From the department of life

Phytoplankton bloom around the Chatham Islands, New Zealand. Source: NASA's Earth Observatory. Click on the image to keep reading from the space agency about how the region's massive phytoplankton blooms sustain valuable fish.

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The week that was, 11/28-12/4/2010

The marshes of Plum Island Estuary are among those predicted by scientists to submerge during the next century under conservative projections of sea-level rise. Location: Rowley, Massachusetts. Photo: Matthew Kirwan / US Geological Survey

Coastal wetlands provide critical services such as absorbing energy from coastal storms, preserving shorelines, protecting human populations and infrastructure, supporting commercial seafood harvests, absorbing pollutants and serving as critical habitat for migratory bird populations. — Many coastal wetlands likely to disappear this century, US Geological Survey press release about Limits on the adaptability of coastal marshes to rising sea level, a newly published report on climate change modeling in Geophysical Research Letters, December 1, 2010
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The Dry Garden: Lawn killer’s tip sheet

Photo credit: Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times

Most of us know that the environmental toll of ornamental lawn in Southern California makes cigarettes look politically correct. Still, removing a long-tended home lawn takes a meeting of conviction and know-how. The steely inspiration will have to be yours. This column is intended only as a lawn killer’s tip sheet.

Click here to keep reading about graminicide in the Los Angeles Times.…

December fully loaded

Wreath-making at Tree of Life Nursery

December’s short days have a short calendar for dry garden events in Southern California, but the selection is as twinkling as anything the solstice season can offer. Editor’s picks include classes by Barbara Eisenstein, Carol Bornstein and Lili Singer at the Theodore Payne Foundation along with James Kenney at the California Native Plant Society. Enjoy!…

High good, low bad: Mead in November 2010

National Suicide Statistics at a Glance. Smoothed, Age-Adjusted Suicide Rates* per 100,000 Population All Races, All Ethnicities, Both Sexes, Ages 10 Years or Older, United States, 2000–2006. Source: CDC

The Nevada water community chatter yesterday was about a new report ranking the Las Vegas economy as one of the worst in the world. It’s the first and hopefully the last time that I will see Las Vegas compared to Barcelona. However, the story that interested me was this one, in Monday’s Las Vegas Sun, about the suicide danger of the new Hoover Dam Bypass Bridge. It’s notable for two reasons. First is the stunning image by Sun staff photographer Sam Morris, who may be the most talented snapper working in the Western press. Second, I was struck by what wasn’t there. Why wasn’t there more concern about who will jump?

Anyone who has visited Las Vegas will know that …

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