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2020 Sustainable Backyard Tour Cancelled

Posted on April 13, 2020 | Leave a comment
Photo by Holly Shanks

A message from The Sustainable Backyard Network Founding Director Terry Winkelmann.

Dear Friends, As the impact of Covid-19 continues to grow, it has become apparent to the Sustainable Backyard Network that we cannot in good conscience continue to plan for a June Sustainable Backyard Tour this year.

We are disappointed to have to make this decision, but the 10th Annual Sustainable Backyard Tour, originally set for June 14, 2020, has been cancelled.

The health and well being of our hosts and guests is paramount and with the future so uncertain in light of this pandemic, we have no plans to reschedule the tour this year.

We will be taking part in the Virtual St. Louis Earth Day Festival being produced by Earth Day 365 later this month, with a live video tour of a special backyard —details to follow soon. We hope you will join us for that.
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Pope Links 2020 Pandemic to Climate Change Impacts

Posted on April 11, 2020 | 2 comments

By Don Corrigan

Pope Francis delivered a controversial message during Holy Week that will have people in and outside the Catholic Church talking long after Easter passes. Conservative critics of Pope Francis have warned that he should stay in his lane – a strictly religious lane – but he has become more outspoken with the crisis of the 2020 Coronavirus Pandemic.

“There is an expression in Spanish: ‘God always forgives, we forgive sometimes, but nature never forgives,’” Francis said in the interview published April 8. “We did not respond to the partial catastrophes. Who now speaks of the fires in Australia, or remembers that a year and a half ago a boat could cross the North Pole because the glaciers had all melted? Who speaks now of the floods?

“I don’t know if it is nature’s revenge, but it is certainly nature’s response,” Pope Francis added. “Every crisis contains both danger and opportunity: the opportunity to move out from the danger,” he said. “Today I believe we have to slow down our rate of production and consumption and to learn to understand and contemplate the natural world.”

Francis became the first pope in Catholic Church history to devote an entire encyclical to the issue of care for the environment, in which he condemned human exploitation of nature.

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Posted in Home, Opinion

STAY INFORMED: Listing Of Coronavirus Resources

Posted on April 9, 2020 | Leave a comment

We want our community and readers to stay safe and healthy during this COVID-19 pandemic. This virus has caused hardships and pain on every level of our social, economic and well-being around the globe. An important part of protecting ourselves, our families, our friends, our front line and emergency workers and our community members who are at risk is to make sure we stay informed.

Below find a compiled list of resources relating to COVID-19 information.

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Posted in Environment, Home

Updates to the St. Louis Earth Day Festival’s April Event – It’s moving online!

Posted on April 8, 2020 | Leave a comment

We are all currently stuck in isolation doing our part to protect our families, friends, co-workers and communities from COVID-19, but don’t worry, you’ll have two chances to enjoy this year’s St. Louis Earth Day Festival! One online in April and a second chance to visit the festival in October at Tower Grove Park. Below is information from the online festival’s Facebook Event.

We’re bringing the well-known St. Louis Earth Day Festival online! Join us at earthday-365.org during the week of April 18-26 for our Virtual Earth Day Festival.

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Posted in Home, Local Events

Book Review: The Great Influenza: Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History

Posted on April 6, 2020 | Leave a comment
The Great Influenza: Epic Story of the Deadliest Plague in History – John M. Barry — Penguin Books, 2004/2005

Review By Glenn Koenen – St. Louis

Yes, the parallels startle.

  • The jump from animals (pigs in Kansas) to people escaped notice for longer than it should.
  • The first major infected population spread the disease far and wide at breakneck speed.
  • Governments – especially America’s – bungled the early response.
  • Many of those researching and fighting the disease perished or suffered.
  • Working folks took the biggest financial hit.

True, as the book explains, a pandemic almost by definition is never expected. The response always begins ad hoc as bits of the story pop-up – along with a lot of red herrings and confusion.

Yet, the overall situation mimics past events. Instead of remembering what had been learned, alas, a thousand wrong decisions recreate the same mistakes.

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Posted in Home, Opinion

Fishing Suspended At Forest Park’s Jefferson Lake For Renovation Project

Posted on April 4, 2020 | Leave a comment
Photo courtesy MDC.

The Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC) announces public fishing in Forest Park’s Jefferson Lake, located in St. Louis City, will be suspended starting April 1 for approximately one year. The suspension is to accommodate an extensive $10.5 million renovation of the park’s eastern waterways by Forest Park Forever and the City of St. Louis which will also impact the lake.

The project is tentatively expected to be completed and public fishing at Jefferson Lake anticipated to reopen by June 2021.

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Posted in Home, Local Events, Outdoor/Nature

MDC TRIM Grant Removes Invasive Trees At St. Louis Community College

Posted on April 3, 2020 | Leave a comment
Certified arborist David Slane removes an invasive white poplar tree at St. Louis Community College’s Meramec campus. Photo by MDC Staff, courtesy MDC.

16 down, one to go. That was the count on a gray and rainy Thursday in early March when students from the horticulture class at St. Louis Community College’s (StLCC) Meramec Campus gathered to watch a dentist take down a tree. It was being funded by a grant from the Missouri Department of Conservation (MDC).

For David Slane, DMD, this was merely a routine extraction, just one more dendro than dental. Dr. Slane is also an arborist, certified by the International Society of Arboriculture. In fact, Slane’s self-appointed nickname is “Arbor Dave”. When he’s not working at his Kirkwood practice on teeth that have roots under the gum, he’s at work on trees with roots underground.

“They have things in common,” Slane said. “In both cases you diagnose and treat problems.”

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Posted in Environment, Home

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Nature: A Refuge in a Pandemic Age

Don Levee BikeBy Don Corrigan

On a hike in the age of pandemic this past weekend, an acquaintance noted how the sky has not been this blue since the week after 9/11. There is minimal air traffic, so the skies get a breather from the burning jet fuel, contrails and all the airliners’ heat-trapping gases.

Don’t get me wrong. This column is not about the Green New Deal and its plans for the likes of Southwest or American Airlines. I’m a believer in keeping the skies friendly for air travel, at least until my daughter gets home from Dublin, where she says she is working in a “Shelter-in-Place  Paradise.”

This missive is actually about how we are now taking refuge in nature. We are discovering purple wildflowers, blooming dogwoods and pondering “nothing but blue skies,”  as Willie Nelson sings.

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Posted on April 3, 2020 in Home, Opinion, Outdoor/Nature

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#BringTheStlZooToYou

Saint Louis Zoo ads-2Connecting people to animals is the core of the Saint Louis Zoo’s mission, and that doesn’t stop when its doors are closed. Stay connected with the Zoo’s #BringTheStlZooToYou  online resource providing access to stories, videos and photos of the animals and animal care, educational activities, conservation programs and more to help you stay connected to the Zoo during the temporary ​public closure because of COVID-19. You can find the fun and informative resources on the zoo’s social media and website.

“We know how important the Zoo is to the St. Louis area community,” says Jeffrey P. Bonner, Dana Brown President and CEO, Saint Louis Zoo. “We are happy to continue to provide everyone with opportunities to view our animals and see firsthand how well our zookeepers and other critical staff are working.  Likewise, we hope all those parents who are teaching their children at home can take advantage of some of this information.”

 

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Posted on April 2, 2020 in Environment, Home, Outdoor/Nature

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Wildlife Not To Blame For Coronavirus

Sharon Deem, DVM, Ph.D., Dipl ACZM, Director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine

By Don  Corrigan

Bats and snakes are taking the blame for transmitting the coronavirus which is taking such a toll on human health and economic well-being. Experts at the Saint Louis Zoo worry that such explanations for the pandemic will cause a backlash against wildlife.

“Bats are not to blame. Snakes are not to blame. Wildlife is not to blame,” said Dr. Sharon Deem, director of the Saint Louis Zoo Institute for Conservation Medicine. “Humans created the avenue for a snake to be near a bat to be near a human. We humans have created the environments that allow the spillover of these pathogens.

Deem is referring to one theory that coronavirus was contracted from bats by snakes, then the snakes were purchased for consumption by humans  in a market in Wuhan, China. The virus has spread from China to more than 150 nations, with the United States now having the most infections of all countries.

“We humans have created the environments that allow the spillover of these disease pathogens,” said Deem. “In fact, one of the greatest impacts on human public health, beyond emerging infectious diseases and climate change, is the loss of biodiversity.

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Posted on March 31, 2020 in Environment, Home