NASA celebrates Hubble’s 36th anniversary with a new image of the Trifid Nebula, a star-forming region it first captured in 1997. The telescope leveraged almost its full operational lifetime to show us changes in the nebula on human time scales with an improved camera. NASA, ESA, STScI; Image Processing: Joseph DePasquale (STScI)
During the week of the 20th to 24th April, 2026, BBC Radio 4, immediately after the World At One, at 13:45-14-00 BST, presented a fifteen-minute series on death. The episode of the April 22nd, 2026 was called Lay This Body Down. It is summarised as follows:
As our society becomes more secular, more people feel like they want to do death their own way. That’s leading to a range of new options for disposing of dead bodies.
Now watch this:
Jean and I have opted for human composting after we have died. It is a natural process and details may be found here.
George Bernard Shaw once remarked that America and Britain are “two countries separated by the same language.”
A long time ago that became a quotable quote. Shaw was born in Dublin in 1856 and died in England in 1950. He was 94.
Although I have visited the USA many times before, I came to live here in Merlin, Oregon, with Jeannie, my gorgeous wife, in 2012. And we love living here.
However, I still think like an Englishman and spell my words in English English.
Read the following. I am sure you will enjoy it.
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Despite all the likes, literallys and dropped g’s, English isn’t decaying before our eyes
While these common gripes point to eccentric speech patterns, they don’t point to grammatical annihilation. English has weathered far worse.
Let’s start with something we can all agree on: Old English, spoken from approximately A.D. 450 to 1100, is pretty unintelligible to us today. Anyone who’s had the pleasure of reading “Beowulf” in high school knows how different English back then used to sound. Word endings did a lot more grammatical work, and verbs followed more complicated patterns. Remnants of those rules fuel lingering debates today, such as when to use “whom” over “who,” and whether the past tense of “sneak” is “snuck” or “sneaked.”
The language went on to experience centuries of tumult: Viking invasions, which introduced Old Norse influence; Anglo-Norman French rule, which shifted the language of the elite to French; and 18th-Century grammarians, who dictated norms with their elocution and grammar guides.
In that time, English has lost almost all of the more complex linguistic trappings it was born with to become the language we know and – at least, sometimes – love today. And as I explain in my new book, “Why We Talk Funny: The Real Story Behind Our Accents,” it was all thanks to the way that language naturally evolves to meet the social needs of its speakers.
From dropping the ‘l’ to dropping the ‘g’
The things we tend to label as “bad” or sloppy English – for instance, the “g” that gets lost from our -ing endings or the deletion of a “t” when we say a word like “innernet” – actually reflect speech habits that are centuries old.
Take, for example, “often.” Originally spoken with the “t,” that pronunciation gradually became less favored around the 15th century, alongside that “l” in “talk” and the “k” in know. Meanwhile, the “s” now stuck on the back of verbs like “does” and “makes” began as a dialectal variant that only became popular in 16th-century London. It gradually replaced “th” whenever third persons were involved, as in “The lady doth protest too much.”
While dropping the “l” in talk may have been initially frowned upon, today it would be strange if you pronounced the letter. And the shift makes sense: It smoothed out some linguistic awkwardness for the sake of efficiency.
If people learned to look at language more like linguists, they might come around to seeing that there is more than one perspective on what good speech consists of.
And yes, that absolutely is a sentence ending with a preposition – something many modern grammar guides discourage, even though the idea only took hold after 18th-century grammarian Robert Lowth intimated it was a less elegant choice based on the model of Latin.
Though Lowth voiced no hard and fast rule against it, many a grammar maven later misconstrued his advice as an admonition. Just like that, a mere suggestion became grammatical law.
The rise of the grammar sticklers
Many of today’s ideas about what constitutes correct English are based on a singular – often mistaken – 19th-century view of the forces that govern our language.
Emulation of upper-crust speech norms became popular among the nouveau riche. With literacy also on the rise, grammarians and elocutionists raced to dictate the terms of “proper” English on and off the page, which led to the rise of usage guides and dictionaries that were eager to sell a certain brand of speech.
Another example of grammarian angst reconfiguring the view of an otherwise perfectly fine form is the droppin’ of the “g.” It became so tied to slovenly speech that it was branded with an apostrophe in the 19th century to make sure no one missed its lackadaisical and nonstandard nature.
Up until the 19th century, however, no one seemed to care whether one pronounced it as “-in” or “-ing.”
In fact, evidence suggests that -ing wasn’t even heard as the correct form. Many elocution guides from the 18th century provide rhyming word pairs like “herring/heron,” “coughing/coffin” and “jerking/jerkin,” which suggest that “-in” may have been the preferred pronunciation of words ending with “-ing.” Even writer and satirist Jonathan Swift – a frequent lobbyist for “proper” English – rhymes “brewing” with “ruin” in his 1731 poem “Verses on the Death of Dr. Swift, D.S.P.D..”
Embrace the change
Language has always shifted and evolved. People often bristle at changes from what they’ve known to what is new. And maybe that’s because this process often begins with speakers that society usually looks less favorably on: the young, the female, the poor, the nonwhite.
But it’s important to remember that being disliked and bad are not the same thing – that today’s speech pariahs are driven by the same linguistic and social needs as the Londoners who started going with “does” instead of “doth” or dropped the “t” in often.
So if you think the speech that comes from your lips is the “correct” version, think again. Thou, like every other English speaker, art literally the product of centuries of linguistic reinvention.
Jean and I were taken to our regular humanist meeting last Saturday morning. The topic was Christian Nationalism.
