Rebecca McMackin is an ecologically obsessed horticulturist and garden designer. She has spent the last decade as Director of Horticulture of Brooklyn Bridge Park (BBP), where she manages 85 acres of diverse parkland organically and with an eye towards habitat creation for birds, butterflies, and soil microorganisms.

E. O. Wilson was an extraordinary scholar in every sense of the word. Back in the 1980s, Milton Stetson, the chair of the biology department at the University of Delaware, told me that a scientist who makes a single seminal contribution to his or her field has been a success. By the time I met Edward O. Wilson in 1982, he had already made at least five such contributions to science.

Angelou Ezeilo (@angelouezeilo) is the Founder and CEO of Greening Youth Foundation (@greeningyouth), an organization that connects underrepresented youth and young adults to the outdoors and careers in conservation. She's also the author of Engage, Connect, Protect: Empowering Diverse Youth as Environmental Leaders

In this podcast episode, Angelou sheds light on the consequences of having a lack of diversity within federal land management agencies and outdoor apparel companies; how more diverse representation within the environmental movement can transform the ways we approach conservation and engagement with nature; and more.

Myrmecochory

When we think of flowering plants, the insect visitors that most often come to mind are the flying variety that feast on pollen and nectar. But after the flowers have withered and faded, many spring bloomers begin feeding a strictly terrestrial bunch—the ants. Trout lilies, trilliums, and bloodroot, among many other spring ephemerals, provide sustenance to these ground dwellers. Fleshy appendages called elaiosomes are attached to the sides of seeds. Filled with lipids, proteins, and carbohydrates elaiosomes are tantalizing morsels that the ants can’t resist.

Despite the patriarchal oppression still going on in the world, women in pretty much every field are managing to kill it day after day. And the environmental field is no exception. There are numerous women around the globe who are fighting to preserve the planet — so in honor of International Women's Day, which falls on March 8 every year, now seems a great time to go over a few of the women pioneering the fight against climate change.

Forests Are Wired For Wisdom

Margaret Roach writing on Heather Holm’s important work