Nature Magic

Today Mary is talking to Kushal Jayakumar and Anees Ali from the Ecology department of Christ Junior College, Bangalore on their new podcast Geeks in Suits.

Geeks in Suits are on a quest to unravel the journeys of experts in various fields with an enquiry on Physis-Nomos!

We talk about the biodiversity crisis, species on the edge of extinction and the healing power of nature.

Contact Geeks in Suits at [email protected]

Contact Mary at [email protected]

Check out the Burren Nature Sanctuary at www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Buy the Nature Magic book at
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Nature-Magic-Engage-Everyone-Biodiversity-ebook/dp/B08DL7L43M

Buy DUST- An Irish Fairy Tale at
https://www.amazon.co.uk/DUST-Ms-Mary-Therese-Bermingham/dp/1838105328

Today Mary is talking to Dr Karen L. Bacon. Karen is a plant ecologist and palaeoecologist based in Botany & Plant Sciences at the National University of Ireland, Galway.

She completed her PhD in plant palaeoecology in 2012 in University College Dublin. After spending several years in the UK, she returned to Ireland in 2019. Dr Bacon’s interests span palaeobotany to modern plant ecology and incorporates elements of plant biology, geology and chemistry. She is particularly interested in understanding plant extinction and how plants respond to environmental change both in a modern context and in relation to environmental upheavals, such as mass extinctions, in the geological record. She is also interested in taphonomy, the science of fossil preservation, and understanding what quality of information can be determined from the fossil record. Her modern ecological research focuses on invasive species, plant chemistry, ecosystem services, and plant awareness (plant blindness).

Some links:
Dr Karen Bacon NUI Galway page: https://www.nuigalway.ie/our-research/people/natural-sciences/kbacon/

Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew 2020 State of the World’s Plants and Fungi: https://www.kew.org/science/state-of-the-worlds-plants-and-fungi

BBC article on plant blindness: https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20190425-plant-blindness-what-we-lose-with-nature-deficit-disorder

Biodiversity:
National Biodiversity Data Centre (great resource): https://www.biodiversityireland.ie/

Link to the government page asking the public what research they would like funded.
https://creatingourfuture.ie
Please go to this page and highlight what you would like funded- (plant biodiversity etc)

Some questions for people seeking election:
-Do you consider biodiversity and the biodiversity crisis a priority? If no, why not?
-How will you fund research and support for biodiversity in Ireland?
-What do you think the most important thing the government can do to support biodiversity is? How will you achieve that?

Recommended books
A walk in the woods
By: Bill Byron and William Roberts

Wildflowers of Ireland
By: Zoe Devlin

Contact Mary
mary@burrennaturesanctuaryie

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary on Instagram, Facebook or on the website
www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Today Mary is talking to Aga Grandowicz.
Aga is a multi-award winning art director, graphic designer and wildlife illustrator.


Aga studied graphic design, graphic art, fine arts and traditional photography in ASP Gdansk (Academy of Fine Arts Gdansk) and Shortly after completing her masters in 2003, with the highest honours, she set up her graphic design practice and started working for a large variety of Polish businesses. In 2006, in search of adventure and inspiration, Aga has moved to Ireland where she still lives and works.


Her first book, created together with Rob Maguire, ‘Dr Hibernica Finch’s Compelling Compendium of Irish Animals’ (published by Little Island in 2018) was shortlisted for the Irish Book Awards 2018, Literacy Ireland Children’s Book Award 2019, and won Aga the Honour Award for Illustration in CBI’s Book of the Year Award 2019.


Since the book’s publication, Aga has been involved in a working on biodiversity-related projects – contributing to them with her design and illustration skills, and now she works towards making it her new career path.


Her second book - 'Remarkable creatures - a short guide to Irish disappearing animals', has been published in June 2021 by Natural World Publishing.



More info here:
https://aga-grandowicz.com/content/about-and-contact

Aga is using all her skills to play her part in tackling the biodiversity crisis that is challenging our world

Recommended books:

Dr Hibernica Finch’s Compelling Compendium of Irish Animals
Remarkable creatures - a short guide to Irish disappearing animals

By: Aga Grandowizc

Bonkers about Beetles
Fantastic about Frogs
Obsessive about Octopuses
Smart about Sharks
Curious about Crocodiles
Mad about Monkeys
Crazy about Cats

By: Owen Davey
Flying Eye Press

30 Second Zoology

By: Mark Fellowes

Contact Aga at More info here:
https://aga-grandowicz.com/content/about-and-contact

Contact Mary at
[email protected]

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at
www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Support Nature Magic at
https://www.patreon.com/naturemagic?

Today Mary is talking to Gearoid McEvoy, a 21-year-old Irish Wildlife Biology graduate and the founder of Reforest Nation that has just hit it's goal of planting 50,000 trees in Ireland.

