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Wednesday, May 21, 2025

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Judy Isacoff

Writer, naturalist, educator, and garden designer Judy Isacoff has published in regional monthlies, weeklies and dailies as well as professional journals in the field of environmental education. She is a columnist for the Battery Park City, New York Broadsheet Daily and The Broadsheet, and for five years contributed a weekly astronomy column to The Berkshire Eagle. A leader in nature study and curriculum-based gardening at schools in urban and rural settings, Isacoff is passionate about cultivating the sense of wonder through her teaching and writing. Her website: NaturesTurn.org

written articles

Learning

NATURE’S TURN: Power plants generate biodiversity

As the growing season begins, let’s bring the energy of keystone plants (AKA power plants) to our roadsides, yards, and gardens.
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: Great North American Eclipse, April 8, 2024 (Part One)

"A total eclipse of the sun is the most spectacular, awe-inspiring sight in all of nature. Once seen, it can never be forgotten." — Fred Espenek, NASA’s “Mr. Eclipse”
Learning

NATURE’S TURN: Think like a mountain — Aldo Leopold Week, March 1–8

When I went back to Leopold’s “Thinking Like A Mountain” essay in his book “A Sand County Almanac,” published in 1949, I felt that his experiences, expressed here, quicken one’s own responses to wildlife and wild lands.
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: Glorious starry nights

I am reminded of astronaut Chris Hatfield’s statements about his spacewalk experience from the International Space Station: “I was attacked by raw beauty. It was stupefying. It stops your thoughts … The power of the presence of the world as told to me by my ability to see it.”
Learning

NATURE’S TURN: Thinking like a mountain, the Town of Mount Washington launches Landscape and Forest Stewardship initiative

When I came to live in Mount Washington in the 1990s, I was introduced to the Taconic Plateau and the Town of Mount Washington as one of “Earth’s Last Great Places,” a Nature Conservancy (TNC) program that measured and recognized ecological health—biodiversity being a prime indicator.
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: The Milky Way Galaxy is our home — no ceiling, no walls around planet Earth. Let the stars in!

For Kathy.
Learning

NATURE’S TURN: Power plants of the northeastern ecoregion

When many of us sow at least one keystone perennial herbaceous plant, shrub, or tree in the environs of our home, we will be creating biodiversity-rich corridors.
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: Short day Sun, Long Night Moon

Derived from the Latin "sol" ("sun") and "sistere" ("to stand still"), the Sun seems to stand still at its rising and setting locations for several days on either side of the exact moment of solstice.
Learning

NATURE’S TURN: My neighbor and I grow the ‘Homegrown National Park’ for pollinators

“How surprised I was to discover the flowers,” neighbor Judy exclaimed about seeing the creeping bellflowers (Campanula rapunculoides) for the first time in early summer. “Every single day something wonderful popped up that I didn’t expect. I found my curiosity reawakened. Less mow, more fun watching what pops up. I’m 100 percent in on decreasing the size of my lawn.”
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: Orion the Hunter and a tale of two suns

The seventh brightest star in northern skies and one of the furthest stars visible with the naked eye, Betelgeuse meets our eyes inspiring wonder—and motivation—of gigantic proportions in the months ahead.
Learning

NATURE’S TURN: Boundless beauty, pressing responsibility

Even amidst the wild beauty of our landscape, and the beauty of planting gardens of any size, and preparing wonderful edibles in the kitchen, the challenges of climate change to life on Earth are all too evident. For one, frost has arrived one month later than the 20th-century norm.
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: Hunter’s Moon lights the way, with planet Jupiter, tonight ‘til Halloween — teachable moments

Halloween is an astronomical holiday, a cross-quarter day recognized since ancient times, the name having roots in the autumn celebration of All Hallows’ Eve and All Hallows’ or All Saints Day.
Learning

NATURE’S TURN: Late-season, extra-long-season native flowers and botanical curiosities

I experienced the rigor and delight in learning to identify asters and goldenrods in a recent field workshop led by botanist Ted Elliman at Jug End Reservation in South Egremont.
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: Evening stars, morning stars — Let there be darkness

To learn about and participate in the protection of Earth’s night skies that are increasingly threatened by light pollution, I urge you to register for Under One Sky Global Conference 2023, a 24-hour Virtual, Worldwide Event, November 3–4, 2023.
Learning

NATURE’S TURN: Harvest sunlight to feed, sustain soil life: plant cover crops now

While feeling the motions and rhythm of broadcasting the peas and oats, the image of “The Sower” by Jean-François Millet came to mind. I jumped for the role of a contemporary Sower!
Learning

EYES TO THE SKY: Sun speeds south, dark skies brushed with cosmic Milky Way

The rising Sun is moving quickly from its summer reaches in the northeast towards its due-east position, to be marked on the Autumn Equinox, Saturday, September 23 at 2:50 a.m.
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