Mini-Forest Revolution
Mini-Forest Revolution

Author: Hannah Lewis

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2022-06-09

Total Pages: 226

ISBN-13: 1645021289

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*2023 Nautilus Book Award Gold Medal Winner: Green, Restorative Practices /Sustainability "Hannah Lewis describes a gift to a despairing world. . . . There may be no single climate solution that has a greater breadth of benefits than mini-forests. . . [and] can be done by everyone everywhere."—Paul Hawken, from the foreword For readers who enjoyed Finding the Mother Tree and The Hidden Life of Trees comes the first-ever book about a movement to restore biodiversity in our cities and towns by transforming empty lots, backyards, and degraded land into mini-forests. Author Hannah Lewis is the forest maker turning asphalt into ecosystems to save the planet and she wants everyone to know they can do it too. In Mini-Forest Revolution, Lewis presents the Miyawaki Method, a unique approach to reforestation devised by Japanese botanist Akira Miyawaki. She explains how tiny forests as small as six parking spaces grow quickly and are much more biodiverse than those planted by conventional methods. She explores the science behind why Miyawaki-style mini-forests work and the myriad environmental benefits, including: cooling urban heat islands, establishing wildlife corridors, building soil health, sequestering carbon, creating pollinator habitats, and more. Today, the Miyawaki Method is witnessing a worldwide surge in popularity. Lewis shares the stories of mini-forests that have sprung up across the globe and the people who are planting them―from a young forest along the concrete alley of the Beirut River in Lebanon, to a backyard forest planted by tiny-forest champion Shubhendu Sharma in India. This inspiring book offers a revolutionary approach to planting trees and a truly accessible solution to the climate crisis that can be implemented by communities, classrooms, cities, clubs, and families everywhere. "Lewis simplifies the science of planting trees in a manner that produces the maximum benefit."—The Associated Press

Forest Urbanisms
Forest Urbanisms

Author: Bruno De Meulder

Publisher: Leuven University Press

Published: 2024-10-15

Total Pages: 254

ISBN-13: 946270421X

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A radical redefinition of how humanity occupies the earth — through forests, agriculture, and settlement — and rearticulates environmental stewardship by intertwining ecologies and urbanisms, this publication brings together essays by scholars in forestry, urbanism and other disciplines, designers, practitioners and policy makers. It explores the multifaceted notion of forest urbanisms, including a conceptual framing essay; contributions from the sciences such as bioscience engineering, architecture, urbanism and public policy; contemporary forest urbanism projects and explorative essays that make tangible an agenda for the 21st century. With descriptions of both built and non-built projects from around the globe, the essays show how such projects substantiate a radical shift in humankind’s occupation of the world, where ecologies and urbanisms converge and agriculture, forests, and settlements are integrated. Forest Urbanisms extends growing research on a new nature–culture relationship, the necessity for trees in cities, and a rebalancing of ecology and urbanism.

Return to the Sky
Return to the Sky

Author: Tina Morris

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2024-10-03

Total Pages: 210

ISBN-13: 1645022633

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“Three cheers for this splendid, surprising, inspiring book!”—Sy Montgomery, author of The Soul of an Octopus Alone in a vast wildlife refuge with little direction and no experience, a Cornell Laboratory of Ornithology student found herself responsible for a project of historical importance—to bring the Bald Eagle back from near extinction. In Return to the Sky, Tina Morris, one of the first women to engage in a raptor reintroduction program, shares her remarkable story that is as much about the human spirit as it is about birds of prey. In the spring of 1975, on the eve of the US Bicentennial, Tina was selected to reintroduce Bald Eagles into New York State in the hope that the species could eventually repopulate eastern North America. Young and female in a male-dominated field, Tina was handed an assignment to rehabilitate a population that had been devastated by the effects of DDT. The challenges were prodigious—there was no model to emulate for a bird of the eagle’s size, for one—but Tina soon found that her own path to self-discovery and confidence-building was deeply connected with the survival of the species she was chosen to protect. Ultimately, Tina spent two years playing “mother” to seven eaglets at Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, east of Seneca Falls in New York. Driven by her passion, she discovered unknown reserves of patience, determination, and grit. At a time when the mass extinction of bird species is a critical global topic, Return to the Sky reminds us how, with a mix of common sense, resilience, and resolve, humans can be effective stewards of the natural world. “This is more than an account of environmental triumph; it is a call to action. At a time of urgent climate and biodiversity crises, this book challenges each of us to examine our surroundings and consider how we can contribute to the sustainability of our planet.”—Dr. Elizabeth Gray, CEO, National Audubon Society, from the foreword "Emotional and inspiring proof that one person can make a difference."—Kirkus Reviews "Inspiring . . . the writing is clear and eloquent . . . Morris expertly blends moving memoir and scientific research in this remarkable and affecting story."—Booklist

