Author Archives: rbrewer

Rare Bird in Oshtemo

By rbrewer | Published: October 11, 2010

I became a birder the summer of my freshman year in high school, a bird-watcher a few years later, and an ornithologist a few years after that. I’d have to find my life list to tell you just when I made my last entry, but I think it was sometime toward the end of my [...]

Posted in Birds, Michigan (including Kalamazoo) | 2 Comments

The Plenteous Summer

By rbrewer | Published: August 14, 2010

When I go outside this summer I’m impressed by the amount of greenery.  I don’t have data, but it’s the greenest summer–the largest volume of foliage–I remember. This makes sense.  The limiting factors for photosynthesis, Biology 101 tells us, are temperature, light, and carbon dioxide.  Translating photosynthesis into plant growth–that is, new biomass–also involves availability [...]

Posted in Conservation, Land Trusts (& other private land conservation), Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities, Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Colony Farm Orchard: Get on the Visitors’ List ASAP

By rbrewer | Published: July 23, 2010

For 33 years, from 1977 to early 2010, the Colony Farm Orchard was protected by a restrictive covenant.  By virtue of the terms of the gift to Western Michigan University by the state of Michigan, this land was to be kept as open space for public use. Now, as can be seen, WMU is telling [...]

Posted in Conservation, Land Trusts (& other private land conservation), Michigan (including Kalamazoo) | Leave a comment

Colony Farm Orchard: A Voter’s Guide

By rbrewer | Published: July 6, 2010

I sent the following to the Kalamazoo Gazette as a Letter to the Editor.  The Gazette’s automated response told me that publication could take up to 2 months, which would be a month after the primary elections on August 3rd.  So I’m posting it here, slightly modified. To what I say in the letter, I [...]

Posted in Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Uncategorized | 3 Comments

Getting Maps Right for the Color-blind Naturalist

By rbrewer | Published: July 1, 2010

The January 2010 issue of The Auk published my review of the Atlas of Breeding Birds of Ontario, 2001-2005.  It’s a fine book. It may be a little heavy for some readers–it weighs more than seven pounds. The next (April) issue of The Auk published a Letter to the Editor that made reference to the [...]

Posted in Birds, Uncategorized | 2 Comments

The 2010 American Columbo Census

By rbrewer | Published: June 20, 2010

Last week I finished my annual American columbo census.  Every year in June, I check up on a marked population of American columbo (Frasera caroliniensis) plants in the oak woods near where my wife and I live in Oshtemo Township. Here in southwest Michigan, columbo was an oak savanna plant. I suspect that today this [...]

Posted in Birds, Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities | 1 Comment

Michigan League of Conservation Voters: Rep. Robert Jones-100, Colony Farm Orchard-0

By rbrewer | Published: June 3, 2010

The League of Conservation Voters is a national environmental group that is best known for its Environmental Scorecard, where the league tallies the pro- and anti-environmental votes cast by our elected representatives.  I’m glad the organization exists; I strongly support the idea that we should know how politicians vote on conservation issues and hold them [...]

Posted in Conservation, Land Trusts (& other private land conservation), Michigan (including Kalamazoo) | Leave a comment

Why are Yellow-headed Blackbirds rare in Michigan?

By rbrewer | Published: May 29, 2010

A Yellow-headed Blackbird, a rare bird in Michigan, was seen near the end of April at Wolf Lake Fish Hatchery.  The Fish Hatchery is west of Kalamazoo, a few miles over the Kalamazoo-Van Buren County line.  The bird was first reported on 30 April.   I drove out Sunday morning, 2 May, to try to get [...]

Posted in Birds, Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo) | 7 Comments

Asylum Lake Preserve: What Kalamazoo ought to do, part 2

By rbrewer | Published: May 21, 2010

My last post several days ago repeated and updated some remarks I’d made on Earth Day 2004.   It ended with the following comment about the Asylum Lake Preserve situation at that time: Today’s Gazette (24 April 2004) had more good news. After a long process, a Declaration of Conservation Restrictions and Management Framework for the [...]

Posted in Conservation, Land Trusts (& other private land conservation), Michigan (including Kalamazoo) | Leave a comment

A Cleaner, Greener Land: What Kalamazoo Ought to Do. 2010, Part 1.

By rbrewer | Published: April 22, 2010

I made the following remarks at the 24 April 2004 Earth Day celebration at Kalamazoo Valley Community College and included them on the earlier version of my website as Conservation Letter 2 . Today, in boldface , I look at the same topics six years later. When I agreed to give a talk at Earth [...]

Posted in Conservation, Land Trusts (& other private land conservation), Michigan (including Kalamazoo) | Leave a comment