Today, I want to explain what these commitments are. Then on Sunday I will post some images.
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Ten Commitments
Guiding Principles for Teaching Values in America’s Public Schools
Altruism
Altruism is the unselfish concern for the welfare of others without expectation of reward, recognition, or return. Opportunities for acts of altruism are everywhere in the family, the classroom, the school, and the wider community. Think of examples of altruistic acts in your experience. What person-to-person and group projects, classroom and school-wide activities, and community service projects might you and your students undertake?
Caring for the World Around Us
Everyone can and ought to play a role in caring for the Earth and its inhabitants. We can directly experience the living things in our homes and neighborhoods like trees, flowers, birds, insects, and pets. Gradually we expand our neighborhood. We learn about deserts and oceans, rivers and forests, the wildlife around us and the wildlife elsewhere. We learn that we are dependent on each other, on the natural world, and all that lives in it for food and shelter, space and beauty.
Critical Thinking
We gain reliable knowledge because we are able to observe, report, experiment, and analyze what goes on around us. We also learn to raise questions that are clear and precise, to gather information, and to reason about the information we receive in a way that tests it for truthfulness, accuracy, and utility. From our earliest years we learn how to think and to share and challenge our ideas and the ideas of others, and consider their consequences. Practice asking “what next?” and “why?” and “how do I/you/we know that?”
Empathy
We human beings are capable of empathy, the ability to understand and enter imaginatively into another living being’s feelings, the sad ones and the happy ones as well. Many of the personal relationships we have (in the family, among friends, between diverse individuals, and amid other living things) are made positive through empathy. With discussion and role-playing, we can learn how other people feel when they are sad or hurt or ignored, as well as when they experience great joys. We can use stories, anecdotes, and classroom events to help us nurture sensitivity to how our actions impact others.
Ethical Development
Questions of fairness, cooperation, and sharing are among the first moral issues we encounter in our ethical development as human beings. Ethical education is ongoing implicitly and explicitly in what is called the “hidden curriculum” that we experience through the media, the family, and the community. Ethics can be taught through discussion, role-playing, storytelling, and other activities that improve analysis and decision-making regarding what’s good and bad, right and wrong.
Global Awareness
We live in a world that is rich in cultural, social, and individual diversity, a world where interdependence is increasing rapidly so that events anywhere are more likely to have consequences everywhere. Much can be done to prepare the next generation for accepting the responsibility of global citizenship. Understanding can be gained regarding the many communities in which we live through history, anthropology, and biology. A linguistic, ethnic, and cultural diversity are present in the classroom and provide lessons of diversity and commonality. We help others reach understanding about the interconnectedness of the welfare of all humanity.
Humility
We must always remember that there’s a lot we don’t know about the universe. There’s still so very much to learn. Science will help us. But sometimes scientists discover surprising things that tell us how some of our old beliefs are false. So we need to be willing to change when our knowledge changes. A good humanist doesn’t try to be sure of things that science can’t show are true.
Peace and Social Justice
A curriculum that values and fosters peace education would promote the human rights of all people and understanding among all nations, cultural and religious groups. Students should have opportunities to learn about the United Nations’ role in preventing conflict as well as efforts to achieve social justice in the United States. They should learn about problems of injustice including what can be done to prevent and respond to these problems with meaningful actions that promote peace and social justice and that protect the inherent human rights of everyone both at home and abroad.
Responsibility
Our behavior is morally responsible when we tell the truth, help someone in trouble, and live up to promises we’ve made. Our behavior is legally responsible when we obey a just law and meet the requirements of membership or citizenship. But we also have a larger responsibility to be a caring member of our family, our community, and our world. Stories and role-playing can help students understand responsibility and its absence or failure. We learn from answering such questions as: What happens when we live in accordance with fair and just rules? What happens when we don’t? What happens when the rules are unjust?
Service and Participation
Life’s fulfillment can emerge from an individual’s participation in the service of humane ideals. School-based service-learning combines community service objectives and learning objectives with the intent that the activities change both the recipient and the provider. It provides students with the ability to identify important issues in real-life situations. Through these efforts we learn that each of us can help meet the needs of others and of ourselves. Through our lifetime, we learn over and over again of our mutual dependence.
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My mother was an atheist and, consequently, I have been an atheist all my life. With the above values, as they are taught in schools, there is no need for a God.
A pet‑friendly homeless shelter pilot reduced the rate of homelessness among the people it helped in California.
This was an article published on the 16th March by The Conversation. It shows how the homeless shelters benefit from being pet-friendly. It’s sort of obvious but then again not common-sense.
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A pet‑friendly homeless shelter pilot reduced the rate of homelessness among the people it helped in California
A homeless woman in Los Angeles holds her dog after a free veterinary visit in 2024. Mario Tama/Getty Images
California’s Department of Housing and Community Development established this pilot program in 2019. Its goals were straightforward: to make homeless shelters more accommodating to people with pets – mostly dogs – so that people living on the streets don’t have to choose between staying in shelters or abandoning their pets.
The program disbursed US$15.75 million between 2020 and 2024 to 37 organizations across the state. The funding allowed shelters to build kennels or other pet-friendly spaces, provide pet food and supplies, and offer basic veterinary care. It also covered the costs of staffing and maintaining insurance required to operate pet-friendly shelters.
We found that the program helped 4,407 people experiencing homelessness keep their pets while getting support. Many were able to enter shelters, and their animals received needed veterinary care. A total of 886 people ultimately moved into permanent housing with their pets – a higher success rate than the statewide average for homeless people in California.
