Boston Flora

Tag: University of Massachusetts

  • A History of MassWildlife 1866 – 2012

    A History of MassWildlife 1866-2012, a 334 page, exceedingly well referenced volume by UMass Wildlife Biology alumnus James E. Cardoza, documents the history of the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife from its inception in 1866 as a two-member Board of Commissioners of Fisheries to its present configuration of over 100 staff members responsible for the management and protection of over 400 species of plants and animals and over 200,000 acres in wildlife management areas and lands under conservation easements.

    The book was published in a limited bound edition by the Massachusetts Division of Fisheries and Wildlife, 1 Rabbit Hill Road, Westborough, Massachusetts as it approaches its 150th anniversary. It will soon be available to the public in digital form. For more information email info@eco.umass.edu.

  • Thursday, August 20, 9:00 am – 3:00 pm – Grassy Weed Identification Workshop

    Correct weed identification is an important first step in the development of an effective weed management program. Using a classroom presentation, potted weed herbarium and weed walk, UMass Extension Specialist Randy Prostak will help participants enhance their grassy weed identification skills on Thursday, August 20, from 9 – 3 at French Hall at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. Feel free to bring a weed or two to identify. Workshop held rain or shine (lunch not provided). Broadleaf Weed Identificaton will be offered next in 2016. Registration Cost $95/person (pre-registration required, space is limited). Online registrations include a nominal processing fee – See more at: http://ag.umass.edu/events/grassy-weed-identification-workshop-0#sthash.9wMOxuCk.dpuf

  • Thursday, June 4 – Monday, June 8 – Garden Days at the Emily Dickinson Museum

    Take part in one of Emily Dickinson’s favorite pastimes – gardening.  Join the staff of The Emily Dickinson Museum June 4-8 for Garden Days, an annual effort to prepare the Museum’s historic grounds for summer. Volunteers with all levels of experience are welcome to plant, weed, and beautify under the direction of landscape historian Marta McDowell, author of Emily Dickinson’s Gardens.

    Garden Days begins on Thursday, June 4, during the monthly Amherst Art Walk. A Garden Days volunteer meet-up and orientation starts at 5 pm, followed by an “art in the garden” session until 7 pm. At 6:45 pm, a poetry reading by Amherst-area poets Seth Landman and Kelin Loe will be held in the Homestead parlor.

    On Saturday, June 6, at 3 pm, Marta McDowell will lead a free tour of the museum grounds. This event is open to the public, and begins in the Homestead garden.

    As a special thank you, Garden Days volunteers are invited to tour the Museum at no charge on Sunday, June 7. Tours will be held at 12:30 pm, 1:30 pm, 2:30 pm, and 3:30 pm. For more information, or to sign up for a Volunteer Shift below, visit http://www.emilydickinsonmuseum.org/node/473?utm_source=Garden+Days+2015&utm_campaign=Garden+Days+2015&utm_medium=email

    VOLUNTEER SHIFTS
    Friday, June 5
    9 am – noon and 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
    Saturday, June 6
    9 am – noon and 4 pm – 6 pm
    Sunday, June 7
    9 am – noon
    Monday, June 8
    9 am – noon
    Marta McDowell lives, gardens and writes in Chatham, New Jersey. She teaches landscape history and gardening at the New York Botanical Garden, where she was named “Instructor of the Year” in 2011. Her book, Emily Dickinson’s Gardens, was published by McGraw-Hill in 2005, and she was an advisor for the New York Botanical Garden’s 2010 show.

    Her latest book, Beatrix Potter’s Gardening Life, was published by Timber Press in 2013. Marta is active in the Chatham Community Garden and is on the board of the NJ Historical Foundation at the Cross Estate in Bernardsville. Her husband, Kirke Bent, summarizes her biography as “I am therefore I dig.”

    Seth Landman is the author of four chapbooks and the full-length poetry collections Confidence (Brooklyn Arts Press, 2015) and Sign You Were Mistaken (Factory Hollow Press, 2013). His work can be found in Boston Review, iO, Jellyfish, Lit, and elsewhere. He received his PhD in Creative Writing and Literature from the University of Denver (2013) and an MFA from the University of Massachusetts (2008) where he is currently an Academic Advisor in Humanities and Fine Arts.

