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No such thing as the “environment”
Ah, spring is here, time for serious cleaning of gardens and basements. I’m going to clean Biocitizen of the concept of the “environment,” mainly because, beyond its status as a concept, there is no...
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the global economy of death & the local economy of life
Our national economy isn’t making us happy. We don’t want to contribute to global warming, for example, but our economy does and so do we. We don’t want to drink plastic-bottle water, and fill up the...
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Forest Gardening: the Basis of a Local Economy of Life
Today, our Supreme Court (SCOTUS) decided 5 to 4 that there’s no limit to the $$ consumers of politicians can spend to buy them. I don’t think the word has been invented that describes our present form...
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Forest Gardening: the Basis of a Local Economy of Life, part 2
Neoliberalism will destroy everything including itself, but that doesn’t mean the human species will become extinct. I write this, prematurely, to the survivors (& please, may our grandkids be...
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About That Little Bit of the Dead Branch Brook In Westhampton That Is Home to...
Yesterday, I had the pleasure of meeting some folks who are interested in learning about the little bit of the Dead Branch Brook in Westhampton that is home to endangered species. Thinking it might be...
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Earth Day Gift: A Properly Darwinian Religion
Allow me to give you an Earth Day gift I’ve been trying to wrap up ever since I studied under an eminent Thoreau scholar who, in his first lecture, handed it to me—by saying: “For Thoreau, nature was a...
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What to think when your epistemology collapses…
“Epistemology” is a word that describes a system of knowledge and values. Every culture has an epistemology, as we find when we travel internationally and/or compare, say, Holland and Saudi Arabia....
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“Placing” Northampton’s Bridge Street School
from Charles C. Mann’s book, 1491 Town Farm shad bones below Turner’s Falls dam, July 2012 from Charles C. Mann’s book, 1491
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Grown in Westhampton: Root Cellaring
This is from Fedco’s 2014 seed catalog: This is from Fedco’s 2015 tree catalog:...
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Rapid Biotic Assessments 2014
If you know what bugs live in a river, you can gauge its health. IDing river bugs, Mill River below Baystate, Northampton So, every year just as Summer slips into Fall, the Biocitizen Corps ventures...
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Words In the Woods: a field environmental philosophy course for girls
At Biocitizen, students learn about themselves as they learn about our place in the natural world. By bringing them into our outdoor classrooms—places charged with natural vitality, beauty and...
View ArticleHolyoke Needs Love: A Public Art Project by Biocitizen, HCC Art Professor...
Aesthetic value is a keystone of environmental philosophy. We love, and take care of, things we find beautiful. Biocitizen and HCC professor John Calhoun have made a commitment to work together for a...
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Our Place Summercamp 2015
Our Place Summercamp is designed to “unplug” your child by bringing them into direct contact with the creatures, geologies, hydrologies and infrastructures of the Nonotuck biome and the Westfield River...
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Words In the Woods: Creative Minds and Exploratory Finds
by Maegan Puzas, teacher of Woods in the Woods & Persephone Sarantidis, photography Creative Minds and Exploratory Finds Around six months or so ago, I found myself listening to the hum of the life...
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Drawing on Nature: Art in the Woods—Spring class for ages 9-12
Director’s note: A recent visit to the Metropolitan Museum of Art (which contains work thousands of years old from myriad cultures) confirms the idea that our perception of beauty in nature is innate...
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Fire & Ice—a message of gratitude
Sent this to folks who are helping kids who need assistance this summer— Hi everybody, Thank you so much for participating in the Our Place scholarship fundraiser! Most of us are sick of ice and snow,...
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Wilderness: Theory and Practice
Wilderness is one of the fundamental concepts of environmental philosophy. It is commonly recognized as being a place without human presence; yet is also a feeling of fear and awe, and a particular...
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The Importance of River Walking
A note on learning and teaching the wild The wild is contrasted to the cultured, a contrast echoed in the difference between giant hogweed and carrots (both of the family Apiaceae), mountaineers and...
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Art in the Woods: Drawing on Nature — FALL 2015
For many of us, our first attraction to nature arose from a good feeling of perceiving beauty in flowers, waves, the sky. Bird song. This good feeling—of biophilia—is key to environmental philosophy...
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Black Friday Crosscountry Walk from Westhampton to Chesterfield Over Mt. Pisgah
Cross country walking—exploring terrain without worry of trail—is something we don’t get to do enough. It’s hard to get a sense of the “body” & vitalities of a biome, and of the microbiomes nested...
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