Theoretically, this funding should have reduced the number of pet owners living on the streets. Yet since 2019, the year the program began, the number of homeless people in Los Angeles with dogs and other pets has increased.
Since 2017, I’ve led the USC research team that produces the annual homeless count estimates for Los Angeles. The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development requires this exercise for any city seeking federal funding for homelessness services.
Before the pandemic, we generally found that roughly 1 in 8 people did. We also found that nearly half of homeless pet owners had been turned away from a homeless shelter because it couldn’t accommodate their animal.
Despite programs like California’s Pet Assistance and Support program, my research team has found that the share of people living on the streets of Los Angeles who say they have a pet increased to roughly 1 in 5 by 2025.
Share of homeless people in LA with pets is rising
The percentage of homeless people in Los Angeles with pets rose from 12% in 2017 to 20% in 2024 and 2025, according to an annual census.
Bar chart showing that the percentage of homeless people in Los Angeles with pets has grown since 2017.
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Need for more pet-friendly programs
We still don’t know why the share of homeless people with pets has gotten so much larger.
The Weingart Tower, where some of Los Angeles’ formerly homeless people reside and receive social services, has a small dog park. Grace Hie Yoon/Anadolu via Getty Images
The number of homeless people in Los Angeles has fallen by more than 4% since 2023 to just over 72,000 people in 2025. But based on my research findings, I would expect the number of people living on the city’s streets – with and without pets – to rise over time unless more affordable housing becomes available.
And growth in the homeless population may be hard to avoid without more efforts like California’s Pet Assistance and Support Program – on a larger scale than the pilot we studied.
This past Christmas, I helped my parents choose a water filter. The latest “smart” models all came with a smartphone app that promised to monitor filter life, track water quality and automatically request service. Yet my father, age 75, and mother, 67, were quick to reject them in favor of a nondigital model.
“Every time it updates or I forget how to use it, we’ll have to call you,” my dad said.
As an only child living 8,000 miles (12,875 kilometers) away, I didn’t need convincing. My parents are aging in place and don’t need traditional caregiving – they cook, drive and manage their home just fine. Instead, I provide what I call technology caregiving: helping them with their digital activities of daily living, from online banking to booking theater tickets.
But as the tech industry shifts toward artificial intelligence agents and generative user interfaces – promising to make devices smarter than ever – I am bracing for this invisible workload to become heavier, not lighter. In addition to being a technology caregiver, I’m a computer scientist who studies human-computer interaction.
Technology caregiving
Technology caregiving is the act of helping someone use digital tools. While this isn’t entirely new – people have long helped grandparents program VCRs and connect parents’ desktop computers to the internet – the stakes have changed.
Today, digitization is ubiquitous. Helping with these tools is no longer just occasional unpaid tech support – it is a form of continuous caregiving essential for maintaining independence. For example, even the simple act of clipping coupons has gone digital – marginalizing older adults who are unable to navigate store apps to access these discounts.
People often view older adults as resistant to technology, but recent years – particularly since the COVID-19 pandemic – have shattered that myth. While gaps in internet access and device ownership remain, they are no longer major barriers to technology access.
Today’s seniors are not tech-averse, but constant updates and interface changes make using technology more difficult for them. Jose Luis Raota/Moment via Getty Images
The emerging crisis is not about access, but effective use. Many older adults are now online and willing to use these tools, but they require frequent help from family, friends or communities.
The innovation tax
The problem isn’t just that devices and apps are getting complex; it’s that they are constantly changing. Frequent software updates and shifting interfaces can be frustrating for all users, but they turn familiar tools into foreign concepts for older adults.
This unpredictability is about to accelerate. Take generative user interfaces, which designers can use to dynamically generate an interface in minutes. Pair them with AI agents, and the system can assume the designer’s role, taking independent actions based on how it perceives a user’s intent or need.
If the “Pay Bill” button is in a different place every third time you open a particular app because an AI decided to optimize the interface, you might feel perpetually incompetent if you can’t quickly locate it. While the industry calls this personalization, for an older adult it is a moving target.
This relentless pace of change – even when intended to be helpful – is directly at odds with age-related cognitive changes. And this dynamic is continuing with the new generation of seniors. They may be more eager to adopt new tools than the last, but wanting to use technology is not the same as being able to use it when the rules are constantly changing.
To navigate a brand new or shifting interface, your brain relies on fluid intelligence: the ability to reason, solve novel problems and ignore distractions on the fly. Unlike the knowledge that people accumulate over time, fluid intelligence naturally declines with age.
When an app updates or an AI optimizes a layout, it forces the user to discard their hard-won mental models and start over. For an older adult, this isn’t just a minor inconvenience; it is a taxing job for their working memory.
As an older adult participant in a study my colleagues and I conducted put it:
“I had a computer on my desk in 1980, OK, when nobody else did. So this is not a foreign language, but the changes that are made with little to no explanation and then things that you knew how to do have either changed or disappeared completely, that is the stuff that absolutely drives me, and I will tell you, every other older adult in America nuts.”
Help the helper
I believe that the way forward is to stop treating tech support as an afterthought and start designing for the technology caregiver. Digital literacy training for seniors and encouraging designing technologies for all users are important but not enough; it’s important to build tools that share the burden.
For many years I lived in South Devon, England. I never thought twice about hedgerows because they were so common.