    Kelin Loe is the author of These Are The Gloria Stories (Factory Hollow Press 2014) and the chapbook The Motorist (minutesBOOKS 2010). She lives in Northampton, MA, and is working towards a PhD in Rhetoric at UMass Amherst.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum: The Homestead and The Evergreens, opens for 2015 on Wednesday, March 4. Museum hours are 11 am to 4 pm, Wednesday through Sunday. Find out more about visiting here.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum is dedicated to educating diverse audiences about the poet’s life, family, creative work, times, and enduring relevance, and to preserving and interpreting the Homestead and The Evergreens as historical resources for public and academic enrichment.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum is owned by the Trustees of Amherst College and overseen by a separate Board of Governors. The Museum is responsible for raising its own operating and capital funds.

    The Emily Dickinson Museum is a member of Museums10, a collaboration of ten museums linked to the Five Colleges in the Pioneer Valley–Amherst, Hampshire, Mount Holyoke, and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

  • Wednesday, February 18, 5:30 pm – 7:00 pm – Green City, Clean Waters: The Philadelphia Story

    Mark Focht is the First Deputy Commissioner for Philadelphia Parks and Recreation, the Immediate Past President for the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and a fellow of the ASLA. He completed a Bachelor of Science from Pennsylvania State University and received a Master in Landscape Architecture from the University of Massachusetts. He is a licensed landscape architect in the state of Pennsylvania.

    Focht will present his keynote address titled Green City, Clean Waters: The Philadelphia Story, in the Fishbowl of the Boston Architectural College, 320 Newbury Street, on Wednesday, February 18 from 5:30 – 7 The lecture will focus on the innovative and strategic green stormwater management practices of the City of Philadelphia. Join the BAC to hear about how Focht helped the city accomplish a revitalization and stewardship plan that has beneficially impacted the way urban communities handle stormwater. From Focht we will also hear about the important partnerships and public outreach that have contributed to the success of his leadership and Philadelphia’s Green City, Clean Waters Plan.

    This lecture is sponsored by the student chapter of the ASLA. For more information email Olivia Fragale at sasla@the-bac.edu.

  • Wednesday, December 10, 9:30 am – 3:45 pm – Greenhouse Vegetable Production in Containers

    UMass Extension Greenhouse Crops and Floriculture Program will hold a workshop on Wednesday, December 10, from 9:30 – 3:45 at the Publick House in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.  $40 per person, plus an additional fee if you register online with a credit card.  Registration includes morning refreshments, breaks, and handouts.  You may also print a mail in registration form at http://extension.umass.edu/floriculture/events/greenhouse-vegetable-production-containers.

    Speakers include Rich McAvoy from University of Connecticut, who will speak on Growing Greenhouse Tomatoes and Cucumbers, Carol Glenister of IPM Laboratories on Perfecting Biocontrol in Greenhouse Vegetables, Brian Krug of University of New Hampshire on Growing Bench-top Greens, M. Bess Dicklow of UMass Extension Plant Disease Diagnostic Laboratory on Diseases and Disorders of Greenhouse Tomatoes, and Brad Clegg of Four Town Farm and Dave Volante of Volante Farms, leading a Grower to Grower Panel.  Image from www.gizmag.com.

  • UMass Soil and Plant Tissue Test Lab

    UMass Soil and Plant Tissue Test Lab has moved.  On September 16, the Lab moved from West Experiment Station to a newly renovated space in Paige Laboratory on the UMass Amherst campus. Orders sent to the old address will be automatically forwarded to the new address:

    UMass Soil and Plant Tissue Testing Lab
    203 Paige Laboratory
    161 Holdsworth Way
    Amherst, MA 01003-9286

    Turnaround times may be affected by the move. For questions, contact the lab by phone at 413-545-2311, or by email at soiltest@umass.edu.

