Tag: New Jersey Conservation Foundation
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Get outside and embrace ‘friluftsliv’ this winter
By Michele S. Byers Friluftsliv might be hard to pronounce, but it is a concept to embrace this winter amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Meaning “open-air life” in Norwegian, friluftsliv (pronounced free-loofts-liv) is deeply ingrained in Nordic culture. Scandinavians are renowned for their love of the outdoors, no matter the season or weather. There’s even a…
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What’s valuable about New Jersey’s forests?
By Michele S. Byers In the not-so-distant past, the value of forests was based on the timber generated from logging. Forests without commercial timber potential were thought to be nearly worthless. Today, much more is known about forest values. Forests are considered priceless for providing wildlife habitat and many “ecosystem services,” including filtering impurities from…
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What’s valuable about New Jersey’s forests?
By Michele S. Byers In the not-so-distant past, the value of forests was based on the timber generated from logging. Forests without commercial timber potential were thought to be nearly worthless. Today, much more is known about forest values. Forests are considered priceless for providing wildlife habitat and many “ecosystem services,” including filtering impurities from…
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Tom Gilmore: Conservation Trailblazer
By Michele S. Byers New Jersey’s parks, forests, farms, trails, meadows and wildlife habitats are preserved today in large part due to the many individual conservation trailblazers in this state we’re in. Individuals really do make a difference, You may not have heard of Tom Gilmore, but if you live in New Jersey you can…
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Harnessing nature to fight climate change
By Michele S. Byers Many of us love huge old trees. Their beauty, size and feeling of the passing of time leave us in awe. But they also contribute to life on this planet and make it livable for humans and so many incredible life forms. But they also absorb harmful carbon dioxide from the…
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COVID’s impact: The ‘burbs’ are back, retail is changing
By Michele S. Byers Not long ago, experts who track New Jersey’s land use and development trends were putting the nail in the coffin of suburban sprawl. As recently as this past winter, indicators showed that millennials – the generation that is taking over the workforce, and marrying and having children – did not want…
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An eloquent witness to Earth’s changing climate
By Michele S. Byers In his 94 years, British naturalist and broadcaster David Attenborough has explored every part of the Earth, from polar ice caps to equatorial rain forests to African savannas. His acclaimed television series, including “Life on Earth” and “The Blue Planet,” brought exotic animal species into millions of homes, sparking a sense…
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‘Pine Mud’ film exposes off-road vehicle damage to Pine Barrens
By Michele Byers For those who love nature and wildlife, the New Jersey Pine Barrens are a million acres of incomparable beauty and wilderness in the middle of the heavily-developed East Coast corridor. It’s a region rich in rare plants and animals, some found nowhere else on Earth, and has been designated an international Biosphere…
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Environmental justice: Clean and green in every community
By Michele S. Byers Growing up in Camden, Olivia Carpenter Glenn suffered from asthma and allergies. She was not alone; many of her family members, friends and neighbors also had respiratory ailments, a result of breathing the polluted air in their industrial city. Respiratory health issues were so common in Camden that Olivia gave them…