Then today I read an article in The Economist about Brexit and the one thing that was favourable was this “Brexit delivers a win for British wildlife.“
Here’s a small extract from the magazine:
No other country matches the rich heritage of hedgerows that weave across the damp (ideal for hedges) British Isles. Since the Bronze Age, Britons have reared sheep and cattle and have used hedges to mark the boundaries of fields and keep livestock in place. Some of these ancient bushes still stand. In West Penwith, one such prehistoric hedge, a gurgoe, might be over 4,000 years old. Most, though, were planted in the 18th century, when landowners enclosed the commons, an event that turned the country into a chequerboard of small, irregular fields. America, by contrast, passed a law prohibiting private landowners from enclosing public land in 1885, protecting its open ranges.
Here in Oregon hedges are not so common. But I did some research as to the cause and came upon this article by Oregon State University.
I trust it may be shared with you.
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A Guide to Hedgerows: Plantings That Enhance Biodiversity, Sustainability and Functionality
We see them at the edges of farm fields or along roads: long rows of trees, shrubs, flowers and grasses known as hedgerows. They are living fences with the ability to grow food, shelter wildlife, save water, manage weeds and look beautiful all year round.
Hedgerows are sometimes called shelter belts, windbreaks or conservation buffers. These layers of plant life enhance the beauty, productivity and biodiversity of a landscape.
Hedgerows originated in medieval Europe and are enjoying a modern resurgence. People in England planted hawthorn cuttings and allowed them to grow about 6 feet. They were bent and trained to fill gaps in the trees, yielding a living fence. They called these fences “hagas” or hedges, form the word “hawthorn.” As the birds settled in the hawthorns and dropped seeds. more plants sprung up. Today, many farms in England are surrounded by ancient hedgerows that shelter beneficial organisms and conserve soil and water.
Hedgerow plantings were uncommon in the early United States. In the 1930s, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Shelterbelt Program briefly supported planting trees for windbreaks to prevent soil erosion in the Midwest. Today, as interest surges in sustainable farming methods, more people are turning to this age-old practice.
Hedgerows can serve several ecological functions. Among their many benefits, hedgerows:
Enhance ecological biodiversity.
Offer food for livestock, humans and wildlife.
Provide habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators.
Facilitate water conservation.
Provide windbreaks.
Help manage invasive weeds.
Provide erosion control and improve soil health.
Support the health of aquatic habitats.
Enhance carbon sequestration.
Create borders and privacy screens.
Reduce noise, dust, chemical drift and other types of pollution.
Diversify farm income.
Generate year-round beauty.
Let’s look at these benefits in detail.
Benefits of hedgerows
Enhance ecological biodiversity
Biodiversity describes the variety of life forms within a specific ecosystem and the relationship of these organisms to one another and the broader environment. Hedgerows can be designed to attract a wide variety of mammals, birds, reptiles, amphibians, insects and plants, many of which offer beneficial relationships to each other. They also create more edges, or “ecotones,” between different habitats, which increases species diversity. Trees and shrubs provide shelter for larger mammals, and nesting sites and perches for raptors, which are important predators of rodents. Dense or thorny shrub thickets can offer songbirds a refuge to escape predators as well as a place to nest. The diverse composition and structure of a hedgerow creates a functional habitat where species experience vital interconnections with one another and the environment.
Offer food for livestock, humans and wildlife
Hedgerows provide undisturbed refuge for species of all kinds, creating wildlife corridors, travel lanes or habitat islands. Hedgerows help protect wildlife from predators and provide sheltered access to riparian zones or other water sources. These corridors are especially important in fragmented landscapes, such as fields where only a single crop is grown. Hedgerows provide shade to reduce heat stress and help to block wind currents. These measures support a healthier wildlife population. Berry-producing plants encourage insectivores, such as birds, that also prey upon common crop pests. The hedgerow habitat creates cover for wildlife so they can feed, nest and care for their young.
Provide habitat for beneficial insects and pollinators
Planting a variety of flowering trees, shrubs, forbs and perennial plants provides insect habitat, and nectar and pollen sources throughout the year for beneficial insects and pollinators. Plants in the family Umbelliferae attract parasitic wasps; predator flies such as hover flies, lacewings and ladybeetles; and true bugs, like ambush or minute pirate bugs. Flowering plants in this family include coriander, dill, fennel, parsnip, parsley and carrots. These plants are useful in the kitchen and are also very attractive to pollinators. Over 75% of successful production of food requires pollination. Increasing plant habitat for pollinator species improves fruit set, size and quality, as well as general biodiversity. Pollinator habitat also attracts beneficial insects, which prey on many crop pests. Increasing the numbers of beneficial insects can help farmers manage crop pests and cut down on insecticide use.
Facilitate water conservation
Hedgerows retain water and reduce evaporation by reducing wind speed and providing cover over the ground surface. Plants also catch and store water in their root systems, leaves and branches, slowing the rate of excess rainwater entering waterways and reducing the risk of flooding. Decaying matter from the roots, stems and branches of hedgerow plants increase the organic matter in the soil over time. This increases the soil’s ability to absorb and retain water. Planting hedgerows on hillsides helps conserve water and soil by reducing erosion. If planting near adjacent cropland, periodic root pruning can reduce competition for nutrients and water.
Provide windbreaks
Properly designed hedgerows can reduce wind speed by as much as 75% and improve crop performance. This is especially effective when plantings reach a density of 40%–50% and are planted perpendicular to the prevailing wind. Wind-resistant trees usually have flexible, wide-spreading, strong branches and low centers of gravity. Wind-tolerant shrubs often have small, thick or waxy leaves or very narrow leaves or needles, to help control moisture loss. Wind can disturb pollination and damage fruit and flowers when plant parts thrash against each other. During times when soil is exposed, a windbreak can protect topsoil from erosion. Crops under wind stress also put energy into growing stronger roots and stems, resulting in smaller yields and delayed maturity. Strong winds also cause lodging of grain and grass crops, bending the stems and making harvest more difficult. Winds dry out crops on the field edges, increasing pests such as two-spotted spider mites.