The Healing Power of Forests
The Healing Power of Forests

Author: Akira Miyawaki

Publisher: Kosei Publishing Company

Published: 2007-09-15

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9784333020737

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The Healing Power of Forestsdescribes the successful techniques used to recreate depleted forests, whether near factory sites, parking lots, or even the Great Wall of China, on the basis of environmental studies. The book challenges us to plant 'native forests of native trees' to increase the chances for achieving a sustainable way of life before it is too late.

The Forest Garden Greenhouse
The Forest Garden Greenhouse

Author: Jerome Osentowski

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2015

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1603584269

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With a revolutionary new "Climate Battery" design for near-net-zero heating and cooling By the turn of the nineteenth century, thousands of acres of glass houses surrounded large American cities, becoming a commonplace symbol of the market garden and nursery trades. But the possibilities of the indoor garden to transform our homes and our lives remain largely unrealized. In this groundbreaking book, Jerome Osentowski, one of North America's most accomplished permaculture designers, presents a wholly new approach to a very old horticultural subject. In The Forest Garden Greenhouse, he shows how bringing the forest garden indoors is not only possible, but doable on unlikely terrain and in cold climates, using near-net-zero technology. Different from other books on greenhouse design and management, this book advocates for an indoor agriculture using permaculture design concepts--integration, multi-functions, perennials, and polycultures--that take season extension into new and important territory. Osentowski, director and founder of Central Rocky Mountain Permaculture Institute (CRMPI), farms at 7,200 feet on a steep, rocky hillside in Colorado, incorporating deep, holistic permaculture design with practical common sense. It is at this site, high on a mountaintop, where Osentowski (along with architect and design partner Michael Thompson) has been designing and building revolutionary greenhouses that utilize passive and active solar technology via what they call the "climate battery"--a subterranean air-circulation system that takes the hot, moist, ambient air from the greenhouse during the day, stores it in the soil, and discharges it at night--that can offer tropical and Mediterranean climates at similarly high altitudes and in cold climates (and everywhere else). Osentowski's greenhouse designs, which can range from the backyard homesteader to commercial greenhouses, are completely ecological and use a simple design that traps hot and cold air and regulates it for best possible use. The book is part case study of the amazing greenhouses at CRMPI and part how-to primer for anyone interested in a more integrated model for growing food and medicine in a greenhouse. With detailed design drawings, photos, and profiles of successful greenhouse projects on all scales, this inspirational manual will considerably change the conversation about greenhouse design.

Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World
Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World

Author: Alan Mallach

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2023-06-13

Total Pages: 338

ISBN-13: 1642832278

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Over the past hundred years, the global motto has been "more, more, more" in terms of growth - of population, of the built environment, of human and financial capital, and of all manner of worldly goods. But reality is changing from the population boom of the 1960s and 1970s, as the earth's population begins to decline. In Smaller Cities in a Shrinking World, urban policy expert Alan Mallach seeks to understand how declining population and economic growth, coupled with the other forces that will influence their fates, particularly climate change, will affect the world's cities over the coming decades. Mallach has woven together his vast experience, research, and analysis in this fascinating, realistic-yet-hopeful look at how smaller, shrinking cities can thrive, despite the daunting challenges they face.

Climate Action for Busy People
Climate Action for Busy People

Author: Cate Mingoya-Lafortune

Publisher: Island Press

Published: 2024-06-18

Total Pages: 218

ISBN-13: 1642832774

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As unprecedented heat waves, storms of the century, and devastating fires impact cities across the country, the time to create climate resilient communities is now. While large-scale innovations in policy and technology are necessary to preserve the planet, the wisest and most lasting adaptation solutions originate at the local level. Each chapter will help readers scale up their actions, from identifying climate solutions that an individual or small group can pull off in a handful of weekends, like tree plantings or depaving parties, to advocating for change at the municipal level through coalition-building and data collection. It's not too late for people of all ages and skill levels to create climate safe neighborhoods.

