by Mary Eiserman | Apr 28, 2024 | Natural Resources
Crunching worms, squeaking voles, drumming ants: how scientists are learning to eavesdrop on the sounds of soil (thegaurdian.com)
Until recently, soil had been a relative blank spot for monitoring species abundance. Farmers and gardeners hoping to find out how healthy their soils were had to dig up spadefuls and carry out laborious tests.
Last year, a study found soil was the single most species-rich habitat on Earth, with more than half of all species living in it. But only a fraction have been identified, and most are too small to see. Soundscapes are becoming an increasingly popular way of monitoring wildlife abundance, above ground, beneath the earth and underwater.
by Mary Eiserman | Apr 15, 2024 | Outdoor Explorations
Getting the blues is not something many people think about in April when the
whole world is bursting with new life. However, spring is when some of nature’s
loveliest blues arrive.
Spring Azures are butterflies that appear in the earliest days of spring, from
Canada to Florida. Their Latin scientific name is Celastrina ladon, which can be
loosely translated as Heavenly Spirit. And indeed, watching these baby-blue waifs
flit gracefully along the ground – visiting both flowers and mud puddles – it is easy
to see how they were given such a lofty name.
Males can be distinguished from females by their lighter blue color. Females
come in a slightly darker blue, but the blue is only visible when they are flying.
Luckily for us, they fly so low to the ground that we normally see them while
looking down from above as they fly by. When they perch, they fold their wings
over their back and all you see is the whitish underside of the wing with a few
black spots.
Both sexes have big, black shiny eyes and long antennae with zebra black-and-
white stripes. Of course, these features can only be seen if you look at them
through a good pair of binoculars. After all, their wingspan is only an inch wide.
In keeping with their small size, they have a very short proboscis (tongue), so they
can’t reach nectar from very many species of flowers.
The Spring Azure has one of the shortest lifecycles of any butterfly. Adults only
live for two to five days, but since there are several generations, you can see
them from March through May. Once summer arrives, they are replaced by a
related species, the Summer Azure, which has a slightly longer lifespan.
Enjoy getting the blues in springtime!
by Susan McSwain for FoN
by Mary Eiserman | Apr 12, 2024 | Recycling
Panelists: AI has a bigger role to play in recycling (resource-recycling.com)
Goals include using AI to try to solve some of the main challenges of the recycling business, particularly when it comes to sorting materials.
Extended producer responsibility legislation and other laws can help, but it may be possible for AI capabilities to create automated sorting processes for increasingly niche types of materials. There are other ideas for streamlining the recycling process, such as assisting in maximizing the efficiency of chemical recycling.
by Mary Eiserman | Feb 19, 2024 | Outdoor Explorations
Just about everyone likes maple syrup. Most maple syrup sold in stores comes from Sugar Maple orchards in New England and Canada, but it is possible to make syrup from other species of maples … if you have the time and patience.
There are more than 100 species of maple trees that are native to Asia, Europe, Africa, and North America, but only 14 species have sap with a high enough sugar content to make syrup production a viable undertaking.
The sugar content of sap is highest in – you guessed it! – Sugar Maples. It takes 40 gallons of sap from a Sugar Maple to make 1 gallon of syrup. Depending on the species of the other maples that can be used for syrup production, up to 80 gallons of sap may be required to make 1 gallon of syrup. A healthy maple tree can produce between 5 to 15 gallons of sap in a season, depending on the size of the tree, its species, location, age, and the weather.
The Red Maple (Acer rubrum) is the most common tree not only in Virginia, but throughout most of the eastern U.S., and its sap can be used to make maple syrup. it is a very adaptable species, with the widest tolerance for varying soil conditions of any other tree native to North American forests. It is native to every county in Virginia from the coast to the mountains. Red Maples are not generally used for commercial syrup production because their sap season is shorter than other maples. If you drive around Nelson, you can see a few trees that have already started to bud out. Once budding occurs, sap collection must be discontinued. Squirrels eat the buds, birds eat the seeds, and deer browse new sprouts. They don’t need maple syrup to enjoy the flavor!
by Susan McSwain for FoN
by Mary Eiserman | Feb 2, 2024 | Clean Energy, Environmental Impact
New Jersey enacts EPR for EV batteries (resource-recycling.com)
New Jersey is the first state to make producers responsible for electric vehicle batteries and other, similar propulsion batteries. In three years, a ban on disposing of propulsion batteries in landfills [in N.J.] will come into effect. A consumer complaints and public education program is being established by the N.J. Department of Environmental Protection. Battery producers will be required to create and submit management plans to the state Department of Environmental Protection
Other states have used similar extended producer responsibility (EPR) bills to manage other kinds of batteries. Vermont did so in 2014 for single-use household batteries. In 2021, Washington D.C. enacted the U.S.’s first single-use and rechargeable battery EPR law, followed by California in 2022 and Washington state in 2023.
Banning EV batteries from landfills could help build the battery recycling industry.
