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As the prophet of climate fiction, Jeff VanderMeer occupies a singular space in literature. His novels and stories exist at the vanguard of art and activism, with each one not only pushing the formal boundaries of literary science fiction, but advancing the conversation about climate crisis. Through novels like Borne and the Southern Reach Trilogy (whose first volume, Annihilation, was adapted into a 2018 Natalie Portman movie), VanderMeer has become a pioneer of the New Weird, a genre that subverts cliches of speculative fiction to create something dark, terrorizing, and wonderful.

Dead Astronauts, his latest novel, returns to the post-apocalyptic world of Borne, where three dusty spacesuits fallen from the heavens and embedded in the terrain made for a memorable, mysterious image. Dead Astronauts is a prequel of sorts, following those three astronauts as they square off against a nefarious biotech corporation known only as the Company, which devastated Earths biome by releasing bioengineered creatures into the wild. This is a Mobius strip of a novel, with each chapter containing worlds upon nested worlds, all of them dreamlike and dark. In this shattered landscape, VanderMeer explores urgent ideas about capitalism, greed, and natural destruction. VanderMeer spoke with Esquire about animal sentience, mindfulness in nature, and the relationship between beauty and morality.

Esquire: One line that struck me was this line of dialogue from the foxs narration: Do you have the new phone yet that someone made continents away because they were forced to, and then someone else starved to death because when they mined the components they destroyed all the croplands and the forest? I thought that was such a stunning encapsulation of late-stage capitalism. How much do you think about systems and their interconnectedness when you write?

Jeff VanderMeer: I think this book is all about systems. With Borne, the prior book set in the same universe, I had a decision to make: do I just call it City and Company? Because of late-stage capitalism, I thought that Company was actually not too coarse a granularity. Were literally surrounded by Company. If Id been writing this novel twenty years ago, I probably would have tried to name the company and give it more characteristics, but in fact were surrounded thanks to late-stage capitalism with systems that are hard to interrogate or push back against, because theyre often invisible to us, or theyre so tentacular that its hard to get to the center of them.

This book is meant to interrogate that world we live in, even if its a future of that world, and also to get at ideas of resistance that are not the normal ones you find in fiction. I found the idea of failure really compelling. In part because of capitalism, weve come to see activism as our metric of success by the same kinds of ways we assess success in our personal lives. There are ways in which an ambitious failure can still push things forward. If youre fighting something that is just so pervasive, theres never going to be one clear victory. Its going to be all these different things, where people may feel theyve failed, but they may have actually done just enough to make a change that eventually leads somewhere.

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ESQ: As we think about activism and capitalism, the layers go up and up. If you buy buttons for protestors to wear, for example, youre likely participating in a corrupt system wherever the buttons were manufactured. Even our best intentions are corrupted.

JV: Exactly. We as novelists participate in our own corruption all the time. Even in writing a novel thats pushing back against capitalism, you get an uneasy feeling when you get to the promotion stage of it--a feeling that youre actually being counterproductive to what youre seeking to do. Its a tricky thing, but I thought that getting out of my comfort zone with different narrative effects would at least make people uncomfortable in a way that could get them thinking outside the normal bubbles.

ESQ: This is a novel very much concerned with multiples and doubles. You have multiple Mosses, multiple ducks, multiple timelines. What interests you about that idea?

JV: What I found hilarious about it was that multiple versions means continuity doesnt really matter anymore. That was very compelling. In all seriousness, I like the idea of characters coming into contact with different versions of themselves, and what that might mean emotionally and metaphorically. There are a lot of different things I thought those echoes might achieve. Theres also a playful element there in thinking about all these different versions of these same characters. I did try to keep track of them to the point where it would actually be dysfunctioning continuity, but not seem like a continuity error that wasnt planned.

ESQ: Whats the process of world building like for you? Where does it start and how does it pick up steam?

JV: Often its very character-based. Some people were frustrated with the Southern Reach trilogy because I was not willing to let characters know things that they wouldnt in real life know, which meant there couldnt be formal closure of plot by the end of the story. In this case, I think theres a semi-omniscient feel to some of the sections, so its a little different in that there does seem to be some authorial intrusion, but in general in Dead Astronauts and Borne, the idea is that the creatures and the biotech are the things that stand out as part of the setting. First of all, you pick whats going to be in the foreground. With prior novels, which needed intense history and world building, all that stuff was centered, and animals were in the backdrop. But here, that stuff is pulled forward, which speaks to the idea of symbolic imagery, because then those objects or animals have to resonate in a way that they wouldnt otherwise have to.

