Animals & Insects

In the U.S. alone, nearly 3 million homes have a saltwater aquarium. And globally, the market is worth billions of dollars. Could this booming hobby become a force for ocean conservation?

Why is entomologist Doug Tallamy on a national crusade to get private landowners to tear their lawns? As a wildlife ecology professor at the University of Delaware, Dr. Tallamy sees the world from a bug’s point of view. He’s also co-founder of Homegrown National Park, which works to convince Americans to grow native plants that…

Shoni Maulding works at the custom hitching jig that her husband, Ron, designed and built for her. “That is the beauty of being married to Ron,” Shoni jokes. photo by Jeremy Lurgio Nobody’s quite sure where or when the tradition of horsehair hitching began. Perhaps it came from the Moors who conquered Spain, or military…

For millennia, Indigenous peoples across the world have built and used wooden skin boats to fish and hunt, for sport and travel, even for warfare. Skin kayaks are the unique product of Arctic peoples, but non-Indigenous admirers of the craft are making them, too. Does that matter?

New England’s fabled (and much valued) lobstering industry is struggling with all kinds of challenges: an aging workforce, lobster catches that swing from record highs to depressing lows, new regulations, and warming waters caused by climate disruption. So why would a bright young man in Eastport, Maine, commit to a life fishing the seas?

On the Northeastern coast of Italy, not far from such meccas of refinement as Bologna and Florence, an unusual drug treatment community named San Patrignano has grown and thrived for more than 40 years. The program’s methodology? Teach people who are struggling with addiction high-level artisanal skills, and slowly but surely, confidence and pride fill what was once a desperate void.

Not only is wool unusually cozy and durable, but its creators (the sheep) can help regenerate the soil, along with the world’s drying, fire-prone landscapes. The good news: a wool revival seems to be underway.

While the fashion industry continues to produce more and more clothing made from synthetics, with all their harmful effects, we’ve ignored the wonders of wool. The material is natural, durable, and endlessly renewable; more important, its creators (the sheep) can help regenerate the soil, along with the world’s drying, fire-prone landscapes. Fortunately, a wool revival seems to be underway.

Mark Sturges doesn’t advertise and clients have to find him by word of mouth, but find him they do. He’s become a master of an agricultural art as old as agriculture itself: basic compost.