Sustainabilty | GardenLarge

Cross-pollinated Connecticut Chestnut Comeback

Forest management efforts in Connecticut paying off as American chestnut tree makes a comeback | The Republic
via Ct Environmental Headlines
- Scientists have been working on restoration since the 1930s, and in the last several years, American chestnut specialist Sandy Anagnostakis has been breeding blight-resistant trees by crossing the American species with its Chinese cousin, which carries a resistant gene.
  
  Some 200 of those blight-resistant seedlings were planted on 2.5 acres at Belding in 2009, and while mortality is eventually expected to reach 50 percent due to die-off from natural competition, Seymour said the vast majority of the trees are thriving.
- Eventually, the native trees will reach maturity and begin cross-pollinating with the newly planted blight-resistant strain, creating seedlings genetically similar to trees native to the site that also carry genes resistant to blight.

The Age of Man Is Not a Disaster – NYTimes.com
- Yes, we live in the Anthropocene — but that does not mean we inhabit an ecological hell. Our management and care of natural places and the millions of other species with which we share the planet could and should be improved.

Fearing Climate Change’s Effects on the Adirondacks – NYTimes.com
By LISA W. FODERARO
A full moon rising over Osgood Pond near Paul Smiths, N.Y. More Photos »
- Mr. Jenkins, who is the author of the book “Climate Change in the Adirondacks: The Path to Sustainability,” spends much of his time on the water and in the woods, documenting the ecosystem with a notebook and a camera. He thus brings an unusual perspective to the scene. Where a casual observer might behold diversity and continuity, he projects decades into the future and finds absence and loss.

Keep the Clean Water Act Strong – NYTimes.com
- When the act became law, two-thirds of our nation’s lakes, rivers and coastal waters were unsafe for fishing or swimming, and untreated sewage and industrial waste was routinely dumped into our waters.

Her message is as important today as when she wrote it.