Wild in the City

In this episode we are joined by two representatives of the Old Growth Forest Network, Sarah Adloo, Executive Director and Katherine Russell, Southeast Regional Manager. Sarah is a conservation social scientist whose work revolves around how people connect to trees. Katherine’s focus is ecology and the diversity and complexity of these incredible natural communities. Learn what Old Growth Forests are and why they are so vitally important. You’ll also hear about creating an ethos for preservation of forests in our cities, cultivating a sense of reverence and a sense of value that will help protect our remaining forests for generations to come. Forests are an essential natural infrastructure that will help humankind survive.

Visit our Environment Sandy Springs website here: www.environment-sandysprings.org

Subscribe to our newsletter here: www.environment-sandysprings/newsletter

Email us your thoughts: [email protected]

Hosts: Jim Newbury and Janet Wells

Guests: Sarah Adloo, Katherine Russell

Sound Mixing: Jason Wells

Sound Recording Services: Boom Post Audio - Atlanta, GA

Theme Song: Jason Wells

Performed by: March Fourth Marching Band

Recording of owl hoots: Tom Herrmann

Jim and Janet are joined by Sally Bethea, the retired founding director of Chattahoochee Riverkeeper. She served as executive director and riverkeeper for two decades and continues to assist Chattahoochee Riverkeeper as a senior advisor.

Sally is one of the first women in America to become a “riverkeeper”—a vocal defender of a specific waterway who holds polluters accountable. In her new book Keeping the Chattahoochee, she tells stories that range from joyous and funny to frustrating—even alarming—to illustrate what it takes to save an endangered river. Her tales are triggered by the regular walks she takes through a forest to the Chattahoochee over the course of a year, finding solace and kinship in nature.

Bethea also publishes a monthly column, Above the Waterline, in Atlanta Intown. She lives and writes in midtown Atlanta.

Purchase Sally’s new book “Keeping the Chattahoochee”: https://ugapress.org/book/9780820364322/keeping-the-chattahoochee/

Visit our Environment Sandy Springs website here: www.environment-sandysprings.org

Subscribe to our newsletter here: www.environment-sandysprings/newsletter

Email us your thoughts: [email protected]

Hosts: Jim Newbury and Janet Wells

Guest: Sally Bethea

Producer: Tucker Wells

Theme Song: Jason Wells

Performed by: March Fourth Marching Band

Recording of owl hoots: Tom Herrmann

Jim and Janet are joined by Laura C. Martin, an accomplished writer and botanical illustrator. In addition to publishing 26 books on wildlife, gardening and crafts, she wrote a weekly gardening column for The Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Laura worked for several years as gardening editor for both Atlanta Homes and Lifestyles Magazine and Georgia Magazine. Her latest book, released in 2021, is titled “A Naturalist’s Book of Wildflowers,” available on Amazon https://a.co/d/3rhw55n

She lives in Atlanta, and she joins the podcast to talk about her passion for native plants, and why native plants are so important to the home garden and the greater ecological community at large. She produces an online blog “Nature Based,” available at https://naturebasedblog.com/

Check out Environment Sandy Springs here: www.environment-sandysprings.org

Subscribe to our Wild in the City newsletter here: www.environment-sandysprings/newsletter

Email us your thoughts: [email protected]

Hosts: Jim Newbury and Janet Wells

Guest: Laura C. Martin

Producer: Tucker Wells

Theme Song: Jason Wells

Performed by: March Fourth Marching Band

Recording of owl hoots: Tom Herrmann

Doug Tallamy, co-founder of “Homegrown National Park,” joins the podcast to discuss how individuals can regenerate biodiversity in their own backyards. Doug shares insight into how the addition of native plant species, combined with the removal of invasive plants, can covert lawns into habitats that sequester carbon from the atmosphere. The man-made effects of climate change can be reversed by employing these techniques on an individual level, leading to the survival of our species as a whole.

Check out Environment Sandy Springs here: https://environment-sandysprings.org

Subscribe to our Wild in the City newsletter here: https://environment-sandysprings/newsletter

Email us your thoughts: [email protected]

Hosts: Jim Newbury and Janet Wells

Guest: Doug Tallamy

Producer: Tucker Wells

Theme Song: Jason Wells

Recording of owl hoots: Tom Herrmann

Doug Tallamy is a professor in the Department of Entomology and Wildlife Ecology at the University of Delaware, where he has authored 97 research publications and has taught insect-related courses for 40 years. Chief among his research goals is to better understand the many ways insects interact with plants and how such interactions determine the diversity of animal communities. His book Bringing Nature Home, published by Timber Press in 2007, was awarded the 2008 Silver Medal by the Garden Writers’ Association. Among his awards are the Garden Club of America Margaret Douglas Medal for Conservation and the Tom Dodd, Jr. Award of Excellence, the 2018 AHS B. Y. Morrison Communication Award, and the 2019 Cynthia Westcott Scientific Writing Award.

Professor Chris Mowry digs into how climate change is the number 1 biggest threat to biodiversity and how we can create dialogue and get involved in change that will benefit us all. Chris is the professor of biology at Berry University in Georgia. He heads up the Atlanta Coyote Project.

Check out Environment Sandy Springs here: https://environment-sandysprings.org

Subscribe to our Wild in the City newsletter here: https://environment-sandysprings/newsletter

Email us your thoughts: [email protected]

Hosts: Jim Newbury and Janet Wells

Guest: Chris Mowry

Producer: Tucker Wells

Theme Song: Jason Wells

Recording of owl hoots: Tom Herrmann

Jim and Janet are joined by Zach Wood, Georgia Grasslands Coordinator and prescribed fire expert for the Southeastern Grasslands Institute, to discuss what grasslands are and why they are vital to the Southeastern environment. You will learn about their historical role, what prescribed burns do and the essential ecological services that these little-known ecosystems provide. Zach also outlines step-by-step how to restore utility easements and right-of-ways into productive ecosystems by starting with a pilot program.

Check out Environment Sandy Springs here: https://environment-sandysprings.org

Subscribe to our Wild in the City newsletter here: https://environment-sandysprings/newsletter

Email us your thoughts: [email protected]

Hosts: Jim Newbury and Janet Wells

Guest: Zach Wood

Producer: Tucker Wells

Theme Song: Jason Wells

Recording of owl hoots: Tom Herrmann

Bill talks about the difference between maintenance and management under utility lines and why a mindset change is needed to make these plots of land productive. Bill talks about how urban cities have an opportunity to create robust, diverse environmental areas under utility power lines and right of ways that are missing from many urban cities. He breaks down the difference between maintenance and management and how Integrated Vegetation Management (IVM) has been proven to be a better and ultimately less expensive option. And Bill outlines step by step how to have local impact by starting with a pilot program.

Check out Environment Sandy Springs here: https://environment-sandysprings.org

Subscribe to our Wild in the City newsletter here: https://environment-sandysprings/newsletter

Email us your thoughts: [email protected]

Hosts: Jim Newbury and Janet Wells

Guest: Bill Rees

Producer: Tucker Wells

Theme Song: Jason Wells

Recording of owl hoots: Tom Herrmann