But really, its just by feel. You think about what a system like the Company would be in terms being so pervasive and seeming to have no centerthat helps with world-building. This novel was very organicnot that the others arent, but sometimes the material comes at you out of the blue, and large portions of this were like that.

ESQ: Speaking of the animals, we have to discuss the fox. In his narration, he rejects the construction of being a fox, saying that foxes dont agree with it. He muses, Do you ever wonder what it would be like not to live in the world of humans? How do you inhabit the minds of animals? What are your ways not just into the physical experience of being a fox, but the emotional experience?

JV: Obviously its impossible in the first place, but there are two things. One is that were often told as writers not anthropomorphize. In the current era, even pop culture anthropomorphizes animals in horrifying ways. There are all sorts of propaganda that literally have animals participate in their own objectification, which helps us avoid thinking of them as individuals. The other thing is that I always have a situation where the animals have been modified in some way. I have this idea in my head that they maintain the attributes of the animal, but they are in some sense an artificial construct, or have been somehow altered. Thats the way in for me. Even the fox, who is openly, blatantly rebellious, is still caught in the system. The fox never buys into these ways in which we in fiction want to have animals forgive us for what we do, or to overlook what we do to the animal world and how we exploit it. I did have to inhabit a different persona, because the fox is very extreme, but that was very liberating. Fiction should be a laboratory where you can express dangerous ideas.

Fiction should be a laboratory where you can express dangerous ideas.

ESQ: The fox also says, Humans were garlanded by us and yet never saw us. How do we get back to a place of seeing the animal world around us? How do we develop compassion and empathy for that world?

JV: I think its really important that we are literally in contact with it on a daily basis. On my social media, I talk about birds a lot; one reason I do that is because there are a lot of them in our yard, but also because theyre the kind of animal that a lot of people see. If people can actually begin to see the individual bird, can begin to disallow birds to become just part of the landscape, then thats one way of doing it. Before we wound up with this yard, I had no knowledge of plants whatsoever, and when I would hike, I was always looking for birds and animals. Now that I know the plant life, even our yard seems much more overwhelmingly alive. Suddenly the plants are no longer part of the landscapetheyre in the foreground.

I do think it is tough, because a lot of us are removed from that. Theres a lot of propaganda that tries to make us be at a remove. We cant get back to a pre-industrialized situation, even though there are activists that want to do thatwhich is problematic in some ways. Its a tough thing. I actually had somebody in an environmental class say, Im from a huge city, where we never see any animals. Why should I care about nature? I didnt really have a good answer except that we need it to survive. Its ethically and morally wrong to exploit all this life in the way that we do.

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ESQ: That connects to something you highlight in this book about how we rather erroneously center the human experience as the beating heart of life on earth, and thats just not true.

JV: I think it would be much improved if we were to decentralize. There was a point where we seemed to be decentralized. Once we realized that the earth was not the center of the solar system, that the sun wasnt revolving around us, that had a huge convulsive effect on how humans thought of themselves. Unfortunately, that hasnt continued, but it would be in our own best interest to decentralize ourselves and to see ourselves as part of a larger picture.

ESQ: Maybe things like the death of the bees will help nudge people toward that realization.

JV: I do think more and more people are seeing this. I was shocked when I started talking about our yard, posting photographs and talking about the process. I thought for sure I was going to lose thousands of followers. In fact, I gained thousands of followers. Every week, I get people emailing me or tweeting me about how theyve changed their feelings about their yard. I think there is a moment here where people are understanding that there are things you can doand its not one of those problematic privilege things, either. You literally can help the planet just by not raking your leaves and not mowing. You can make a difference just by putting out one pot of wildflowers. Its very scalable.

ESQ: You write, Chen cared nothing for beauty that declared itself, for the beauty that had no morality. When we talk about nature, particularly when we talk about what we stand to lose through climate change, we often talk about it in terms of beauty. Take the coral reefs, for examplepeople always cite them as something beautiful, as something we stand to lose. They dont talk about the creatures that depend on the reefthey talk about the aesthetics of the reef. Is that the wrong approach to this conversation, to think of nature as categorically good and beautiful?

JV: Its a difficult question. The reason its a difficult question is because we have done such a terrible job of researching and observing animal sentience. It was just a couple of years ago that we realized birds have the capacity to be twice as intelligent as we thought they were, because they have more neurons per micro-inch in their brains than we do. We realized that fish dream and that theyre social animals. Theres so much about the world we dont actually know. Im not advocating that all creatures have an intelligence and an awareness similar to ours, but at the same time, were learning that a lot of the things that we think of as consciousness are actually not really about free will. That combination of things is really important in terms of thinking about how connected we really are and how aware, in their own way, other animals are.

