Category Archives: Land Trusts (& other private land conservation)

Field Trip To Beech-Sugar Maple Forest 7 April 2012, In A High CO2 World

By rbrewer | Published: March 24, 2012

I’m leading a field trip to a beech-sugar maple forest this spring.  We’ll look at the spring flowers and as we stroll around also talk about what mesophytic forests are like, why they are where they are, what the interactions among the organisms are, and other such natural history and ecology topics. The specific site [...]

Also posted in Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities | Leave a comment

Founders Rule

By rbrewer | Published: January 3, 2012

A thread that began on the LANDTRUST-L listserv early in December 2011 had an outlier, a late post, a couple of days ago.  I read it over this afternoon as the first good-sized snow of the winter was falling–9 inches but slowing down. The thread had to do with term limits for land trust board [...]

Also posted in Conservation | 1 Comment

L. A. Kenoyer on Saving Newton Woods

By rbrewer | Published: November 21, 2011

The essay that follows is a radio address by Leslie Alva Kenoyer, who served from 1922 to 1953 as Professor and Chairman of the Biology Department at Western Michigan University –at that time Western State Teachers College .  The piece is dated April 16, 1935.  It was written for Western’s Radio Hour, which was evidently a continuing feature [...]

Also posted in Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities, Quotations | 1 Comment

What will happen to the sand dunes at Saugatuck?

By rbrewer | Published: August 9, 2011

At a time in southwest Michigan when protecting all our remaining natural lands and waters would make sense for human health and economic viability, threats continue. This morning I received the message copied in boldface below from the Saugatuck Dunes Coastal Alliance.  It is their updated look at the controversy involving the Lake Michigan sand dunes and [...]

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

Zombie Seed Production by Garlic Mustard (Alliaria petiolata)

By rbrewer | Published: June 16, 2011

I need to give the results of the small trial mentioned a month ago, when I put out eight garlic mustard plants (four small and four large) that we had pulled up early in the spring on 23 April at the Audubon Society’s Harris Sanctuary. I spread them out on the floor of an oak [...]

Also posted in Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities | 1 Comment

Quote 2, Henry David Thoreau on Preserving Land

By rbrewer | Published: May 6, 2011

  Each town should have a park, or rather a primitive forest, of five hundred or a thousand acres, where a stick should never be cut for fuel, a common possession forever, for instruction and recreation. We hear of cow-commons and ministerial lots, but we want men-commons and lay lots, inalienable forever….   All Walden [...]

Also posted in Conservation, Plants and Plant Communities, Quotations | 2 Comments

More About Aldo Leopold’s Subversive Ideas

By rbrewer | Published: April 24, 2011

@Dick Klade in Comment 3 to preceding post Thanks for restoring the interesting lost section of your comment. It’s not surprising that Leopold’s ideas didn’t always suit the bureaucracy.  Ecology is the subversive science, as Paul Sears said. The game managers seemed to accept Leopold early.  As an undergraduate in 1953 or 1954, I had [...]

Also posted in Conservation, Quotations, Southern Illinois Ecology | 1 Comment

Early Spring at Mildred Harris Audubon Sanctuary, Kalamazoo

By rbrewer | Published: April 9, 2011

In Oshtemo Township, it’s 64 degrees and sunny this afternoon and the wood frogs in the pond close to the road were clacking loudly.  This morning though, a few miles away at Harris Sanctuary, it was high 30s at the beginning and high 40s at the end. I spent the early part of the morning [...]

Also posted in Birds, Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities | Leave a comment

Bicycle Trail Through or To the Ott Biological Preserve: A Decision Near

By rbrewer | Published: April 6, 2011

Following is a slightly revised version of a letter that I sent to members of the Calhoun County Board of Commissioners on 29 April 2011.  They will soon (Thursday, 7 April, 7 PM at the County Building, 315 West Green St. in Marshall) be taking an important vote related to whether the Calhoun County Trailways Association will [...]

Also posted in Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities | 3 Comments

Wide Bike Trail Through the Preserve?: Speak Out to Save the Ott

By rbrewer | Published: March 9, 2011

Take Action on the Proposed Trail Through the Harvey Ott Biological Preserve The Calhoun County Commissioners will be the ones voting on the trail.  They may give more weight to messages from their constituents; nevertheless, it will be of value to them to know if the threat to the Ott Preserve is a matter of [...]

Also posted in Conservation, Michigan (including Kalamazoo), Plants and Plant Communities, Uncategorized | 2 Comments