Sure, those berries and other decorations of nature can be used during the holidays to spruce up the house, but beware of using invasive plants to deck the outside halls.
MassWildlife is advising people to avoid using certain exotic invasive plants such as Oriental bittersweet (Celastrus orbiculatus) and multiflora rose (Rosa multiflora) in holiday decorations.
While they are attractive, birds eat and carry away the fruits from wreaths and garlands and the digested but still-viable seeds sprout…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on November 6, 2009 at 12:40pm —
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While it's turn-back-the-clock-time on Sunday, Nov. 1, meaning it will be depressingly dark earlier in the evening by the start of the work week, the light will be bright at night from the Beaver Moon on Monday, Nov. 2, according to Massachusetts Audubon Society's calendar.
The full moon for November gets its name, simply enough, from the time of year when Native Americans would set beaver traps before the swamps froze to ensure a supply of warm winter furs, according to the Old Farmer's Almanac…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on October 27, 2009 at 12:30pm —
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This word just in. The Attleboro Climate Action event scheduled for Saturday will go on, but at a different venue because of the forecast.
The rally will be held at Brennan Middle School in Attleboro instead of the Balfour Riverwalk, said organizer Charlie Adler.
More than four thousand similar events will be held in public places around the globe, where people will gather to share concerns about the dangers of climate change and to call on their elected leaders to act decisively to reduce the a…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on October 20, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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So, an ex-urban vegetarian moves to Alaska, marries a fisherman who is also a hunter and begins to wonder what is the “right” thing to eat.
Find out what happens by attending “Eating Alaska,” the latest Green Reel Harvest film to be shown at 7 p.m. on Nov. 8, at Agudas Achim on North Main Street in Attleboro.
The film about ethical eating is both a serious and humorous account about connecting to where you live, and eating locally, according to the write-up submitted by organizers of the viewing…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on October 13, 2009 at 12:02pm —
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Big Hug.
That’s what folks gathering at the Morton Arboretum in Illinois will be doing when they gather on Oct. 17, but it will be of the leafy kind.
The arboretum — an internationally recognized 1,700-acre outdoor museum with collections of 4,117 kinds of trees, shrubs, and other plants from around the world — ha…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on October 12, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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Unlike the big brown bear that passed through the Attleboro area earlier this year, these “bears,” are harmless, actually rolling up and playing dead when you pick them up.
“Woolly Bears,” the common name for these most commonly recognized caterpillars, have long been winter weather indicators.
Folklore has it t…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on October 5, 2009 at 1:49pm —
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O.K., so many of the summer blooms have started to fade, but this whacky weather has actually led to some more brillant blooms on plants of mine that are typically ready to rest for the season.
Take the butterfly bushes. Normally by this time, the purple blooms have gone brown. Instead, both my bushes boast more blooms and are better looking than they have all season! And that's a real color-giving pleasure.
It's not just those plants, either.
My hand-me-down dahlias, (from my stepfather who's i…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on September 23, 2009 at 1:15pm —
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Fungi will be the focus of three upcoming events through the Audubon Society of Rhode Island.
The first, on Sept. 19, is “Taking the Mystery Out of Mushrooming,” at the Parker Woodland Wildlife Refuse in Coventry. Participants, led by an expert guide, will learn how to identify various mushrooms that grow wild in the area.
Then they can sample some prepared dishes which include a variety of cultivated “wild” mushrooms. The program runs from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m.: $20 for adult ASRI members; $25 for…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on September 14, 2009 at 3:21pm —
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It’s a wild time in the water as there has been an incredible display of nature not usually here by nature.
A total of five great white sharks have now been tagged by state fisheries and wildlife workers. Its only the second time that has happened in the Atlantic Ocean.
In addition, a manatee, whose common grounds — or waters — are usually Florida, among other tropical locations, has been sighted in Point Judith Pond in South Kingston, RI.
