Archive for March, 2008

#81 See that Yellow Color in the Hills?

March 27, 2008 @ 3:40 am · Filed under Albemarle County, History, Native Landscaping, Natural History

March 27, 2008
About the time that forsythia brazenly declares the sure coming of spring, the diminutive but no less reliable yellow flowers of the native spicebush light up the hills.

 
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This show originally aired on March 27, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

About the same time that forsythia brazenly claims the color award in yards all over the watershed, there’s a quieter, but no less remarkable, yellow emerging in the hills and woodlands, especially in the damper, cooler swales. You could almost miss it if you were expecting something more dramatic, but it’s worth stopping and taking a closer look at the shy but ubiquitous spicebush, also known as Benjamin Bush.

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#80 Learning to See the Forest for the Trees

March 21, 2008 @ 1:22 pm · Filed under Education, Wildlife

Learning to see in any landscape, whether on the ocean or in the forest, requires that you recognize the patterns and shapes that make up the essential landscape … and then try to discern what stands out, or is different, or doesn’t belong.
March 21, 2008

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Photo by Dudley Rochester

Most landscapes are filled with textures, the complex interweaving of habitat edges, vegetative cover, seasonal changes, all illuminated and made unique by the time of day and season, the weather, the degree of human disturbance or succession into its next natural phase.

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#79 Rocking Around Charlottesville

March 6, 2008 @ 12:00 pm · Filed under Charlottesville, Education, Geology, Ivy Creek, Natural History

On a field trip with the training group for the Rivanna Master Naturalists, students learn see 1.2 billion years of history in five stops around Charlottesville, just looking at rocks.
This show originally aired on March 6, 2008 on “The Rivanna Rambler,” a weekly public affairs show airing every Thursday at 11:55 a.m. on WTJU 91.1 FM or wtju.net.

 
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March 6, 2008

It’s a whirlwind geologic tour of the Virginia, and it all takes place within five square miles in Charlottesville. We’re a group of Rivanna Master Naturalists, standing before a rock outcrop that borders the rough boat launch into Ivy Creek just upstream of the Woodlands Road bridge. Tom Biggs, Professor of Geology at UVA, invites us to use the rock hammers he’s brought along, stepping forward himself to take a swing. A chunk of rock cleaves off, dropping into his practiced hand.

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