Upon the heels of the very successful beaver talk in January, the Climate Smart and Conservation Advisory Committee of Taghkanic has announced the remainder of the 2026 line up for the Taghkanic Talks series . Tim Kennelty, Taghkanic Talks  organizer for 2026, says “Following up on our popular Forests in Your Backyard program in 2025, we are excited to announce the new 2026 theme for the Taghkanic Talks, The Plants and Animals in Your Backyard . In addition to the talk on bea

By John Bradley Bill McKibben is an American environmental writer, journalist and organizer. In 1989 he published his first book, The End of Nature , which elaborated on global warming and climate change and became an environmental classic. His latest book, Here Comes the   Sun: A Last Chance for the Climate and a Fresh Chance for Civilization  is a timely report card analyzing the global effort to slow and then reverse global warming and its increasingly devastating effects.

by E. Aliperti  If you are like me, your Spring garden is a year long cycle involving a lot of planning. I’m heavily informed by research and observations I’ve made over the past twenty years in various gardens that I’ve had a hand in creating. I keep a journal with things that stand out and review it in the winter as part of my spring routine. I noted that last year, I invested in 28 potted native trees and shrubs , placing them strategically around my property. This spring,

by Tim Kennelty It feels like we’ve already lived through many months of winter.  I guess it’s the feeling we get when we’re holed up in our cozy dens evading the early snow and frigid temperatures while trying to avert our eyes as the world around us gets crazier and more dangerous.  A friend of mine recently wrote to me that all she wanted to do was escape to her garden. While that doesn’t make a lot of practical sense at this time of year, my gardening soul completely gets

By: Anya Bonanno, Funding Futures Fellow & SCAPE Coordinator Claverack and Philmont are participating in Partners for Climate Action’s Funding Futures program, which provides training and funding support for communities to implement a year-long listening campaign. The goal of the listening campaign is to identify our community’s top ecological goals and funding mechanisms that could support them. We have named our project “ SCAPE ,” short for “Stewarding Claverack and Philmon

By Sarah Katan Congratulations to the Claverack Free Library for collecting one thousand pounds of plastic film packaging and recycling with the NexTrex Recycling Challenge rather than letting it go to landfills. Once again, the residents of Claverack and surrounding towns have proven that reducing their environmental impact is important. Collected at the Library, the plastic is weighed and submitted to a local collection center and then utilized by the NexTrex company to mak

Taghkanic Talks presents Not all Forests are Created Equal: A Closer Look at Our Forest Habitats and Their Biodiversity by Claudia Knab-Vispo, Conrad Vispo, (Co-Authors) and their colleague, Kyle Bradford.   The authors of the recently published Field Guide, From the Hudson to the Taconics: An Ecological and Cultural Field Guide to the Habitats of Columbia County, New York will demonstrate how to use the Field Guide as a tool to:    Recognize various habitats in Columbia Coun

by Tim Kennelty It’s Fall: Time to Plant Native Perennials Hi, I’m Tim Kennelty. I live in the Town of Taghkanic. I’m a Master Gardener and trained as a Master Naturalist and Master Forest Owner through Cornell Cooperative Extension. This is my inaugural column where I hope to regularly share some tidbits on nature and gardening with links to relevant episodes of Nature Calls , a podcast that I co-hosted, as well as more detailed information and articles if you want to take a

By Katy Flammia Dr. Doug Tallamy , acclaimed author and native plant advocate, gave a lecture at the Columbia Greene Community College and led a couple of field walks at Arthur’s Point Farm in Ghent in September. ( Arthur’s Point Farm  was a sponsor of the event and wonderful local resources for plants and trees.  New Leaf Tree Service  was another sponsor and great source for ecologically minded tree care and tree and meadow planting.) On the walks, Tallamy spoke about many

Claverack & Philmont Residents: In the next 5-10 years, decisions affecting the environment/landscape of our communities are going to come up, and there are many outside pressures that could influence what happens. We want to make sure that the people who live here are heard first. To this end, a group of community volunteers, including many from our Climate Smart taskforces, are undertaking a year-long, non-partisan listening project called Stewarding Claverack and Philmont'

By Brenda Shufelt A small portion of the field across from the Barn at Miller’s Crossing, photo by author Liquid Gold in a bottle, sold...

By Sarah Katan On a beautiful Saturday morning, the Claverack Free Library hosted their annual Repair Cafe. In anticipation of the day, I...

By Paula Ptaszek & Sarah Katan Libraries are more than a beautiful place to discover new literary adventures. They are a hub of...

Saturday, May 17th, was a big day in Taghkanic! Area residents planted more than 1200 trees in the soon-to-be formally established...

By Katy Flammia Not only can you get delicious farm-raised food, but you can fill your garden with eco-restorative plants that will...

By Tom Paino Even with my credentials as sustainable architect, I knew designing my and my partner’s home to the agreed-upon program of...

By John Bradley In 2023, Claverack streetlights were converted to LEDs, thus reducing energy use and saving the town thousands in yearly...

Check it out:  The Library of Local Seed Library is officially open at the Claverack Free Library. To be clear, though, these seeds...

By: Timothy Kennelty & Sarah Katan Mark your calendars, folks! There are not one but TWO fantastic events hosted by Taghkanic Climate...

A Review of Carbon: The Book of Life , by Paul Hawken, 2025, Viking, New York By John Bradley ‘Carbon’s increase in the atmosphere moves...