Wendell Berry, champion of natural places and agrarian life, has died at 92

Wendell Berry, Kentucky poet, novelist, essayist and farmer, died at his home in Henry County on
Monday, Aug. 31. He was a naturalist, staunchly advocating for and supporting returning land to its natural state, and encouraged an off-grid lifestyle that would do as little harm to the natural world as possible. He was also a fierce advocate for rural places. 

"Mr. Berry wrote more than 50 volumes of poetry, fiction and argument that championed small family farms, the environment, local foods and interdependent communities, and railed against chemicals, most technologies, agribusiness and distant government," reports Robert D. McFadden for The New York Times.

McFadden continues: "He never became a household name but, as his oeuvre grew over a half-century, advocates of agrarian and ecological causes embraced his work as an eloquent, if sometimes didactic, expression of their own hopes. Some critics likened his landed exhortations to those of Thoreau or Thomas Jefferson."

He studied English at the University of Kentucky, writing at Stanford and taught at New York University for two years before being called back to his Henry County, Ky., homeplace, "an old two-room cabin on the Kentucky River at Port Royal... where his ancestors had lived since 1803," McFadden writes. 

"Returning to his home as a place to write for the rest of his life was a way to insure, to himself, that he would always be bound by the truth, Mr. Berry said in a phone interview in 2018 ...," McFadden writes. "The landscape was there to check me if I was wrong. I could never go away and make up stuff at cocktail parties about the backwoods of Kentucky," Berry said during the interview. "I worked with people here in all walks of life and learned from them. It’s been a very rich experience.”

Flora & Fauna: Beagle Brigade searches for contraband; mushroom feeds 'family of four;' a big year for oysters

Graphic by Ali Aas, Ambrook Research

When sleuthing for illegal agricultural goods, sometimes the human nose can't do the job. That's when canines find the contraband. "A group of dogs, nicknamed the Beagle Brigade, spend their shifts stationed at airports, border crossings, and international mail and cargo facilities, searching for packed-away items that could harbor foreign animal diseases and potentially invasive pests — to the detriment of the American agriculture industry," reports Shea Swensen of Ambrook Research. "The program may get a permanent stamp of authorization, meaning reliable funding through Congress, thanks to the Beagle Brigade Act of 2023."

Frontal view of a fruit fly.
(Wikipedia photo)

Besides mosquitos, what's the most relentlessly annoying insect? The answer is Drosophila melanogaster, the common fruit fly. Becky Krystal of The Washington Post reports, "Fruit flies can get in your house the same way any other insect can, through doors or windows especially, says Zachary DeVries, assistant professor at the University of Kentucky's Department of Entomology. . . . Fruit flies 'don't need a whole lot' to flourish, according to DeVries. A single potato, for example, can support 500 fruit flies, if not more, he says." Find out how to get rid of these black-bellied, red-eyed pests here.

Pallid bats have expressive faces.
(Photo by M. Andrus via Pinterest)

California is a big state with so much diversity it's hard to celebrate all the good things. But the state has decided to award "statehood" designation to its impeccably cute pallid bat, reports Soumya Karlamangla of The New York Times. "According to the bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom in October, bats, in general, provide $1 billion worth of pest control to California agriculture and reduce wildfire risks by eating bark beetles and wood borers that weaken trees."

California honors also went to the "golden chanterelle as a distinct fungal species that is endemic in the state," Karlamangla adds. "The mushrooms are a mesmerizing gold color, flute-shaped and large enough to 'feed a family of four with leftovers,' according to the Bay Area Mycological Society."

Chanterelles can make a hearty
meal. (Wikipedia photo)

Over the past decade, wildlife has had it tough, but if you're a Chesapeake Bay oyster, you're having an outstanding year. "The annual Fall Oyster Survey showed a 'remarkable number' of juvenile oysters," reports Joe Heim of The Washington Post. "And found them widely distributed through many regions of the Chesapeake, the Maryland Department of Natural Resources announced Tuesday. It found 86.8 spat, or juvenile oysters, per bushel, nearly four times the 39-year median. That marks the fourth consecutive year the survey showed results exceeding the median number."

A tufted titmouse looks for food.
(Photo by J. Bulmer, Unsplash)

Feel like the world is near collapse, or maybe it's just you? Feed some birds. Cute, delightful, kooky and beautiful, birds lift the human spirit. Corrie Evanoff writes, "Whether you try hanging a hummingbird feeder outside your apartment window or setting out a birdbath in a spot of your yard sheltered from predators, you'll be on the road to securing a better future for your feathered visitors — and yes, reaping the mental health benefits of the meditative hobby."