Category Archives: Froggy Foibles

Eight years ago, the production team at Midleton Distillery in County Cork, Ireland, set out to experiment with finishing techniques featuring toasted virgin Irish oak casks. Midleton’s team—conjectured that the source of an oak cask, specifically the region from which the wood was forested—even the individual tree that produced the barrel’s staves—could inject unique personality into an Irish whiskey… To make 29 hogshead casks, six oak trees—all 130 years old—were cut from the Bluebell Forest on the Castle Blunden Estate in County Kilkenny. Each cask was made from the wood of just one of those trees. Subsequently, each bottle of this cask-strength whiskey, which costs $300, can be traced back to one of those Irish oaks—and that lineage is prominently displayed on the label.

Antarctica as we know it is a frosty wilderness covered in thick compacted ice. But a recent scientific discovery suggests that the vast white continent was home to leafy forests, some 280 million years ago. During the last Antarctic summer, geologist Erik Gulbranson and a team of polar scientists chanced upon fossils from the oldest polar forest found on the continent — before the first dinosaurs walked the Earth. Now the team is braving the land of ice once more to uncover clues as to how forests once flourished there. …According to Gulbranson the southernmost part of the continent would have been carpeted in seed ferns extending up to 40 meters tall. These trees would have been able to survive approximately four to five months of absolute darkness, followed by four to five months of continuous light.

There are more than a billion bicycles used on roads worldwide. …However, a new start-up for alternative recyclable helmets EcoHelmet, reports that nearly 90% of bike users choose not to wear one. For many people, the traditional polystyrene bike helmets are heavy, awkward and bad for storage. The New York designer Isis Shiffer, an enthusiast for design and cycling developed EcoHelmet so that more bicycle users could feel confident to travel safely in cities. …Manufactured from water-resistant recycled paper, the EcoHelmet folds flat and one size fits all. They have a biodegradable coating that makes it waterproof for up to three hours. 

From friends meeting over cappuccino in the local café to students pulling all-nighters, we humans count on coffee to put zip in our lives. …But a warming climate could stir up the coffee world. Changes in temperature and rainfall may reduce coffee production in some areas, while making new places suitable for the crop. …There’s some good news for coffee lovers, though: maintaining healthy forests near those crops could help keep the buzz in your morning joe, according to a new study. “At a time when agricultural production is threatened by climate change, the ecosystem services provided by forests—in this case, pollination—can help farmers cope and adapt,” says Bruno Locatelli.

Rome’s official Christmas tree is shedding needles so quickly it has become a jolly joke for city residents. The 21-meter- (70-foot-) high tree, which was lit up on Dec. 8, started dropping needles at a fast clip as soon as it was hoisted into the middle of bustling Rome’s main square, Piazza Venezia. Romans have dubbed the tree “The Mangy One.” They’re also needling Rome’s mayor about the forlorn-looking specimen, which cost 48,000 euros ($57,000) to transport from South Tyrol, an Italian Alpine region. The city said Tuesday it is investigating why the tree is ailing.

Dr. Sandra Tuszynska

The humble fungi could hold the key to eradicating much of the world’s waste as it has the ability to both replace and decompose plastics, a Queensland scientist says. Mycologist Dr Sandra Tuszynska hopes the material could one day replace plastics, bricks and even metals. She said the mycelium — the white, furry, web-like growth off a fungus — was a tough, water repellent and fire retardant material. …Dr Tuszynska said the vomiting or spitting out of enzymes occurred when the mycelium decomposed or digested wood or other matter. “Once moisture gets into the drop down wood, other organic matter, dead insects or animals, the fungi do their work by penetrating through the matter and decompose it by vomiting up enzymes onto the substance it’s decomposing.” Dr Tuszynska, who works as an environmental projects officer at Woodfordia, said international research had found that fungi could decompose plastics.

With the holidays coming up, and we’re all feeling the pressure of getting great gifts for the people we love. As nature-lovers, we also want to avoid products that harm the environment, and aim to support the businesses that strive for sustainability. That’s exactly why we created this forest-friendly, eco-friendly gift guide! That means that they plant trees with us! However you shop, remember that you can always add a gift donation with One Tree Planted to give the gift of a healthier, greener world.

For once, the global crafting community has produced something kinda solid. Something we can actually use – and something we can actually make that doesn’t need a PHD in PVA glue. This time, it’s a firm alternative to the humble Christmas tree, and it uses just one household staple that you’ll definitely have lying about. We’re talking, of course, about a stepladder. You know, the thing that’s been busy gathering dust for the last year while you carry on forgetting about that lightbulb in the hallway.

GUNNARSHOLT, Iceland — With his flats of saplings and a red planting tool, Jon Asgeir Jonsson is a foot soldier in the fight to reforest Iceland, working to bring new life to largely barren landscapes. The country lost most of its trees more than a thousand years ago, when Viking settlers took their axes to the forests that covered one-quarter of the countryside. Now Icelanders would like to get some of those forests back, to improve and stabilize the country’s harsh soils, help agriculture and fight climate change. But restoring even a portion of Iceland’s once-vast forests is a slow and seemingly endless task.  “It’s definitely a struggle,” said Mr. Jonsson, a forester who works for the private Icelandic Forestry Association. Even in a small country like Iceland, a few million trees a year is just a drop in the bucket.