Animals
Urban Farming Reuse Idea: Chicken Coop Cabinet
You can avoid the hassle and complications of constructing housing for your urban chickens by simply transforming an unwanted piece of furniture into a cozy poultry home.
Growing Our Local Food Infrastructure: Urban Farm School Opens in Asheville NC
Though it sometimes seems like our evil frankenfood corporate overlords, such as Monsanto and Dow, have completely hi-jacked our food system, many people around the nation are actually creating more sustainable and viable alternatives. A few good folks in Asheville, NC are bringing agriculture back to the people, empowering urbanites to gain more food independence, while learning to grow healthier fresh local food for their own communities.
Struggling Hungry Bees will Work for Flowers
This forlorn and starving cartoon bee from Occupy the EPA made me laugh out loud when I first saw it. The comic does a brilliant job of humorously expressing the very real plight of these vital insects, as they battle habitat loss, chemical pesticides and disease, in a desperate attempt to survive.
Come Join Important Media’s Link Party
Ecolocalizer is a proud member of a blog cooperative called Important Media, which is a community of websites devoted to news that matters. Each week we highlight a list of featured articles from across our diverse network, including posts from Eat Drink Better, Blue Living Ideas, Crafting a Green World, Sustainablog and Ecopreneurist. Please take a moment to read some of this week’s highlighted articles, and you might learn something new.
Making a Better Future for Endangered Sea Turtles in Africa (Video)
A touching and beautiful video about protecting the endangered sea turtles of South Africa and Southern Mozambique.
Amazing Canines: Dogs that Can Save Lives by Smelling Diabetes & Cancer
I am continually amazed at the loving, endearing and even life saving relationships that people create with their pets. Dogs have long been used for a variety of medical conditions, such as lowering high blood pressure, assisting the blind and helping relieve depression; now this list is expanding with new stories of what dogs can accomplish. Canines are now being trained to smell cancer, as well as being able to detect dangerous blood sugar levels in their human companions.
Gardeners Put Earthworms to Work Recycling
Want a recycling crew to start working up the soil? Get a batch of worms.
For all those getting their gardens ready for planting, a healthy population of earthworms is absolutely essential. I enjoyed this Australian website’s reference to Charles Darwin, who sang the praises for worms in 1881:
“Of all animals, few have contributed so much to the development of the world, as we know it, as these lowly creatures.”
Bulldog Adopts Orphan Wild Boar Piglets
In Germany a French Bulldog adopted a litter of six piglet orphans who had been found cold and starving in the woods near Brandenburg. The tiny wild boars were only four days old, and would have soon perished alone on their own. Their parents were thought to have been possibly killed by hunters.
Beavers Help Clean Up Storm Damage in Northwest
In rural Eatonville Washington last week’s storm damage was so extreme that the local animal preserve, Northwest Trek Wildlife, has been forced to close until next month. The park is over 700 acres, and is home to hundreds of different creatures that are native to the Pacific Northwest. Everyone, including this industrious female beaver, is coming together to help clean up the destruction.
Extreme Weather, Beavers & Washington’s Winter Wonderland
I am looking out my frozen window, watching flurries of wet flakes continuing to fall, as Western Washington becomes completely engulfed in thick blankets of snow. Nearly everything is closed, as local residents marvel at the white winter wonderland. It does, however, feel a bit like being permanently trapped inside of a tiny frosty snow globe.
The Beaver Manifesto Shows Us the Way
Canadian professor Glynnis Hood’s fantastic new book, “The Beaver Manifesto”, just arrived in the mail today. I started reading the small volume immediately, and found both the writing and the message most engrossing. I am already a devout fan of the beaver, and was immediately sold at the first few words of the manifesto:
“If I could design the perfect animal, it would be the beaver…”
Sanctuary City: General Assembly
A light powdery frost had blanketed the forest on the night before Kwanzaa in Cascadia Meadow; all of the creatures were busy doing for others, sharing kindness and good will. Many members of the extended collective had travelled great distances to join together for the General Assembly community meeting that was to be held that very evening.
How to Get Eco Clean When Skunks Spray
Just as humans enjoy beautiful morning and early evening hikes, so does your friendly neighborhood skunk. The likelihood of a stinky encounter is more likely for your curious canine, so here are some excellent ways to deal with the aftermath.
Plastic: Infographic and Action to Fight It
Plastic bag bans are becoming more and more popular, spreading from California to India (or India to California) and many places in between. The latest plastic bag bans I’ve heard of are in…