The (Big) Year that Flew By
The (Big) Year that Flew By

Author: Arjan Dwarshuis

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2023-05-04

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 1645021912

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An epic tale of one passionate birder’s record-breaking adventure through 40 countries over 6 continents—in just one year—to see over 7,000 bird species, rare and common, before many go extinct. When Arjan Dwarshuis first heard of the “Big Year”—the legendary record for birdwatching—he was twenty years old, it was midnight, and he was sitting on the roof of a truck in the Andean Mountains. In that moment he promised himself that, someday, somehow, he would become a world-record-holding birder. Ten years later, he embarked on an incredible, arduous, and perilous journey that took him around the globe; over uninhabited islands, through dense unforgiving rainforests, across snowy mountain peaks and unrelenting deserts—in just a single year. Would he survive? Would he be able to break the “Big Year” record, navigating through a world filled with shifting climate and geopolitical challenges? The (Big) Year that Flew By is an unforgettable, personal exploration of the limits of human potential when engaging with the natural world. It is a book about birds and birding and Arjan’s attempts to raise awareness for critically endangered species, but it is also a book about overcoming mental challenges, extreme physical danger, and human competition and fully realizing your passions through nature, adventure, and conservation.

The Great Regeneration
The Great Regeneration

Author: Dorn Cox

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2023-03-16

Total Pages: 241

ISBN-13: 1645020673

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In the age of climate change, food scarcity, and increasing industrialization, can a few visionary farmers find global solutions through technology and create networked, open-source regenerative agriculture at a truly transformative scale? In The Great Regeneration, farmer-technologist Dorn Cox and author-activist Courtney White explore unique, groundbreaking research aimed at reclaiming the space where science and agriculture meet as a shared human endeavor. By employing the same tools used to visualize and identify the global instability in our climate and our communities—such as satellite imagery—they identify ways to accelerate regenerative solutions beyond the individual farm. The Great Regeneration also explores the critical function that open-source tech can have in promoting healthy agroecological systems, through data-sharing and networking. If these systems are brought together, there is potential to revolutionize how we manage food production around the world, decentralizing and deindustrializing the structures and governance that have long dominated the agricultural landscape, and embrace the principles of regenerative agriculture with democratized, open-source technology, disseminating high-quality information, not just to farmers and ranchers, but to all of us as we take on the role of ecosystem stewards. In this important book, the authors present a simple choice: we can allow ourselves to be dominated by new technology, or we can harness its potential and use it to understand and improve our shared environment. The solutions we need now, they write, involve a broader public narrative about our relationship to science, to each other, and to our institutions. And we all need to understand that the choices made today will affect the generations to come. The Great Regeneration shows how, together, we can create positive and lasting change.

Feather Trails
Feather Trails

Author: Sophie A. H. Osborn

Publisher: Chelsea Green Publishing

Published: 2024-05-02

Total Pages: 318

ISBN-13: 1645022439

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The story of one woman’s remarkable work with a trio of charismatic, endangered bird species—and her discoveries about the devastating threats that imperil them. In Feather Trails, wildlife biologist and birder Sophie A. H. Osborn reveals how the harmful environmental choices we’ve made—including pesticide use, the introduction of invasive species, lead poisoning, and habitat destruction—have decimated Peregrine Falcons, Hawaiian Crows, and California Condors. In the Rocky Mountains, the cloud forests of Hawai’i, and the Grand Canyon, Sophie and her colleagues work day-to-day to try to reintroduce these birds to the wild, even when it seems that the odds are steeply stacked against their survival. With humor and suspense, Feather Trails introduces us to the fascinating behaviors and unique personalities of Sophie’s avian charges and shows that what endangers them ultimately threatens all life on our planet. More than a deeply researched environmental investigation, Feather Trails is also a personal journey and human story, in which Sophie overcomes her own obstacles—among them heat exhaustion, poachers, rattlesnakes, and chauvinism. Ultimately, Feather Trails is an inspiring, poignant narrative about endangered birds and how our choices can help to ensure a future not only for the rarest species, but for us too. "An intimate look at the wonder and effort needed for working with endangered species in the wild. [Osborn's] matter-of-fact writing style and wry humor make the reader part of the action."—Booklist (starred review)