Tag Archives: Brown Dog

Elsie Quarterman, Hall of Fame, Tennessee Botanists

2011 inductee, Tennessee Botanists Hall of Fame, Elsie Quarterman,

Elsie Quarterman was born in 1910 in Georgia. She completed her undergraduate work at Georgia State Woman’s College in 1932. Post-graduate studies were done at Duke Univ. where she obtained her Ph.D. in 1949 under Henry J. Osting. She accepted a faculty position at Vanderbilt Univ. and later became the University’s first female department chair, heading the Biology Department in 1964.

Dr. Quarterman is best known for her work on the ecology and plant communities of the cedar glades of the Central Basin. She is widely recognized for the re-discovery of the Tennessee Coneflower (Echinacea tennesseensis) in 1969, a plant once thought to be extinct and subsequently the first plant endemic to Tennessee to be protected by the Endangered Species Act. She has received many honors including our very own TNPS Conservation Award. The Elsie Quarterman Cedar Glade State Natural Area was named in her honor in 1998.

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Okra, eggplants, peppers, potatoes, and popcorn at Valdosta Farm Days 2015-07-18

Also rosemary, collard seeds…. A bit muggy, you can tell by the foggy picture Gretchen just took at the historic Lowndes County Courthouse in downtown Valdosta, Georgia.

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GMOs: worse risk of ruin than nuclear power –Nassim Nicholas Taleb

Because Genetically modified crops risk widespread ruin, they should not be permitted without far greater scientific knowledge, for which the burden of proof falls on those proposing GMOs, not those opposing, say experts in risk and ruin.

Risk management or mitigation may work for localized harm, but GMOs risk widespread systemic damage, which is ruin, and to prevent that the precautionary principal is needed:

if an action or policy has a suspected risk of causing severe harm to the public domain (such as general health or the environment), and in the absence of scientific near-certainty about the safety of the action, the burden of proof about absence of harm falls on those proposing the action.

A paper by Nassim Nicholas Taleb and co-authors lays out Continue reading →

UGA Vegetable Growers Workshop 2015-01-30

How to grow your own vegetables for food and/or profit, according to UGA Griffin, at the end of this month. You can register by printing and mailing the PDF form, or through the event website. -jsq

University of Georgia Horticulture Presents:
Vegetable Growers Workshop

This program will cover many aspects of how to grow your own Continue reading →

Small organic farms can (already) feed the world

Research, including studies presented at the conference in Istanbul, is showing that organic agriculture can deliver reliably high yields ”and that organic fields thrive in the face of disaster and duress, where chemical-reliant crops falter. Organic fields, for example, fare significantly better than chemically managed ones in the face of extreme weather, such as droughts or floods.

Anna Lappe, for takepart, 4 November 2014, Yes, Organic Farming Can Feed the World, Continue reading →

The new colonialists and local agriculture to shape our own local economy

This sums up both Bill Gates’ sudden surge of agricultural land purchases and the fossil fuel industry’s sudden surge of fracked methane pipelines: “on a global scale, that the global problem, from the perspective of European colonialists and European entrepreneurs, is really how to transform the countryside.” In both cases, we here in the southeast are just peasants or backwards natives from the perspectives of the the new colonialists as they try to transform our countryside. So what if such transformation results in dust storms or leaks, explosions, or higher domestic natural gas prices? The new colonialists would profit!

Jonathan Shaw wrote for Harvard Magazine November-December 2014, The New Histories: Scholars pursue sweeping new interpretations of the human past. Continue reading →

Elsie was more than a biology professor and ecologist –Jonathan Ertelt, Community

Saying what many students think: “Students of all ages are thankful that her appreciation of the plant kingdom and the world around her touched them and made their lives.”

Jonathan Ertelt, Vanderbilt Magazine, Summer 2014 issue, Quarterman Was More Than a Biology Professor and Ecologist, Continue reading →

The whole ecosystem –Elsie Quarterman on Wild Side TV

Here’s a video about Elsie, A Crusader for Conservation, 19 September 2014, by Tennessee’s Wild Side, “The Emmy Award winning show produced through the generosity of the Jackson Foundation, Tennessee State Parks, and the Tennessee Wildlife Federation.” Lots of good pictures, some video snippets of Elsie, and some narration by her nephew Patrick and by Biologist Tom Hemmerly, who reminds us of Elsie’s work at Radner Lake, in addition to her cedar glades work. Ranger Buddy Ingram explains her biggest contribution may have been in getting numerous different segments of society to cooperate in saving whole ecologies. Botanist Kim Sadler and others explain how inspiring all that is to generations of students.

As Elsie said in 2006:

The general public needs to know what’s around them. They need to be learning that there’s a world that is not paved. There are lots of things that have life and function in the whole scheme, people as well as plants and animals. Not just dogs you’ve got on a leash, but animals that live out there, are part of the whole ecosystem.

Continue reading →

Fixing a tractor tire

Apparently electric fence wire isn’t good to sling into a tractor tire. The puncture was barely visible, but leaked completely down after a while. Fortunately, Charles from Adel Tire came and fixed it. After he set it on fire.

He explains why in the video. Continue reading →

Diversity, extinction, and climate change

In what category does Georgia rank highest

for species diversity: plants, mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, or fishes?
and in which of these four categories: diversity, risk, endemism (distinctiveness of species), and extincions?

Guess first, then look (no peeking)…. Continue reading →

Canopy Roads of South Georgia

Outside the city; off the main roads.