By Sarah Irvin, DeGraaf Nature Center This growing season, you can help reintroduce native plants to our otherwise cultivated landscapes of non-native or invasive plants and monocultures of green grass. Including native species in your yard will bring beauty to your life; benefit our local ecosystem, and save you time, money, and energy! Here are some of the …
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In Holland, we believe that in order to become a vibrant, world-class community we must look at all aspects of our community. This includes the “Triple Bottom Line” and the economic, social, and environmental impacts we all have. Our City of Holland Sustainability Committee has created a seven-pillar framework with “lenses” to help us evaluate and make …
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By Shelby Pedersen, Max Transit There’s no need to tiptoe to the tulips this year – or walk or drive downtown, for that matter. The Macatawa Area Express (MAX) is again pairing with Tulip Time to offer an inexpensive way to avoid parking and traffic problems during the festival that begins May 4. To avoid traffic and …
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By Susan Ipri Brown and Shana McCrumb, Hope College “We need to have a vision of the world we want to create so that we can see ourselves as collaborators with future generations in the project of shaping it.” – Dr. David Grinspoon “Think of your kids and live sustainably.” How often do we hear such statements as …
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A properly planted tree can help a homeowner save up to 20 percent on energy use. And Holland Board of Public Works residential electric customers can reserve a free tree this spring to strategically plant in their yards to save energy and lower utility bills. From the Arbor Day Foundation, the Energy-Saving Trees program began in 2012, …
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KATHY WINNETT-MURRAY, PH.D. | PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY K. GREG MURRAY, PH.D. | T. ELLIOTT WEIER PROFESSOR OF PLANT SCIENCE VANESSA MUILENBURG, PH.D. | ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF BIOLOGY Hemlock woolly adelgid, the invasive and destructive insect, which sucks the sap from North American hemlock trees and dooms many of them, has taken hold in the Hope …
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STEVE BOUMA-PREDIGER, PH.D. LEONARD AND MARJORIE MAAS PROFESSOR OF REFORMED THEOLOGY “A term like ‘earthkeeping’ is more biblical and simply refuses to accept the view that the natural world is a commodity to be used by humans who only manage its resources for our own ends,” he explains. “Being a keeper, in the biblical sense, …
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Please join the Macatawa Creation Care Group on Thursday, February 21 in Graves Hall for a film screening of “Happening: A Clean Energy Revolution.” Doors open at 5:45, and the film starts at 6:00. The film will be followed by a panel of representatives from the City Of Holland, Holland Board of Public Works, and …
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By Sarah Irvin, Naturalist at DeGraaf Nature Center Climate is defined as the weather in a particular area over a large time period, which unveils patterns when recorded, allowing us to create models that mimic and make predictions. Unfortunately, climate trends will become increasingly more challenging to predict as temperatures and precipitation events shift; the phenomenon that we …
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By Dan Callam ’09, Outdoor Discovery Center Macatawa Greenway Has your family been on an adventure recently? There’s no need to wait until spring break or for a road trip to a warm, far-off destination. Your local nature centers are encouraging families to explore spaces around them in 2019 by visiting nearby parks with their new Park Passport …
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