Latest news with #NatureConservancy
The Independent
14 hours ago
- Health
- The Independent
How to turn down the volume and protect wildlife in your yard and garden
In the garden, the start of the growing season means the return of dirt under our fingernails, the scent of freshly spread mulch and the first blooming roses. In my neighborhood, and perhaps yours, it also means an audible onslaught of lawnmowers, leaf blowers and other tools of the landscaper's trade. From 8 a.m. through at least early afternoon — five or six days every week — the hum of power tools and other machines disrupts my peace. But even more concerning is that my peace pales in importance to that of my property's other residents. Birds, squirrels, rabbits, frogs, insects and other wildlife are critically affected by human-made noise. They're outdoors right in the middle of what must seem to them a war zone — with no escape. And the battleground noises that surround them aren't merely nuisances; they disrupt the basic instincts the animals' lives depend on. Instincts such as those that alert them to the presence of predators become masked under the gas-powered cacophony prevalent throughout most of suburbia. The unnatural sounds can also force birds, bats and insects into changing their feeding, nesting and mating habits, says Kevin Munroe, Long Island Preserve Director for The Nature Conservancy, based in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. 'Quite a few animals communicate primarily through song, and their songs are how they find each other,' Munroe said. Those with soft and quiet songs, like warblers, small species of owls, bats and some species of crickets, for instance, can be so badly drowned out by noise pollution that 'they literally cannot build families or reproduce,' he said. To illustrate the point, Munroe likens the animals' songs to navigation systems. 'Imagine these songs are the birds' roadmaps to each other, and imagine you're using your GPS to get somewhere and all of a sudden it turns off, and that's the only way you can find your family. Now, with it turned off, there's no way you'll find your family. That's what song is like for these animals,' he said. Artificial noises from power equipment, traffic, construction and industrial sources, can also cause stress and hearing loss in animals. A University of Georgia study even found that highway noises can elevate heart rates in monarch caterpillars. Thoughtful planning can reduce the noise This may seem like a losing battle in modern society, but there are steps we can take to help. The Nature Conservancy recommends changes to industrial practices that include accounting for sensitive areas when siting noise-producing facilities, such as access roads and compressor stations, and designing them to include sound barriers such as walls, vegetative screening and noise-absorbing equipment. Altering the timing and duration of noisy activities during breeding and hibernation periods could also reduce adverse effects on wildlife, the organization said. What you can do at home On our own properties, small changes can make a big impact. Because birds do their 'most important talking to each other' between dawn and 9 a.m., Munroe recommends shifting noisy yardwork later. Another critical time for many species of wildlife is after dark, he said. 'You can play music and have fun, but try not to make any loud noises,' he said. In addition, creating sound buffers by planting dense native trees, evergreens or deciduous shrubs, and switching from gas- to battery-powered tools, including leaf blowers, string trimmers and chainsaws, are simple things homeowners can do to avoid causing harm. Educating and introducing change to local communities is important, too. Munroe suggests working with your homeowners association, schools, businesses and churches to limit loud, destructive activity on their properties. 'Talk to local municipalities about their noise ordinances and (encourage them to) create a sound sanctuary in the neighborhood (to protect) wood thrushes, katydids' and other wildlife, he said. And always observe noise ordinances at home and in public places, like parks. Wild animals serve as 'pollinators, affect pest control and have a positive effect on our agriculture and our economy,' Munroe said. 'We want them in our neighborhoods.' ___ Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice. ___
Associated Press
14 hours ago
- Health
- Associated Press
How to turn down the volume and protect wildlife in your yard and garden
In the garden, the start of the growing season means the return of dirt under our fingernails, the scent of freshly spread mulch and the first blooming roses. In my neighborhood, and perhaps yours, it also means an audible onslaught of lawnmowers, leaf blowers and other tools of the landscaper's trade. From 8 a.m. through at least early afternoon — five or six days every week — the hum of power tools and other machines disrupts my peace. But even more concerning is that my peace pales in importance to that of my property's other residents. Birds, squirrels, rabbits, frogs, insects and other wildlife are critically affected by human-made noise. They're outdoors right in the middle of what must seem to them a war zone — with no escape. And the battleground noises that surround them aren't merely nuisances; they disrupt the basic instincts the animals' lives depend on. Instincts such as those that alert them to the presence of predators become masked under the gas-powered cacophony prevalent throughout most of suburbia. The unnatural sounds can also force birds, bats and insects into changing their feeding, nesting and mating habits, says Kevin Munroe, Long Island Preserve Director for The Nature Conservancy, based in Cold Spring Harbor, New York. 