Happy Autumnal Equinox! It's the first day of fall 🍂⛅🍁 In the Shoshone language, the word for fall is yepani and in Arapaho it's tooyouni'. Here are some Buffalo photos from this morning.

The pictures don't do it justice. Found this massive Western red cedar stump in the back of a client's property. No measurements, but I'll tell you it's really big. Inside is hollow, with evidence of a forest fire maybe 100 years ago. Woodpecker holes dot the exterior. It's a beauty.

A massive veteran Crack Willow by Willow Beck at Northallerton, North Yorkshire. The tree has 3 stems, the main one having a girth of 4.8 metres. This is likely to be one of the riverbank trees shown on the 1st edition OS 6" map, surveyed ca. 1850. #veterantree

Working on tree planting plans for autumn/winter. The green plots show previous plantings (predominantly native scrub, agroforestry lanes and coppice). The red areas show areas to be planted up. This year it’ll mostly be mixed orchard blocks and willow coppice)

What do birds eat?! #bird #birds #birding #birder #birdwatch #birdwatching #birdwatcher #bug #bugs #animal #animals #wildlife #ecology #ecosystem #environment #forester #stem #love

For a few weeks at the end of the growing season, I graze a few goats through the scrub to increase the heterogeneity of the vegetation. This evening I found a peculiar caterpillar which resembles a crumpled leaf, it was on a Pacific ninebark which the goats have browsed. (Any species ID?)

"Pseudomonas and other microbes are released into the atmosphere from plants along with water vapor. The theory: rainfall these microbes induce benefits the plants, a bioprecipitation cycle." Such a cool story by @bourzac.bsky.social @quantamagazine.bsky.social www.quantamagazine.org/microbes-als...

"One of my favorite things about photography: animals eating and capturing what they eat."

Farming for food, and farming for nature.

Psychologically, we're living in very hard times for all who care deeply about science, empathy, equity, nature, and rights for all citizens of the planet, human or otherwise. Find strength, solace, and community in like-minded others, positive action, and in Mother Earth 🌎

Herbivory is the most obvious - and blatantly ignored - solution to mitigate wildfire danger. It must be done right: Not overgrazed. Use multi pasture rotational systems, with varying herbivore species depending on conditions. Right animals, right place, right time. Let the land lead.

The Buffalo are not the only animals at WRTBI. These are some of the candid shots from our field cams capturing pictures of deer, moose, and cranes.

"I don't see browsing on trees as such a negative thing. Of course, browsing is bad for closed forests as we know them—but our forests used to be more open and bright. :) Large animals belong in the forest too; we're just not used to them."

This!! 'The land still remembers'

I missed this thread posted last December. Some conversational gems in here on stable vs. dynamic ecosystem states. Imo; ecosystems are dynamic. Especially true when it comes to the common misconception of closed canopy forests as a "climax" state. We must unlearn what we have learned.

Looks like some great presentations at this rewilding conference, including Frans Vera and Derek Gow, I'd like to go... I'm only 8,000 km away. Hopefully some of this will make it online?

Castor canadensis v. Salix lucida. #BeaverLife #NatureConservation #WildlifeWonder

"A European bison on the Veluwe eats the leaves of the American bird cherry. Bison don't just eat the leaves. They also eat the twigs and bark. They also use their horns and bodies to demolish these, and other trees and shrubs."

‪Piotr Gąsiorowski‬ "We rarely appreciate the fact that a piece of rock lying by the road is not just an inert inorganic object, but a complex ecosystem inhabited by dozens of species (even if we ignore unicellular organisms)."

Ecosystem functionality, bio-abundance, and biodiversity were all high prior to the megafaunal extinctions of the late Pleistocene, after these creatures vanished, ecosystems began a drastic decline which continues today.

Illinois is the first U.S. state to enshrine #rewilding in law, restoring bison, beavers & more. A bold step that commits to nature’s self-recovery, unlocks new funding, and paves the way for a wilder future. 🌱🦬🐾 https://www.rfr.bz/b322e24

🌍 "Rewilding is as much about people as it is about nature and wildlife." 🫂 #RewildingSuccesses has published its second interview! #StoriesFromTheField #Rewilding #RewildingHope rewilding.ecologicalcitizen.net/2025/08/26/s... @rewildingbritain.org.uk @scotrewilding.bsky.social @rewilding.org

Ungulate migrations are now so rare, they're not on most people's radars Thankfully those nice people at GUIM are on the case and who knows, within a decade or two, with enough support, the maps might be crammed full of new migrations everywhere.

"For the first time, a bison cow born in the #Veluwe has given birth to a calf. It's wonderful to see how the herd and the area are developing."

