents

My siblings

College

Saints

Myself

Musicians

Words

Confidence

Believe

Challenge

Courage

Focus

Goals

Success

Acceptance

Achieve

Happy

failure

The biggest thing that has inspire me to live my life and be myself is my past horrible experiences. I have made mistakes in the past and I have learned from them to be a better person.

Yeah I do not have an amazing body like I wish, but I know I will get there if I only commit and push myself towards the achievement.

I just need to stop being a lazy girl and face reality. The words, quotes, and people are there to support. I just need to put my part to become an inspiration to others in all aspects.
The Abandoned Dreams
By: Priyanka Srivastava
Tags: Writing, Words, Poetry, Writing Life, Dreams

The Abandoned Dreams

Photo by Allison Wopata on Unsplash

Just because I let you visit me

through my words doesn’t mean

that you need to turn the pages

my words are those dreams

which I abandon quietly.

I never asked you to pick them

let them rest, they will be buried

one day, don’t pluck the flowers.

let them bloom.
Us Ishq Par Naaz Hota Hai Jo Shiddat Se Ki Jaaye, Par Badnasibi Hai Ke Yeh Sabko Shiddat Se Nahi Hoti... Mandeep…
Tags: Shayari, Ishq, Firstpost, Words, Love

Simply Devoted To Everything That Brings Peace To My Heart And Soul...
Rare Splash-backed Poison Frogs are Anything But ‘Blue’ as They Fly Home to Brazil
By: U.S. Fish, Wildlife Service
Tags: Frog, Illegal Wildlife Trade, Conservation, Brazil

In September, Service wildlife inspectors carefully placed a container of splash-backed poison frogs on a plane home to Brazil, a very happy ending to their amazing journey around the world, complete with a stay at Disney World.

Returning wildlife to their country of origin is uncommon because numerous factors must be met. For example, the animals must be well-cared-for in the United States and disease-free. Most importantly, the home country must be able to accept them back. It also involves much coordination and diplomacy between countries and partners, not to mention international legalities.

Brazil has never allowed export of this rare blue morph of splash-backed poison frogs. Photo by Alberto J. Gonzalez/USFWS

The incredible story of this rare blue morph coloration of splash-backed poison frogs (Adelphobates galactonotus) of the family Dendrobatidae started back in 2012 when their population was discovered by scientists in an isolated remote area of Brazil.

Splash-backed poison frogs are important to the health of the Amazon rainforest, modern medicine and Brazil’s indigenous peoples. These frogs are bioindicators, which means scientists use them to measure the health of the environment both on land and in water. In support of modern medicine, scientists have found more than 200 beneficial alkaloids in the skin of amphibians that may be used as a morphine replacement, antibiotics and as post-surgery healing treatments. These frogs can also excrete poisons in order to protect themselves in the wild. Some of Brazil’s indigenous peoples use these toxins to coat their darts and arrowheads to support their subsistence hunting.

To protect these rare frogs, Brazil made it illegal to remove the Adelphobates species from their native habitat, sell them commercially or even possess them in captivity without express permissions from the Brazilian Institute of the Environment and Renewable Natural Resources (IBAMA), the environmental authority in Brazil and the counterpart to the Service’s Division of Management Authority.

“Brazil is one of the world’s five megadiverse countries. This type of initiative shows the importance of adopting measures to protect animals and of bilateral cooperation to carry out operations such as this one,” says IBAMA’s President Eduardo Bim. “We are committed to the relentless fight against international wildlife trafficking.”
Day 526. 來去沙漠做植物調查——Koonamore 田野調查記錄
By: Kantine Liu
Tags: Conservation, 留學心得, 澳洲, Fieldwork, 田野調查

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Addressing Coastal Squeeze
By: Oli Steadman
Tags: Coastal Resilience, Framework, Sea Level Rise, Sustainability, Conservation

Coastal squeeze (CS) is how we describe the process in which

rising sea levels in combination with other factors (e.g. human infrastructure & activities), cause loss of space in both directions — land and sea

the ecosystems no longer have the necessary conditions to maintain their essential functions

Most of the studies on this topic focus primarily on sea-level rise and hard infrastructure. We need a framework that provides a more comprehensive understanding of all factors contributing to coastal squeeze, to suggest strategies to assess the distribution and impact of this phenomenon and thereby suggest & support actions to mitigate & manage it.

