‘Environment’ Archives
Spooky Greetings from Women’s Environmental Institute
By Shelia Bland, Women’s Environmental Institute Bugs, bees, bites, and bears And oh, the blackest of nights No chatter, or laughter or arguments outside but silences, hoots, creaks, and scares. If the moon is out the darkness abates, but the full moon sky casts an eerie glow It bears no semblance to streetlights! Things glow in the dark, And move across the black void Then suddenly float away. Crickets, frogs, wolves, and winds Some sounds never heard before And when there is no sound at all, the silence threatens to swallow you whole. Lost inside an emptiness you cannot see but also, cannot escape. So profound is this silence It dissolves all random thoughts That filled your between-the-ears space. You give in to perpetual wonder… Welcome to the countryside— A Back to the Future style trip Back to Nature! A trip to Women’s Environmental Institute Classes are available Free, For those who live, [...]
City songs for loving the Earth
Mushrooms growing in a potted plant on an East Phillips porch / photo: Ben Heath By Lindsey Fenner As a new master naturalist, I have started to study Minnesota’s major biomes or biological communities, especially the native grasslands that I love. But as I’ve studied, I’ve wondered when I would start reading about places like Phillips. I realized that the way Minnesota is divided up into the three major biomes: prairies, hardwood forests, and conifer forests, ignores one major distinct landscape: cities. Most people in Minnesota live in cities, in urban or suburban areas. This sprawling human development, after all, is why we are facing the painful loss of so many species. But people are a natural part of landscapes and ecosystems. And we have been living in cities for more than five thousand years. We have shaped our ecosystems, and have been shaped by them in return, whether we have lived close together in cities and villages or spread out in the prairies and [...]
Shaping a Vision for Owámniyomni, St. Anthony Falls
Collage by GGN for Friends of the Falls & NACDI. Community Conversation #5: A Powerful Place for Partnerships. Image by Drew Arrieta for Friends of the Falls & NACDI. By Amanda Wigen, Friends of the Falls Long before they were claimed as “St. Anthony’s,” the Falls were the beating heart of Indigenous societies. Called Owámniyomni, or “turbulent waters,” by the Dakota, the Falls cascaded over a 50-foot limestone drop on Haha Wakpa (the Mississippi River) and roiled through now-submerged islands at their base. Dakota and other Indigenous people came to Owámniyomni for ceremony and to Spirit Island, a sacred place destroyed by industrialization, to give birth. When the Upper Lock on Minneapolis’ Central Riverfront closed to commercial navigation in 2015, an opportunity emerged to reimagine this historic and culturally significant landscape. What could we do with this massive structure - which in many ways is a symbol of the desecration of this place - [...]