Help manage invasive weeds
Hedgerows planted along roads or between crop fields may prevent weed seeds from blowing into the field. The weed seed pods collect on hedgerow plants, where a farmer could remove and burn them. Hedges can prevent millions of weed seeds from entering the crop field. As hedgerows mature, these plantings displace invasive weeds. If well maintained, this weed management lasts the lifetime of the hedgerow.
Provide erosion control and improve soil health
Rain, irrigation, clean cultivation and vacant field borders can all increase erosion potential in an agricultural system.
Hedgerow plantings can significantly reduce the amount of soil erosion on a landscape. They can also provide a barrier to filter out pollutants, such as pesticides, and slow down sediments and organic material that can flow from farm fields into waterways. This is accomplished by increasing the surface water infiltration rate and improving soil structure around the root zone. This, in turn, decreases fertilizer runoff from farm fields. The biomass that plants shed acts as a soil conditioner and can enhance plant growth. In urban or suburban environments, hedges similarly reduce pollutants from neighboring sites.
Support aquatic habitat
Hedgerows can provide shade to riparian areas. Shade reduces water temperatures, prevents water evaporation and improves watershed quality. Though many factors influence watershed temperatures, studies have proven that lowland streams bordered by trees and tall shrubs exhibit cooler temperatures. The hedgerow’s latitude, stream aspect, leaf density and the height of its vegetation from the water surface all affect water temperature.
Enhance carbon sequestration
During photosynthesis, trees, shrubs and grasses absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, allowing the carbon to become part of the plant’s tissue. As plants die or shed tissue — either through natural processes or pruning — the carbon that was stored in the plant breaks down and enters the soil. Plants store relatively large amounts of carbon in their biomass, helping to offset some of the effects of climate change. A tree can absorb as much as 48 pounds of carbon dioxide per year and can sequester, or store, 1 ton of carbon dioxide by the time it reaches 40 years old.
Create borders and privacy screens along roads and between properties
Hedgerows are attractive borders and can block undesirable views. Evergreens offer year-round screening. When selecting plants, consider the height at maturity for optimum screening. Evergreens can be pruned to control height and density. Plant a diverse mix of species to help protect against damage from a single pest or disease.
Reduce noise, dust, chemical drift and other types of pollution
As hedgerows mature and become dense, they can create barriers to reduce noise, dust, chemical drift and other pollutants. Open canopy trees are effective barriers to dust and pesticides; air and particles slowly filter through them instead of depositing clouds of pollutants on the other side of the hedge.
Plant hedges as close as possible to any areas where pollutants are a concern. This can help alleviate neighborhood conflicts where agriculture intersects with urban areas.
Hedgerows can act to contain contaminants from urban or suburban environments and keep them from entering agricultural areas.
Diversify farm income
Trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants in a hedgerow can also serve as sources of income. Potential products include nuts, fruits, berries, leaves, flowers, seeds, bark and medicinal herbs. You can grow plants to be propagated as seeds, rootstock, cuttings and transplants. Other potential crops are nursery stock and floral materials, including ferns, broadleaf evergreens, flowers and willows grown for craft material and furniture. You can grow fruits, berries and nuts for food. Hedgerows can shelter bees and encourage a higher pollination rate. Consider planting trees for secondary wood products such as lumber, veneer, firewood, chips for bedding and mulch. Game birds such as quail, pheasant and sage grouse are attracted to hedgerows. Managed hunting can provide a potential source of food and off-season revenue for landowners.
Generate year-round beauty
Hedgerows in the landscape add continuous beauty. You can design a hedge for year-round interest, considering the color and texture of leaves and bark, bloom color and timing, and the general growth habit or form of plants.
Hedgerow design Graphic: Kerry Wixted with graphics from Tracey Saxby, IAN Image Library, courtesy of the Integration and Application Network, University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science
Whether in rural or urban settings, the principles of planning a hedgerow are the same: Evaluate the site, determine what you would like to accomplish with the plantings, match the right plant with the right place, and properly prepare the site.
Design
There are many essential components to consider when designing a multifunctional hedgerow. The first step is to observe the site where the hedge is to be planted and take into consideration the ecological and environmental conditions listed below. These elements influence the design, plant selection, location and the size of the area to be planted. Although a single line of trees will provide some benefits, four or more rows of plants are optimal for windbreaks, water and soil conservation, wildlife habitat and general biodiversity. When it works for the situation, place plants tallest at maturity in the center row, with shorter ones inter-planted between and along the edges. A diverse selection of plant sizes and characteristics is most beneficial. When possible, orient rows perpendicular to prevailing winds.
Hedgerows following land contours create meandering lines on the landscape, producing a natural appearance and larger buffer for wildlife habitat. If the goal is to attract pollinator species, reserve approximately one half-acre for every 40 acres planted in crops.
Plant selection
Plant a wide variety of multi-tiered plants for maximum habitat. Avoid varieties that are susceptible to common pests and diseases and choose plants that are non-invasive. Some perennial species such as blackberry can provide excellent wildlife habitat and food crops but are highly invasive and require frequent maintenance. See the plant lists on page 7 for plantings suited to the Pacific Northwest.