Burren Nature Sanctuary has partnered with Reforest nation to plant 1000 trees this Autumn. Their new goal is 1 million trees planted- listen in to the amazing story of how one young person started Reforest nation in lockdown during a global pandemic.

A message from Gearóid...

I have a passion for all creatures big and small and I want to do something that really makes a difference for our environment. Of all the things humans have done to destroy the planet, the removal of its trees has to be one of the most noticeable and heartbreaking. Through deforestation, we’ve cut down about half the world’s trees. This amounts to an area about 4 and a half times the size of Europe.

Despite how heartbreaking the destruction of the natural world is to me, past and current generations have done little to stop this destruction. That’s why I decided to become a wildlife biologist to help protect endangered species around the world. It's also why I’ve set up this initiative to help give back to my own country’s environment and give an opportunity for others to do the same.

I’m going to put my heart and soul into this project along with my passionate team and I hope you’ll be able to see that from the work we’re doing. We have big ambitions to make a big impact and are excited to make our members proud. Let’s get to 1,000,000!!!

Check out Reforest Nation at
www.reforestnation.ie

Recommended books:
How did we get into this mess?
By: George Monbiot

Sapiens
By:Yuval Noah Harari

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at
www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Nature Magic Podcast website
www.naturemagic.ie

Support Nature Magic at
https://www.patreon.com/naturemagic

Today Mary is talking to Conor W. O’Brien, author of

Life in Ireland- A short history of a long time.

Available to purchase at
https://irishacademicpress.ie/product/life-in-ireland-a-short-history-of-a-long-time/

Conor is a wildlife writer and photographer, with a lifelong interest in the natural world. His work has been published in Ireland’s Own, Irish Wildlife magazine and Wings, the official publication of Birdwatch Ireland, in which he wrote about Ireland’s extinct birds. Conor’s first book, Ireland Through Birds: Journeys in Search of a Wild Nation, was nominated for Best Irish Published Book of the Year at the 2019 An Post Irish Book Awards. He is a member of Birdwatch Ireland and the Irish Wildlife Trust, and has given presentations on the great auk and Ireland’s Ice Age fauna to the latter.

Conor is from Wicklow Town, he now lives in County Meath.

Recommended books:

Life in Ireland- A short history of a long time
By: Conor W O Brien

My Garden World
By: Monty Don

Europe: A Natural History
By: Tim Flannery

Our Inner Ape: The best and worst of human nature
By: Frans de Waal

The cultural lives of whales and dolphins
By: Hal Whitehead and Luke Rendell

Five in Five- Trinity Botany Department short video on Burren Flora
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zYgysq6oUYo

Contact Conor at
[email protected]

Contact Mary at
[email protected]

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at
www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Nature Magic Podcast Website
https://www.naturemagic.ie

Support the Nature Magic podcast at
https://www.patreon.com/naturemagic

Today Mary is talking to Dr Joseph Bruchac, proud Nulhegan Abeneki citizen and respected elder of his tribe. For over forty years Joseph Bruchac has been creating literature and music that reflects his indigenous heritage and traditions. He is the author of more than 170 books for children and adults. His best selling Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children series, with its remarkable integration of science and folklore, continues to receive critical acclaim and to be used in classrooms throughout the USA.

Joseph attended Cornell University from 1960 to 1965, initially majoring in Wildlife Conservation and then switching his major to English, earning a B.A. in English with a minor in Zoology.

He attended Syracuse University from 1965-66 on a Creative Writing fellowship and graduated with a Master’s degree in English with a creative writing thesis.

He also did 3 years of postgraduate study at SUNY Albany, then transferred to the Union Institute of Ohio where he earned his Ph.D.

He has 2 honorary Doctorates — from SUNY Potsdam and Wheelock College (which is now a part of Boston University)

His work has won many honours
His book Jim Thorpes bright path won the Carter Woodson Book award, he holds among many others a Rockefeller humanities fellowship, the Cherokee nation prose award and the storyteller and writer of the year awards from the wordcraft circle of native writers and storytellers

Contact Dr Joseph Bruchac at
[email protected]

Visit his website at
https://www.josephbruchac.com/

Contact Mary at
[email protected]

Recommended books:

Keepers of the Earth
By: Dr Joseph Bruchac

Joseph Bruchac's newest book:
A Peacemaker for Warring Nations:The Founding of the Iroquois League
With illustrations by Daniel Kanietakeron Fadden

Our Inner Ape
By: Dr Frans De Wall

Fabres book of Insects
By: Jean Henri Fabre

Autumn Across America
By: Edwin Way Teale

A People's Ecology
By: Gregory Cajete

Recommended author: Roger Tory Peterson

Link to Choctaw Feather sculpture famine memorial https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kindred_Spirits_(sculpture)

Nature Magic Podcast Website
https://www.naturemagic.ie

Support the Nature Magic podcast at
https://www.patreon.com/naturemagic

Today Mary is talking to Dan Donoher Animal Manager of Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland’s brand new Wildlife Hospital.

