Alison Anastasio

brilliant! it's exciting to see how these spaces act as refugia for special species.

I first saw the heretical combination of the subheading of "ECOLOGY" and title, "The beauty of slag," and I swooned.

Check out this terrific and fun story in UChicago Magazine about the novel ecosystem/slag research we're working on locally! #WildCalumet

mag.uchicago.edu/science-medi...

I also encourage you to look at the pdf to see the photos glow and the lovely layout (cover, p 1, and pp 40-44) - it's makes the online article even better: mag.uchicago.edu/sites/defaul....

The beauty of slag Maybe it’s not just a brownfield or a wastescape. Maybe it’s a novel ecosystem.

palate cleanser: read about curious nerds, slow science, and the Chicago slag barrens among gorgeous photos in the golden hour at #MarianByrnesPark.

#WildCalumet #GreatNearby

mag.uchicago.edu/science-medi...

you are bringing the big leaf energy : joy and fascination.
what the heck is the middle top? humongous.
what about middle middle? Asclepias??

How to Be a Lichen: Adaptive Strategies for the Vulnerabilities of Being Human from Nature’s Tiny Titans of Tenacity When I was a child, little delighted me more than the magical green garlands draping from the pine trees, which I made into wreaths and mustaches to roam the mountains of Bulgaria as a miniature Or…

lessons from lichen!

www.themarginalian.org/2025/11/02/l...

a color wheel of different colors of lichen

"Linnaeus classified lichens as plants — a notion no one questioned until Peter Rabbit creator Beatrix Potter undertook her little-known scientific studies and made the revolutionary discovery that lichens are part algae and part fungus, with a sprinkling a bacteria"
(via @Maria Popova)

Bairstow Trailhead, IN • July 2022 In the great slag reconnaissance of 2022, we finally visited a whole host of sites from the slag map for use in botanical surveys next year. This looks like a spot that has the usual suspects, and …

nerdiest thing I've done so far today: suggesting a correction to Google Maps so that what was "Barstow Trailhead" in Whiting IN is now, correctly, "Bairstow Trailhead". you're welcome.

calumetregionadventure.org/2022/08/12/b...

viper's bugloss + slag = <3

I gasped!
is that little bluestem or dogwood?
what's the little bunchgrass- is it a Sporobolus ?

noooooooo 😭
I guess that's the real clincher - the slag isn't going anywhere, but the spontaneously assembled, ephemeral ecosystem is.

love so much! an absolutely perfect photo! happy alvar birthday Dr. skunkcabbages!

slag misses you! but the upshot is, it's probably not going anywhere ...

Marian R. Byrnes Park, IL • May 2025 This place is a unique kind of urban restoration. Van Vlissingen Park has been owned by the Chicago Park District since 2011. When we first started visiting, it was an overgrown, impenetrable, Phra…

Found in the corner of Marian R Byrnes Park

calumetregionadventure.org/2025/05/15/m...

Glad to see another connoisseur of urban, and other under-appreciated, ecosystems at my favorite local slice of slag heaven!

#CrimePaysButBotanyDoesn't @joeysantore.bsky.social #WildCalumet #urbannature

I got some great views of them roosting just by sitting on the shoulder of Doty ~120th. A few days this spring where there must have been almost 20 going between the roost and Little Cal. It didn't seem like the nest was used this year, but maybe I didn't get a good view.

good thing they are all professionals and have these connections in spades! so much happens behind the scenes, including relationships between the RR and the city/parks!

great spot indeed! and so much terrific restoration has gone on to connect to #IndianRidgeMarsh. The SEPA station is also such a nice relaxing spot (aside from goose poo). Welcome to the best parks in the City. :)

can't wait til we get sponge parks in Chicago!

This image features part of Bolivia. This vibrant image was created using the radar instrument’s different polarisation channels, with each colour revealing distinct characteristics of the landscape. For instance, green hues mainly represent rainforest, red hues forested floodplains and wetlands, and blue–purple is indicative of grasslands, while black areas are rivers and lakes. The image spans approximately 90 km along the Biomass satellite's flight path (length) and 60 km across in width, with north oriented to the right.

🆕 The first stunning images from our groundbreaking #Biomass satellite mission have been released – they mark a major leap forward in our ability to understand how Earth’s forests are changing and exactly how they contribute to the global carbon cycle 🌳🌍

www.esa.int/Applications...

Is there a killdeer cam at the Minneapolis airport? If not there should be.
urban ecology, soft fascination, bird behavior - a mesmerizing tableau.
#MSP #gateh12

this beautiful picturesque corner is a great find during its rehabilitation!

A surprise find in Michigan shows the extent of ancient Native American agriculture Hundreds of acres in Michigan are covered in parallel rows of earth that are the remains of an ancient Native American agricultural system. The surprise find has archaeologists amazed.

Ancient Native American farming practices news!!! I can't wait for more to be uncovered at this site, and for the Menominee tribe to weigh in regarding their history of the region.

www.npr.org/2025/06/06/n...

holy moly is that the Greenstone?

Archaeological evidence of intensive indigenous farming in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, USA We describe archaeological evidence of intensive ancestral Native American agriculture in the now heavily forested Upper Peninsula of Michigan. Recent LIDAR (light detection and ranging) and excavatio...

Maddie McLeester & colleagues use LIDAR & ground truthing to show evidence of the foodways of Little Ice Age Menominee in MI’s Upper Peninsula - would you believe it includes maize? Another example of the Menominee as incomparable natural resource managers.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Arabidiosis thaliana growing next to a mussel shell on beach sand in southern Sweden

articulating the critical importance of basic science and particularly model organisms, like my favorite little buddy A. thaliana, for a new generation!

Friesner, et al. 2025, In defense of funding foundational plant science. The Plant Cell. Volume 37: Issue 5, doi.org/10.1093/plce...

I'm looking forward to getting deep into this paper and the implications of "dark diversity" in urban landscapes #biodiversity

Instead of build, build, build we should reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, repurpose, recycle, recover In what appears to be the new hallmark of its plan to tackle the UK’s ongoing housing crisis, th...

Op-ed: Instead of build, build, build we should reduce, reuse, repair, refurbish, repurpose, recycle, recover

✒️ Ramboll associate, circular economy Ricardo Weigend Rodriguez

Read on:

Planting Trees as Resistance and Empowerment: The Remarkable Illustrated Story of Wangari Maathai, the First African Woman to Win the Nobel Peace Prize “A tree is a little bit of the future.”

“A tree is a little bit of the future.”

Wangari Maathai, born on this day in 1940, became the first African woman awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for planting trees as resistance and empowerment. Her remarkable story, illustrated: