Beaver and the Wolf

THIS month, a group of environmental nonprofits said they would challenge the federal government’s removal of Endangered Species Act protections for wolves in Wyoming. Since there are only about 328 wolves in a state with a historic blood thirst for the hides of these top predators, the nonprofits are probably right that lacking protection, Wyoming wolves are toast.

Many Americans, even as they view the extermination of a species as morally anathema, struggle to grasp the tangible effects of the loss of wolves. It turns out that, far from being freeloaders on the top of the food chain, wolves have a powerful effect on the well-being of the ecosystems around them — from the survival of trees and riverbank vegetation to, perhaps surprisingly, the health of the populations of their prey.

An example of this can be found in Wyoming’s Yellowstone National Park, where wolves were virtually wiped out in the 1920s and reintroduced in the ’90s. Since the wolves have come back, scientists have noted an unexpected improvement in many of the park’s degraded stream areas.

From the New York Times - an Op-ED

NY Hit List - Invasive Species to be banned?

If you feel the need for a new burning bush, Japanese barberry hedge or Norway maple, now’s the time to plant.

They are popular and colorful landscaping choices, but — like dozens of other plants and animals — their days are numbered in New York.

All three are likely to end up on a state list of outlawed plants. The go-to decorations for mulchy gardens will be like fireworks — you can’t bring them into the state, you can’t sell them and if you get caught with them, you can get fined. If you have them in your yard already, you’re OK.

What makes them so popular is also part of their curse.

They adapt well to almost any environment and reproduce bunny-fast. They’re also what are called invasive species. By September 2013, the state will ban the worst offenders.

Invasive plants are often brought from another country because they’ll look great in a garden. But they break free of the beds outside homes and end up on forest floors and in fields, overwhelming native ferns and shrubs. They disrupt entire ecosystems.

Read  More - on Syracuse.com

In Syracuse: A great architect, a lost design and a corner born anew? | syracuse.com

In Syracuse: A great architect, a lost design and a corner born anew? | syracuse.com

Labor Day is Monday. In Syracuse, we’ve got an old factory whose entire design was based on the dignity of working men and women. The problem is this: The very feature that gives the building national significance has literally been walled off from public view.

If Rick Destito has his way, that will quickly change.

He owns what he calls the Gear Factory, an industrial landmark at West Fayette and South Geddes streets. It was designed almost 100 years ago by Detroit’s Albert Kahn, an important American architect who died in 1942.

Kahn was “a real humanist,” said Charles K. Hyde, an industrial archaelogist in Michigan who has written extensively about Kahn and his work. Raised in poverty, Kahn learned his craft through sheer perseverance, Hyde said. When such industrial titans as Henry Ford asked him to design their factories, Kahn used large windows and natural ventilation to make sure those buildings would never resemble dark and stinking industrial “sweatshops.”

In the early 1900s, the old Brown-Lipe gear company hired Kahn to design a new plant in Syracuse. He included such trademark elements as reinforced concrete, and all five floors were dominated by windows that allowed in a flood of light.