When selecting plants, consider the conditions plants need to survive in specific habitats:
Range: place of origin (indigenous, native/non-native).
Hardiness zones: frost dates.
Light requirements: sun or shade.
Size of plants at maturity, growth.
Soil type (pH, fertility, erosion concerns).
Drainage.
Water movement and moisture needs.
Planting time.
Bloom time: seasonal interest.
Day length.
Productivity.
Tolerance to heat, cold, salt, drought, pollution, wind and wild or domestic animals.
Evergreen or deciduous.
Plant structure: form or shape, texture, leaf and bark type.
Edible or poisonous: what parts.
Insect and disease resistance.
Plant size, costs and availability.
Maintenance needed.
Allellopathy: a chemical inhibitor of one plant to another which can impact germination or plant growth.
Ultimately, place plants together that have similar soil, water, sun and drainage needs.
General planting recommendations:
Plant trees and shrubs about 6 to 8 feet apart in rows 8 to 10 feet apart.
Plant one or two rows of tall trees flanked by a row or two of shrubs. A 20-foot wide hedgerow can have two rows of shrubs flanking a row of trees.
Hedgerows work best for wildlife when they are wider than 20 feet.
Depending on the site’s prevailing winds, a winter windbreak could have at least two rows of evergreen trees and a row of deciduous trees or shrubs. A summer windbreak could have at least one row of tall deciduous trees and a row of deciduous shrubs.
Make sure the planting holes are deep and wide enough to accept and cover the roots of each plant. Be sure to water in each new planting.
In a small area, place a 3-inch layer of straw mulch or cardboard around each tree and shrub after planting to discourage weeds and encourage plant survival.
Soil preparation
Soil preparation is one of the keys to plant survival. On a smaller site, an easy way to establish planting areas in existing grass or pasture is to apply a thin layer of compost or manure, followed by several layers of cardboard, and mulch such as straw or leaves. Worms are attracted to the manure and will work over the winter to decompose grasses and fertilize the soil. However, this method may not be practical on a large scale. In this instance, prepare the area for planting by tilling the ground in spring and planting an early cover crop such as crimson clover, followed by buckwheat. In late summer, till or disc in the cover crop and replant an overwintering cover crop such as crimson clover, field peas or vetch. Cover crops improve soil fertility, reduce weeds, stabilize the soil and attract beneficial insects. Till again the following spring and install the first set of plantings for the hedgerow.
Another option for sites with high weed pressure is solarization. Closely mow the ground and put down UV-stabilized anti-condensation greenhouse plastic in midsummer for several weeks to kill the weeds. After solarization, remove the plastic and follow with a fall planting.
Planting time
In more temperate environments, fall planting allows roots to become established before foliage emerges and gives plants the benefit of winter rains. In extreme cold climates, early spring may be the ideal time for planting. At the time of planting, apply amendments such as compost or manure as a top dressing.
Irrigation
To increase the success rate of your hedgerow planting, provide supplemental water for the first two or three years. Irrigate once a week during the heat of the summer during the first year. For the second year, water every two weeks. In the third year, irrigate once a month. Irrigation needs depend on the location and the plants selected. Be sure to water deeply to encourage deep root growth. Most hedgerow plantings may not survive if they do not get supplemental water in the first few years. Water can be supplied by swales, furrows, flood, drip irrigation or hand watering. If the hedgerow is next to cropland, overhead irrigation from the crop can be extended to water the hedge.
Keeping out weedy plants and destructive wildlife
One of the biggest challenges in establishing a hedgerow is keeping unwanted plants from taking over the new plantings. There are a variety of techniques to inhibit these weedy plants. The simplest method is to leave alleys between plant rows for mowing, cultivation or mulching until plants are well established. Ideally, an area 6 to 8 feet wide around the hedgerow should be mowed, flailed or tilled for weed management, fire protection and rodent control. It is also important to mulch heavily with a minimum of 3 inches of leaves, straw, sawdust or cardboard around each plant. As plants mature, they will eventually shade out most annual weeds. This is the ideal time to infill with low-growing, shade-tolerant plants.
If needed, protect plants from beaver and nutria with hardware cloth, and use partially buried plastic-coated cardboard or tubing around tree trunks to protect from voles and mice. If applying pesticides, follow the label in order to protect riparian zones along rivers, creeks and ponds from contamination.
Managing a hedgerow in the first few years is similar to managing a crop. Good weed management during establishment results in less labor to control weeds in seasons to come.
Cost of establishment
Planting hedgerows does not have to be expensive. Seedling plants are available at low cost, and you can propagate new plants from existing plantings. The larger the plant, the sooner it will reach maturity, which is especially important in creating a fast-growing privacy screen. This can be achieved by purchasing dormant bareroot plants and 1-gallon potted plants or larger. Remember, these larger plants will most likely require summer irrigation. Government programs are available to assist landowners with hedgerow development. Many counties have tax exemption programs for riparian lands, along with wildlife habitat conservation and management programs. See “Incentive programs to help with hedgerow establishment” and Estimated Costs To Establish Pollinator Hedgerows, in “Resources,” pages 9–10.
Conclusion
A hedgerow is a long-term commitment. With proper planning and care, it will take approximately four to eight years to establish a hedgerow and 30 or more years for it to reach maturity. To encourage success, draft a plan with planting installments for each year, depending on your goals and budget.
Hedgerows in rural agricultural or urban settings provide many benefits that increase over time, including the opportunity for supplemental income. With benefits for wildlife, humans and the planet, hedgerows are a practice that has stood the test of time.
