EcoLocal Life

05/22/2025

All towns, small , big or huge.

Minneapolis, Boston among those found to outspend US average on parks, get more construction

05/21/2025

Highlighting a problem.
Not a problem, you say? That make you part of the problem.

04/10/2025

Coal? Who's Kidding Who?

An executive order intended to give coal a boost ignores the reality not only of where energy markets are going, but where they are today.

04/08/2025

An important realization to be aware of when comtemplating this concept of "community" ....

That said, it's about than simply adding common spaces.

https://www.facebook.com/share/1APZiAuBXP/

NEW: Americans with high school educations or less are increasingly isolated and less engaged in civic life than their peers who have college degrees.

That’s according to research by Daniel Cox (director of the Survey Center on American Life) and Sam Pressler (researcher, writer and fellow at the Karsh Institute of Democracy). The gap leads to fewer opportunities to gain community, participate in social groups and most crucially build friendships, relationships and social support.

The good news is that intentional building and activation of public spaces can be part of the solution of bridging the class divide.

Read more about Cox and Pressler’s discussion with Bridget Marquis at Reimagining the Civic Commons: at https://medium.com/reimagining-the-civic-commons/americans-without-college-degrees-have-fewer-friends-06cface5f374

Image courtesy of Camden Community Partnership.

03/23/2025

Libraries: a SUPER important part of the community fabric

Show up for libraries by showing up AT your library! On April 13th, plan to stop into and read for at least an hour. They’ll have cookies, comfy chairs, and plenty of reading material to choose from—from novels to magazines to audiobooks (please bring your own headphones). Fill out a library testimonial card explaining why libraries are important to you and grab some resources explaining how to support your local library. No registration required.

03/23/2025

Alert, southern Coumty friends

The Town of Clifton Park is holding an Open House for the Town's Farm Plan on Monday, March 31st.

Drop by anytime between 4-7:30pm to share your ideas and help identify goals and priorities for supporting local agriculture. 🌱

03/12/2025

BREAKING: Solar power shatters its own record with 50 GW of new generating capacity in 2024, the most added by a single energy source in over two decades.

Dive into the latest data on America's solar surge in SEIA and Wood Mackenzie's Solar Market Insight 2024 Year in Review Report: https://seia.org/news/report-solar-adds-more-new-capacity-to-the-grid-in-2024-than-any-energy-technology-in-the-past-two-decades/

03/12/2025

This is serious stuff, right here.

Your stories help us call attention to the harm that farmers and ranchers are facing and make the case for the urgent need to find solutions.

03/09/2025

03/01/2025

A great way to improve your tree identification skills is to look at several trees growing side by side. When we do this, we easily detect differences in features that otherwise seem similar.

Pictured here are two oak species and two hickory species that grow in eastern North America. Notice the obvious differences. Shagbark hickory (no surprise) has shaggy bark. Mockernut hickory has tightly ridged and furrowed bark. Shingle oak develops lighter colored ridges resembling ski tracks. White oak has the lightest colored bark of all the species mentioned.

Unlike the two hickories, white oak and shingle oak tend to hold onto their dead leaves throughout the winter season — a trait known as marcescence.

Oaks and hickories aren’t too closely related, but they do fill similar ecological niches. Both groups provide sources of hard mast (acorns and hickory nuts) for animals including humans, squirrels, chipmunks, jays, woodpeckers, turkeys, and while-tailed deer. Both groups serve as host plants for caterpillars of several butterflies and moths. Both groups associate with a large number of fungi and lichens.

With only a few weeks of winter left, we can still make significant progress with our winter tree identification skills. Spend lots of time with trees. Be observant. Be curious. Ask lots of questions, and enjoy the process!

03/01/2025

"Markets and companies seem to be betting that Trump’s promises to stop or reverse the clean energy transition and “drill, baby, drill” will be successful.

But this bet is wrong. The clean energy revolution is being driven by fundamental technological and economic forces that are too strong to stop."

WSJ March 1