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Apr
05
2020

Land & Environmental Section

  • Local food conference to return

    By Megan BachmanMarch 12, 2020

    Soil scientist Bob Hendershot taught a session during a land assessment workshop held at the Agraria Center for Regenerative Agriculture last summer. Hendershot, whose career was with the Natural Resources Conservation Service, will return for a local farming conference organized by the Tecumseh Land Trust and Community Solutions on March 15–17. A free talk by farmer Renee Winner on how to transition to organic agriculture will kick off the event at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 15. (Submitted photo by Amy Harper)

    Successful farm-to-school programs. Stories from local farmers coping with climate change. Strategies for turning conventional farms organic. Those topics and more will be explored at “Growing Green 2020: Investing in Conservation and Local Food,” a joint conference of the Tecumseh Land Trust and Community Solutions.

  • Seasonal trail closures begin Sunday in Glen Helen

    By YS News StaffFebruary 28, 2020

    This stretch of trail has tripled in width due to hikers on muddy days. (Photo courtesy of Glen Helen)

    On Sunday, March 1, the Glen Helen trail system will be closed to protect the nature preserve during the freeze/thaw cycle. Depending on the weather, the trails may reopen as soon as the next day, Monday, March 2.

  • Sugar Shack tour returns

    By YS News StaffFebruary 26, 2020

    John DeWine of Flying Mouse Farms is busy these days boiling down hundreds of gallons of sap from some 650 taps of the farm’s maple trees to make maple syrup. (Photo by Aaron Zaremsky)

    Tecumseh Land Trust will hold its annual sugar shack tour on Sunday, March 1, 2–4 p.m. at Whitehall Farm.

  • Local chapter of Citizens for Climate Lobby forming

    By YS News StaffJanuary 21, 2020

    Those interested in forming a Yellow Springs chapter of Citizens for Climate Lobby, or CCL, are invited to meet on Saturday, Jan. 25, 12:30–2 p.m. in the auditorium of the Vernet Ecological Center, 405 Corry Street.

  • Mary’s Way— A new trail to Agraria

    By Audrey HackettJanuary 16, 2020

    A new trail will connect Yellow Springs and Agraria, Community Solutions’ center for regenerative land use located west of the village.

  • A fundraiser to protect area waters

    By Audrey Hackett

    An “unnamed tributary” to Mud Run Creek recently got a name. Yellow Springs, meet “Coyote Run.”

  • #5 plastics reycling locations open again

    By YS News StaffJanuary 6, 2020

    Vickie Hennessy and the truck she uses to ferry difficult-to-recycle No. 5 plastic from areas around the village to a collection point at Whole Foods; collection sites around the village were closed last week after Whole Foods discontinued to program, but are back open after the store offered to continue to accept the plastics en masse from the village. (Photo by Lauren “Chuck” Shows)

    The village locations accepting #5 plastics for recycling, spearheaded by villager Vickie Hennessy, have reopened, after initially being closed on Dec. 31.

  • Village meeting on Vernay cleanup— Water, utilities are worries

    By Megan BachmanDecember 5, 2019

    How good is the current proposal to clean up the Vernay Laboratories site? How much contamination is there? Are municipal water supplies protected? What can be done with the land when it is cleaned up? Those were a few of the questions asked at a public meeting on Thursday, Nov. 21, on Vernay’s most recent plan to clean up contamination at its former local rubber plant on Dayton Street.

  • Invasive of the month— Impact of ornamentals not pretty

    By Audrey HackettNovember 28, 2019

    The present article is the last in this season’s “invasive of the month” series, which began with a two-part article on the local impact of non-native invasive plants last spring, and continued with monthly features focused on specific invasives of local concern. The series was undertaken in consultation with Glen Helen.

  • Vernay cleanup plan— EPA listens to local concerns

    By Megan BachmanNovember 7, 2019

    The EPA came to share the status of the environmental cleanup at Vernay Laboratories’ former rubber manufacturing plant on Dayton Street and to hear from citizens on the proposed remedy.

    The culmination of a two-decade long process, in June Vernay submitted its latest proposal to clean up contamination associated with its operations. The EPA is in the process of reviewing the plan and is interested in hearing from the public as it does, according to the site’s Technical Project Manager, Renee Wawczak, at the meeting.