It’s hard to be optimistic in the face of climate change. For instance, just this past week we learned that July was the hottest month ever recorded on Earth. And rapidly melting glaciers in Greenland are adding billions of gallons to sea level rise, and wildfires are burning out of control …

At New Jersey’s freshwater lakes and reservoirs, summer usually means long days of swimming, kayaking, canoeing, fishing, wading, water-skiing, rafting and paddle-boarding.

The Dust Bowl of the 1930s was one of the worst man-made disasters in our history. Due to poor farming practices and many years of drought, topsoil in the southern plains turned to dust and blew away. Failed crops and dead farm animals led to the hunger and misery of the Great Depression.

Anyone who’s planted “garden variety” morning glories knows how easily they grow. These showy annuals climb like crazy and produce lots of seeds. New plants pop up year after year and are almost unstoppable!

Someone once said “the best things in life are free.” But even “free” things like air, water and the quiet enjoyment of nature have tremendous value. And those values can easily be stripped away.

Around the globe, climate change is leading to increased ocean temperatures and more acidic water. The impact on fish and the fishing industry is enormous.

Driving through a garden usually isn’t a commuter experience, but drivers on the Atlantic City Expressway will see colorful patches of native flowers along the sides of the highway!

Placed end to end, the New Jersey rivers and streams proposed for higher environmental protections would stretch from High Point to Cape May and back again – twice!

Would you care if northeastern beach tiger beetles and arogos skipper butterflies disappeared? How about blue-spotted salamanders and southern gray tree frogs, or peregrine falcons and piping plovers? What if bobcats, Indiana bats and North Atlantic right whales vanished?

While Washington turns it back on climate change, New Jersey is busy reclaiming its national leadership role on clean energy.

“A foot and light-hearted I take to the open road,

Here at YMCA of the Pines in Medford, we have long been committed to serving people of diverse backgrounds, experiences, and abilities. Typically this has been through our specialty camps that serve targeted populations, or through our partnerships with social service agencies. However, this…

Back in the heyday of New Jersey’s railroads in the 1800s, train lines transported everything from iron ore to peaches to oysters.

The South Branch of the Raritan River is one of central New Jersey’s prettiest waterways. It winds through mostly rural and suburban towns with little industry. Its clear waters are ideal for fishing, paddling and wildlife watching.

It was a warm, rainy May night in 2016 and filmmaker Jared Flesher was searching for threatened and rare Pine Barrens tree frogs. With help from a guide, he found himself next to a pond deep in the wilderness of Wharton State Forest.

Imagine someone blasting an air horn next to your ear. Now imagine that sound thousands of times louder. That’s how experts describe the sound of seismic testing to whales, dolphins, sea turtles, fish and other marine life.

The late Mary Oliver, the Pulitzer Prize winning poet who passed away earlier this year at the age of 83, was an artist who used her words to paint pictures of the natural world. Her verses express deep reverence for nature as sources of beauty, solace and wisdom.

Nature is all around, even in cities and towns! Birds, butterflies, bugs, flowers, trees, mushrooms and even weeds!

For folks living in most of New Jersey, the idea of mountains in the low-lying Pine Barrens might seem farfetched. Many have never heard of the Forked River Mountains of Ocean County, located due west of Barnegat Bay and the Garden State Parkway.

Here’s a not-too-fun fact.

If you build it, they will come.

Even though it’s winter, it’s time to plan for spring! It’s time to enjoy more daylight, crocuses, returning birds … and signups for CSA farms.

Technology has taken over our lives. It’s turned many of us into couch potatoes. But technology can also entice us off of the couch and into the great outdoors.