#1: As January pounds the northern states with ice and snow, birds huddle under the protection of spruce boughs for the night, and rabbits sleep in grass-lined burrows under spreading yews. In the southeastern and southwestern states, January doesn’t have the same chilling power, and wildlife there can still forage through the year-round greenery.
#2: Green spaces are easily taken for granted, yet their great expanses unobtrusively support human existence. Among many other things, they furnish essential raw materials, renew soils, and prevent erosion, shelter animals that pollinate crops and control agricultural pests, purify our air and water, and help regulate climate. Because many of these ecosystem services, as scientists call them, have no traditional market value, their long-term protection is often ignored in favor of short-term profits.
