How Big is Your Ecological Footprint?

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation , Plant Legal News and Issues

It has been ten years since the book, Our Ecological Footprint was published by UBC professor William Rees and Mathis Wackernagel. The book introduced the concept of ecological footprint analysis, described by Rees in an interview, "Pick a population, examine its consumption patterns for a considerable period of time, and then calculate the total area of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems needed to produce all the goods and services that the population consumes, and to assimilate the wastes that the population produces" (Aurora Online). The analysis methods have been carefully refined over the years and produce a fairly accurate estimate of the amount of land required to produce and dispose of the goods used by a region or an individual.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 1:51 PM | Comments (0)

Balancing the Debate on Natural Resource Management

Category(-ies): Plant Legal News and Issues

In the last century human settlement has become increasingly urban: almost half of the global population now resides in cities or towns - developed countries average over 70%. The shift has brought changes in the way land use and natural resource decisions are made. Some would argue that a growing urban voice has dominated environmental debate, influencing policy in rural areas without sufficient input from the people who inhabit those areas. Efforts are on the rise to give greater voice to rural residents.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 1:44 PM

Furcraea selloa var. marginata

Category(-ies): Other Botanical Gardens

A close relative of agaves, Furcraea selloa var. marginata has put forth an impressive, gigantic inflorescence at the royal Botanic gardens in Hamilton, Ontario. The plant, which was accessioned by the garden in 1976, flowers only once and will die after blooming. Fortunately, many plantlets will form from the inflorescence, offering good opportunities for propagation.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 10:36 AM | Comments (0)

An End to Illegal Timber Exports in Myanmar?

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation , Plant Legal News and Issues

Myanmar is a country rich in natural resources, but fifty years of internal conflict over the control of its natural riches have thwarted effective development of their economic use. Timber, the country's primary natural resource, has been unscrupulously exploited by the elite of Myanmar and neighbouring countries. In October 2005, Global Witness released a report on the devastating effect of the unsustainable timber harvest to Myanmar's northern forests. The report stated that over 95% of the wood being exported to China was illegal. In the past four months illegal logging and timber trade at the China-Myanmar border has come to a near stop.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 12:08 AM | Comments (0)

Native Seeds/SEARCH

Category(-ies): Botanical Resources , Plant Conservation , Plants, Food and Medicine

"Ancient seeds for modern needs," is the motto of Native Seeds/SEARCH, a non-profit organization based in Tucson, Arizona. Since 1983 the group has been collecting seeds of food plants used by the native cultures in the arid region of the southwestern US and northwestern Mexico, sometimes referred to as the Chile Pepper Nation (see NPR link). Their mission has led them not only to conserve the rare crops adapted to arid lands, but also to preserve cultural traditions by distributing crops back to Native American communities.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:18 PM | Comments (2)

Fueling Cars with Plants?

Category(-ies):

Plants have been suggested as a renewable fuel source, but so far methods to extract their stored energy have generally not been efficient enough to make them competitive with fossil fuels. Vegetable oils make up only a small portion of plants' mass and the energy output of ethanol is only around 10% greater than the energy input required to make it.

New research has developed a method to use carbohydrates, which can make up around 75% of plants' dry weight, to produce a fuel much like conventional diesel. While the process used to make the fuel is very efficient, efficient extraction of the carbohydrate from plant matter has not yet been developed.

Links:

• Green diesel: New process makes liquid transportation fuel from plants from the College of Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison


• Plant carbs harnessed to power cars from nature.com (subscription)

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 3:27 PM | Comments (1)

More Efficient Rain Gardens

Category(-ies): Novel Uses of Plants , Plants in the Landscape

Rain gardens have become popular landscape features in recent decades. The gardens are small depressed areas used to catch stormwater run-off from roofs, driveways and other impervious surfaces. Stormwater run-off is a major source of the pollution found in our rivers, streams and lakes. Studies have confirmed the ability of rain gardens to trap contaminants and in some cases convert them to less harmful compounds. A recent study shows how a small design change can help the gardens' ability to reduce nitrates.

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Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 1:04 PM | Comments (0)

Botanists Seek Genes of Tomato Relatives

Category(-ies): Plant Conservation , Plants, Food and Medicine

Biologists from University of California-Davis and the University of Chile-Santiago, hoping to improve the common tomato, Lycopersicon esculentum, completed their second expedition to Chile last year. The researchers struggled through rugged terrain from the coast to the high Andes in search of seed from tomato relatives to add to the genebank of the C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Centre. Although the varieties retrieved on the Chilean trek are not appealing as food, they may harbour genes that could be used to improve the quality of the tomato, lending pest resistance or increased hardiness for example.

Links:

• Tomato Trek Yields Chilean Treasure from the Agricultural Research Service of the US Department of Agriculture


• The C.M. Rick Tomato Genetics Resource Centre at the University of California-Davis

Posted by Eric La Fountaine at 4:47 PM | Comments (0)