#tree

marylandmatters.org

'A great tree has fallen': Remembering Walter Boynton, pioneering Bay scientist

By Timothy B. Wheeler The Chesapeake Bay Journal Walter Boynton, one of the Chesapeake Bay’s preeminent scientists and communicators, died Sept. 14 after a long illness, leaving a legacy of more than 50 years of pioneering research and advocacy for his adopted watershed. He was 79. Scientific colleagues and many others who worked with Boynton over the decades mourned his death but hailed his contributions in the laboratory as well as in the community at large. Beth Polidoro, director of the Chesapeake Biological Laboratory, where Boynton worked, called him “an icon of Chesapeake Bay science whose research and leadership profoundly shaped our understanding of the Bay.” Fernando Miralles-Wilhelm, president of University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science, of which CBL is a part, hailed Boynton “not only for his contributions to science, but also for his warmth, wisdom and humanity.” Patuxent Riverkeeper Fred Tutman put it more vividly: “A great tree has fallen in our midst,” he wrote on Facebook. Born and raised in Massachusetts, Boynton first came to the CBL in Solomons in 1969 as a summer intern. He returned in 1975 to join the faculty there after earning his doctorate in systems ecology from the University of Florida...

theconversation.com

'Small, flowering islands': German city reveals how nature thrives when neighbours care for street tree beds

When Olivia Besters began caring for the patch of soil beneath the chestnut tree outside her home in Freiburg, Germany, more than 35 years ago, biodiversity was not on her mind. “It was the optics,” she told me. The ground was compacted and littered with trash and dog “legacies”. Besters simply wanted the space directly outside her front door to look nicer. “Everything else came much later,” she said. “Thirty-five years ago, no one talked about climate change or insect decline.” Over time, one tree bed expanded into 36 across Besters’ neighbourhood of Herdern. So deep is her commitment to her tree beds that her children gifted her a bike trailer to cart around her watering system, her phone is filled with stunning pictures of the flowers growing in her tree beds, and she has been nominated for city-wide engagement awards. As towns and cities grow, biodiversity is being squeezed into ever smaller spaces while people experience a progressive loss of everyday contact with nature. Street tree beds – and the practice of caring for them – offer cities a way to counter urban biodiversity loss while enriching people’s connection with nature in their neighbourhoods. Our research shows that citizen...