Naturalist Correne George from the Boston Nature Center & Wildlife Sanctuary will be at the East Boston Branch of the Boston Public Library , 365 Bremen Street in East Boston, on Thursday, December 1st at 6:30 to discuss the effects of climate change on local Massachusetts birds. Free. For more information email jlevins@bpl.org.
To help ensure healthy ecosystems and successful harvests, pollinator conservation is essential. For many people, pollinator conservation is synonymous with the honey bee and beekeeping, but the story is bigger than that; much, much bigger than that. As we work to conserve pollinators, we need to ensure that our efforts are best directed where they are needed most, and not just at what is easiest to accomplish. While honey bees are important for our current agricultural systems, their role in our natural areas, and even in our urban and suburban areas, is more complicated. Join Xerces Society Senior Conservation Biologist Rich Hatfield on November 10 for an honest conversation about the unseen consequences that a focus on honey bees can have, and how we can focus our actions in ways that will create positive change, for all pollinators.
This webinar will be recorded and available on our YouTube channel. Closed Captioning will be available during this webinar.
Click here for more information and to register.
In this Research and Academic Program talk at The Clark on November 15 at 5:30 pm, Jordan Reznick (Getty Research Institute, Bennington College) examines how the intergenerational manipulation of plant communities practiced by Indigenous peoples shaped the technological and aesthetic makeup of the photographic medium during the decades following the American invasion of California.
Presented in person in the Clark Museum auditorium at 225 South Street in Williamstown. This event is free with a reception in the Manton Research Center Reading Room starting at 5 pm. For more information and directions visit https://www.clarkart.edu/event/detail/2094-89824
Explore a variety of plant forms using pencil and paper in this Harvard Museum of Natural History session on October 1 from 9:30 – 11:30. Taught by a scientific illustrator, this online workshop will emphasize close observation and realistic representation. We will explore a range of techniques for achieving more accurate drawings and will delve into contour, gesture, foreshortening, and shading to create volume and depth. The group will be limited to twelve participants, allowing ample time for individual feedback. All skill levels are welcome
Members $30/Nonmembers $35.
Advance Registration Required.
Class will be held over Zoom. To join the program, you will need to download the free Zoom app in advance. If you already have Zoom, you do not need to download it again.
Have you ever wondered what and how photography professionals see or more of how they approach their work? Through the Nature Photography Classes Speaker Series, you will be able to see what goes on in their minds, within their cameras, and in the field as they bring to you some of their most impactful images, thoughts, and insights. The speaker series is a live opportunity to ask questions as part of a 90-minute web-based format.
Join us as we talk to the leading nature and landscape photographers. The speaker series is a unique opportunity to hear from and interact with people that rarely speak with audiences or give presentations and some of the best photography educators in the world. Plus at only $10 per speaker, it is incredibly well priced and you don’t have to be there live to get the recording. This is guaranteed to be an amazing Fall Series where you will hear from 7 speakers, talking about their creative processes, how they have put practices to work to grow in their own work, found the elements of creativity to work for them and what we can all learn from this process.
The registration links will come via Zoom. For complete biographies of each speaker, and to see examples of work, visit https://www.naturephotographyclasses.com/speaker-series Register HERE.
On Sunday, September 11 online, join plants and gardens historian, Dr. Toby Musgrave, as he holds a botanical prism to world history and offers a fresh perspective. From your morning cup of tea to the spark of the Opium Wars, plants play a remarkable role in our daily lives and our politics. During our time together we will explore the role that cash crops such as corn, cotton, coffee, palm oil, tobacco, sugar cane, and others play in the global economy.
Together we will discover the eight ”Founder Crops” which facilitated the Neolithic Revolution and the start of civilization. Spices were the driving force for the Age of Discovery, the resultant post-Columbian colonization of the Americas, and the arrival in Europe of the potato, which played such a tragic role in the story of Ireland. And another Mesoamerican plant – tobacco – shaped the emergence of the United States.
Sugar and cotton gave rise to and supported the transatlantic Slave Trade and the resultant oppression, exploitation, and death of so many million Africans. Cotton stimulated both the British East India Company’s acquisition of India and the Industrial Revolution and was a causal factor of the American Civil War.
Simple opium plants sparked the international Opium Wars – sales to China made the British Government the biggest drug cartel the world has seen. Quinine enabled the colonization of Africa, while rubber was key to the advance of the automotive industry. Most of these plants continue to play a major role on the global stage and have been joined by others including corn and palm oil. When we pause to consider the impact, the wider worldwide scope of influence these plants have had is substantial.
Led by an expert on plants and garden history, Dr. Toby Musgrave, this interactive seminar is designed to inform curiosity as well as future travels. Participants will come away with increased knowledge and understanding of the power of plants in shaping the landscape of human history books.
Dr. Toby Musgrave is a foremost authority on the subjects of garden and plant history and design, about which he has authored or co-authored 18 books. Most recently The Garden: Elements and Styles and The Multifarious Mr. Banks. He is a part-time Faculty Lecturer at the Danish Institute of Studies Abroad in his adopted country, Denmark, where he teaches American study abroad students. Between semesters he works as a gardens tour leader and as a lecturer aboard small, expedition cruise ships. Additionally, he acts as a consultant to various garden restoration projects and has written numerous articles for a range of magazines and newspapers including The Garden, Gardens Illustrated, The English Garden, Country Life, The Times, The Telegraph, Haven, and Jyllands Posten. His own garden is one of the de Runde Haver. For more information about Toby and his work please visit www.TobyMusgrave.com.
This Context Learning webinar is $26.50, and if you can’t make this time, a video recording will be sent after the seminar to enjoy later. Register at www.contextlearning.com
The Boston Groundwater Trust is sponsoring a public forum on September 20 from 5:30 – 7:30 on How Climate Change May Threaten the Foundations of Boston. The event will take place at the Boston Public Library at Copley Square in Rabb Hall. Free. For more information on the Boston Groundwater Trust: https://www.bostongroundwater.org
We wish you all a Happy Fourth of July – stay safe, and dare we recommend, avoid crowds?
Join the Backyard Growers team for an open-format Q&A to help you successfully grow your own food this year. We’ve scheduled this event for mid-summer so that attendees can bring their questions about topics including succession planting, harvesting, pests, diseases, and more. How’s your garden going so far? Stop in and share your challenges or big wins!
FREE admission to Backyard Growers Program Participants (e.g. 2022 Community Garden, Backyard Garden & GrowBag Garden) as well as Backyard Growers Community Consulting Clients. Backyard Growers is a not for profit based in Gloucester, Massachusetts.
$15 General Admission Register through Eventbrite HERE. Proceeds support Backyard Growers’ work building healthy, connected, sustainable communities by teaching people to grow their own food.
