not gonna lie kudzu has shot up to the top of my list of favorite plants so fast. she's such a bad bitch.

"but it devours everything in its path committing ecological atrocities" god forbid women do anything

kudzu is the most aggressive and indestructible plant around and that's WHY its so important to research her usefulness as a sustainable resource!!!

banging pots and pans yelling about how kudzu has been used for textiles, paper, food, and medicine for at least 6,000 years in china and over 2,000 years in japan and has been argued to be "quasi-domesticated" by some scientists

All parts of kudzu can and should be harvested all year round in north america, due to the severity of the invasiveness issue. However, certain parts have better results in certain seasons, which I have marked below.

Kudzu root (winter harvest) use cases include:

Kudzu Leaf (spring harvest) use cases include:

Kudzu Blossom (Summer harvest) uses include:

Kudzu Vine (autumn harvest) uses include:

Kudzu Seeds and Pods/Beans are TOXIC!! DO NOT EAT THEM! (they're safe to touch, just wash your hands after). Honestly I hesitate to call the beans "useful" in any way, given the invasiveness of the plant. You could maybe dry them up and use them for art or something? But no one in north america should need to make seedlings, you know? If you want a kudzu seedling like... walk near any vertical growth of kudzu and you'll find the seedlings!!

Fun fact for our international followers: If someone in Australia cuts down a tree on public land to improve the view from their house, the local government will install a sign to block that view again

if you are able to make it to one of these, i strongly recommend you do. otherwise please send a message. we dont need fucking golf and pickleball in our already threatened natural areas

I'll add this petition regarding Jonathan Dickinson SP.

Here is a link to the National Audobon Society post on the issue, which in turn links to their letter writing campaign. Please take the time to send one.

If you're not from Florida, your voice probably still matters a lot, since tourism is king

this is another thing Florida does not need in the series of climate & environment related hits from Ron DeSantis. please make your voice heard

"Minnesota cities can no longer ban pollinator-friendly native landscaping, thanks to a provision in a state government finance bill that took effect in July.

Concern over declining populations of bees and other pollinators has sparked interest in native plant landscaping in recent years, with many homeowners opting to tear out their turf grass lawns in favor of more diverse plantings. But those efforts occasionally run afoul of local ordinances that either require grass lawns or mandate that plants be kept below a certain height.

...

And in 2020, the city of Falcon Heights banned all front yard gardens after a resident attempted to plant vegetables.

The new language requires cities to allow homeowners to install and maintain a “managed natural landscape,” which it defines as “a planned, intentional, and maintained planting of native or nonnative grasses, wildflowers, forbs, ferns, shrubs, or trees.” 

The law explicitly states that “turf-grass lawns left unattended” are excluded from the definition of a “managed natural landscape,” which means mowing-averse homeowners will not be able to simply let their grass grow and declare it a natural garden.

But the legislation doesn’t say anything about homeowners’ associations, according to Julie Liew of the League of Minnesota Cities, so HOAs can still mandate the use of turf grass lawns. The Community Associations Institute, a trade group for HOAs and similar organizations, estimates there are more than 7,500 such organizations in Minnesota overseeing about 1.5 million residents.

Traditional turf grass lawns are effectively biological deserts. They’re devoid of the diversity of plant life that’s needed to support healthy native pollinator populations, and frequent mowing ensures that local plant life never gains a foothold. 

Native plantings “can offer the kind of habitat and nutrients to sustain thousands of insect species, and many of those in turn will be the food for birds and amphibians,” as St. Paul beekeeper and entomologist Margot Monson wrote in support of the new law."

I...tried to make a meme and got carried away and made A Thing that is like partially unfinished because i spent like 3 hours on it and then got tired.

I think this is mostly scientifically accurate but truth be told, there seems to be relatively little research on succession in regards to lawns specifically (as opposed to like, pastures). I am not exaggerating how bad they are for biodiversity though—recent research has referred to them as "ecological deserts."

Feel free to repost, no need for credit

If you like frogs. Or possums. Or cool builds. Or happiness. This is the video for you.

Monsanto, now owned by German pharmaceutical company Bayer, agreed to plead guilty to the charges in December. U.S. District Court judge Michael Seabright in Hawaii accepted the terms Thursday.

Monsanto was charged with 30 environmental crimes after allowing workers to go into corn fields on Oahu in 2020 after a product named Forfeit 280 was sprayed. Federal law prohibits people from entering areas where the chemical is sprayed within six days of application.

Monsanto was sentenced to three years of probation in addition to the fines and will continue an “environmental compliance program” overseen by a third-party auditor.

The company also pleaded guilty to two felonies related to the storage of a banned chemical on Maui and Molokai.

“The company repeatedly violated laws related to highly regulated chemicals, exposing people to pesticides that can cause serious health problems,” said U.S. Attorney Tracy Wilkison after the plea deal was made.

