Nature Nuggets

Special Solstice edition of Nature Nuggets featuring celebrated author, wildcrafter, forager, permaculturalist and educator Dina Falconi! Dina Falconi is a clinical herbalist with a strong focus on food activism and nutritional healing. Dina has been teaching classes about the use of herbs for food, medicine, and personal care, including wild food foraging and cooking, for more than thirty years....

For the 85th anniversary celebration of Radio Kingston (!) we have a wonderful, wide ranging conservation with Emily Vail, the director of the Hudson River Watershed Alliance (HRWA). We move between hyper local topics in Kingston, like the historic Tannery Brook buried beneath Uptown, to broader projects and issues related to water quality, urban ecology and watershed health across the Hudson Vall...

Justin Wexler has dedicated his life to learning everything he can about the lives, practices and ethnoecology of the Hudson Valley's original human residents and today he takes us on a journey through the seasons at it may have been experienced by local Lenape or 'Esopus' Indigenous Peoples. Justin and his partner Anna founded and operate  Wild Hudson Valley , a beautiful piece of land up against...

This week we dive deep into all things related to Catskill forests, with Catskill Forest Association Forest Director Ryan Trapani. Catskill Forest Association helps to steward and manage nearly 90,000 acres of forested private lands across the greater Catskill region, working to improve forest health, increase wildlife habitat, manage invasive species and educate the public about forestry and our...

This episode features a wonderful, wide ranging conversation about nature, urban ecology, community science and much more with Kingston local Elias Deuker , Associate Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies; Bard Center for Environmental Sciences and Humanities. Professor Eli Dueker joined Bard in 2014 as the Assistant Professor of Environmental and Urban Studies. With a B.A. from Rhodes Coll...

Today Chris Baker interviews Julia Hayes, founder of Moonrise Tattoo Collective in Brooklyn, NYC, and now Little Moon Tattoo here in Kingston NY. Julia says "My work is influenced by scientific illustration, printmaking, folk art, and the natural environment of my childhood - a rural, coastal area of Northern California. I moved to NYC in 2010, and spent 14 years there, but I still feel most at ho...

This episode Chris Baker speaks with the extraordinary local nature artist Zoe Keller! You have to see her work to truly appreciate it! https://www.zoekeller.com/ Art  | Artist Zoe Keller uses graphite and digital media to create large-scale, meticulously rendered visual narratives. Placing a special focus on at-risk species and wildlands, Keller weaves drawings that explore the interconnectedness...

Live from Colombia! Today's special episode is hosted by Duane Martinez in the Radio Kingston studio with regular host Laurel Sutherlin broadcasting from Cali, Colombia, where he is participating in the UN COP16 Biodiversity Summit as part of his role on staff with Rainforest Action Network. Laurel shares experiences chasing migratory songbirds and encountering many familiar Hudson Valley species...

WENDY HOLLENDER is a botanical artist, illustrator, author, and instructor. Hollender’s illustrations have been published in worldwide publications. Wendy  is one of the world's leading experts in using colored pencils and watercolor pencils to create detailed botanical drawings and paintings.

This episode features a wonderful conversation with Emily Packer and Josh Margolis, the filmmakers behind  Holding Back the Tide , a beautiful, hybrid documentary film viewing the history and ecology of oysters in New York City through a queer, artistic lens. The New York Times film review is titled:  A Film That Makes the Stationary Lives of Oysters Into a Wondrous Tale  and says “Holding Back th...

Journey with us deep back into the geologic history of the Hudson Valley and Catskills with Robert and Johanna Titus, the prolific, dynamic duo storytellers behind The Catskill Geologist! The Titus's are scientists, Robert a paleontologist. Johanna biologist. They are journalists, authors, and long-time residents of the Hudson Valley and Catskills. They are authors of several books, including The...

The American Chestnut was the most ecologically, economically and culturally important tree across forests from Maine to Georgia - by some estimates comprising a full quarter of the tree cover of the Eastern U.S. - and then, in an ecological instant - it was gone, driven into functional extinction by a foreign blight introduced into New York City. This legendary tree - source of massive quantities...

This week Nature Nuggets goes on the road as host Duane Martinez holds it down in the Kingston studio and interviews Laurel Sutherlin who is in New York City organizing events surrounding NYC Climate Week - an annual whirlwind centered around sessions of the UN General Assembly that brings in tens of thousands of politicians, bankers and business people as well as members of global civil society,...

This week we dived deep into the intersection of birding, feminism and mindfulness with the awesome Molly Adams - founder of  The Feminist Bird Club  and author of Birding for a Better World: A Guide to Finding Joy and Community in Nature. Molly founded the Feminist Bird Club in 2016 as a way to leverage both their passion for birds and their passion for social justice into a cohesive whole. Since...

Great conversation about making the benefits of nature accessible to urban communities with Duane Martinez this week! Duane is an urban planner, community organizer and naturalist and is the Director of the River Cities Program at Scenic Hudson, where he focuses on community based planing that connects people with nature in the cities of Kingston, Poughkeepsie and Newburgh. He works with scientist...

This week's conversation was one of my favorite yet, digging deep into the extraordinary world of dragonflies, damselflies and inspired wildlife photography with local ecologist Frank Beres! Frank Beres  is a Hudson Valley naturalist and ecologist for the New York City Department of Environmental Protection. In addition to photographing and documenting rare species of Odonates, he leads many local...