High School Gardening-for Credit

At a New Jersey high school, students can take gym class in the garden. 'We’re giving students another option to mainstream physical education,' Mr. Wilkinson said. 'How long is somebody going to play basketball or soccer? Gardening they can do their whole lives.'
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Members of Congress Discuss Green Agenda

"At this moment when all attention is on the economy, urban forestry is on the front lines of job creation, neighborhood stabilization, and cost effective infrastructure planning (including water, energy, and transportation). No other options provide the range of economic services as green infrastructure. Perhaps more important now than ever, the green industry is a reliable source of good paying, green jobs for every trained worker."
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Tree-mendous

Although trees are familiar to all of us, many aspects of their biology remain enigmatic: because they grow slowly and live for so long, they’ve been hard for us to study in the laboratory. Which is why they are Olivia Judson's nomination for Life-form of the Month: April. Full Article

Human health linked directly to forest health

“Our research confirms what we know instinctively: Human health is inextricably linked to the health of the planet,” says Chris Elliot, WWF’s Executive Director of Conservation.
“Deforestation is a double blow to human health,” says Elliot. “It increases the spread of certain diseases while destroying plants and animals that may hold the key to treating illnesses that plague millions of people.”

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Rewilding: A Model for Sustainable Conservation

While climate change gets most of the ink in environmental news sections, biodiversity is at a “point of no return”... If ecosystems fail, their ability to sequester carbon or provide flood control diminishes. These ecosystems then also fail to provide the habitat necessary to preserve diverse species that rely on complex interactions with one another to survive.
One possible solution is “rewilding,” a model that can be implemented piecemeal across landscapes to promote the reconnection of isolated habitats, form bridging corridors that help revive complex natural systems, and reintroduce predators. The approach is designed to restore biodiversity in places where it has been lost.

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