No Lawns

A french article about a juridic process that allow regular people to protect the nature in they gardens, or houses...

The article is in french. Feel free to use a translator.

Here is a link without paywall : https://archive.ph/iswqt

cross-posted from: https://peculiar.florist/notes/9mvjejg1u8q1tqnr

What was once pasture is now a forest.

www.boredpanda.com/brazilian-couple-recreated-forest-sebastiao-leila-salgado-reforestation/
institutoterra.org/o-instituto/

Instituto Terra is a non-profit civil organization founded in April 1998. It is focused on the environmental restoration and sustainable rural development of the Doce River Valley. The region was originally covered by the Atlantic Forest and covers municipalities of Minas Gerais and Espírito Santo bathed by the Doce River Basin.

The Rio Doce Basin is one of the most important in the Brazilian Southeast. In its domain live more than four million people, who face the consequences of deforestation and the disordered use of natural resources, such as soil erosion and water scarcity.

The Terra Institute is the result of the initiative of the couple Lélia Deluiz Wanick Salgado and Sebastião Salgado, who faced the scenario of environmental degradation in which the old cattle farm acquired from the family of Sebastião Salgado – like the many other rural units located in the mining city of Aimorés – made a decision: to return to nature that decades of environmental degradation destroyed.

The first step was to transform the area into a Private Reserve of Natural Heritage – RPPN Fazenda Bulcão. The title was obtained in an unprecedented way in October 1998, being the first environmental recognition granted in Brazil to a completely degraded property, given the commitment to be reforested.

The first planting was carried out in November 1999 and was attended by students from schools in the municipality of Aimorés, in Minas Gerais. Thus was born the largest proposal of the Earth Institute: to share with the community of its surroundings all the knowledge acquired in the environmental restoration of the 608.69 hectares of the RPPN Fazenda Bulcão.

To achieve this goal develops projects ranging from forest restoration and nascent protection to applied scientific research and environmental education. The financial support comes from different partners, both from the governmental and private enterprise, as well as from Foundations and individual donors from various countries and other institutions of the Third Sector.

Due to the action of the Earth Institute, thousands of hectares of degraded areas of the Atlantic Forest in the middle Doce River and close to 2,000 springs are in the process of recovery. The former cattle ranch, once completely degraded, today houses a forest with diversity of species of the flora of Atlantic Forest.

The experience proves that with the recovery of green, springs flow again and species of the Brazilian fauna, at risk of extinction, return to have a safe refuge.

avant : institutoterra.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/antes-1.jpg

après : institutoterra.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Instituto-Terra-2022-%C2%A9Sebastiao-Salgado-221213-00-00393-scaled.jpg

#ecologie #Bresil #InstitutoTerra

@environnement

Crazy for me to think that earthworms are invasive to North America!

Currently resisting the spring cleaning urge! The grass in the front yard is starting to grow, so it won't be too much longer.

The first on my list is thinning out the orange coneflower to make beds in the backyard. The second is grouping up the late boneset that sprouted in random places.

Where are some places that I can get bulk white clover seed? The tractor supply-ish stores by me only have it mixed in with grass, or the deer forage variety.

Chrissa Carlson, the former Garden and Nutrition Educator at Baltimore's Hampstead Hill Academy, shows us the steps needed to start a school garden and explains the different components of her school garden that not only makes it an effective space for growing plants, but also an engaging classroom.

If you don't have a lawn of your own to convert, this could be a great project for your neighborhood! Retirement communities or houses of worship are some other possible options.

More about the Baltimore Curriculum Project's Food For Life Program can be found here.

I recently came across this video about ARKs (Acts of Restorative Kindness) - small rewilded spaces that form a global rewilded network.

I thought this community would be very interested in this! It was started by an Irish woman and has spread all over the world. You can find the official site here: https://wearetheark.org/

Maybe you already have an ARK that could join the growing collective, or maybe you're interested in starting one.

A science class for middle school students at Panorama Middle School commonly involves a trek out to the prairie behind the school, a sketch of native seeds under the microscope or a homework assignment to track the progress of a backyard bluebird from its birdhouse.

Teacher Mark Dorhout created an outdoor education program at the middle school in Panora to “connect (students) to the natural world,” foster environmental stewardship, and give students a real-world application to the science they learn in the classroom.

Once upon a time, the land you tend was stewarded by others – or by nature itself. Learn how to assess your site and the plants that will grow best there.

publication croisée depuis : https://lemmy.world/post/24754679

Get out there and enjoy it!

Over 35 years ago.

Another day it occurred to me that time as we know it doesn’t exist in the lawn, since grass never dies or is allowed to flower and set seed. Lawns are nature purged of sex and death. No wonder Americans like them so much.

https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/121951-Silphium-terebinthinaceum

Crime Pays But Botany Doesn't
https://www.bonfire.com/store/crime-pays-but-botany-doesnt/

Killing the lawn
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qoO0ZhzZT7g

Planted and mulched
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=anpuSnAM5o8

Don't forget to check local for great resources on how to go the No Lawns route! Not everyone may have local resources but I was surprised to find out that my county has a natives program that has a guide on what and how to plant. Check your local city/county/State/provide/Etc to see if there's already some easy resources out there.

The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation: Leave the Leaves!

Leaves are not litter

They're food and shelter for butterflies, beetles, bees, moths, and more. Tell friends and neighbors to just #leavetheleaves

Gardening is not so much about following rules, says Rebecca McMackin, as it is about following rules of observation. For Ms. McMackin, the director of horticulture at the 85-acre Brooklyn Bridge Park, that means keeping in mind goals that will support wildlife in the garden, and the greater ecology.

Rather than following the common practice of planting and transplanting in spring, for instance, she suggests shifting virtually all of that activity to autumn — and not cutting back most perennials as the season winds down.

cross-posted from: https://beehaw.org/post/16383867

ghostarchive link here

Wild Ones: Lifetime Honorary Director Lorrie Otto (1919-2010)