Nature

The Brooklyn Public Library has some lovely art exhibits in the main library lobby area. This month, one of them is A Brooklyn Bestiary - woodcut prints by Lisa Studier.

The library artist's statement is almost as lovely as the art and chock full of surprising fun facts.

The Infrastructurist blog has a nice article about The World's 10 Greatest City Parks with satellite images and descriptions of ten great places. Read the comments to learn about even more great city parks.

Today is World Water Day, and the Nature Conservancy has a neat, interactive map showing where various regions and communities get their drinking water. Check it out here.

I grew up around the NYC water system (actually the older portion which is now mostly just backup) so I have a pretty good idea, but a lot of people just think theirs comes from a faucet.

Or should that be "against climate change?"

Take action at the Blog Action Day site.

Mark your calendar and plan to do something for a trail near you. National Trails Day is a day of volunteering to maintain and improve trails – it's outdoor fun, community-spirited, and great exercise! Check the American Hiking Society site to find an event near you.

Here's something fun and non-traditional (or start a new tradition!) to do for the Christmas holiday - get involved in the annual Audubon Society Christmas Bird Count. Go to the Audubon site for details.

The National Parks Conservation Association is lobbying to stop a bill that would permit visitors to national parks to carry firearms even when not hunting in a designated area. This is such a bad idea I don't even know where to begin! The parks staff can barely handle the problems they've already got, thanks to underfunding.

You can find out more and send an email to your representatives here:
NPCA Action Center.

I recently decided to unsub from the Sierra Club's general newsletter, and in doing so found their Daily Ray of Hope, which is just a simple nature photo and inspirational quotation by email each day, so I signed up for that. Readers can submit photos via Flickr group, so I decided to sign on to Flickr and contribute a few of my best shots.

And they used this one!

I took it on Scoobymaniac's very first camping experience, at Promised Land State Park in the Poconos, on Labor Day weekend in 2002.

Other interesting events that weekend: I lost my wallet, and despite having (I thought) thoroughly searched for it at the time, I found it in my duffel bag when packing for another trip several years later!

Spring is here, so naturally gardens and gardening are coming up all over (puns intended!). Not that I've done anything with my own garden yet. Slate has a couple of very good, recent articles – one on creating a habitat garden to shelter small creatures, birds, and butterflies, and one on gardening with children. Enjoy, and get some good ideas.