Dan is amongst a group of admirable people who this year started the first Wildlife hospital in Ireland. The emergency facility is in Garlow Cross, County Meath in an adapted barn and stables.

Dan worked previously at the wildlife unit in Kildare Animal Foundation.
He is an advanced oiled wildlife responder and assistant Instructor on WRI wildlife courses.
He is WRI Rehabilitation & Outreach Manager and contributes to radio, TV and print articles to support WRI.

The Emergency Hospital in Garlow Cross, Co Meath is a national Hospital, a resource to benefit wildlife from all over the country. It is adapted from an empty barn and stables to cater for injured wild animals, and the volunteers need all the help they can get financially, and in-kind, to have this Hospital fully functional for orphaned and injured wildlife.

Contact Dan and check out the wildlife hospital at

http://wildlifehospital.ie

Check out Wildlife Rehabilitation Ireland at
http://wri.ie



Get in touch with Mary at
[email protected]

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at
www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

Book a Fairy Pig Walk at
https://www.airbnb.ie/experiences/446234

Today Mary is talking to Ramiro D. Crego.

Ramiro is a conservation biologist from Argentina, living on the farm at Burren Nature Sanctuary with his wife Nora and their rescue cat, Alba and currently working remotely as a postdoctoral fellow at the Smithsonian Conservation Biology Institute, USA.

Ramiro has been studying birds and mammals inhabiting semi-arid grasslands of Argentina and Kenya, and temperate forests in southern Chile. In his studies, Ramiro investigates how our human actions are affecting ecosystems to find conservation solutions that can benefit both wildlife and the people that live and depend on it. Ramiro is also interested in addressing the interconnection between ecology and society from a biocultural conservation approach, using metaphors that integrate ecological research with philosophy and native American worldviews.


www.ramirodcrego.com

Recommended books

The elephant whisperer
By: Lawrence Anthony

Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are?
By: Frans de Waal

Contact Mary at
[email protected]

Check out Burren Nature Sanctuary at
www.burrennaturesanctuary.ie

If you are interested in leasing our award winning cafe and shop please check it out at

https://www.daft.ie/commercial-property-for-rent/burren-nature-sanctuary-cloonasee-kinvara-co-galway/3222122

Today Mary is talking to Janie Chodosh, author of 'The Elephant Doctor of India'.

She is an undergraduate at the University of Michigan and majored in biology, ecology, natural resources management, creative writing, and poetry. After college, she moved to Yosemite National Park where she worked as a naturalist and educator and learned to rock climb and backcountry ski.

For her thesis as a graduate student in the University of Montana's environmental studies she traveled to a rural community on the coast of Oaxaca, Mexico to develop an environmental education program focusing on neotropical migratory songbirds (a fancy title for birds that breed in the north and winter south of the border).

She moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico to work as the education director for the state Audubon Society and later as a teacher.

When not writing she loves to hang out with her family, rock climb, try to grow a garden in the arid southwest, bird watch, muck around in cool places, travel, and attempt to play Klezmer music on her violin!

Contact Janie through her website with links to all her books
https://janiechodosh.com/

Elephant friendly tea
https://www.elephantorigins.com

Recommended books:

The Soul of an Octopus
By Sy Montgomery

H is for Hawk
Vesper Flights
By Helen McDonald

Beyond Words
By Carl Safina

Earth's Wild Music
By Kathleen Dean Moore

Contact Mary at
[email protected]

The elephant whisperer whose name I couldn't remember in the podcast was Lawrence Anthony.

'No one knows how, but the elephants travelled from one corner of the vast game reserve to the other, and came to Anthony’s home, and stood right outside of it, in the same way as they mourn the passing of one of their family members. They stood there for nearly two days, after which they dispersed again.'

Today Mary is talking to Dr. Claire Warden. Claire is an advocate for outdoor learning. Among many achievemnts she is Founder of Living Classrooms, the International Association of Nature Pedagogy and the Mindstretchers Academy.

Claire is also director of the wonderful Auchlone Nature Kindergarten in Scotland where children spend 80% of their day outside.

She received the international award 'Exceptional Master Leader' for her work on the Floorbooks Approach and she has written many other educational books including ‘Nature Kindergartens and Forest schools’



Get in touch with Claire at https://www.Claire-warden.com

Check out Auchlone Nature Kindergarten at https://www.auchlone.co.uk

Get in touch with Mary at [email protected]

Recommended books
The Little Grey Men
By: B.B.