ANNIHILATION (The Southern Reach Trilogy)

Unfortunately this is something that scientists have had to buy into, too, which is to say that to convince people that somethings worth saving, they have to find the thing thats cute or beautiful. Thats often been to the detriment of animals that are not cute or beautiful. Were not seeing the full system. I understand the impulse of rescuing the frog from the snake, but my sympathy is partially with the snake. I think thats part of our disconnect from naturethere are things in nature that can be seen as brutal, but are really just part of the process. Of course, we do a lot of brutal things, ourselves.

ESQ: Elsewhere in the novel you write, No one should feel responsible for the whole world. Is that the direction you see us moving in, or our children and grandchildren?

JV: Obviously social media can be really good about spreading the word and helping people connect, but it also freezes you, because theres too much bad news coming in even when theres good news. I do think people are beginning to feel like they need to do more, like they need to do everything. You see these debates with regard to individual behavior versus changing systems. I tend to think its a combination of both, depending on the situation. You have to evaluate where individual action will make the most sense in terms of boycotts, and where you can systematically change the actual systems we live under. However, people just take on too much and get frozen. Ive been thinking about climate scientists, who suffer PTSD and depression almost constantly now. You have to find some way to get past that, to keep moving, to keep doing stuff. For me, as someone who isnt a climate scientist but still monitors this subject, its definitely working in my yard every day that gets me past that point and trying to just focus on the moment, which is something I think weve lost touch with, living in the moment.

I think weve lost touch with living in the moment.

ESQ: How can we regain touch with living in the moment?

JV: I think nature is a big part of that. Being out in nature is very restorative in terms of living in the moment, especially if you have the opportunity to hike in unfamiliar terrain. It reboots your senses. Its hard not to be in the moment unless youre the most careless person in the universe. I think its a mindfulness that we have to relearn, that we have to consciously think of. You have to consciously say, Okay, Im going to leave all the accoutrements of technology behind if I go to a public park or walk around my neighborhood. Im going to try in this moment to see the things that Ive rendered invisible.

ESQ: We now have a word for the genre you write in: climate fiction. As we continue to negotiate what the genre can do and be, what do you see as the purpose of climate fiction? Is it art, activism, or some of both?

JV: I think you see a lot of artists grappling with this in different mediums. You think, If Im trying to get across a message and if I go too far away from what you might call commercial modes of fiction, then I begin to potentially lose readers. Then again, if I convey my message in very commercial narrative strategies, then Im also losing something, because Im unable to effectively convey the complexity of what it is that Im trying to convey.

People are misconstruing climate fiction with science fiction. Because were actually living through it, climate fiction should be anything that grapples with the climate crisis, including contemporary fiction that has no speculative element whatsoever, as well as poetry and other forms. Everyone should realize that if you want to grapple with this, you dont have to write science fiction. In actual fact, I think it can be very effective if theres a small element of climate change within a novel that otherwise has nothing to do with it. That intrusion can be very jolting. If youre writing message fiction in some form, the person youre trying to convince is not the climate change denier, but the person who thinks nothing is going to happen for 30 years. Youre trying to make someone think differently who doesnt do anything to push the narrative in the right direction.

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'Dead Astronauts' Author Jeff VanderMeer On the Powerand Dangerof Climate Fiction - Esquire

The Kuykendall-McLean Home, 602 S. Robinson St., is one of eight stops on the Save Old Cleburnes 42nd annual Candlewalk Tour of Homes on Saturday.

The two-story ornate Prairie Victorian Style home was built on the site of an earlier house in 1898. It is unknown why the other house was replaced but it is certain it was. The house has a hip and gable roof with one gable featuring the classic sunburst pattern.

Gingerbread trim accents the wrap around front porch. Prairie style stairwell windows are on the north side and the oval window next to the front entrance.

First owner was Ellie Moore. Finding it impossible to make the payments of $23.40 per month, she transferred the property to J.A. Long in 1901.

Long quickly sold it to Mr. and Mrs. R.B. Kuykendall, who wanted to move into town to educate their seven children. The Kuykendalls completely refurbished the home in the 1930s and sent out open house invitations.

The home stayed in the family for 55 years until the death of the last of the remaining Kuykendall children.

Bill and Patti Jo McLean owned the home from 1955 to 2004 owning the home for 49 years. Patti Jo McLean was a local historian, active in Camp Fire Girls, DAR and Eastern Star.

Carmen and Barry Martin bought the house in January. New to Cleburne, they looked at the downtown buildings to have a loft/retail space but decided on this house instead. Barry Martin has experience in building and home restoration.

