Boston Flora

Tag: University Of Massachusetts Amherst

  • Saturday, March 16, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm – Ethan Carr: Getting it Together at Franklin Park, The Past and Future of a Boston Landmark

    UMASS professor and author Ethan Carr discusses his 2023 nonfiction book, Boston’s Franklin Park. Franklin Park is one of the great urban parks of the world. Generations of Bostonians have loved this landscape and invested it with many diverse memories and meanings. Today the park is at a turning point. Mayor Wu has approved an Action Plan to guide its future, and the City of Boston and its partners have proposed new multi-million dollar construction projects. The time is right to consider the past, as well as the future, of Franklin Park.

    Ethan Carr is a professor of Landscape Architecture and Regional Planning at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. His latest book is Boston’s Franklin Park (Amherst: Library of American Landscape History, 2023).

    This event is co-sponsored by the Grove Hall Branch of the BPL, the Dorchester Historical Society and the JP Historical Society. It is free and open to the public. It will use a hybrid format you can attend in-person or via Zoom. Please register here for the Zoom details: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_pUtwfzf1RL-U8n5yWxCJdw

    In the case of heavy snow, the event will be held virtually.

  • Saturday, February 17, 2:00 pm – 4:00 pm – Medicinal Mushrooms

    Are you curious about the power of medicinal mushrooms? Join Berkshire Botanical Garden on February 17 at 2:00 pm, along with Willie Crosby of Fungi Ally. In the classroom, the woods and the kitchen, this exploration of medicinal mushrooms will serve as an introduction into some of the common mushrooms found in the Northeast woods and cultivated at home. We will learn how to prepare them to access their medicinal potency. We will get to know reishi, cordyceps, lion’s mane, maitake, and other fungal allies. 

    Owner of Fungi Ally, Willie Crosby has been growing mushrooms indoors and outdoors for nearly a decade. He works to reveal the power of mushrooms by educating people how to incorporate mushrooms into their gardens and lives. Willie teaches online for Stockbridge School of Agriculture, Cornell University, the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, as well as in person at his farm in Hadley, Mass. $40 for BBG members, $60 for nonmembers. Register at www.berkshirebotanical.org

  • Thursday, February 8, 7:30 pm – 8:45 pm Eastern – Peregrine Falcon Recovery and Conservation in Massachusetts, Online

    The Brookline Bird Club, America’s largest bird club (!), will offer a webinar on February 8 at 7:30 pm Eastern. Learn about the decline, recovery, and conservation of the peregrine falcon in Massachusetts. A true conservation success story and ambassador for conservation. The conservation and continued monitoring of this species would not be possible without the general public, birders, photographers, and landowners/property managers alike. Learn about how you can get involved and make a difference.

    David Paulson is a Wildlife Biologist for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He received a B.S. in Biology from Framingham State College and a M.S. in Wildlife and Fisheries Conservation from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Since 2010, he has been actively working on the conservation and recovery of the peregrine falcon (Falco peregrinus) here in Massachusetts. David serves on his town’s open space committee and is involved with scouting throughout southeastern MA.

    Register for the webinar: https://us06web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_gTfzFu5fQfGiVqeMj8lRNA

  • Tuesday, February 28, 8:30 am – 3:30 pm Eastern – Community Tree Conference: Community Forestry in Changing Times, Climate, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice, Online

    The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Center for Agriculture, Food, and the Environment will host a one day webinar on Community Forestry in Changing Times: Climate, Sustainability, and Environmental Justice. The event takes place February 28 from 8:30 – 3:30. Speakers include Yoni Glogower of the City of Holyoke on the Pioneer Valley Healthy Air Initiative, Liza Meyer, Chief Landscape Architect with Boston Parks & Recreation Department on the Boston Urban Forest Master Plan, David Meshoulam, Executive Director of Speak for the Trees on Bringing Tree Equity to Boston, and more. Complete agenda and registration link may be found at www.ag.umass.edu $75. You may also contact Ellen Weeks at weeks@umass.edu The event will not be recorded.