Danish #megafauna -a big bull elk (#moose) from postglacial Funen (Broholm castle). The extirpation of elk from temperate Europe was part of a broader human-driven loss of large-bodied #mammals across the #Holocene, as we recently showed: onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/... 🫎🫎🏹 #extinction

Northern Argentina (Chaco) is considered to have sustained a high richness of megafauna in the Pleistocene (www.nature.com/articles/s41...), now extinct. Consequently, many plants developed defenses that are still evident (anachronisms) See ALT for the names 🧪🌍🌿🌾🪴🦊 🇦🇷 #ecoevo #plantbiology

In need of some positivity? You’re in the right place📍 Welcome to #RewildingWins, our monthly series where we put a spotlight on some of the month’s incredible rewilding achievements. And what a month it’s been… 🧵1/5

Something has welded together the leaves of a young birch tree (that grew without being planted) to make a cocoon-like home for itself. That's the thing with rewilding: being *ecosystem* centred, it benefits 1,000s of different organisms and, just as important, all their interconnections. 🌍

Awesome book; Contains a unique and potent message about facing and shouldering ecological responsibility in order to achieve the best results. This is a message the world desperately needs.

"New study on the prospects and challenges of forest grazing from the stables of the Northwest German Forestry Research Institute:"

Planting of this marginal fen zone at the @nosterfieldnr.bsky.social reedbed began in February 2023. It's maturing well, showing that good quality wetland habitat can be established relatively quickly. Some management of reedmace is needed.

A rainforest tree on another continent – the Americas – could easily be an Irish Atlantic rainforest oak. The entire living biosphere is related, connected. Family. Where and how *we* fit in is now the most urgent question of all: can we make the shift from destroyer of life ... to healer?

"Pleistocene and early Holocene megafaunal extinctions can stimulate us to reevaluate what is natural in the world and what sort of natures we seek to conserve or restore. If we accept the increasing evidence for a strong human role in these early extinctions, it forces a look inwards and 1/2

Proxy #Woodpasture. "Proxy", because this client does not own livestock, so the impacts are human (myself). The young oaks sprouted from acorns tossed in the grass a few years ago. The grass is "trampled" with a riding mower, blades turned off. Livestock would do better, but this beats a lawn.

Layered land use is vital Almost nothing is solitary or binary Fitting nature and farming together, with water management, soil health, carbon capture, clean air, space to play, and work, that is the job we need to do We can’t box nature off as if it were separate from us. That way madness lies!

Found a "living stump" of a Douglas fir tree on a client's property. The stump has healed it's bark over, and is still alive and sound, as it's roots have grafted with an adjacent large D fir.

Decided to leave work a little early when the wind kicked up -and the canopy of most of this site is composed of Lombardy poplar. - if you don't know, they have a habit of raining javelins which embed into the ground as a way to propagate. 😅

Restoring paradise

Yeah That’s a very nice sight The wood edged fields are worth their weight in gold in the summer, especially in a dry hot summer For all the talk about how bad livestock is this is pretty much perfect Land use layered Food and nature, in the same place at the same time, complementing each other

My entire life I had believed (assuredly by some conspiracy) that foxglove (Digitalis) is native to the Pacific Northwest, and today learned that it is not. It was introduced to N. America in the 1700's from Europe and naturalized. Turns out to be quite the controversy in native plant circles.

The fen-meadow at Flasks @nosterfieldnr.bsky.social provided a colourful backdrop for our wetland creation workshop today. This habitat has been established within the past 7 years on what were originally bare silt flats, using local-origin plant material.

High quality calcareous fen in lower Wensleydale, with tufa-depositing seepages. Set within mosaic of limestone grassland and rush-pasture associated w drumlins and meltwater channels. In so much of our landscape, the relationship between vegetation and geology has been masked by intensive farming.

#Hutewälder: Naturschutz durch #Waldweide ist im Kommen. Unsere Interviews mit Tierhalter*innen zeigen, was benötigt wird zur Stärkung der Hutewaldwirtschaft: 🌳Bessere Wirtschaftlichkeit 🌳Modellprojekte & Praxisleitfäden 🌳Vernetzung 🌳Einbindung der Tierhalter*innen ➡️ doi.org/10.1399/NuL....

A new species for us at the farm, a Wasp Spider. This one is a female feeding off a bee caught in its web.

This is nice. Notice how many different habitat types are here.

#photoeveryday pick I liked the #crescentmoon and #bison in this one. #Yellowstone #pictureeveryday #photography #nationalpark

Happy #blueskymonday and #PinkMon ! Here’s a little bison at sunset, wandering through the prairie of South Dakota. Sometimes you just have to pull the car over and take a photo! . #blueskyartshow #ColorADay #sunsetphotography #minimalistMonday #bison #silhouette

This book defines a healthy and holistic perspective on "invasive" species management. We would be far better off to use natural processes and non-toxic methods than to continue dispensing an endless array of poisons upon an infinite issue.

Fawns chowing down on the Japanese knotweed patch

It's that time of year when I let the mini-megafauna browse through the scrub zone. Their pruning, trampling, and fertilizing fuels next year's growth. This also enables higher biodiversity by opening up the canopy, trampling in seeds, and creating niche habitats. #goatsky #herbivores