'Quite a few animals communicate primarily through song, and their songs are how they find each other,' Munroe said. Those with soft and quiet songs, like warblers, small species of owls, bats and some species of crickets, for instance, can be so badly drowned out by noise pollution that 'they literally cannot build families or reproduce,' he said. To illustrate the point, Munroe likens the animals' songs to navigation systems. 'Imagine these songs are the birds' roadmaps to each other, and imagine you're using your GPS to get somewhere and all of a sudden it turns off, and that's the only way you can find your family. Now, with it turned off, there's no way you'll find your family. That's what song is like for these animals,' he said. Artificial noises from power equipment, traffic, construction and industrial sources, can also cause stress and hearing loss in animals. A University of Georgia study even found that highway noises can elevate heart rates in monarch caterpillars. Thoughtful planning can reduce the noiseThis may seem like a losing battle in modern society, but there are steps we can take to help. The Nature Conservancy recommends changes to industrial practices that include accounting for sensitive areas when siting noise-producing facilities, such as access roads and compressor stations, and designing them to include sound barriers such as walls, vegetative screening and noise-absorbing equipment. Altering the timing and duration of noisy activities during breeding and hibernation periods could also reduce adverse effects on wildlife, the organization said. What you can do at homeOn our own properties, small changes can make a big impact. Because birds do their 'most important talking to each other' between dawn and 9 a.m., Munroe recommends shifting noisy yardwork later. Another critical time for many species of wildlife is after dark, he said. 'You can play music and have fun, but try not to make any loud noises,' he said. In addition, creating sound buffers by planting dense native trees, evergreens or deciduous shrubs, and switching from gas- to battery-powered tools, including leaf blowers, string trimmers and chainsaws, are simple things homeowners can do to avoid causing harm. Educating and introducing change to local communities is important, too. Munroe suggests working with your homeowners association, schools, businesses and churches to limit loud, destructive activity on their properties. 'Talk to local municipalities about their noise ordinances and (encourage them to) create a sound sanctuary in the neighborhood (to protect) wood thrushes, katydids' and other wildlife, he said. And always observe noise ordinances at home and in public places, like parks. Wild animals serve as 'pollinators, affect pest control and have a positive effect on our agriculture and our economy,' Munroe said. 'We want them in our neighborhoods.' ___ Jessica Damiano writes weekly gardening columns for the AP and publishes the award-winning Weekly Dirt Newsletter. You can sign up here for weekly gardening tips and advice. ___ For more AP gardening stories, go to
San Francisco Chronicle
5 days ago
- Science
- San Francisco Chronicle
California's native oysters are unusually well adapted for climate change
Sorry, your browser doesn't support embedded videos. The tiny native oysters of San Francisco Bay managed to outlive the Gold Rush, bay-shore development and decades of punishing pollution. New research shows they have a fighting chance to survive global warming as well. A different species than the farmed Pacific oysters slurped up in restaurants, Olympia oysters are the West Coast's only native oyster species, once forming huge reefs along thousands of miles of coastline from Baja California to British Columbia. Though delicious, they're not as commercially viable and can't be safely harvested from San Francisco Bay because of pollution. But efforts are underway to restore the native oyster in the bay and along the West Coast for its important role in the ecosystem, including providing habitat for baby salmon and crab. 'If we had been here 300 years ago, it would have been this striking, essential part of San Francisco Bay,' said Kerstin Wasson, research coordinator at Elkhorn Slough National Estuarine Research Reserve on Monterey Bay. 'Now it's so rare that most Californians have never seen a native oyster, have never touched one, have never eaten one.' Now, Wasson is the lead author on a study of the native oysters from Mexico to Canada that shows them to be surprisingly well adapted to warmer air temperatures caused by climate change. In recent years, extreme heat waves killed thousands of shellfish that inhabit the same type of intertidal zone, including mussels that were baked in their shells in both the Pacific Northwest and Northern California during low tide. Scientists involved with oyster restoration were really concerned when that happened, said Chela Zabin, ecologist at the Smithsonian Environmental Research Center and one of two dozen co-authors on the study. 'Into the future, are these big heat wave events going through going to affect our ability to restore oysters?' she said. The study, which was published last month and involved significant team effort in 26 locations up and down the West Coast, with funding from the nonprofit organization the Nature Conservancy, showed that native oysters thrive in a wide range of habitats. The researchers assumed that oyster populations, which occupy only a narrow band of the intertidal zone, would cluster closer to the low tide waterline to seek relief from hot air in warmer climates such as Baja California and Southern California. Instead they found that the oysters actually inhabited a larger range, demonstrating that they're more adaptable than expected. That bodes well for oysters farther north, including in the Bay Area, when climate change continues to increase air temperatures there, the authors said. 