Nature Nuggets

Chris Baker fills in for Laurel this week talking with Mark DeDea, longtime President of the John Burroughs Natural History Society and caretaker of the Forsyth Nature Center. Our conversation ranges from wild goose chases (literally!) to learning in intergenerational community to the Great Backyard Bird Count coming up February 14th-17th. A full schedule of events for the weekend can be found here~ https://jbnhs.org/events/list/

Today we talk about many fascinating strands of forest science from lightning and disturbance ecology to chasing down and studying the world's largest tropical trees with Evan Gora, a forest ecologist and Staff Scientist with the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies.

Evan grew up on a small farm in central Pennsylvania where he became interested in ecology and started exploring forests.  His research investigates how disturbance, particularly lightning strikes, and decomposition influence community assembly and forest carbon cycling.  Evan received a B.S in Honors Biology from the University of Pittsburgh, with a second major in Economics and a minor in Chemistry, and a Ph.D. from the University of Louisville in 2018. He did much of his training at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama, where he still holds an affiliation.

In this episode we talk about the history and role of mountain lions in our region and current efforts to rehabilitate this iconic top predator to the Northeast of the U.S., where they have been absent now for almost a century.

Christopher Spatz, inspired by Dave Foreman announcing the birth of Earth First! on the Today Show in the early ’80s, procured a copy of Eco Defense and began his peripatetic pursuits as an eco-gadfly. Yanking surveying stakes, canvassing for Greenpeace in Boston, performing for Trenton, NJ’s Klark Kent eco-street theater troupe, directing the Gunks’ Climbers Coalition, and advocating for puma recovery as the president of the Cougar Rewilding Foundation were some of his ventures. He lives and writes from the Shawangunks in southern New York State.

This week we talk all things Hudson Valley herps - amphibians and reptiles - with local expert Alex Wolf!

Alex Wolf, Conservation Scientist at Scenic Hudson, conducts research and analyses pertaining to Hudson Valley natural resources, with a focus on climate change adaptation, mitigation, and resilience, as well as the ecology and conservation of local flora and fauna. Prior to joining Scenic Hudson in 2017, he was a researcher at several institutions including the Cary Institute for Ecosystem Studies and the Missouri Department of Conservation. Alex has co-authored more than a dozen scientific publications.   After growing up in the Hudson Valley, Alex spent 10 years out-of-state pursuing professional opportunities before returning to the region.  He earned a Bachelor of Science in Ecology, Evolution, and Behavioral Biology and a Master of Science in Wildlife Ecology.

In this episode we dig into local forest ecology and management across Scenic Hudson's 40+ parks and preserves throughout the Hudson Valley with lifetime local Pia Ruisi-Besares, including little known gems and scientific approaches to increasing climate resiliency and biodiversity values through thoughtful landscape interventions!

Pia Ruisi-Besares is a forest ecologist and natural resource management professional by training and has worked in a variety of ecosystems across the United States including Alaska, California and Vermont. Prior to her role at Scenic Hudson, she spent 6 years on the Island of O’ahu working as a research coordinator and land manager. During that time, she completed her masters thesis which studied various methods of in situ planting techniques to bolster populations of an endemic, endangered plant species. She also ran a community led tree planting and inventory program in coordination with the City and County of Honolulu. Currently Pia is the Director of Science, Climate, and Stewardship at Scenic Hudson where she is responsible for the stewardship and management of 40 preserves and parks in the Mid Hudson Valley.

Special Solstice edition of Nature Nuggets featuring celebrated author, wildcrafter, forager, permaculturalist and educator Dina Falconi! Dina Falconi is a clinical herbalist with a strong focus on food activism and nutritional healing. Dina has been teaching classes about the use of herbs for food, medicine, and personal care, including wild food foraging and cooking, for more than thirty years.

