Obama at National Academy of Sciences

Just a quick post to mention President Obama's address to the National Academy of Sciences Annual Meeting on Monday April 27. Without becoming overtly political here, I will just say that it is refreshing and indeed hopeful, that this young President is proposing to base national policy decisions on science, rather than seeking out only the supposed science that will support the policy decisions that have already been made. You can see a transcript of his address here:
Nat'l Academy of Sciences

Beneficial Insects like native plants

Here's a quick note of a book and some recent research on beneficial insects and how native plants may help them. You can help by planting even a small section of your yard (a 10 X 10 foot piece of your yard is a hundred square feet and can hold a nice splash of 6-10 native species or more) with plants native to Minnesota. I will be posting lists of plants native to Minnesota in the near future, and also the places where you can buy seeds and plants of these species.
First, the book (actually the author's website) "Bringing Nature Home", By Douglas Tallamy
http://bringingnaturehome.net/

Next, the recent research..... (from Michigan State University, but some of the plants are native here also, and we can just extrapolate with our own natives, I say.)
http://nativeplants.msu.edu/

And, just for fun, Bug Girl has a link to the President with dirt on his hands (no wisecracks from the Right here) ......
http://membracid.wordpress.com/