DESCR =

The Drivers–Exchanges–State of the Environment (DES) Cycle

+

The Consequence–Response (CR) Cycle

In the first cycle of the DESCR framework i.e. DES, the dynamics and the elements affecting the ecosystems of the coastal unit are examined. The “temporal scale” of the drivers can be:

short (e.g. hurricane)

medium (e.g. El Niño–Southern Oscillation aka ENSO)

long (e.g. sea-level rise)

… and are assessed at a local level even though the drivers may originate locally, regionally, or globally.

CR is about realising the meanings and available actions arising from them. Some examples discussed int he research are:

modify the state of the environment by restoration and/or relocation

modify activities of the community by regulation

modify attitudes of the society by education and/or prevention

Any natural consequence derived from the DES cycle that does not induce negative, permanent, or chronic alterations in the environment (loss of habitats/species) is not deemed coastal squeeze.

How was the research funded?

Entirely by CONACYT-SENER-Sustentabilidad Energética project, Centro Mexicano de Innovación en Energía del Océano (CEMIE-Océano).

Courtesy of Researcher, you can read the full paper for free using this link.
Winning the West: Election 2020
By: Western Priorities
Tags: Politics, Conservation, Elections, Public Lands

The Center for Western Priorities’ Winning the West: Election 2020 report reveals the growing trend of winning candidates highlighting their support for public lands and outdoor issues in order to connect with Mountain West voters in this year’s elections.

Public lands — how they are used, their importance to local economies, and the way they define life in the West — were a key component of winning campaigns in 2020, with 19 of the 21 races tracked in six Western states featuring significant pro-public lands advertising or messaging. In high-profile races in Arizona, Colorado, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah, the importance of outdoor issues has solidified to the extent that candidates with consistently pro-public lands positions have prevailed in most close elections.

View the report

This year, support for public lands and conservation emerged stronger than ever. Polling shows that the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the value that Westerners place on the outdoors, with 34 percent of voters saying that the importance of public lands, parks, and wildlife issues increased for them during the pandemic.

In the campaigns analyzed in the report, winning candidates leveraged public lands and outdoor issues to gain support while using the mountains and outdoor spaces of the Mountain West to serve as the backdrop of numerous campaign ads and pro-public lands messages on social media. Candidates across party lines celebrated legislative victories on conservation issues and criticized opponents for lackluster records on protections for public lands. Notably, extreme anti-public lands positions, such as selling off national public lands to private interests or turning them over to state control, were absent from this year’s competitive races.

Going forward, we expect the influence of the growing “outdoor voting bloc” — currently estimated at more than 2 million voters across the West — to continue shaping campaigns. As newly elected officials step into office, voters will be looking for campaign messages to be translated into legislative action on public lands.

The Center for Western Priorities’ Winning the West campaign is intended to educate candidates and campaigns about how important it is to show strong support for public lands and access to outdoor spaces, particularly in battleground Mountain West states. To learn more, visit WinningTheWest2020.org.
Wildlife ponds, how to attract wildlife into your garden.
By: Wayne Ratcliffe
Tags: Garden Design, Ponds, Wildlife Conservation, Conservation, Koi Ponds

The pond will attract all sorts of wildlife. Dragonflies will find your pond quickly, Pond skaters and diving beetles will soon join new ponds. Birds will come bathe & drink in the water, you might even find foxes, badgers, deer, hedgehogs and other animals using your pond as a place to drink. Frogs, newts and toads will make their way to wildlife pond.

Sit back and watch the wildlife colonize the pond created in your own garden.

Use natural features to your garden to your advantage. if you have a wet area use this for the bog plants.

Use a slope to make use of soil from the dig, or use it to build up the ground for a waterfall.

A sunny spot will attract the most wildlife to your pond but it also needs some shade from midday sun.

Avoid overhanging trees, falling leaves in as Autumn will be a problem.

Late spring & early summer are the best times to plant your wildlife pond, as the plants are just starting to grow and the water is not too cold. There are a few different categories of plants that are essential if your pond is going to become a wildlife haven.

Go for native species and avoid plants that will be rampant and take over the pond completely.

Curled pondweed (Potamogeton crispus)

Canadian Pondweed (Elodea canadensis) — as a last resort because it will take over completely

Hornwort (Ceratophyllum demersum)

Water Milfoil (Myriophyllum spicatum)

Water Starwort (Callitriche spp.)