They immediately went to work fixing the foundation, replacing plumbing, adding insulation and new air conditioning. The have repaired the front porch, added a backyard privacy fence, circle driveway and fire pit area.

Putting the house on tour has motivated them to fine tune some planned projects. In the future, they plan on adding a side porch to enjoy the back yard. The house sits picture perfect in its 121st year.

The Candlewalk Tour of Historic Homes is from 1-8 p.m. Saturday.

Tickets are available at the Layland Museum, Heritage Home Vintage Inspired Living, Cleburne Chamber of Commerce and online at Eventbrite.com. Advance tickets are $12 for adults and $8 for children under 12.

Day of tour tickets are $15 and $10, respectively.

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Kuykendall-McLean Home added to Candlewalk Tour of Homes - Cleburne Times-Review

Restoration Hardware (RH) came out with quarterly earnings of $2.79 per share, beating the Zacks Consensus Estimate of $2.22 per share. This compares to earnings of $1.73 per share a year ago. These figures are adjusted for non-recurring items.

This quarterly report represents an earnings surprise of 25.68%. A quarter ago, it was expected that this furniture and housewares company would post earnings of $2.70 per share when it actually produced earnings of $3.20, delivering a surprise of 18.52%.

Over the last four quarters, the company has surpassed consensus EPS estimates four times.

Restoration Hardware, which belongs to the Zacks Retail - Home Furnishings industry, posted revenues of $676.72 million for the quarter ended October 2019, surpassing the Zacks Consensus Estimate by 0.17%. This compares to year-ago revenues of $638.51 million. The company has topped consensus revenue estimates three times over the last four quarters.

The sustainability of the stock's immediate price movement based on the recently-released numbers and future earnings expectations will mostly depend on management's commentary on the earnings call.

Restoration Hardware shares have added about 66.8% since the beginning of the year versus the S&P 500's gain of 23.4%.

What's Next for Restoration Hardware?

While Restoration Hardware has outperformed the market so far this year, the question that comes to investors' minds is: what's next for the stock?

There are no easy answers to this key question, but one reliable measure that can help investors address this is the company's earnings outlook. Not only does this include current consensus earnings expectations for the coming quarter(s), but also how these expectations have changed lately.

Empirical research shows a strong correlation between near-term stock movements and trends in earnings estimate revisions. Investors can track such revisions by themselves or rely on a tried-and-tested rating tool like the Zacks Rank, which has an impressive track record of harnessing the power of earnings estimate revisions.

Ahead of this earnings release, the estimate revisions trend for Restoration Hardware was favorable. While the magnitude and direction of estimate revisions could change following the company's just-released earnings report, the current status translates into a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy) for the stock. So, the shares are expected to outperform the market in the near future. You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

It will be interesting to see how estimates for the coming quarters and current fiscal year change in the days ahead. The current consensus EPS estimate is $3.52 on $709.79 million in revenues for the coming quarter and $10.85 on $2.69 billion in revenues for the current fiscal year.

Investors should be mindful of the fact that the outlook for the industry can have a material impact on the performance of the stock as well. In terms of the Zacks Industry Rank, Retail - Home Furnishings is currently in the top 30% of the 250 plus Zacks industries. Our research shows that the top 50% of the Zacks-ranked industries outperform the bottom 50% by a factor of more than 2 to 1.

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free reportRH (RH) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.

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Restoration Hardware (RH) Tops Q3 Earnings and Revenue Estimates - Yahoo Finance

If you're the kind of person who's got a stash of ex-Colin McRae Subaru rally cars that need restoration, why not send them back to the company that built them?

Plenty of vehicle manufacturers are getting involved with historic cars these days. Car companies like Porsche and Mercedes have extensive classic car parts programs, and even companies like Lamborghini and Ferrari offer in-house classic restoration programs.

That all makes sense, given the continual rise of values for classic vehicles, but what do you do if you're a person of means and your tastes skew toward the racier side of things, as in actual race cars? Well, if you're into classic WRC rally cars or even modern Le Mans GT cars, the racing legends at Prodrive in the UK have you sorted.

The British firm announced the launch of its Prodrive Legends program on Wednesday that will aid collectors in the authentication process when purchasing a vehicle -- something important, as cars with established competition history often command a premium. It will also offer both mechanical work and complete restoration for Prodrive-built racing cars.

"Many of these cars are now appreciating classics with immense value to their passionate owners," said Paul Howarth, head of motorsport operations for Prodrive, in a statement. "With the formation of Prodrive Legends, owners can now bring the cars home to the same company -- and even many of the same people -- who originally designed and built them and took them to multiple wins."