'What is happening in Baja today is what will happen in San Francisco Bay tomorrow,' Wasson said. On a tour of oyster restoration sites at Point San Pablo in Richmond on Wednesday morning, State Coastal Conservancy Project Manager Marilyn Latta demonstrated how finding native oysters during an extremely low tide was as easy as overturning rocks near the shore — like looking for pill bugs in the garden. The Coastal Conservancy, a state agency, provided funding for native oyster restoration projects at several locations along the Point San Pablo bay shore. That includes at a site called Terminal Four where contractors recently removed a derelict wharf and added new native plants as well as concrete structures, including ones that resemble sand castles, specifically designed to provide habitat for oysters. Zabin held a rock with a dime-size native oyster attached, most likely a baby; adults in San Francisco Bay are only slightly larger than an inch in diameter, making them much smaller than Pacific oysters. In addition to restoration efforts underway in the bay, aquaculture may also be necessary in the future as a backup plan to protect the species, she said. Oysters are known as filter feeders for their ability to clean the water and provide habitat that supports salmon migration back and forth to the sea, Wasson noted. When there are enough of them, they create reefs that provide shoreline protection from waves, she said. However, in California, not enough oysters have been brought back to serve this role. Up and down the West Coast, the native oysters were enjoyed by Indigenous people as well as European settlers, including during the Gold Rush, when they were overharvested and later subjected to pollution and habitat loss, especially as the bay was filled for development. Some oyster farmers, including Hog Island Oyster Co. in Tomales Bay, are experimenting with growing native Olympia oysters — though they're more difficult to produce commercially because they're small and slow-growing, Wasson said. However, growing native oysters may have other advantages, because they are known to be less vulnerable than Pacific oysters to ocean acidification that comes with climate change and inhibits the formation of shells. 'Our poor oysters have suffered a whole bunch of things in the past century,' Wasson said. 'But at least this particular way humans are messing with them is probably going to be OK, at least for the near future.'
Yahoo
5 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Dorchester County purchase could bring SC state forest count to 7
A 1,644-acre forest tract in Dorchester County, known as Beech Hill, is to be preserved as a South Carolina state forest. (Photo provided by Brown Land + Plantation Advisors) The number of state forests in South Carolina could jump from five to seven. A land conservation group bought a 1,644-acre forest tract in the Lowcountry with plans to transfer it to the state Forestry Commission for management. Harbison State Forest in Richland County Manchester State Forest in Clarendon and Sumter counties Poe Creek State Forest in Oconee and Pickens counties Sand Hills State Forest in Chesterfield and Darlington counties Wee Tee State Forest in Williamsburg and Georgetown counties Source: SC Forestry Commission Thursday's announcement from Dorchester County follows a 2,700-acre purchase in Jasper County two weeks ago by the Nature Conservancy that was expected to become the first new state forest in 20 years. The Open Space Institute closed last week on its $11.35 million purchase of land called Beech Hill in Dorchester County, located between the Edisto River Wildlife Management Area and Givhans Ferry State Park, about 12 miles west of the fast-growing town of Summerville. The organization, in a statement, described the property as 'unusually high and dry for the Lowcountry,' putting it in higher demand for potential development as growth moves northwest out of Charleston. According to the Open Space Institute, it will be open to the public with for hunting, hiking and biking. 'This forested landscape represents a renewable resource that provides a multitude of benefits, including clean water, scenic beauty, wildlife habitat and outdoor recreation,' State Forester Scott Phillips said in a statement. 'This is another win for our state, its residents, and wildlife as we continue working with our partners to ramp up efforts to conserve working forests.' The land was previously used by WestRock to grow trees for its now-shuttered North Charleston paper mill. The purchase includes funding from the Forestry Commission and the South Carolina Conservation Bank, as well as Dorchester County, which will contribute $4.1 million from its Greenbelt Program. County voters approved a 1-cent local sales tax for conservation in 2022. Management of South Carolina's protected forests is funded through timber sales on the properties, according to the Forestry Commission's website. A quarter of revenue earned from the new forest will go to the Dorchester County School District, according to information provided by the Open Space Institute. The Nature Conservancy bought the Jasper County property, known as Chelsea Plantation, for $32 million. Originally nearly 6,000 acres, other parts of the tract had already been sold to home builders. Jasper County property could become SC's first new state forest in 20 years 'Developing Chelsea would have ushered in a new era of expansion in an already fast-growing region,' executive director Dale Threatt-Taylor said in a statement. 'We weren't willing to leave it to chance.' The timeline for transferring that property to the state is still being discussed. Before these two announcements, the last time land opened to the public as a new, protected state forest was in 2004, when the Forestry Commission acquired 12,000-acre Wee Tee State Forest in Williamsburg and Georgetown counties. Conservation groups helped purchase land to add to the forest in 2023, bringing its total to 18,000 acres.