Monsanto said no adverse health effects were reported.

“The conduct at issue in the agreement is unacceptable and contrary to the values and policies of the company, and we sincerely regret it,” said Darren Wallis, Monsanto’s vice president of communications, in a statement.

“Aaniin, it’s Giiwedin here, Northwind.

One of my great friends was violently arrested this morning out of ceremony.

Their name is Alex Golden Wolf and they’re a two spirit leader from the White Earth Nation.

This photo is from this morning, July 23rd 2021. It breaks my heart to see the police violently arresting a ceremonial person.

This, I would say, is a violation of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act is happening at the Red Lake Treaty Camp here in northern Minnesota.

Follow their Instagram linked here @redlaketreatycamp as well as the link in my bio to keep updated.

And please, if you have the financial means, send funds to this water protectors Venmo @Alex-Golden-Wolf

Chii-Miigwech”

Red Lake Treaty Camp IG

How Can I Help Stop Line 3?

Stopline3.org

The how can I help stop line 3 link leads to a 403 error, is that on my end or did something happen to it? Are there any other links to the site?

Nope sorry that’s my error I will fix it in a moment

How Can I Resist Line 3?

Given the sheer number of Enbridge pipeline breaks in Michigan over the past 20 years (a number of the breaks occurred under rivers that were sources of drinking water for communities downstream) I can only imagine the horror their complete lack of maintenance and care would bring.

The transfer was celebrated by members of the Ponca Tribe as well as environmental advocates who oppose the construction of the pipeline and continue to demand a total transition to renewable energy.

“We want to protect this land,” Larry Wright Jr., the chairman of the Ponca Tribe of Nebraska, told the World-Herald. “We don’t want to see a pipeline go through.”

“While TransCanada is trampling on Indigenous rights to fatten their bottom line, Native leaders are resisting by building renewable energy solutions like solar panels in the path of the pipeline,” said 350.org executive director May Boeve.

“Repatriating this land to the Ponca Tribe raises new challenges for the Keystone XL pipeline and respects the leadership of Native nations in the fight against the fossil fuel industry,” she added. “Tribal sovereignty is central to the movement to keep fossil fuels in the ground and build a more just society for all.”

a good start to what should be a much larger movement of returning Indigenous lands

Did Ruth Bader Ginsburg effectively use girl power when she let a gas pipeline through the Appalachian Trail.

This is incorrect, or, at the very least, an oversimplification.

Do not trust any news reporting on Supreme Court rulings that do not cite either a case name or petition number. The ruling in question was an a certiorari to the 4th Circuit reversing the case US Forest Service v. Cowpasture River Preservation Association.

And the decision was not a matter of “uphold permit or deny permit”. The role of this ruling was to decide wether or not the Department of the Interior’s decision to switch the administration of the Appalachian Trail to the National Park Service’s directory means that the Trail is now part of the National Park System, which has added protections.

This would impact the US Forest Service’s ability to grant building permits at the land in question. If the Trail were held to now be part of the NPS since they share the same administrator, the pipeline could not get permits.

However, it is frankly undeniable that the majority decision in this case was the correct interpretation as consistent with several other such rules and principles within national and international law. RBG did not actually have much leeway here: she was acting in strict accordance to the law. The job of a Supreme Court Justice isn’t to enact policy.

Blame your local and national congressmen for not including the Trail in the National Park System. And remember that it is a right-wing strategy to divert your attention from actual neoliberal shitfaces they can tolerate and who don’t pose much of a threat to their purposes towards people with strong convictions and power to enact them, such as RBG. This is manufactured outrage by the right.

the solution to the systematic (and purposeful) destruction of the environment is not simply “no one ever touches nature again because humans are not a part of nature and should leave it alone” lmao. colonialism has destroyed the environment in ways which are targeted specifically toward indigenous people first, as well as impoverished communities who suffer the negative affects of environmental damage first. the response is not the self-deprecating and humanity-as-conglomerate attitude taken on by everyone from vegans to leftists to apolitical worriers… a solution is not to point and cry and say “think how much better animals would be without us!” because not only is human life as valuable and something you should be concerned over, not only should you think critically about the ways in which you define that “us” clause, you should also remember the human species is part of the ecosystem

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act was passed in 1818 and makes it illegal for people in the US to “take,” which means killing, injuring, or possessing, migratory birds in most circumstances. That includes accidental take, such as in oil spills, bioaccumuliation of poisons, or building on bird habitat. 

New proposed rules would make accidental takes legal. This change would mostly impact industries (and of course, the birds that they kill), and has nothing to do with people who pick up bird remains on purpose.

If you like birds you should probably speak out in favor of the MBTA. While those of us who collect feathers and such may find parts of it over-reaching, we also can’t just sit back and allow unchecked “industry” to kill swaths of birds in huge numbers with no penalty just because they weren’t killed “on purpose.”