Water Violet (Hottonia palustris)

Amphibious bistort (Polygonum amphibium)

Bistort (Polygonum amphibium)

Broad-leaved pondweed (Potamogeton natans)

White Water Lily (Nymphaea alba)

Yellow Water Llily (Nuphar lutea)

Brooklime (Veronica beccabunga)

Lesser Spearwort (Ranunculus flammula)

Meadowsweet (Filipendula ulmaria)

Ragged Robin (Lychnis flos-cuculi)

Water Plantain (Alisma plantago-aquaticus)

Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)

Water Forget-me-not (Myosotis scorpioides)

Water Mint (Mentha aquatica)

Water Plantain (Alisma plantago-aquatica)

Water Speedwell (Veronica anagallis)

Yellow Iris (Iris pseudacorus)

Yellow Flag Iris (Iris pseudacorus)

Contact us for more information 0161 706 1080

Originally published at https://www.olympianwatergardens.com on December 15, 2020.
Where the wild things aren’t.
By: Greta C. Vega
Tags: Biodiversity, Conservation, Data Visualization, Wilderness

Results from long-term anthrome changes show that wilderness (wildlands and semi-natural lands) has decreased 42% globally. This decrease comes at the expense of a 25% increase in rangelands and a 17% increase in populated lands and croplands since the 1700s. During these four centuries, land changes have been more widespread in Australia, Europe, North America, and South Africa. On the other hand, areas with harsher conditions for humans are the ones that remained less impacted: Sahara, the North-American north west, and north-eastern Asia.

Hope for all!

While these results show great habitat loss at the expense of human development, we remain hopeful. There is space to work on and improve the current situation. These models do not only show a grim depiction of the effects of human development on Earth. They also show potential for restoration, and vast knowledge on how to advise land management worldwide. Based on the findings by the previously mentioned research, rangelands (grasslands, shrublands, woodlands, wetlands, and deserts that are grazed by domestic livestock or wild animals) could constitute restorable lands with the potential to reach near-natural state.

Restoration and conservation efforts, however, cannot put at risk the identity, culture, and livelihood of the human populations that inhabit them. “Restoration interventions are as much about people as they are about environments” (Koech et al., 2020), although this has not always been considered. Even more important is the consideration that traditional and Indigenous knowledge on land management has been proven successful at conserving ecosystems. Despite constituting less than 5% of the global population, Indigenous peoples manage most of the planet intact landscapes.

Considering its social implications, the restoration of these lands could partially revert four centuries of increasing degradation trends and contribute to the protection of biodiversity worldwide. Scientific research supports the idea of short-term effective action to tackle human-activity-derived issues on biodiversity and climate change. Furthermore, science-backed public calls for change have been successful in the past. For example, Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring started a movement that ended with the banning of DDT pesticides worldwide.

Reinforcing positive —and realistic— science-backed messages can prompt public and non-profit calls for change, political action, and encourage the private economic sector to revise supply chain management. Only with collective action can we make the temporary effects that the planet experienced during the 2020 anthropause long-lasting and improve ecosystem quality worldwide.
Conserving Nature in the City of Boise
By: Kailey Johnson
Tags: Boise State, Boise, Surveys, Conservation, Nature

Photo by Ben Hoskyn on Unsplash

As you know there are many unstoppable reasons why a city is dirty and not kept up on. But that doesn’t mean that we cannot do anything to prevent it from happening, or to clean it up. Boise is a rising metropolitan city. We need to take care of it. If we don’t, we will lose its beauty, and terrain.

I have lived in Boise most of my life. I would always walk the streets of downtown, hike the trails of the foothills, and go to all lookouts to admire my favorite city. Since I naturally like to keep my own surroundings clean, I have always believed that we should keep our Earth clean as well. Walking through these places I have found many times that it was just super dirty, covered in trash, or the homeless have overrun it.

I asked the citizens of Boise how they thought Boise was at keeping their city clean. Yes, some did say they have seen it clean, but others said that most of the time when they go on hikes, to Lucky Peak, the greenbelt, Boise river, 8th street lookout, and table rock have always been a disaster. That’s why I thought Boise was and is in need of help.

My Survey responses & findings
Ocean Acidification
By: Vita Rahmatika Banuwa
Tags: Coral Reefs, Ocean Acidification, Terumbu Karang, Conservation, Pengasaman Laut

Hello! Let’s sparing time for appreciate yourselves!
Wisdom from Africa Poetry from Year of The Poet (Vol 44)
By: Kimberly Burnham
Tags: Africa, Poetry, Wisdom, Conservation, Lion

Featured in The Year of the Poet August, 2017 Volume 44.

