Wetland conservancy is making a comeback. For our country’s first two centuries, wetlands across the United States were viewed as a waste. As a result, the U.S. lost an estimated 53 percent of its total wetland area from the colonial times through the 1980s. Wetlands were dried, drained and eliminated as the country expanded, which […]

America loves a good lawn. A lush green lawn is a symbol of the American Dream; it’s been that way ever since the country’s post-World War II economic expansion. As the suburbs boomed, so did the idea of trying to grow the best lawn in the neighborhood. Any company that had a lawn usually hired […]

Iconic is the most appropriate word to describe the Monarch butterfly. Most of us have fond childhood memories of the unmistakable orange and black beauty flitting around the blue sky on sunny summer days. They were everywhere — and their presence was so magnificent. Their name, in Greek, means “sleepy transformation” in recognition of their […]

Given the current realities of pesticide use, habitat destruction, parasites and disease, climate change and air pollution among yet other stressors, there is no denying that conserving bees is a complex problem demanding complex solutions. Poor nutrition, linked to widespread declines in both the abundance and diversity of flowering plants, has profound health consequences for […]

Allergy sufferers often curse the golden sea of blooms from goldenrods that appear in fallow fields, landscapes and along roadsides from July to November. Sadly, these complaints are based on an unfortunate case of mistaken identity. Both members of the aster family (Asteraceae), goldenrods (Solidago genus) are often errantly identified as allergenic ragweeds (Ambrosia genus). Though there […]

A post by Guest Contributor, Rob Davis Filmmaker Scott Mason returned to his hometown of Meadville, PA earlier this year and produced a beautiful video about how the national trend of pollinator-friendly solar is creating community and economic opportunity in Pennsylvania. Touring the Ernst Conservation Seeds farm last fall, and hearing from native and naturalized […]