Environment

Katherine Larson, writer in residence at Cary Institute

by Carola Lott

Poet Katherine Larson said the two weeks she spent as the writer in residence at the Cary Institute were an “absolutely fantastic” experience.

The opportunity to talk the institute’s scientists about topics ranging from urban ecology to disease ecology to ecological engineering gave her fresh insights for the two book projects she is currently working on. One project is a book of poetry and the other a “lyrical novel.” Even when writing fiction Larson says, “As someone with a background in science, I’m a writer that’s very invested in getting the details right.”

Larson, who was born and raised in Arizona, has been interested in biology since childhood. Her father was a professor of forestry and her mother a fourth grade teacher with a passion for science. At the University of Arizona in Tucson Larson received a B.S. in ecology and evolutionary biology as well as a B.A. in English and creative writing.

Flooding forum at Cary says work with nature

The havoc wrought by hurricanes Sandy and Irene heightened awareness of the impacts of flooding. In a forum sponsored by the Cornell Cooperative Extension of Dutchess, Columbia, and Greene counties; the New York Water Resources Institute; the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation Hudson River Estuary Program; and the Hudson Estuary Watershed Resiliency project, an impressive roster of experts came together at the Cary Institute to present an overview of major flooding events, which are expected to happen more frequently. New York has suffered eleven flooding events requiring FEMA assistance in the last 15 years, according to Wayne Reynolds, one of the presenters. In 2007, in Delaware County, four lives were lost, hundreds of homes destroyed, and 11 inches of rain came down in four hours. In 2011, again in Delaware County, $15 million of damage was sustained, with bridges and roads having to be replaced and repaired. According to the experts who presented at the forum, the answer is not in engineering. We have to work with nature, move away from old infrastructure and understand where we can and cannot develop.

Volunteer science at the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies

Volunteerism in science has two sides: it helps scientists collect data that needs many hands to accumulate and it saves money, which is in short supply in the research field, but it also subjects the data collected to question as to its reliability. These issues were discussed by Dr. Stuart Findlay, a Cary scientist who runs an annual data collection program called Submerged Aquatic Vegetation on the Hudson. His remarks followed a talk at the Cary by Akiko Busch, whose book The Incidental Steward was inspired by her Cary residency. Her experiences there led her to better understand the role of volunteer scientists and what insights can be gained from being one.

Canoeing the Great Swamp

During the last week of April, my brother, Alex Shoumatoff, and I had the privilege of canoeing the Great Swamp with Dr. James Utter, President of FrOGS (Friends of the Great Swamp), who wrote a study called “Birds of the Great Swamp” for Bedford Audubon. He is considered the biodiversity expert of the area.

Alex, who writes about nature and far-flung places, had just come back from Nebraska, where he witnessed the migration of 600,000 sandhill cranes for a story he is writing for Smithsonian magazine.

We put in our canoes in Patterson at the little state park past the train station, and I was immediately impressed by a swath of wild trout lilies growing in a rich and moist clump under the trees.

As we started paddling through stands of ominously gloomy dead swamp maples, my brother said he heard the clucks of red-bellied woodpeckers, who are there in greater numbers now because they have moved north due to climate change. He said he heard but did not see a few yellow warblers, delayed by the late and cold spring weather.

Ending the Race for Fish

The Cary Institute’s Annual Ned Ames Honorary Lecture

by Tom Parrett

FEEL free to eat any fish that’s caught legally. Be comfortable with the decision. By the way, you’re probably helping the planet

This message comes from one of the world’s most respected, honored, published, and thoughtful ocean fisheries scientists, and it’s emerged from intensive analysis of an accumulating number of fish stocks that now includes 500 species.

Wassaic Community Farm CSA—Veggies for all

Ben Schwartz, founder of Wassaic Community Farm, may be seen driving around in a veggie oil–converted delivery van that says, “Milk not Jails.” The van belongs to one of his partnering organizations that is campaigning to replace upstate prison economies with a dairy-farming economy. Schwartz and his fellow farmers make delivery runs every week in the summer to the South Bronx, to make fresh vegetables available to a community that has no access to fresh food. He is providing CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) memberships for the needy families of inmates in upstate prisons. His CSA takes food stamps.

The CSA bills itself as having “a mission to address food justice issues both locally in Dutchess County and in New York City.”

Chase Farms, a dairy from Pine Plains, is providing milk and cheese to the farm’s prison CSA.

Our Water Future: Back to the Past?

by Tom Parrett

DRINKING water is unlikely to be a major problem in these parts. Elsewhere, clean water will be a big and growing concern—possibly even a casus belli.

The shortfall is twofold, says James Salzman, author of the informative and enjoyable Drinking Water: A History and holder of chairs at Duke University in its schools of law and environment: access to water and water that’s free of disease and poisons. Salzman spoke last Friday evening at the Cary Institute. To either shortage, he said, humans all over the world have had one of two approaches: to guarantee universal access or let the profit motive decide.

The first impulse in early societies was universal access. In Judean accounts it was known as the Law of Thirst: No severely parched person can be denied water, no matter how dire the need to save wilting crops, water horses, or fill the master’s bath. In practice it has meant that water is universally available to anyone free of charge.

Environment

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