  • Friday, August 16, 3:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Eco-Tour: Ecology and Agriculture at Charbrook Farm

    Charbrook Farm is the modern homestead of Lauren and Stephen Stimson and their family at 71 Gates Road in Princeton, Massachusetts. Located down the road from the historic Stimson Farm and Charbrook Nursery, this working farm has become a field station for the STIMSON landscape architecture practice. A Master Plan for Charbrook Farm has been in process since 2008. Seasonal events, lambing, plant walks, nursery digs and studio retreats are all integrated into the culture and life of STIMSON. Long-term goals for the property include an agricultural arboretum, demonstration perennials and working gardens for a future design studio. A guided tour by Lauren and Stephen on August 16 from 3 – 5, sponsored by the Ecological Landscape Alliance, will discuss the concept of integrating ecology, agriculture and landscape architecture. $23 for ELA members, $33 for nonmembers. Register at www.ecolandscaping.org

    Lauren Stimson, ASLA, holds a Master of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Regional Planning from the University of Massachusetts Amherst. She received her B.A. from Bates College in Maine where she studied Theater and Geology. She is a licensed Landscape Architect in the state of Maine. Lauren has a deep love for New England, where she was raised, and an interest in the overlap between the built environment and the rural landscape, especially as it relates to historic villages and farms. She is an avid oil painter and uses the medium to document the familiar character of regional landscapes and agrarian patterns. Painting helps inform her design thinking as a landscape architect and conceptual approach to graphic representation. She learns a great deal about plants from her garden and is passionate about food and cooking. Lauren has been a studio instructor at the University of Massachusetts, and has given talks and lectures at the International Symposium of Landscape Ecology, the Ecological Alliance, the ABX Symposium, Smith College and the Boston Society of Landscape Architects. She currently serves on the Stewardship Council for the Cultural Landscape Foundation.

    Stephen Stimson, FASLA, is Principal and Owner of STIMSON. Born and raised on a dairy farm, Stephen’s agrarian heritage has inspired and shaped the landscapes he has created across New England and the country. He received his education from the University of Massachusetts and the Harvard Graduate School of Design and has been practicing landscape architecture for over thirty years. He founded the firm in 1992 and is licensed in thirteen states.

    Stephen’s work has been widely recognized with numerous awards from the Boston Society of Landscape Architects and the American Society of Landscape Architects. He has taught at Harvard Graduate School of Design and the University of Massachusett, and has lectured and served on award and design juries throughout the country. Stephen was elected as a Fellow of the American Society of Landscape Architects in 2004 for his outstanding achievements in the field of landscape architecture. For over a decade now, he has been cultivating Charbrook Nursery on his family’s historic dairy farm, for project use and field research related to native plant propagation, collected species, planted form and soil specifications. He remains passionately involved in design and projects at all levels throughout the studio and loves to draw by hand. When he is not in the studio or at a site visit, he can usually be found on a tractor somewhere on the farm, with his daughter and son on his lap.

  • Wednesday, June 27, 7:30 pm – Encouraging Healthy Bird Population In Massachusetts

    Birds are not only winged harbingers of spring, they are harbingers of healthy ecosystems. 2018 is the ‘Year of the Bird’ and new research exposes the critical role that farmland and other diverse habitats provide for birdlife. In New England, birds associated with grass- and shrublands represent some of the most treasured wildlife in Massachusetts, but they are also some of the most imperiled and rapidly declining bird groups. Most of these birds depend significantly on privately-owned lands, agricultural landscapes, and the efforts of individual landowners in order to survive.

    On Wednesday, June 27 at Wright-Locke Farm in Winchester, Dr. Kim Peters and Isabel Brofsky will discuss the status of farmland-associated birds, why spaces like Wright-Locke Farm are important for their preservation, and what we can all do to help curb their decline.

    Dr. Kim Peters is a Senior Biologist at a global risk management and consulting firm, where she provides environmental and wildlife support to wind and solar developers. Over the last 20 years, she has led research and conservation programs on migratory shorebirds, grassland birds, wind energy bird and bat fatalities, and bird-aircraft strike-risk. Her primary interests are in migration ecology, coastal ecology, and full life-cycle analysis with a focus on potential conflicts at the human-wildlife interface.

    Isabel Brofsky is a Master’s student in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts Amherst. Her research focuses on the conservation of shrubland birds on small, diversified farms in New England and she has spent the past two summers conducting bird and habitat surveys across 23 farms.

    The session will be held at 7:30 on Wednesday in our beautiful 1827 Barn, and will be followed up with a Q&A session. We will also offer a casual supper before each presentation. For more details, check out our website, http://wlfarm.org, or to RSVP, email Kim Kneeland at kkneeland@wlfarm.org.