Hedgerow plants
Hedgerows can contain native and non-native plants, although plants should not be invasive. The following trees, shrubs, groundcovers and perennial plants are appropriate for hedgerows in the Pacific Northwest. Remember to consider proper site selection and plant requirements. Plants that tolerate wet soil are indicated by an asterisk (*).
Sun-tolerant plants under 25 feet
Arbutus unedo Strawberry tree
Aronia Chokeberry Schubert
Baccharis pilularis consanguinea Coyote brush
Ceanothus velutinus Tobacco brush
Cornus stolonifera Red twig dogwood
Diospyros kaki Japanese persimmon
Diospyros virginiana American persimmon
Elaeagnus multiflora Goumi
Elaeagnus umbellata Autumn olive
Ficus carica Fig
Fuchsia magellanica Hardy fuschia
Lonicera caerulea Blue honeyberry
Lonicera involucrata Twinberry
Malus fusca West Coast crabapple
Malus sp. Apple
Morus Mulberry
Myrica pensylvanica Bayberry
Oemleria cerasiformis Osoberry
Philadelphus lewisii Mock orange
Prunus avium Cherry
Prunus domestica Plum
Pyrus pyrifolia Asian pear
Ribes sanguineum Red-flowering currant
Ribes divaricatum Black gooseberry*
Ribes nigrum Black currant*
Rosa nutkana Nootka rose
Salix fluviatilis Columbia River willow*
Salix hookeriana Hooker’s willow*
Sambucus cerulea Blue elderberry*
Spiraea douglasii Western spiraea*
Vaccinium corymbosum Blueberry*
Vaccinium ovatum Evergreen huckleberry
Viburnum opulus Highbush cranberry
Sun-tolerant plants 25+ feet tall
Abies grandis Grand fir
Acer macrophyllum Bigleaf maple
Alnus rubra Red alder*
Arbutus menziesii Madrone
Asimina Pawpaw
Calocedrus decurrens Incense-cedar
Castanea Chestnut
Chrysolepis chrysophylla Golden chinkapin
Diospyros virginiana Persimmon
Fraxinus latifolia Oregon ash*
Juglans regia English walnut
Picea species Spruce
Pinus ponderosa Ponderosa pine
Populus trichocarpa Black cottonwood
Prunus subcordata Klamath plum*
Pseudotsuga menziesii Douglas-fir
Quercus garryana Oregon white oak
Robinia pseudoacacia Black locust
Thuja plicata Western redcedar
Groundcovers
Fragaria chiloensis Strawberry
Gaultheria shallon Salal
Mahonia nervosa Oregon grape
Polystichum munitum Sword fern
Vaccinium vitis idaea Lingonberry
Vines
Lonicera Honeysuckle
Akebia Five-fingered akebia*
Plants for pond edges
Typha latifolia Cattail*
Ledum glandulosum Labrador tea
Plants that tolerate shade
Chrysolepis chrysophylla Golden chinkapin
Cornus nuttallii Western flowering dogwood*
Corylus cornuta Hazel*
Physocarpus capitatus Ninebark
Polystichum munitum Sword fern
Sambucus racemosa Red elderberry*
Prunus virginiana Chokecherry
Plants for partial shade to shade
Acer circinatum Vine maple *
Amelanchier alnifolia Serviceberry
Berberis aquifolium Oregon grape
Gaultheria shallon Salal
Cornus stolonifera Red-osier dogwood
Holodiscus discolor Oceanspray
Lonicera involucrata Twinberry
Oemleria cerasiformis Indian plum
Philadelphus lewisii Mock orange
Rhamnus purshiana Cascara sagrada
Taxus brevifolia Western yew*
Vaccinium ovatum Evergreen huckleberry
Edge plantings
Achillea millefolium Yarrow
Arctostaphylos uva-ursi Kinnikinnick
Berberis nervosa Cascade Oregon grape
Calendula officinalis Calendula
Cichorium intybus Chicory
Foeniculum vulgare Fennel
Fragaria chiloensis Wild strawberry
Gaultheria shallon Salal
Lavandula angustifolia English lavender
Medicago sativa Alfalfa
Nuts
Carya illinoinensis Northern pecans
Carya ovata Shagbark hickory
Castanea Chestnuts
Ginkgo biloba Gingko
Juglans ailantifolia Heartnut
Juglans regia English Walnut
Xanthoceras sorbifolium Yellowhorn
Plants for arid environments
Plantings around vineyards
Some flowering plants attract specific kinds of beneficials, for example, carnivorous flies (Oregon sunshine), predatory bugs (stinging nettle) and Anagrus wasps (sagebrush). Research shows trends of reduced pest abundance and increased beneficial insect diversity and abundance in vineyards with a diversity of native flowering plants compared to vineyards lacking native plants.
Incentive programs to help with hedgerow establishment
Conservation Reserve Enhancement Program
In exchange for removing environmentally sensitive land from production and establishing permanent resource-conserving plant species, farmers and ranchers are paid an annual rental rate along with other federal and state incentives. This program is administered through the USDA Farm Service Agency and local Soil and Water Conservation districts.
Environmental Quality Incentives Program
This program provides financial and technical assistance to agricultural producers in order to address natural resource concerns and deliver environmental benefits such as improved water and air quality, conserved ground and surface water, reduced soil erosion and sedimentation or improved or created wildlife habitat. The program is administered through the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service via local field offices.
Guard, J.B. Wetland Plants of Oregon and Washington. 2010. Lone Pine Publishing.
Imhoff, D. and R. Carra. Farming With The Wild: Enhancing Biodiversity on Farms and Ranches. 2011. Sierra Club Books.
