Tag Archives: wildlife

Animals and Pets, Nature & Garden

Critical Habitats

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The Trump administration recently revised a couple key components of the Endangered Species Act (ESA). One of which has to do with how a critical habitat is handled in the case of new construction. In this case, critical habit pertains to wildlife, and not humans. The Department of the Interior states the following change:

Critical habitat exclusions (Section 4(b)(2)): Revises the “critical habitat” designation process to follow the law and consider the economic, national security and other relevant impacts following the designation of any particular area as “critical habitat.” The revision also allows an area to be excluded from a “critical habitat” designation if that exclusion will not cause the extinction of the species. 

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Animals and Pets, Nature & Garden

The Tree and the Chipmunk

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As the demands of summer have presented themselves, I am becoming rather aware at how infrequent my posts are being written and published – not particularly great for readership. Finding the time and willpower to write while on vacation is not something I’ve yet conquered. We recently flew out to Colorado and Utah and saw so many amazing sites, including Arches National Park, Black Canyon of the Gunnison, and went to the Aspen area to hike around Maroon Bells, each of which demands its own post, which I will attempt over the coming days. Today, however, I want to talk about chipmunks.

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Nature & Garden

Basement Gardening by an Unlikely Friend

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Over the Hedge, the DreamWorks movie about a raccoon and a ragtag group of wild animals invading the suburbs in search of food, is a common story around many U.S. neighborhoods. We have foxes, raccoons, opossums, deer, skunks, squirrels, birds…and mice. It’s the mice who may have stirred up a bit of trouble for us this winter. We weren’t sure, at first, but we suspected they had made their way inside, rather than just them scratching on the rooftop, when the bird seed bag had been ripped open. The maddening sounds of something scurrying in the walls was no less concerning than the tap, tap, tapping on a floor as the days went by.

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