Romeo and Juliet, African Style Conservation

Cheetahs fear huge dogs

except one tiny cheetah cub all alone

a woman rescues him

when a man kills his mother

Romeo raised with Juliet

an Anatolian Sheppard pup

together like pack mates

she lays her head on his back

he playfully raises a black and yellow spotted paw

All grown up

she barks at every cheetahs

save for Romeo

together they chase off the fear of extinction

changing the space between

the wild world and farms of Africa

The past is cheetahs killing cattle

farmers killing cheetahs

shooting these carnivores

onto the endangered species’ list

Today Anatolian sheppards

raised with cattle claim the herd as family

barking off cheetahs

run — run 70 miles an hour away from this farm

the huge dogs guarding the future

So all can live

as happily as Romeo

and his Juliet

Hippo Baby A Day or Two Old

Look out on the water

the wind whipping by

feel the speed of the boat

gaze at the distant spray of a waterfall

And suddenly there he is

a hundred pound baby

the size of a large dog

miniature next to his mother

petite pink ears twitching

Delighting people in passing boats

who travel thousands of mile to see him

in the Zambezi River

for this moment a few days after his birth

soon he will weigh tons

grown on water plants and shoreline vegetation

above the natural splendor of Victoria Falls

Today he is cute and tiny

drawing awwww from those who see him

as he splashes up diamond rainbows

then basks with egrets and water bucks

Forget not he is born wild

territorial and aggressive

responsible for more African deaths

than lions and rhinos

take pleasure and give respect

Lion family poetry with Kimberly Burnham Photo by Leonard von Bibra on Unsplash

Lioness Almost Tame

For now many generations

lions see humans in jeeps

roaring around the countryside

Tawny cubs playfully coming near

taking their cues from momma

the lioness watchfully relaxed

Humans taking delight

hearing her before she is seen

in the thrill of a short distance between

a lioness calling for her pride

appears out of the dense bush

Two old males rest after stuffing themselves

on a water buffalo stuck in shallow watering hole mud

and news of a pride of lionesses and cubs

suddenly there in the grass

The guides talk excitedly

last know locations exchanged

a line of jeeps

waiting turns a few at a time

visit the lioness and her cubs

as babies learn they have nothing to fear

from humans in jeeps

Enchantment comes with responsibility

to be that human

protecting the environment

for generations of cubs to come

to be the one

from whom there is

nothing to fear

The Year of the Poet Volume 44 August 2017, Inner Child Press, Poetry Posse, Kimberly Burnham, Hazelnut Trees.

Originally published in The Year of The Poet (Vol 44) at http://www.innerchildpress.com/the-year-of-the-poet.php on August 1, 2017.
FINNING
By: Prajna Jandial
Tags: Awareness, Finning, Sharks, Conservation, Marine Life

Image Credit: Nancy Boucha, 2005 Marine Photobank

I have spent months trying to come up with an analogy that would work for finning, but either the idea is too horrific or does not express the gravity of the term enough. As unsettling as finning is, you should know what it is, but before getting into the article I want to talk about Rob Stewart. He was a photographer, filmmaker, and conservationist who lost his life in a drowning incident while filming a documentary that exposed the shark finning industry. Whereas I do not expect you to watch the film, I do hope you look up ‘Sharkwater extinction’ and the man himself. These people who risk their lives to expose an industry that so many people are not even aware of deserve a larger audience. These are the real heroes and these are the films we should all be watching.

So what is this word I have already used like ten times? As Wikipedia defines it, ‘Shark finning is the act of removing fins from sharks and discarding the rest of the shark back into the ocean.’ Or in other words, catching an alive shark, cutting off its fins, and throwing it back into the ocean to bleed out and die. It's unimaginable that this is a $540 million to $1.2 billion (2007) trade.

Shark fins drying in the sun cover the roof of a factory building in Hong Kong on Jan. 2, 2013. Credit: Antony Dickson

This huge industry takes a lot of toll on our oceans, an estimated 100 million or more sharks are killed globally per year. Tens of millions more sharks and rays are killed each year, primarily through illegal, unregulated, and unreported fishing (IUU). 181 shark species are Red listed as vulnerable, endangered, or critically endangered by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN). I hope these statistics raise the question ‘why’ in your mind. Why is there a demand for shark fins? All for soup. Shark fin soup is a traditional Chinese soup that is also coming into demand in the West. Maybe and hopefully you are not a consumer when it comes to this dish, but it might be something you have come across on a menu card? Or on a TV series? The point being when it comes to wildlife and wildlife trade it is rather easy to ignore its existence if it does not concern you, yet these menu cards are in a way defining your future. Extinction of any species has a very large implication on the health of our planet and especially our oceans, and I cannot stress enough that these very oceans that are taken for granted, regulate this planet’s temperature.