If you're thinking that this seems like a big effort for a relatively small company you're right. But Prodrive is a legendary company in the racing community, and it's built a whole hell of a lot of winning race cars over its 35 year history -- including Subaru rally cars, Aston Martin GT racers and even BMW E30 M3s. A restoration by the company that built the car is likely to command a premium in the market.

"Quite simply, there is nobody in a better position to rebuild a Prodrive car we literally know them inside out and many of the people we have on the Prodrive Legends team built the cars originally," said Howarth. "What's more, we have all the original build data and also hold the rights to reproduce key parts of the cars, while sourcing genuine components that are notoriously hard to find doesn't pose an issue thanks to the network of contacts we have established since the early 1980s."

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Rally racing legend Prodrive will offer its own in-house restoration program - CNET

SAVANNAH, Ga. (WSAV) The bell of North Americas oldest continuous black church has returned to its permanent home.

The First African Baptist Church, built in 1859,continued its renovation project Wednesday morning after workers placed its historic bell back in the church tower.

The thousand-pound bell had been housed within the tower since 1888.

The project, which began Oct. 1 with the removal of the bell, is an effort to preserve the church for future generations.

We have tourists that come from all over the world just to be able to view this church, and the restoration and renovation projects that were doing right now will take us even farther into the future, said Derrek Curry, Associate Minister at First African Baptist Church.

The bell was removed after engineers assessed the building and found structural damage in the bell tower, which needed to be redone to improve its structural integrity.

They had to put new steel beams in, pour a new concrete floor, Rev. Marco George, the churchs executive office manager, told News 3.

Engineers had to wait at least 28 days for the concrete to dry and completely cure before replacing the heavy bell.

The churchs steeple was also replaced on Wednesday.Its not the original steeple; that one was damaged after a series of hurricanes hit the Savannah area in 1893, Curry told News 3.

Church leaders say that the congregation will celebrate 242 years of history on Sunday.

This building is 160 years old itself, George said. So, when you have that type of significance, this bell is part of that history.

The church has continued hosting tours in the churchs lower sanctuary during the renovation, George said.

On the third Sunday of December, the congregation plans to re-open the main sanctuary following the completion of the project.

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Historic bell returns to First African Baptist Church during renovation project - WSAV-TV

ST. CLAIRSVILLE, Ohio (WTRF) More than 40 animals were rescued from a Fairview home with deplorable conditions last week.

Since the initial story, numerous donations and adoptions have poured in for the Belmont County Animal Rescue League.

The gifts continued Monday morning after Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration surprised BCARL with a sleigh full of presents.

Well, we saw the story and saw all the dogs. You know, its the season of giving, and theres nothing more vulnerable than these 40 dogs and we were thinking of what we could do. And so, we went out and bought some dog food and some cleaning supplies and here we are.

Were just ecstatic! Its very overwhelming, the response weve been getting to the needs we have for the animals. Dog foods coming in, which we greatly needed, and the cleaning supplies, and we couldnt be more thankful.

BCARL officials say the rescued dogs received vet care Monday and although some animals have been adopted, others continue to search for their forever home.

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Panhandle Cleaning and Restoration surprises BCARL with sleigh full of presents - WTRF

Scientific research fueled by the Great Basin Sagebrush Restoration Fund is showing promise in its efforts to improve rehabilitation of rangeland damaged by wildfires, improve mine reclamation and expand habitat for sage grouse.

The fund was established in 2017 by Lithium Nevada Corp. and the University of Nevada, Reno, Foundation. The fund is under the control of co-founder Professor Tamzen Stringham, a rangeland scientist and interim head of the UNR Department of Agriculture, Veterinary and Rangeland Sciences.

Another co-founder is Alexi Zawadzki, president of North American operations for Vancouver-based Lithium Americas Corp. and chief executive officer of Lithium Nevada, which is planning the Thacker Pass lithium mining and manufacturing project in northern Humboldt County.

Were in sagebrush county out there, as is most of Nevada, he said. Its very difficult to reclaim sagebrush.

Zawadzki said if mining companies dont get the land reclamation work done right the first time, they have to go back and do it again and again. This thinking led to his approaching Stringham to discuss creating the sagebrush fund to discover better ways to reclaim land not only for mines, but also for federal agencies after range fires.

A prime example is the restoration work needed after the Martin Fire in 2018 that scorched 432,000 acres, ranging from Humboldt County to near Tuscarora in Elko County.

The sagebrush ecosystem doesnt do well after a fire, Stringham said. The land tends to easily convert to cheatgrass, so we are focused on that component. It gives us an opportunity to work on a fire scar to see if we can improve sagebrush growth.

