Boston Flora

Tag: Brian Donahue

  • Monday, July 20, 7:00 pm – 8:00 pm – Slow Wood

    Join The Walden Woods Project for an evening with environmental historian and forester Brian Donahue as he discusses his new book, Slow Wood: Greener Building from Local Forests. Drawing on history, ecology, and his own experience building a timber-frame home from sustainably managed Massachusetts woodlands, Donahue explores a compelling question: Can our homes once again be connected to the forests that surround them?

    For centuries, New England homes—including those near Walden Woods—were built and heated with locally harvested wood. As industrial logging transformed the lumber industry, that relationship was largely lost. Slow Wood asks whether a different path is possible—one that supports healthy forests, resilient communities, and more sustainable building practices.

    Donahue, Professor Emeritus of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University and author of The Great Meadow, brings decades of research on New England’s environmental history to this timely conversation about conservation, forestry, and the future of housing.

    Monday, July 20, 2026 from 7:00–8:00 PM ET. The free talk takes place at The Walden Woods Project, Lincoln, MA (address provided upon registration) Register at https://www.walden.org/events/slow-wood-greener-building-from-local-forests-with-brian-donahue/

  • Friday, April 11, 10:00 am – 2:30 pm – Merging Conservation and Agriculture in New England

    A series of lectures entitled Merging Conservation and Agriculture in New England will take place in the Harvard Forest Seminar Room, Harvard Forest, 324 N. Main Street, Petersham, on Friday, April 11 from 10 – 2:30. The day’s schedule is as follows:

    10:00 a.m. New England Food Vision with Brian Donahue of Brandeis University

    Find out more about the New England Food Vision: http://foodsolutionsne.org/new-england-food-vision. This vision is, in part, an extension of the Wildlands and Woodlands vision for New England: http://www.wildlandsandwoodlands.org/home.

    11:00 a.m. Exploring the Interactions between Nature and Farming

    Conrad Vispo, Claudia Knab-Vispo, Anna Duho, Kyle Bradford – Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program http://farmscapeecology.org/

    Looking for feedback we will outline our rationale and draft methods for an upcoming pilot project in the Hudson Valley to explore: 1) what nature can provide to farming (in terms of animal-mediated ecological ‘services’), 2) what farming can provide to nature (in terms of habitats for native plants and animals), and 3), what information is most useful for farmers and land trusts working with agricultural lands. See http://hawthornevalleyfarm.org/fep/
    12:00 p.m. Lunch and Discussion. Please bring your own lunch
    1:00 p.m. Walk Exploring Agriculture & Conservation Management with David Foster – Director, Harvard Forest
    This walk will meet in the Harvard Forest Common Room and carpool to the former Petersham Country Club and Bryant Farm, which have been purchased by the Harvard Forest and are one-half mile from Shaler Hall. Joined by ecologists Glenn Motzkin, Professor Martha Hoopes from Mount Holyoke College, the speakers, Harvard Forest staff including John Wisnewski and Audrey Barker Plotkin, and others we will walk the landscape to discuss Harvard Forest plans to graze the land with an objective of developing a series of conservation grasslands while studying and documenting the process.

    For additional information call David R. Foster, 978-724-3302.

    http://www.wildlandsandwoodlands.org/sites/default/files/zzr_Lily%20Piel_OldAckleyFarm_DSC7775%20-%20Copy_0.jpg

  • Thursday, March 7, 7:00 pm – Farm to Lectern Speakers Series: Brian Donahue

    In association with the exhibition, The Greatest Source of Wealth: Agriculture in Concord, the Farm to Lectern Speakers Series brings nationally-recognized agrarian activists to Concord.  On Thursday, March 7, 2013, the Concord Museum welcomes Brian Donahue, an environmental historian, farmer, and collaborator on the New England Good Food Vision 2060. Donahue is Associate Professor of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University and author of The Great Meadow: Farmers and the Land in Colonial Concord and Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town. He co-founded and for 12 years directed Land’s Sake, a nonprofit community farm in Weston, Massachusetts.  In his talk, Nourishing New England: A Vision for Local and Regional Farming and Healthy Food, Donahue shares a bold vision that calls for our region to build the capacity to produce up to 80% of clean, fair, just and accessible food for all New Englanders by 2060.

    The event will begin at 7:00 p.m. at the Concord Museum. The speakers series is free, but reservations are requested, 978-369-9763 ext. 216.

    http://yalepress.yale.edu/images/full13/9780300089127.jpg

  • Tuesday, June 26, 7:00 pm – 9:00 pm – Changes in the New England Landscape

    Brian Donahue will speak on Changes in the New England Landscape  Tuesday, June 26, from 7 – 9 at the Thayer Memorial Library, 717 Main Street in Lancaster, Massachusetts.  The free lecture is part of the Rosemary Davis Environmental Series The Fall & Rise of the Forest from Pre-European Times to Today. Brian Donahue, the author of Reclaiming the Commons: Community Farms and Forests in a New England Town (Yale University Press) and co-author of Wildlands and Woodlands: A Vision for the New England Landscape (Harvard University), will share his knowledge of our region’s environmental history, conservation efforts, and stewardship. He is Associate Professor of American Environmental Studies at Brandeis University. This program is sponsored by the Greater Worcester Community Foundation, Rosemary Davis Memorial Fund. For more information visit www.thayermemoriallibrary.org.

  • Tuesday, April 13, 5:15 pm – Cold Comfort: The Biogeography of Northern British America

    The Massachusetts Historical Society annually sponsors the Boston Environmental History Seminar, an academic forum for scholars as well as interested members of the public, to discuss aspects of American environmental history.  On Tuesday, April 13, beginning at 5:15 pm, Anya Zilberstein of Concordia University in Montreal will speak on “Cold Comfort: The Biogeography of Northern British America.”  Brian Donahue of Brandeis University will also comment.  The Massachusetts Historical Society is located at  1154 Boylston Street in Boston.  For information on the 2009-2010 series, and to register, log on to www.masshist.org, or call 617-536-1608.  If you wish to receive a copy of the paper in advance, you may subscribe on-line for the modest fee of $15, or you may receive the paper by mail for $25.

    http://jackiewhiting.net/HonorsUS/images/DelawareCross.jpg