Shark Finning is illegal in many countries, but this industry needs a lot more regulation. I feel the act itself goes against humanity and this small introduction does not do the issue justice. I hope you share this information with someone and create more awareness. There are a lot of ongoing online petitions that you can sign and documentaries and articles that you can access.
Quantum Physics Poetry from Year of The Poet (Vol 42)
By: Kimberly Burnham
Tags: Water, Poetry, Quantum Physics, The Year Of The Poet, Conservation

Featured in The Year of the Poet June, 2017 Volume 42.

Quantum Existence Alone

A drop of water alone in the wave

moved by the crowd

the moonlight

forces of nature

A drop of water undifferentiated

alone in the rocking unity

of the flourishing flow

one does not exist

it is

One drop separated

in seclusion

bigger or smaller next to its neighbor

darker or clearer than

till uniquely able to contemplate

the meaning of existence

alone

Drop of Water poetry with Kimberly Burnham. Photo by Trollinho on Unsplash

Disappearing Words

If I could disappear a word

I would vanish regret

send loneliness packing

If I could disappear a word

I’d dance with solitude

till the fear was gone

If I could disappear a word

hate would have to go

friendship leaping into its place

Anger would silently slink away

leaving room for creativity

rearranging letters

Finding rest in stressful

and changing in challenging

sounds heard through a new lens

This Is Mine

Alone I decide

what is mine

what I claim

from the wave of nature

all

connected parts

the web of life

offering all to the one

who sees connections

everywhere

The Year of the Poet Volume 42 June 2017, Inner Child Press, Poetry Posse, Kimberly Burnham, Lindon Trees.

Originally published in The Year of The Poet (Vol 42) at http://www.innerchildpress.com/the-year-of-the-poet.php on June 1, 2017.
Barossa Bushgardens, Nuriootpa, South Australia
By: Bronwen Scott
Tags: Australia, Botanical Garden, Garden, Conservation, Nature

Botanic Gardens

A conservation garden built around a tree and a community

Eremophila calorhabdos with sheoak and river red gum, Barossa Bushgardens. © Bronwen Scott

At the heart of the Barossa Bushgardens is a 400-year-old river red gum. In its shade grow purple coral pea, wattle and hop bush. Its branches are loud with parrots and honeyeaters. Paths curve away from it to meander through flower beds and blue gum woodland. The garden is full of colour and bird song. But in 2001, this place was a bare-arsed paddock and the ancient red gum the last tree standing.

View from Mengler Hill, Barossa Valley. © Bronwen Scott.

In that year, the gardens were established as a seed orchard producing plants to revegetate a landscape cleared for agriculture. Once the nursery was running, the gardens’ brief expanded to exhibiting local plants and conserving rare species. About 130 of the 400 or so species recorded from the Barossa Valley are now grown in themed garden areas.

Among traditional mixed plantings are a number of displays tailored for the region, including the Country Fire Service’s Fire-Wise Garden, which makes use of candy-pink pigface and saltbush as ground-covers, and correa hedges. There are also specialist collections of native grasses and Eremophila. Eremophila are popular, but native grasses tend to be overlooked and underappreciated in botanical gardens. Because of their importance in revegetation, they are prominent at the Barossa Bushgardens. The mass plantings make attractive displays.
We Have Colonised the Future Earth and This Is What You Should Know
By: Fareeha Arshad
Tags: Life, Earth, Science, Future, Conservation

I remember the day when I was seven years old and seated at the corner of the small class that accommodated thirty-two students apart from me. It was a cold morning — the coldest that year had seen. The warmth radiating from the kids around me made me cosy. My eyes drooped, and I saw my favourite park and the red swing behind my eyelids.

One phrase from my teacher snapped me out of my dream.

It was the quote from Emerson that I wrote above. In all honesty, eighteen years later, I still feel it stands true. Despite the heights, we humans have reached, and as evolutionary advanced, we have become, we do not live on this planet as though we have borrowed it.

We actually live as though we have colonised it.
A Healer’s Food-forest
By: Soul Of The Nilgiris Ramya Reddy
Tags: Grow Your Own Food, Nilgiris, Indigenous Food, Conservation, India Travel Stories

Since the lockdown was imposed here in the Nilgiris, Janagiamma, a senior healer from the Kurumba community, who I worked with extensively for Soul of the Nilgiris, set up camp a few kilometres from her home in Vellaracombai, at the edge of a hill overlooking her ancestral land and the plains beyond.