    Image result for bird population Massachusetts

  • Wednesday, October 4, 7:00 pm – Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Protect Our Food and Health

    Emily Monosson, PhD, Environmental Toxicologist, Writer, and Adjunct Professor, Department of Environmental Conservation, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, will speak on Wednesday, October 4, 7:00–8:15pm at the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum.

    For more than a century, we have relied on chemical cures to keep our bodies free from disease and our farms free from bugs and weeds. We rarely consider human and agricultural health together, but both are based on the same ecology, and both are being threatened by organisms that have evolved to resist our antibiotics and pesticides. Fortunately, scientists are finding new solutions that work with, rather than against, nature. Emily Monosson will speak about some of science’s most innovative strategies and the growing understanding of how to employ ecology for our own protection. Natural Defense: Enlisting Bugs and Germs to Protect Our Food and Health, Monosson’s newest book, will be available for purchase and signing. Fee: Free for Arboretum members and students, $5 nonmember. Register at http://my.arboretum.harvard.edu or call 617-384-5277.

  • Sunday, February 12, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm – The Influence of Weather Patterns, Forest Ecosystems, and Human Use on Water Supplies

    Southern New England is typically described as a “well-watered” temperate forest landscape. This is generally accurate until prolonged periods of low rainfall and/or mild winters substantially alter the water balance. Reservoir water levels begin to decrease when rates of withdrawal and use exceed rates of inflow from streams and aquifers. In extreme cases, such as the 1960s, the effect can persist for years. On Sunday, February 12 from 2 – 3 pm, please join Dr. Paul Barten, Professor of Forestry and Hydrology, University of Massachusetts Amherst, to learn more about the vital and dynamic connection between the forest …and the faucet. The free lecture is presented at the Quabbin Visitor Center, Ware Road in Belchertown, and for more information call 413-323-7221.

  • Tuesdays, July 19 and August 2, 4:00 pm – IPM Field Walks

    UMass Amherst’s The Center for Agriculture, Food and the Environment will hold  IPM Field Walks on Tuesdays, July 19 and August 2 beginning at 4 pm at Alprilla Farm (below) , 94 John Wise Avenue in Essex. In this series, learn to identify and scout for vegetable pests and select integrated pest management strategies that work for you, whether you are an experienced farmer, a home gardener, or just starting out, organically certified or not! We will use pheromone traps to monitor pests, use a microscope to identify plant pathogens, and learn to scout in multiple vegetable crops with UMass Extension Vegetable Program staff Katie Campbell-Nelson, and Plant Diagnostician Angie Madeiras. Scouting will be followed by a discussion of effective control strategies with growers in attendance. Bring a hand lens if you have one. Supported in part by funding provided by USDA-NIFA Extension Implementation Program, Award No. 2014-70006-22579   – See more at: https://ag.umass.edu/events/ipm-field-walk-0#sthash.SBA70sKO.dpuf

    NoahInField

  • Wednesday, May 11, 7:00 pm – American Turtle Observatory

    Together, the United States and Mexico support one-third of the freshwater turtle species on Earth. Over 137 terminal taxa—species, subspecies, and evolution-significant lineages—occur in diverse habitats across the continent.

    Most species of North American turtles are of conservation concern, threatened by a range of factors including forest and wetland fragmentation, pathogens, and collection of adult turtles for pet markets. In order for viable, functional populations to persist, it is necessary to incorporate the best available science into cooperative conservation planning.

    American Turtle Observatory is a network of scientists, researchers, agencies, communities, and landowners responding to conservation opportunities in focal landscapes and developing conservation strategies for widespread species of concern and restricted-range species. On Wednesday, May 11 at 7 pm, Mike Jones and Liz Willey will discuss their work on turtles. The program will be held at the Millers River Environmental Center, 100 Main Street in Athol.

    Dr. Willey serves on the faculty in the Environmental Studies Department at Antioch University New England in Keene, New Hampshire. Dr. Jones is a biologist in the Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst and is the lead author and co-editor (with Liz Willey) of Eastern Alpine Guide: Natural History and Conservation of Mountain Tundra East of the Rockies, and lead author of Status and Conservation of the Wood Turtle in the Northeastern United States.  Image by Mike Jones.

    Free and open to the public.  For directions visit www.atholbirdclub.org.

    Courting pair in MA Mike Jones