This week I share my first experience with forest therapy, a technique inspired by the Japanese practice of shinrin yoku, forest bathing or "taking in the forest atmosphere." This way of interacting with nature has myriad health benefits, including reduced...
This week I share some tips for how I deal with the increasing numbers of bees and wasps at my oriole feeders in late summer. While I have no silver bullets to offer, there are some feeder alterations and refill...
This week I share a unique ecotour of two Lancaster County Solid Waste Management Authority (LCSWMA) sites with Environmental Field Manager Jeff Musser. Prime examples of how working lands can still provide critical wildlife habitat, the Chestnut Grove Natural Area...
Back by popular demand, we round out the Shady Acres Campground series with Connie Spotts sharing some of her favorite tips and tricks for living with wildlife in a working landscape. Learn from her problem solving techniques and be sure...
This week I do some ecological time traveling to show you a local restoration project, the Tittabawassee Floodplain Preserve, when newly seeded in 2022 and three years later as the native vegetation has matured, providing important habitat for native pollinators,...
This week we return to Shady Acres Campground with owner and purple martin landlord extraordinaire, Connie Spotts, to see how various types of purple martin nesting habitats can be selected, built, installed, and monitored in a busy landscape. Purple martins...
This week I return to Shady Acres Campground with owner and wild bird landlord, Connie Spotts, to see how various types of nest boxes can be selected, built, installed, and monitored in a busy landscape. Connie continues to "think outside...
This week I share some marvelous pollinator-focused projects in a business landscape near Jackson, Michigan, Shady Acres Campground, owned by Connie Spotts. An educator extraordinaire and lifelong learner, Connie shows us around the property she has been stewarding for nearly...
This week I share an often underrated but wonderful summer-to-fall blooming wildflower that supports pollinators in my own store landscape: Black-Eyed Susan (Rudbeckia hirta). This species is a great addition to sunny and dry pollinator gardens and along well-drained zones...