With almost no access to towns, she was literally locked in in the forest for months. During this time she took it upon herself to create a subsistence food forest in her ancestral land which was on a slope higher-up hills. She grows a host of grain, legumes, vegetables and millet for consumption for both her family and the village.

I made a couple of trips down to Vellaracombai to see her when the lockdown eased out a little ( I was in Coonoor for a considerable time during this period) It was a joy to see her after what seemed was a long time. When I went up with R., my husband, she came down from her camp (where she pretty much lives nowadays) to fetch us from her house below so we could see her farm atop. After a quick coffee she showed my her produce of Thenai or Foxtail millet which looked glorious. Nearby, her granddaughter was keenly surveying the dehusked batch in the red winnow.
My 4 Wildlife Tourism Regrets
By: Katie Sheps
Tags: Wildlife, Travel, Tourism, Conservation, Regret

Turtle Feeding

Photo by David Troeger on Unsplash

One of the most common practices to lure wild animals to a keen human audience is through food. For wild animals, food means survival, and an easy, reliable meal is more tempting than a long hunt for a small morsel of food.

Several friends have told me about tourist operations where feeding of wild animals is used to guarantee a wildlife sighting. I unwittingly found myself in this very situation when I was working as a Divemaster. A friend and I were leading a group of amateur underwater photographers on several dives, the last of which was set to be at ‘turtle point’.

As soon as the dive boat anchored, a little turtle head popped up and I was pretty surprised. My previous flirtations with turtles were few and far between. In just over 150 dives, I had seen about 4 or 5 wild turtles on a dive. And every time it was a blessing. I was happy that we had already seen a turtle.

We rushed our diving holidaymakers into the water and just as I was about to roll in I saw one of the boatmen chucking dead cuttlefish into the water. My heart sank as I realised that they were feeding the turtles here at ‘turtle point’.

It might not be immediately obvious why feeding wild animals is detrimental, besides the fact that they aren’t fending for themselves. Feeding wildlife can have a lasting impact wherein wildlife becoming more dependent on this resource of an ‘easy’ meal. Long-term feeding can, “alter natural behaviour patterns and population levels”, such that the animals no longer follow their natural migration patterns. Research shows that although there are occasionally benefits for animals in this scenario, there are a lot more benefits for humans. Being up-close to an animal could also carry the risk of potential disease transmission from humans to animals.

At first, it was amazing to be so close to so many turtles. It quickly became clear that they were unnaturally friendly and slightly aggressive. One diver freaked out because a turtle was harassing her for food. It wasn’t the turtle's fault that it expects food when humans are around — its entirely human fault driving this unnatural behaviour.

We were a large group in shallow water and whilst everyone was clambering to get the best shot, I witnessed several turtles being whacked by unsuspecting divers fins. The frenzy was heartbreaking to watch.

In this instance, I was working and I was unaware that we were in a place where animal feeding occurs. However, I do know that I will never willingly support this kind of practice when I am a tourist due to the risks, both for humans and wildlife.
Congress again poised to pass major conservation legislation
By: Jesse Prentice-Dunn
Tags: Politics, Public Lands, Conservation, Congress, Climate Change

Just months after passing the historic Great American Outdoors Act, Congress is once again poised to pass major conservation legislation. Negotiators for the House and Senate are hoping to reach an agreement on a must-pass defense spending bill, including provisions that would protect iconic landscapes across the West. Passing these bills would be a key step towards protecting 30% of America’s lands and waters by 2030, a bold goal that scientists say would combat the climate and nature crises, while strengthening economies and improving public health.

This summer, both chambers of Congress passed versions of the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), annual legislation that directs spending for national defense agencies. In recent years, the NDAA has been used as a vehicle for public land and wildlife provisions. A Congressional conference committee is now looking to finalize a compromise bill, which would then be passed and signed into law during the upcoming “lame duck” session. Notably, the House version of the NDAA includes three key provisions, which, if adopted, would create lasting protections for public lands in Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, and Washington.
“A watershed moment”: Coho salmon are re-introduced to Pescadero Creek
By: The Six Fifty Staff
Tags: California, Fish, Bay Area, Conservation, Wildlife

Coho salmon are set to make a comeback on the South Coast. Last week, 10,000 of the young fish were released into Pescadero Creek after National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Fisheries, nonprofit Monterey Bay Salmon and Trout Project, and the San Mateo Resource Conservation District (RCD) partnered to repopulate the stream.