Please understand that “accidental take” isn’t being proposed in order to protect you if you accidentally hit an owl with your car or have a secret little collection of found songbird feathers on display in your dining room.

I’ve worked for the the Division of Natural Resources. I’ve worked for the State Parks department, and I’ve worked as a bird rehabber.

Owls get hit by cars all the time. 9/10 of our raptors we treated at any time were car victims. No one is pressing charges.

And no one cares if you have a Blue Jay feather in your dresser with some cool rocks you found in a hike. We Don’t Care.

This proposal isn’t to protect you for these things.

Do you know who wants to be exempt from the Migratory Bird Treaty Act?

Oil & Gas, who see hundreds of millions of birds die horrible deaths in their sludge pits every year in the U.S.

If industries like Oil and Gas become exempt from MBTA laws and aren’t taken to task for accidental take, they Will not take responsibility for this impact in the environment. In fact, they’ll only get worse.

The Migratory Bird Treaty Act is one of the ONLY wildlife laws in the world that ACTUALLY has some teeth, as we say in Wildlife. Meaning, if you violate it, there may actually be consequences you can’t buy your way out of with wealth.

Do not let this administration change that. Tell them that they better not dare.

Listen to me:

In 2015, oil companies fought against having to cover their waste pits with nets. A multi-billion dollar industry that couldn’t be bothered to spend the money. To take the responsibility.

They will not do good deeds on their own. The MBTA exists in the first place because of the greed that decimated our birds before, the greed that drove entire species such as the Passenger pigeon extinct.

Without it, greed will prevail again.

PLEASE leave your comment on the US Fish and Wildlife website and let your voice be heard. Speak for the birds.

Please! I hardly ever reblog anything but this is so important to the environment and I could not have stated it better.

Yoooo they literally say on their own damn website that this is an atrocity:

“An estimated 500,000 to 1 million birds are killed annually in oil pits and evaporation ponds.  In one study, 51 % of all birds found at oil and gas facilities were in heater-treaters, 30% in various pits, 4% in wastewater ponds, 4% tanks and trays, and 1% spills.  More birds are likely found in heater-treaters compared to other sources as they are contained and are not vulnerable to scavenging by predators. In pits and ponds, many birds likely go undetected because they sink, are scavenged by predators, or picked up by people.  Thus, current estimates of bird deaths at these sites probably underestimate the true impact.“

I’m quoting their shit back at them in my comment.

Also, write your comment like a persuasive essay - this isn’t a vote, it’s a battle to change some damn minds.  The “Commenter Checklist” (PDF warning) flat out says one well-supported comment is more effective than a thousand form letters.

@pangur-and-grim   I know you are a delightful and crispy Canadian, but could you spread this hot American mess to help us not kill our dinosaurs?

The first time I saw this post I didn’t realize anyone could comment, but it turns out you can no matter where you live and it’s anonymous, so Please do!

Guys we have until March 19 2020 @ 11:59 pm. Pls comment on the site

For your convenience, here is a link directly to the comment page!

Short comic, while I work on something bigger on the side. It is nevertheless a very important topic. A lot of seabirds die because they eat plastic. They feed their chicks with the waste. It’s really tragic.

Why make me cry like this?

The way the media always talks about algae bioplastics as this super hi-tech science fiction “industry of the future” always made me think the process was super complicated and required precise lab conditions and expensive chemicals or something

Turns out? It’s pretty much just “get some seaweed and cook it”

It is a little bit more complicated than that, and there are various ways to do it with different results, but seriously - from the looks of it, if you can boil pasta, you can make your own plastic. The only thing stopping bioplastic from being a huge cottage industry like soap or beer is that nobody knows about it

This is pretty much the same procedure with starch-based bioplastic. It can be as simple as 3:1 cassava starch and glycerol (which naturally gelatenizes with heat).

You can also make your own glycerol/ glycerin easily. Just need some lye, oil, water and salt and about 30 mins on the stove.

Okay, how about biofuels? Is there any known way to brew up a batch of regular unleaded in a backyard algae tank?

Yes! The first link above is actually a site almost entirely about that. And another common way to make biodiesel is with used cooking oil that you can get free/cheap from local restaurants

I think Kiwami Japan did a variation of this to make one of his Sharpest [ ] Knife In The World knives. All with equipment he had lying around in his weird little kitchen.

I honestly cannot understate how important NEPA is.

It’s basically The piece of legislation that says you have to study what the environmental impact of any given building project will be (bridges, dams, bases, buildings, pipelines, if it’s built, NEPA decides if you need to do an environmental impact report). And then get that approved by a government panel/committee.

Without it, you basically get tyranny by property rights, never mind that you doing and building stuff on your property might effect the area around you (including other people’s property)