Researchers helped by the Great Basin Sagebrush Restoration Fund are looking for better ways to grow sagebrush, especially after fires. This photo of sagebrush in the Great Basin is in a presentation on the research.

A recent project update on the Great Basin Sagebrush Restoration Fund states that more than 13 million acres of sagebrush habitat have been lost to fire in the Great Basin over the past 20 years, while efforts to restore habitat have had poor success rates.

Stringham said researchers are testing seed technology in the Great Basin that involves coating seeds for enhancing seed germination and establishment to build sagebrush habitat.

The project update states that across six different test sites, conglomerates (coated seeds) increased the number of established seedlings by 60 percent.

Researchers also are looking at what differences in soil, climate and temperature make in getting sagebrush to grow. For example, she said researchers are collecting sagebrush seeds from the Elko area and planting them in the Winnemucca area, and they are planting seeds gathered from the Elko and Winnemucca areas in both locations.

We are doing this to see if they germinate equally or we see a preference for their home location, Stringham said.

These photographs provided by the Great Basin Sagebrush Restoration Fund illustrate what Wyoming big sagebrush seeds look like before treatment, left, and after conglomeration.

She said a graduate student is collecting sagebrush seeds to plant plots in January and February near Tuscarora and Paradise Valley on land impacted by the Martin Fire.

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management has seeded roughly 20 to 25 percent of the Martin Fires total acreage, and the work was partially successful, Stringham said.

A lot of money has been spent in the past on fire reclamation with minimal success, so we are trying to improve that, she said. Restarting native plants into the sagebrush ecosystem has met with 10 percent success. I would be thrilled if we could get to 30 to 40 percent.

BLM used Wyoming big sagebrush and crested wheat seeds, but the coated seeds researchers are testing for better growth success are not available in volume. Commercial growers will be needed once research finds the best coating for seeds.

Were just coating in the labs, Stringham said.

Zawadzki said Lithium Nevada used enhanced seeds at its drilling pads that needed to be reclaimed, and there are very happy plants on our site.

This illustration provided by the Great Basin Sagebrush Restoration Fund shows the test flaming technology used on seeds.

Stringham said coated and uncoated seeds were used on the drill pads, and hands down the coated seeds did much better.

The BLM provided a $125,000 grant this year, and Stringham has applied for an additional $200,000 grant from the agency. Grants dont go into the restoration fund but rather are received at UNR through the Office of Sponsored Projects and administered as federal grants for research.

We have to keep the grants separate, but we use them on the same projects she said.

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Donations average $105,000 a year.

Grants are generally limited to two to four years, but the restoration fund allows researchers to have more time for their work. The fund balance was $125,000 as of Oct. 1.

Sagebrush seed collection, coating and seeding plot instrumentation is just starting for this year, Stringham said.

Along with the BLM and Lithium Nevada, companies donating to the fund include Barrick Gold Corp., Newmont Goldcorp Corp., Hecla Mining Co. and Kinross Gold Corp., but the fund is looking for more contributors, according to the co-founders.

Stringham said the fund is growing in interest and donations.

Stringham and Zawadzki visit mining companies, power companies and the livestock industry in hopes of bringing everyone using rangelands to the table.

The big picture is this. If we continue to lose sagebrush habitat to fire and development, the greater sage grouse will be listed, and their ability to mine or whatever activity will be lost. This is really critical, Stringham said.

A federal judge in Boise in October temporarily blocked the Trump administration from easing rules on mining, drilling and grazing in seven Western states, saying such activities left unchecked were likely to harm the greater sage grouse, according to The Associated Press.

The restraining order means the administration must fall back to the earlier, more stringent rules used under the Obama administration.

Once the restoration fund was organized, Stringham reached out to two experts to be part of her team to develop seed enhancement technologies. They are Matthew Madsen of the Department of Plant and Wildlife Sciences at Brigham Young University and Todd Erickson of the University of Western Australia. They all work with graduate students.

Stringham said Madsen already has obtained patents on seed-coating technologies for BYU.

Erickson is researching restoration of native species in Australia and faces many of the same problems we have here with restoration of native species. However, they have a different suite of native plants, Stringham said.

There is significant mining in Australia, like Nevada. The Australian government requires mines to complete vegetation inventory prior to mining, and once mining is complete, they must restore the native vegetation that was present prior to mining, she said.

This is a tremendous amount of effort, and mines have invested in the University of Australia to answer questions on seed collection and storage, seed coating technologies to enhance germination and establishment and seedbed preparation methodologies, Stringham said.

Research will be open source, so all companies, agencies and ranchers, as well as other countries, will have access once the results are ready for publication.

Our results were really good last year. We had good moisture. We want to test in dry years, Stringham said.