According to a press release from the RCD, the fish were bred at a hatchery in Santa Cruz County before being released into the creek, just one of two watersheds in the Santa Cruz Mountains that is fit for coho spawning and survival. (Coho salmon—known for their silver sides—are one of the five types of salmon species found in the Pacific Ocean, and are native to the California coast as far south as Monterey Bay.)

For RCD Executive Director Kellyx Nelson, the moment was a pinnacle in her career, if not her life.

“This is utterly, truly, a watershed moment,” Nelson said. “This is life-affirming. This means that we have brought this watershed back to be healthy enough to be home again to 10,000 coho salmon and to give them a chance to come back from the brink of extinction.”
10 Reasons to Thank Nature
By: Wildlife Conservation Society
Tags: Thanksgiving, Ecosystem Services, Environment, Conservation, Nature

As 2020 draws to a close, let’s take a moment to thank one entity that rarely gets the full measure of gratitude it deserves: Nature. Nature-based solutions to the global environmental challenges we face are at the heart of WCS’s mission to save wildlife and wild places.

Strategies designed to keep nature intact and undegraded help it to continue performing the many ecosystem services so critical to our survival — from storing carbon and protecting biodiversity to containing pandemic disease and sustaining the livelihoods of people in communities across the globe.

Here are just 10 reasons to express appreciation for nature:

SEQUESTERING CARBON

©DAVE HOEFLER/UNSPLASH

Globally, intact forests store store an estimated 139 billion tons of carbon — equivalent to 510 billion tons of CO2. Released into the atmosphere, this would equal 13 years of human CO2 emissions from all sources. Nature-based solutions, like avoiding deforestation and forest degradation and restoring forests, can provide one-third of the mitigation needed between now and 2030 to keep warming below 2°C.

PROVIDING ACCESS TO CLEAN WATER

CREDIT:JULIE LARSEN MAHER © WCS

At a time when close to a billion people on Earth lack access to clean water, watersheds supply water for drinking, agriculture and manufacturing, and recreation, while providing habitat for wildlife and plants. Wetlands and forests play a critical role in filtering water, while plants remove dangerous levels of nitrogen and phosphorus found in fertilizer runoff.

PROVIDING STORM, FLOOD, AND EROSION RESILIENCE

JULIE LARSEN MAHER © WCS

Species such as oysters both filter water and provide natural resilience to storms. Adult oysters can filter up to 50 gallons of water a day and oyster reefs provide a cushion against large waves and rising tides. In so doing, they reduce flooding and prevent shoreline erosion. Other coastal ecosystems such as coral reefs and mangroves likewise protect against storm surges and growing sea level rise.

PROVIDING FOOD SECURITY
We are #Grateful For Awesome AmeriCorps Members!
By: Usfws Columbia Pacific Northwest Region
Tags: Gratefulfor, Salmon, Conservation, Makah Indian Reservation, Wild

Pacific Salmon survival goes beyond the active labor required to raise fish at a hatchery. Education and outreach are also important because it provides information and encourages people to make more environmentally/fish friendly choices. I look forward to assisting in creating a better sense of community and outreach education at the hatchery while serving in this position. I will be contributing to educational content at the hatchery visitor center, which is currently under renovation. A lot of work has been done, including developing interpretive panels and cultural content. However, more work still needs to be done, especially considering that we have to think about the world that the next generations will be and are inheriting.

In our changing world, and climate, hatchery management has become increasingly challenging. Warmer spring and summer water temperatures cause decreased oxygen levels and increased potential for disease. This has led to necessary hatchery research to find different ways to raise and release fish. While serving my position here, I want to become more familiar with management strategies while assisting with some of the on-site research. One of my long-term goals is to become more accustomed to current management strategies while remaining creative enough to help address any future environmental or fisheries related problems. I also have goals that go beyond my own personal success.

Photo: Kylee smiles in the great outdoors around Makah National Fish Hatchery

Going above and beyond my career there are goals that I share with my community in our commitment to passing on important traditions to future generations. One of the most important communal goals is to nurture our collective and individual relationships with our local ecosystems and environment by direct interaction. It is important that we continue to maintain and encourage that relationship through harvesting, processing, and conserving resources such as salmon in a respectful and reciprocal way. That process of relationship development encourages stewardship, which I have experienced by engaging in traditional subsistence activities.

