In 1904, the forester for the Bronx Zoo noticed something unusual. Some of the zooâs trees were sick. They looked wilted and scorched, with ugly cankers growing out of them. Hermann Merkel called in a mycologist, a fungus expert. By the time William A. Murrill figured out the cause two years later, the disease had spread as far south as Virginia.
And that is how the great chestnut blight began. Within just a few decades, most American chestnuts were gone, whole forests wiped out by something we couldnât see (at least not without a microscope).
Today, we donât fully appreciate what happened with the chestnut. Thatâs because weâre living in the arborial equivalent of a post-apocalyptic horror, with no real memory of what came before. For us, the forests we see around us are normal, yet theyâre not normal. They are what remained after their most dominant species was rendered functionally extinct.
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Today, the New York State Center for Sustainable Materials Management (NYS Center for SMM), based at the SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry (ESF), launched a first-of-its-kind statewide recycling website to address residential recycling confusion and contamination across the State. Visitors to
RecycleRightNY.org will learn about the value of everyday materials and why it is important to recycle correctly.
The
Recycle Right NY campaign was originally launched by the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) after a series of recycling stakeholder meetings in 2018 to jump start discussion aimed at addressing challenges facing New York s recycling system. Campaign management was transitioned to the Syracuse University Center for Sustainable Community Solutions (SU-CSCS), a core partner with the NYS Center for SMM. The SU-CSCS team worked with more than 100 New York state recycling professionals to further build out this important reso
BRIANNE LEDDA/THE STATESMAN
“A tree came down, look at that.” Sue Avery, a botanist and certified landscaper, examines a thin wire cage along the border of the Ashley Schiff Preserve on campus.
A slender sapling grows in the center, hardly visible against a backdrop of leaves and debris. It’s barely mid-April too early for the shoot to have grown leaves. A fallen tree rests barely a foot away; a few inches closer, and it might have crushed the sapling.
Avery isn’t sure about the exact origin of the sapling. “It came from a batch of fertilized nuts collected from blight-resistant trees or from results of cross-pollination between flowering trees on Long Island,” she said. A fungus, also known as chestnut blight, wiped out mature American chestnut trees in the 1950s.
Best of Q&A: Seth Jones. Adirondack summit steward
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Seth Jones, education director for the Adirondack Mountain Club.Provided
Meeting a summit steward at the top of Mount Marcy in 2007 first turned Seth Jones’ mind toward getting involved with conservation and education in the Adirondacks. Growing up in the suburbs of Rochester, his family would vacation in Old Forge and he camped and canoed as a Boy Scout, instilling in him an early love of nature. These days, Jones is the education director for the Adirondack Mountain Club, overseeing programs like the Three Seasons at Heart Lake program for area fourth-graders, and a naturalist internship program, among others.
Wallingford announces Meriden native is the new town planner
Wallingford announces Meriden native is the new town planner
New Town Planner Kevin Pagini on his first day of work at Wallingford Town Hall on Monday. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal Advertisement
New Town Planner Kevin Pagini reviews materials on his first day of work at Wallingford Town Hall, Mon., Apr. 19, 2021. Pagini, a Meriden native, came to Wallingford from Cortland, New York, where he served as the Cortland County planner for nearly eight years. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal
Wallingford Town Hall, Mon., Apr. 19, 2021. Dave Zajac, Record-Journal
April 19, 2021 05:32PM By Lauren Takores, Record-Journal staff
WALLINGFORD â A new town planner started on the job Monday, after the position had been open for more than seven months.