Photo: Susanne Miller / USFWS
By Barbara Kessler

The polar bear will be granted “threatened” status under the Endangered Species Act, the Bush Administration announced today, because the Arctic ice the animal needs to survive is shrinking and scientific projections show it will jeopardize the polar bear’s survival prospects for decades to come. But the decision, […]

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By Barbara Kessler

Wonder how the gray wolves are faring since they were “delisted” from protection under the Endangered Species Act? One of the three Rocky Mountain states with a significant gray wolf population, Idaho, is having meetings to determine the rules for the hunting of the wolves this fall.

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By John DeFore
Are polar bears in danger of extinction? U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken in Oakland wants to know, and has given the Bush administration two more weeks to find out.
Judge Wilken said today that the administration had no legitimate reason for failing to meet a January 9 deadline (one year after the bear was […]

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By Shermakaye Bass
and Barbara Kessler
There’s no doubt that community gardens, a tradition that first surfaced in the United States in the early 1900’s, are at the grassroots of today’s urban “buy local/grow local” movement. But today, in places as diverse as New York City and Madison, Wisc., community gardens are also a socio-cultural […]

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By John DeFore

While it may not be an answer to the mysterious collapse of certain honeybee colonies, researchers at the University of Virginia have identified one unusual threat to the continued well-being of pollinating insects and the flowers they love: Air pollution, they report in the journal Atmospheric Environment, is killing the scent of flowers.
Using […]

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By John DeFore
They claim not to have been inspired by anybody in particular, but it’s hard to imagine that childhood Disney ballads of Johnny Appleseed weren’t lurking somewhere in Grant Gardner’s and Matt Cortina’s heads when they decided, sitting in a New Jersey coffee shop in December of 2006, to travel the breadth […]

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By Barbara Kessler
After nine years, Mary Bakatsa’s garden is bearing fruit…and vegetables…and flowers…and herbs. It is a chorus of life, and supports more activity than even Mary imagined when she started gardening nearly 20 years ago with a few potted herbs.
Along with her flowers and veggies, which grow side by side, she has […]

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By Barbara Kessler
Mary Bakatsa is “organic all the way” in her sprawling Austin garden. But that doesn’t mean she simply avoids pesticides and blithely sits back to watch. Organic gardening is more proactive and veteran gardener Bakatsa runs dozens of schemes to nudge nature in the right direction. She places certain plants near others […]

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By Harriet Blake
Your first reaction might be YUCK. Composting is not for the squeamish among us.
The definition alone is enough to turn you off: the aeorobic decomposition of biodegradable organic matter, performed by aerobic bacteria, yeasts and fungi and in the later stages, assisted by ants, nematodes and worms.
Organic gardening expert Howard Garrett describes compost […]

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By Barbara Kessler
Manufacturers have pounced on the composting trend, giving you, the consumer, many choices for how you want to recycle your kitchen and garden waste. Here are a few:

This Tumbleweed Compost Bin was Member Tested and Recommended by the National Home Gardening Club, according to Clean Air Gardening, an online store that sells […]

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By John DeFore
The blogosphere overflows with examples of artists who use recycled or reclaimed materials in ways ranging from the whimsical to the architectural. Even given that diversity, though, an effort that came to light last week is something special.
The street-art fans known as the Wooster Collective posted the images above at their site on […]

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By Shermakaye Bass
Ah, the smell of freshly mown grass. It’s the smell of childhood, of school vacations and picnics and lying in the backyard, finding faces in clouds. No one will deny that plush turf is a big part of modern Americana. But the imported, “exotic” grasses of our childhoods, nostalgic and fragrant as they […]

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