The Department of Environmental Management said today th…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on September 9, 2009 at 12:41pm —
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Take advantage of the great weather and a slow down in the growing season and head out to Tranquil Lake Nursery in Rehoboth on Saturdays starting Sept. 12.
They're offering workshops to brighten up your yard after the summer blooms have faded by highlighting plants to extend the growing season into the fall and winter.
Fall blooming perennials, plants with fall fruits and foliage and how to bed the rest of your garden for winter with an eye toward the spring spurt are among some of the offerings…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on September 4, 2009 at 10:07am —
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MassWildlife biologists banded together earlier this summer to band Bald eagles and Peregrine falcons and found good numbers of them in nesting sites from Boston to Fall River, the Merrimack River and Quabbin Reservoir, among other spots.
Dr. Tom French, assistant director of MassWildlife's Natural Heritage and Endangered Species Program, recently reported the results; an estimated 39 peregrine falcon chicks at 17 nests.
"Peregrine nests are popping up everywhere with two new nests at MIT in Ca…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on August 12, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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Local butterflies had a hard time getting off the ground earlier this summer and naturalists blame the rain.
The recently released results of the Audubon Society of Rhode Island’s 6th annual North American Butterfly Association Count held on June 27 and July 11, showed the numbe…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on August 3, 2009 at 2:29pm —
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(Hummingbird in one of the SC photographer's yards in Rehoboth last summer.)
With the sun’s return and people returning to the outdoors, there is a chance to see what has transpired after the long cool, rainy spring and start to summer. Multiple-colored dragonflies are zipping thro…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on July 21, 2009 at 1:00pm —
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If you haven’t already noticed, there’s amore in the air.
Fireflies, who live just a week or two in hopes of mating, are lighting up the night right now in many area neighborhood backyards.
The wet spring and early summer has led to more of the blinking bugs this season, according to scientists.
In fact, in the burbs of Washington, fireflies were reportedly the best and brightest in years last month.
Each small insect’s glow equals about 1/40th of a candle, but en masse in the dark of night, rep…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on July 13, 2009 at 2:30pm —
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Care about the future of forests?
Then you might want to consider attending an event to be held by the state Department of Conservation and Recreation next week.
The DCR invites interested sportsmen and women, foresters, land trust and watershed association members and other conservationists who care about state forests to participate in their "Forest Futures Visioning Process" at a two-part public forum in the Berkshires on Tuesday, July 14, from 3:45 to 8:30 p.m.
The first part of the forum wi…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on July 8, 2009 at 12:00pm —
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It's been so rainy in the Northeast, the non-profit organization Project Laundry List has reportedly declared a "clothesline emergency." The group, which advocates line drying laundry as opposed to using electric dryers, stated it's the first time in its 15-year history that it h…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on June 30, 2009 at 2:00pm —
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. ..And the perfect place for inspiration to paint in the outdoors could be the settings within the Garden in the Woods in Framingham whose grounds will be open to artists through a first-time Artist Pass Program Partnership created by artscope magazine, the Danforth Museum of Art and th…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on June 24, 2009 at 4:12pm —
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Found a funky bird's nest?
Well, you might want to take a photo --- or perhaps paint, write a story or shoot a video --- of it and participate in the latest challenge from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology in New York.
The initiative, Funky Nests in Funky Places, is meant to celebrate urban b…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on June 11, 2009 at 3:30pm —
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Why did the turtle cross the road? It’s no joke — to get to the other side.
Except this month in particular, motorists might just have to lend a helping hand.
When it’s safe to do so, brake for those turtles that are now making their way across local roadways in search of nesting sites,…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on June 8, 2009 at 11:30am —
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Feel something crawling up your leg after a walk through the woods? How about after doing some yard work near the wood pile? Be aware, poppy seed-sized nymphal deer ticks are now biting, bringing with them the potential for Lyme or other tick-borne diseases.
It takes work to tackle ticks…
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Added by Sue LaHoud on June 2, 2009 at 3:00pm —
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