She offers online courses at www.InTheWild.Kitchen. She produces Falcon Formulations natural body care products and Earthly Extracts medicinal tinctures. She is the author of Foraging & Feasting: A Field Guide and Wild Food Cookbook and Earthly Bodies & Heavenly Hair: Natural and Healthy Personal Care for Everybody.

Please check out her website: www.botanicalartspress.com

And there is her full stocked YouTube channel for your educational viewing pleasure: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCGaikA4Vq0S00kNOhm3uPyg?sub_confirmation=1

IG: https://www.instagram.com/foragingandfeasting/

Online course available now: https://www.inthewild.kitchen/wild-food-health-boosters-and-herbal-remedies-today

Free course:

https://www.inthewild.kitchen/get-white-pine-love-now

For the 85th anniversary celebration of Radio Kingston (!) we have a wonderful, wide ranging conservation with Emily Vail, the director of the Hudson River Watershed Alliance (HRWA). We move between hyper local topics in Kingston, like the historic Tannery Brook buried beneath Uptown, to broader projects and issues related to water quality, urban ecology and watershed health across the Hudson Valley and Catskills region!

Emily served for eight years as the Watershed Outreach Specialist for the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation’s Hudson River Estuary Program, in collaboration with the NYS Water Resources Institute at Cornell University. Her work has supported community-based watershed groups, municipalities, and other partners throughout the region to improve water quality in the Hudson Valley. She holds a BA in Environmental Studies from Vassar College and an MS in Natural Resources from Cornell University. Emily also directs the Uptown Lowdown vintage jazz dance troupe ;-).

Justin Wexler has dedicated his life to learning everything he can about the lives, practices and ethnoecology of the Hudson Valley's original human residents and today he takes us on a journey through the seasons at it may have been experienced by local Lenape or 'Esopus' Indigenous Peoples. Justin and his partner Anna founded and operate Wild Hudson Valley, a beautiful piece of land up against the Catskills where they host nature walks, weekend camp programs and workshops of many kinds.

A life-long resident of the Hudson Valley, Justin has devoted his life to sharing his love for the natural world and for the region's original inhabitants. Obsessed with nature from his earliest years, he has spent most of his life either in the outdoors or in his research on local history and ethnoecology. He has studied regional Algonquian languages, history and folklore for over two decades, sharing discoveries with scholars and with tribal language departments. He has a BA in History and Anthropology from Marlboro College in Marlboro, VT; a Professional Certificate in Environmental Policy from Bard College and a Master of Arts in Teaching from Bard College.

This week we dive deep into all things related to Catskill forests, with Catskill Forest Association Forest Director Ryan Trapani. Catskill Forest Association helps to steward and manage nearly 90,000 acres of forested private lands across the greater Catskill region, working to improve forest health, increase wildlife habitat, manage invasive species and educate the public about forestry and our diverse Catskill forest ecosystems.

Check out CFA and learn more at: https://catskillforest.org/

This episode features a wonderful, wide ranging conversation about nature, urban ecology, community science and much more with Kingston local Elias Deuker, Associate Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies; Bard Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities.

Professor Eli Dueker joined Bard in 2014 as the Assistant Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies. With a B.A. from Rhodes College, an MA, MPhil,and PhD, from Columbia University, as well as postdoctoral research at many other institutions. Additionally, he studied at Columbia University’s Ecology, Evolution, and Environmental Biology postbaccalaureate program. His work has been published in Environmental Science and Technology, Biogeosciences, and Science of the Total Environment.

Before entering academia, he worked for 14 years in the nonprofit world,  including 10 years addressing issues of race, class, gender, and sexuality in institutional structures, serving as the former director of Project Underground, an international environmental and human rights organization, and as a board member of Sylvia Rivera Law Project, a transgender law collective in NYC. He is the founder and a Team member of the Saw Kill Watershed Community, which protects the Saw Kill watershed and its ecological, recreational, and historic resources through hands-on science, education, and advocacy. His teaching interests include water quality, air quality, oceanography, urban ecology, environmental microbiology, and the role of science in addressing environmental justice issues.