CultOurvators

“A Woody Perennial Polycultures (WPP) is an assemblage of plant species that aims to mimic the structure and function of natural ecosystems to sustainably produce an agricultural yield while simultaneously restoring ecosystem services. Rather than perpetuating the separation of nature and humans, this system attempts to break down the dichotomy between ecological restoration and agriculture. This concept has grown and evolved out of fields such as agroecology, agroforestry, permaculture, silvopasture, carbon farming, and ecological restoration, but the application of this paradigm to large-scale industrial agriculture is a relatively new idea. ”

Equal parts natural history, elegy, and environmental outcry, Joel Greenberg’s “A Feathered River Across the Sky: The Passenger Pigeon’s Flight to Extinction” has been published to coincide with the hundredth anniversary of the last passenger pigeon’s death. Greenberg, a bird blogger and the author of “A Natural History of the Chicago Region,” among other books, writes with a naturalist’s curiosity about the birds. But the central question that Greenberg sets out to answer is how a bird could go from a population of billions to zero in less than fifty years.

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