She said with seed coating, the success she is really excited about a 142 percent increase in germination and establishment.

Testing includes adding chemicals to seeds to delay germination to prevent death from winter freezing, coating seeds with chemicals to keep pathogens in the soil from eating the seeds, and coating seeds with activated carbon, which allows herbicides to be applied the same year as sagebrush seeding.

We dont have bad chemicals on the seeds, she said.

They try combinations, as well as seeding methods, including furrowing.

We are seeing good success with carbon coating and furrows combined, Stringham said.

Researchers also are looking at bundling seedlings for easier broadcast from a plane or by drilling to give sagebrush a better chance of breaking through to the surface, and they are seeing success.

Flash flaming of seeds is also being tested. A joint BYU and University of Australia presentation on research in the Great Basin states that flash flaming burns off fluffy appendages that appear on many wild seeds. The report states flash flaming can reduce seed volume by 44 percent and permit seeds to be treated with a polymer seed coating.

Bluebunch wheatgrass seeds are tested, too.

The research team has one test plot in Oregon, four in Nevada and three in Utah.

Madsen wrote in an update on the use of seed enhancement technologies that sagebrush agglomeration can improve the ballistics and flow properties of sagebrush seed, which allows the seed to be spread further and more consistently.

He stated that the improved efficiency can lower overall seed costs by roughly $11 to $16 per 2.47 acres.

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Fund targets restoration of sagebrush habitat - Elko Daily Free Press

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The Prisma Health Swamp Rabbit Trail in Travelers Rest has a new distinction.

Travelers Rest leaders and others have long credited theSwamp Rabbit Trail for transforming the town from a place where people passed through to one where many desiretostop to eat, shop, workand live.

The city's portion of the 22-mile county-wide multi-use trail now has the only Greenville County designated historic site adjacent to it,according to Kyle Campbell, owner of Preservation South, LLC,an Upstate-based consultant firm that has aided in the restoration of historic homes and buildings throughout South Carolina and Georgia.

The former Spring Park Inn, which was placed on the Greenville County Historic Register last month, also isthe only historic house withinthe Travelers Rest city limits, according to Mayor Brandy Amidon.

The former inn is now known as the Anderson House. It's in the heart of downtown Travelers RestonOld Buncombe Road. It'sowned by Nell Anderson Gibson whose grandfather and father were born there.

The Anderson House, formerly the Spring Park Inn, in Travelers Rest(Photo: Angelia Davis/STAFF)

Anderson Gibson moved there with her parents and brother in the days when the Swamp Rabbit Trail was the railroad trackon which she walked to Travelers Rest High School.

Anderson Gibsonrecalls having lots of friends who enjoyed visiting her homebut said she never thought it would beof interest to anyone else because of its age.

As she got older, Anderson Gibson said her parents expressed their desire to havethe home on the National Register. They worked hard to make it happen but were unsuccessful.

She remembers telling them that "if it were possible, after they were gone, Iwould do my best to see if it could materialize."

Growing population: Travelers Rest population on pace to grow another 14% with new housing units

"Theyhad a lot of information about it but, of course, theinformation they had couldnt be verified because there was no such things as computers, the kinds of things you use today to prove that you knew what you were talking about," Anderson said.

"Fortunately, as the years went by,the historical society was interested," Anderson said. "They were able to prove the information that we had gathered through the years."

Travelers Rest acquired its name, in part, because of the Spring Park Inn. Trains and stage coaches would stop there on their way to and from the mountains and the coast.

Amidondescribed the former inn as "a place withhuge historic significanceof people comingto our city to rest, relax and be a part of a community."

"The main significance is that we are able to preserve, forever, a home that is the cornerstone of our entire city," Amidon said in an email.

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The Anderson Housewas added to the National Register of Historic Places in 2018.

Originally built as a private residence in the early 1800s, the former inn is atwo-story five-bay frame building, with an exposed end chimney and a full width front porch, according to adescription and narrative posted on the S.C. Historic Properties Record web page.

The house was a "place of respite" from 1852 to 1941," according to a Greenville County resolution.

It began as an outpost for the development of Travelers Rest and served as "the primary hub for the community in the early 20th century," the resolution said.

Historian Judith Bainbridge said, in an archived Greenville News column, that theSwamp Rabbit Railroad, officially the Carolina, Knoxville and Western, made the Anderson House,"a setting for popular outings and political meetings."

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The road where the Spring Park Inn was located, was so named because it was the road to Buncombe County, North Carolina and was part of the extended transportation network that connected Lowcountry planters with the resort communities in the western Carolinas, the web page said.

