Guest Commentary

Dear EarthTalk: What’s the latest on efforts to reintroduce Grizzly bears back to the Lower 48?

— J. Whitaker, Silver Spring, Md.

Amenia residents: Don’t miss next week’s Town Board meeting on Thursday, Jan. 21, at 7 p.m. for an Information Session presented by the town’s  Wastewater Committee. To understand why it’s so vital, please continue reading.

Dear EarthTalk: Given the economic slowdown around the world due to the coronavirus in 2020, was there a positive impact on climate change? 

— M. Stiles, Meriden, Conn.

For the first time in this 10-month-old pandemic, our quiet corner of the world feels unsafe. As of Dec. 18, 13 cases of COVID-19 are active in North East, seven of them in the Village of Millerton.

Dear EarthTalk: How will global warming change the distribution of trees across the continental U.S.? Which types of trees and forests are most at risk?     — Mike Powers, Golden, Colo.

The June 4, 2020, edition of The Millerton News ran a follow-up article by reporter Carol Kneeland to one that ran a year ago about the grave of a Black man, believed to be a former slave, named Thomas Stansbury, who was buried at the North East Center Burying Ground in 1899.

It only took 28 years to learn why the guy around the corner had my number.

“Hey, Mister Ripp — how are things over on Simmons Street?”

Pollination occurs when pollen from the flower’s anther (male part) is deposited on the pistil (female part) of another flower. The pollen travels down to the ovules and fertilizes them, producing fruits, vegetables, nuts and seeds.