CBC
25-05-2025
- General
- CBC
Turtle taxi service seeks Quebec volunteers to transport injured reptiles to rehab
Launched in 2024, Taxi Carapace is a transportation service for turtles — more specifically, injured turtles — that operates in Quebec. The initiative is run by the Nature Conservancy of Canada and aims to maximize injured turtles' chances of survival by having volunteers safely and quickly transport the reptiles to a specialized rehabilitation centre in Laval, Que. With Quebec's eight species of native freshwater turtles all designated as either endangered or vulnerable, the organization is now looking for more volunteer drivers. Habitat destruction and degradation are contributing factors to the situation, and some species, like the wood turtle, are also threatened by poaching and illegal trade, according to Montreal's Espace pour la vie. But Francisco Retamal-Diaz, a project manager with Nature Conservancy of Canada, said "one of the most detrimental things for the population is road mortality." Critical times of the year include the spring from late May to early June, when turtles start moving around after hibernation, then in July, when female turtles make their way to nesting sites, and then again around October, when they travel back to their hibernation sites. Retamal-Diaz explained that turtles exhibit site fidelity, meaning they will return to the same summer habitat and nesting habitat, year after year. "So pretty much everywhere in the world where there are turtles and there are humans, roads are being constructed and turtles will not adapt their movements and they will have to cross every year at the same spot," he said, adding it's a behaviour that can be passed on through the genes. Death of 1 adult turtle can set population back decades The turtles' inability to adapt and move as quickly as other animals makes them especially vulnerable when crossing roads. Because it can take time for turtles to reach reproductive maturity, from 10 to 20 years depending on the species, the death of even just one adult turtle in a road accident can set the population back 20 years, Retamal-Diaz said. That's where the need for volunteers comes into play. "This is why we created the platform Nature Conservancy of Canada Retamal-Diaz said. "Its purpose is to document road mortality and where there are turtles on the road, so we can prevent and plan mitigation measures such as fences or signs that are warning the drivers." WATCH | Learning about turtles and why they matter: It's World Turtle Day! Here's why they matter 2 days ago Duration 2:58 Friday is World Turtle Day. It's a yearly reminder to protect turtles and their disappearing natural habitats. Terre Chartrand is a land-based educator from Red Osier Guild, a Kitchener-based collective focused on environmental conservation and survival. Chartrand told CBC K-W's Aastha Shetty about why turtles are important to parks and natural spaces in Waterloo region. In addition to people reporting turtle sightings or ensuring they get across the road safely, volunteers are needed to transport turtles that are in distress to Éco-Nature's Centre de réhabilitation des tortues du Québec in Laval. Éco-Nature says it has been involved in turtle conservancy work for 20 years, with activities aimed at protecting, restoring and recreating turtle habitats. 50 volunteers, 3,600 kms Sometimes, volunteers with Taxi Carapace will offer a shuttle service of sorts, with drivers handing over a turtle at a meet-up point. With turtles found across southern Quebec, as far west as Abitibi and all the way to the Côte-Nord in the east, it can be a lot of ground to cover. To date, Nature Conservancy of Canada says more than 50 volunteers have joined the taxi initiative, covering over 3,600 kilometres. While veterinarians can help stabilize a turtle awaiting transport, the rehab centre provides specialized care, including turtle physiotherapy. It's important for injured turtles to build up their muscles before being released back into the wild, Retamal-Diaz said, otherwise they would be more vulnerable to predators. Of the 93 turtles released in 2024, 32 were released by volunteers, according to Nature Conservancy of Canada. It might seem like a lot of effort is going into saving the lives of a small reptile, but Retamal-Diaz underscored the critical role they play in maintaining ecosystem health. He compared the turtle's role to that of a janitor. "Most turtles are a generalist. So they eat algae, they eat fish, they eat snails, they eat a lot of things. And so they contribute in maintaining healthy wetlands," Retamal-Diaz said. He added wetlands provide several benefits, including flood protection, water quality improvement and climate change mitigation.