The Anderson House, formerly the Spring Park Inn, is now on the national and Greenville County historic registers(Photo: Angelia Davis/STAFF)

Later, rail service brought visitors to the Spring Park Inn.

Then owner Robert Anderson conveyed one and a half acres of land in front of his home for the construction of a railroad platform for loading and unloading passengers and freight in 1889. This meant that rail passengers arriving in Travelers Rest were literally delivered to Andersons door, the web page said.

The former innremains on its original site facing east toward Paris Mountain, the web page said.

Nowhere to go: An AnMed patient couldn't walk and had nowhere to go. The hospital called her an Uber.

The Swamp Rabbit Trail in front of the house traces the route of the former rail line and beyond it is the original route of Buncombe Road, now Main Street, the web page said.

Near its front doors of the house hang two plaques noting its placement on historic registers for visitors, and for Anderson Gibson, the desire of her parents fulfilled.

"I was very pleased when it actually happened," she said.

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Read or Share this story: https://www.greenvilleonline.com/story/news/local/2019/12/04/historic-house-swamp-rabbit-trail-tr-added-registry/4295912002/

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Historic house on Swamp Rabbit Trail in Travelers Rest added to registry - Greenville News

Staff reports Published 2:48 p.m. CT Dec. 2, 2019

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Step inside beautiful homes filled with the warmth of the holidays and the grace of the bygone eras at the Highland Holiday Home Tour on Saturday, Dec. 7, from 5 to 9 p.m.

A holiday trolleywill transport attendees to the homes in the Highland and Fairfield Historic Districts.

The evening tour will make a stop at a neighborhood landmark where Katharine Hepburn once performed, the studio of a neighborhood artist and a host of bungalows and cottages each decorated for the holiday season.

The former house of former Shreveport Mayor Hazel Beard has been a stop on the Highland Christmas Home Tour in the past.(Photo: Henrietta Wildsmith/The Times)

The decorated trolley will depart from the Womans Department Club, 802 Margaret Place, which will feature a 6 tree with one-of-a-kind ornaments and trinkets. Raffle tickets for the tree are $5 or five for $20. Proceeds from the raffle will fund the upkeep of flowerbeds Highland Restoration Association maintains at Columbia Park. In addition, attendees have the opportunity to win a smart thermostat compliments of SWEPCO.

Other tour stops include:

Advance tickets are $15 and available at C&C Mercantile & Lighting, 2430 Line Ave., Enchanted Garden, 2429 Line Ave., and restorehighland.org. Tickets also will be available at the Womans Department Club throughout the tour for $20.

For more information, contact Highland Restoration Association President Michele Marcotte at (318) 639-0103.

More: Give the gift of art in the 2019 Holiday Art Drive, benefiting the Renzi Education and Art Center

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Go inside historic Highland homes on holiday tour - Shreveport Times

If you strike out on the North Country Trail northwest of Marquette in the Michigamme Highlands, your path winds through dense forests and past million-year-old rock formations in Wilderness Lakes Reserve.

Your boots will crunch down a section of the trail that passes through a 6,000-acre Nature Conservancy reserveone of the most beautiful and rugged in the state, home to 26 lakes and 1,000 acres of wetlands. Itd be tempting to want to protect it, fence it off, never change a leaf.

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The Wilderness Lakes property was privately owned prior to our acquisition, explains Kari Marciniak, director of strategic communication for The Nature Conservancy in Michigan. The opportunity for us to put it into protection was appealing, because theres such an unknown with the timber industry up there.

Since The Nature Conservancy acquired the site in 2017, it has been steadily working to restore the forest by several methods, including one which may surprise: selective harvesting of timber.

Why save it from the timber industry just to head in and do more cutting? To restore diversity and balanceboth in age and speciesto the forest, Marciniak explains. The sugar maple was so highly prized, for example, that it was cultivated and allowed to flourish, but it means many forests have developed a monoculture. The harvesting opens the forest canopy, allowing other species to thrive. People dont want to think about cutting trees, she says, but you walk through after a selective harvest and its hard to tell someones been there.

The Nature Conservancys mission encompasses four distinct areas: protecting land and water; tackling climate change; providing food and water in sustainable ways (such as restoring fisheries and protecting soil); and building healthy cities to provide habitats for wildlife and health for humans.

Wilderness Lakes fulfills many of those missions, beyond just land protection. Forests are the lungs of our natural systems, and we want them to be diverse, healthy and resilient to climate change, Marciniak says. There are big challenges ahead of us. Fortunately weve laid out a road map and we do think a better future is possible.

Learn more at nature.org.

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Rugged Restoration: The Nature Conservancy in Michigan - MyNorth.com