As I write this, snow is falling outside on a cold, wintery New England day. Beautiful to look at and fun to play in when all bundled up, but it’s nice to know that I can come in from the cold at any time. I am amazed by mammals and birds that survive in environments […]
Archive for the ‘New England’ Tag
Life in cold water
Why didn’t the beetle cross the road?
As I have mentioned before, habitat fragmentation is one of the primary issues facing species around the world today- while it is far too big a topic to tackle in its entirety during one month’s posts, I think that investigating a few of its manifestations is manageable. I also think it’s necessary, since we have […]
Repelling the invaders
During the past few weeks, I’ve been looking into invasive aquatic plants- it’s clear that there are many species and that we are doing a good job of helping them find new habitats to exploit. It’s also clear that there are big differences between species in terms of impact and the locations where they pose […]
Going with the flow
As I mentioned in my last post, invasive aquatic plants are a big concern- although we are still learning about how they impact invaded ecosystems (and it’s not necessarily bad), we do know that plants such as water hyacinth, Spartina spp., and milfoil can clog waterways, change habitat, and alter faunal communities. And, as we […]
Getting your hands wet
Many of the salt marsh and barrier island restoration projects I’ve described in previous posts are pretty big scale- it would be challenging for an individual to plan and carry out offshore dredging or large-scale marsh terrace construction. But is there a way to contribute in some small fashion to these bigger projects? Given how […]
A helping hand for dinner
Over the past few weeks, I’ve gotten schooled in the history and current status of New England groundfish and shellfish. There are definitely some bright spots, like scallops and today’s haddock catch in Georges Bank, but there are also some problems including the economic realities of fishing for a living. I love eating seafood, but […]
A sustainable harvest?
I sat down to a feast of fresh Maine lobster on Wednesday, my second this summer, and, to be honest, I completely enjoyed it from start to finish, despite the complete mess I made on both table and clothing (I should probably have a bib at home for this…)- but I had to wonder, given […]
All at sea
My goal was to learn about the history of marine fisheries in New England because I felt that narrowing down the geographic region would make the topic manageable- given the amount of information sloshing around in my brain, I should have narrowed more. I started by digging through some pretty old records for lobster and […]
Sea-ing my food
I love seafood. Well, I love food in general, but seafood is a big part of that. Thankfully, I’m just two hours from the coast, and fresh seafood is something I can expect and enjoy on a regular basis (I’ve even become something of a snob about which seafood sources I’m willing to use- once […]