What fuels my desire to pursue this field of work is my personal and communal relationship with my home land, what is now called Neah Bay, Washington, and my (our) responsibility for the environment, and the protection of culturally significant natural resources (such as salmon). My identity, work, education, and goals are rooted in the way of life of the Makah Tribe of which I am a proud member. Our entire homeland is surrounded by the ocean. This makes the ocean just as much apart of our homeland and just as important to our way of life as Makah People.
Exploring 70 years of museums in Nigeria
Tags: Conservation, Nigeria, Preservation, Museums

Old Residency Museum, Calabar

The museum in Nigeria turned 70 in December 2015. And to commemorate that milestone, the National Commission for Museums and Monument (NCMM) opened an exhibition at the Lagos National Museum, titled “The Nigerian Museum at 70 — An Enduring Legacy”.

Hosted at the National Museum in Lagos, the exhibition showcased objects sourced from different parts of Nigeria — all grouped under six broad categories: Fathers of the Museum; Facial Marks; Use of Beads; Ancestral/ Traditional Worship; Techniques of Production; and Masks.

According to the introduction to the exhibition, “The museum and her collections have gone through several incidences, including war, theft, illegal trafficking and yet the collection has grown from just a handful at inception to over 40,000 objects in the Lagos museum alone.”

The objects on display included the ancient Nok culture (500BC-200AD, NW Nigeria) through 9th century bronzes from Igbo-Ukwu (NE Nigeria) to 15th century terra cotta figurines from Owo town (SW Nigeria). Also on show are rare statues depicting the monarchy in culturally and historically rich Benin City (SS Nigeria) and brass figurines from Ile-Ife (SW Nigeria); there is also the famed but rarely seen soapstones from Esie (Kwara State), where the first ever museum in Nigeria was sited in 1945.

There couldn’t have been a better time to visit the museums in Nigeria. The entire collection in the gallery presented Nigeria as an artifact-rich country; unfortunately, Nigerians have not cultivated a museum-going culture.

“Nigeria’s cultural heritage is diverse in nature, origin and cut across various ethnic groups,” read another text from the exhibition, which remained open for many weeks. “Artifacts come in various forms and these exhibits are tangible living cultures of the people.”

The section on masks was breathtaking, presenting some of the most awe-inspiring headdresses from across the country — from Boki and Ogoni country to Igala and Efik lands — made from wood, ivory and metal. Masks are usually worn by masquerades during traditional ceremonies in Nigeria.

Fittingly, the exhibition paid tribute to some of the men who were instrumental to the birth and sustenance of the museum establishment in Nigeria: from the earliest British curators Kenneth Murray and Bernard Fagg to their Nigerian successors Prof. Ekpo Eyo and Dr Eluyemi Omotosho.

“These “fathers” who were in command at different periods during the seventy years collected objects directly and indirectly,” according to a commemorative statement on the NCMM website. “The accumulated objects are from various ethnic groupings yet when assembled they present common traits that can be instrumental to our national unity.”

There are at least 45 federal museums in Nigeria, including four museums of national unity; a couple dozens more are owned and funded by state governments and private or community concerns.
Where the Great American Outdoors Act stands now
By: High Country News
Tags: Politics, Conservation

After passing with bipartisan support in August, the conservation law hits stumbling blocks. Here’s what may happen next.

In August, when President Donald Trump signed into passage the Great American Outdoors Act, Democrats warned that he was only doing so as a political favor for Colorado’s Cory Gardner and Montana’s Steve Daines, two vulnerable Western Republican senators who co-sponsored it in an attempt to keep their seats in the November election. (Gardner lost his bid for re-election.)

Whatever Trump’s motives, the bipartisan bill was a huge victory for conservation, permanently funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million annually and creating a separate pot of money, up to $9.5 billion, to be used for maintenance at national parks and other public lands over five years. Still it was a surprising shift for the Trump administration: Prior to announcing Trump’s support, his administration had previously recommended cutting the LWCF’s budget by 97% in the 2021 fiscal year.

Visitors to Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, walk along the edge of Yellowstone Lake. Luna Anna Archey/High Country News

But now that Trump’s term is nearing its end, the law’s implementation is coming into focus after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt issued an order last week laying out how the Land and Water Conservation Fund will be managed. The fund has two separate objectives: One is to provide funding to states for their own recreation and conservation priorities, and the other is to enable public-lands agencies to make land acquisitions, among other things.

See the rest of the update here: https://www.hcn.org/articles/south-public-lands-where-the-great-american-outdoors-act-stands-now

Jessica Kutz is an assistant editor for High Country News.