  • Thursday, October 16, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – The Origins and Legacy of the Catskill Forest Preserve

    Dr. Paul K. Barten, Professor and Honors Program Director, Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst will speak on Thursday, October 16, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building of the Arnold Arboretum on the topic of The Origins and Legacy of the Catskill Forest Preserve.  The Catskill Forest Preserve was established in 1885 and protected as “wild forest, forever” with an 1894 amendment to New York’s Constitution. This designation represented a major change in public opinion and political will as well as an early success for the fledgling conservation movement. The landscape paintings of Thomas Cole, Frederic Church, and other Hudson River School artists, the stirring fiction of Washington Irving and James Fenimore Cooper, and the writings of George Perkins Marsh and John Burroughs had a dramatic and formative influence on societal values and attitudes. This opened a new era in which the damage to forest ecosystems by tanbark peelers, “cut and run” loggers, and market hunters could no longer be reconciled with the “the greatest good of the greatest number in the long run” and a thriving tourism industry. The presentation will conclude with some thoughts on where we appear to be as a nation on the forest preservation—conservation—utilization spectrum in the 21st century.  Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember.  Thomas Cole painting of Catskill Creek from www.images.fineartamerica.com. Register online at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1.  

  • Monday, September 22, 7:00 pm – 8:30 pm – Urban Greening for Urban Birds

    What are the needs of an urban bird? What can be done to increase the diversity of avian and other species living in the city? The highly managed nature of a city landscape provides biologists with some unique opportunities to understand both the role of humans in altering patterns of biological diversity and the role of behavior in limiting animal distributions. Join the Arnold Arboretum on Monday, September 22, from 7 – 8:30 in the Hunnewell Building for a lecture by Dr. Paige Warren, Associate Professor, Department of Environmental Conservation at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. A guiding principle for Paige Warren’s research is that the typical indices of urbanization, such as human population density, describe only a portion of the habitat structure that is important for wildlife. Paige Warren has recently analyzed 150 years of documented changes in the bird communities of Cambridge and examined a variety of Boston’s green spaces to determine ways to improve and increase habitat for year-round as well as migratory birds and other city-dwelling animals. She will speak about her research, done locally and around the country, to understand processes generating and maintaining biological diversity in a world that is becoming increasingly dominated by humans. Fee $5 Arboretum member, $10 nonmember. Register on line at https://my.arboretum.harvard.edu/Info.aspx?EventID=1.

  • Friday, August 8 – Sunday, August 10, 9:00 am – 5:30 pm – Northeast Organic Farming Association Summer Conference

    The Northeast Organic Farming Association (NOFA) Summer Conference takes place August 8-10, 2014 at the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, MA.

    Friday, August 8: Pre-conferences on Changing Dirt into Soil; Tools for Resilient Urban Ecosystems; Healing Autoimmunity with Naturopathic Medicine; and Stocking the Home Apothecary with Locally Abundant Herbs.

    Saturday & Sunday, August 9-10: 150+ adult workshops on organic farming, gardening, land care, draft animals, homesteading, sustainability, nutrition, food politics, activism, and more.

    We also offer educational and fun workshops designed for kids and teens where children bond with others throughout the Northeast while parents attend workshops and the plenary.

    This is an event for the whole family: Music, dance, films, games, animal rides, and meet-ups. Modest registration, inexpensive dorm rooms, camping and delicious, wholesome organic meals.  Cost ranges from $45 – $150.  Visit www.nofasummerconference.org/index.php for complete details.

  • Saturday, May 17, 10:00 am – 1:00 pm – Native Pollinator Conservation

    The University of Massachusetts Extension wraps up its spring fruit courses with a session on Native Pollinator Conservation, led by Sonia Schloemann (pictured below) on Saturday, May 17 from 10 – 1 at Powisset Farm, 37 Powisset Street in Dover. Pollination is an important step in growing all fruits and many vegetables. While most people know about honey bees, native bees are also important pollinators. Encouraging native bees and other beneficials by providing nesting and forage habitat is easy and fun for the home gardener. Learn about how to build bee blocks and which flowering plants make good forage habitat. Participants will build nest boxes to bring home to their gardens. $50.  Register on line at https://classic.regonline.com/builder/site/?eventid=1460640.

    http://www.justfoodnow.org/SoniaBio_files/image002.png