Earth Month Celebration 2022

Lichens are also sensitive environmental indicators. In this talk, Jesse Miller, Ph.D., will discuss how lichens can be used as indicators of habitat conservation value, and how we can maintain lichen diversity in an era of altered fire regimes and other global change pressures.

Rachel Carson, best known for her 1962 book Silent Spring that brought the environmental crisis front and center into the public’s consciousness and ignited the creation of the modern-day environmental movement, wrote the following final sentence in her earlier seminal work The Sense of Wonder, which was published in 1956.

“The lasting pleasures of contact with the natural world are not reserved for scientists but are available to anyone who will place himself under the influence of earth, sea, and sky and their amazing life.”

This one line perfectly sums up the message that Carson was attempting to convey in her very personal though brief treatise on the importance of adults experiencing the natural world with the openness to adventure, wonder, happiness, and discovery naturally possessed by children. And she offers us a wonderful guide to share this experience with the children in our lives and to celebrate the beauty and mystery of nature together. At NYBG this continues to be a very important part of our mission—through an extensive Adult Education Program, Special Exhibitions and Public Programs, the Everett Children’s Adventure Garden, and the Edible Academy, to name just a few. Silent Spring and The Sense of Wonder are definitely “must reads” for all of us. Combine this with a perusal of NYBG’s Adult Education Spring–Summer 2022 Catalog and becoming a NYBG Member and you’ll be well on your way to embracing the natural world more completely and reaping all of its benefits!