Kruckenberg, A. Gardening With Natives of the Pacific Northwest. 1982. University of Washington Press.
Lee-Mäder, E., J. Hopwood, M. Vaughan, S. Hoffman Black and L. Morandin. Farming with Native Beneficial Insects: Ecological Pest Control Solutions. 2014. Storey Publishing.
Link, R. Landscaping for Wildlife in the Pacific Northwest. 1999. University of Washington Press,
Mader, E., M. Shepherd, M. Vaughan, S. Black, G. LeBuhn, Attracting Native Pollinators. 2011. The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation.
Martin, A., H.S. Zim, A.L. Nelson. American Wildlife and Plants: A Guide To Wildlife Food Habits. 1951. Dover Publications.
Pendergrass, K., M. Vaughan and J. Williams. Plants for Pollinators in Oregon.2007. USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service and The Xerces Society for Invertebrate Conservation,
I am republishing a NextDoor News Feed created by Sammie Nolan that I read yesterday. Here is the photo that accompanied the note.
And here is that news item:
Happy Birthday, Oregon! 🥳
Today, February 14, 2026, the Beaver State officially turns 167 years old.
Oregon joined the Union as the 33rd state on Valentine’s Day in 1859, making it the only state to share its birthday with the holiday of love. 🥰
That is Sammie sitting on the bench and the photograph was taken at the Painted Hills. Some more information on Painted Hills courtesy of WikiPedia.
The Painted Hills is a geologic site in Wheeler County, Oregon that is one of the three units of the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument along with Sheep Rock and Clarno. It totals 3,132 acres and is located 9 miles northwest of Mitchell, Oregon. The Painted Hills are listed as one of the Seven Wonders of Oregon. Wikipedia
We have never thought of this before but the question is a valid one.
The article, which was presented by The Conversation, raised the question. As you will see the article starts with the sentence “Americans love dogs.” To my mind, it is many more people than Americans who love dogs. Let’s read the article.
It all seems part of what Mark Cushing, a lawyer and lobbyist for veterinary issues, calls “the pet revolution”: the more and more privileged place that pets occupy in American society. In his 2020 book “Pet Nation,” he argues that the internet has caused people to become more lonely, and this has made them focus more intensely on their pets – filling in for human relationships.
I would argue that something different is happening, however, particularly since the COVID-19 lockdown: Loving dogs has become an expression not of loneliness but of how unhappy many Americans are with society and other people.
And I am no different. I live with three dogs, and my love for them has driven me to research the culture of dog ownership in an effort to understand myself and other humans better. By nature, dogs are masters of social life who can communicate beyond the boundaries of their species. But I believe many Americans are expecting their pets to address problems that they cannot fix.
Rescuing shelter animals grew in popularity, and on social media people celebrated being at home with their pets. Dog content on Instagram and Pinterest now commonly includes hashtags like #DogsAreBetterThanPeople and #IPreferDogsToPeople.
One 2025 study found that dog owners tend to rate their pets more highly than their human loved ones in several areas, such as companionship and support. They also experienced fewer negative interactions with their dogs than with the closest people in their lives, including children, romantic partners and relatives.
Today, millennials make up the largest percentage of pet owners. Some cultural commentators argue dogs are especially important for this generation because other traditional markers of stability and adulthood – a mortgage, a child – feel out of reach or simply undesirable. According to the Harris Poll, a marketing research firm, 43% of Americans would prefer a pet to a child.
Amid those pressures, many people turn to the comfort of a pet – but the expectations for what dogs can bring to our lives are becoming increasingly unreasonable.
For some people, dogs are a way to feel loved, to relieve pressures to have kids, to fight the drudgery of their job, to reduce the stress of the rat race and to connect with the outdoors. Some expect pet ownership to improve their physical and mental health.
But expecting that dogs will fill the social and emotional gaps in our lives is actually an obstacle to dogs’ flourishing, and human flourishing as well.
In philosophical terms, we could call this an extractive relationship: Humans are using dogs for their emotional labor, extracting things from them that they cannot get elsewhere or simply no longer wish to. Just like natural resource extraction, extractive relationships eventually become unsustainable.
The late cultural theorist Lauren Berlant argued that the present stage of capitalism creates a dynamic called “slow death,” a cycle in which “life building and the attrition of life are indistinguishable.” Keeping up is so exhausting that, in order to maintain that life, we need to do things that result in our slow degradation: Work becomes drudgery under unsustainable workloads, and the experience of dating suffers under the unhealthy pressure to have a partner.
Similarly, today’s dog culture is leading to unhealthy and unsustainable dynamics. Veterinarians are concerned that the rise of the “fur baby” lifestyle, in which people treat pets like human children, can harm animals, as owners seek unnecessary veterinary care, tests and medications. Pets staying at home alone while owners work suffer from boredom, which can cause chronic psychological distress and health problems. And as the number of pets goes up, many people wind up giving up their animal, overcrowding shelters.
So what should be done? Some philosophers and activists advocate for pet abolition, arguing that treating any animals as property is ethically indefensible.
Perhaps we can reconfigure aspects of home, family and society to be better for dogs and humans alike – more accessible health care and higher-quality food, for example. A world more focused on human thriving would be more focused on pets’ thriving, too. But that would make for a very different America than this one.
I do not recognise the unhealthy culture as mentioned four paragraphs above. But Jeannie and me do understand and believe the alternative: “Some scientists argue that dogs made us human, not the other way around.”
I’ve said it many times before but perhaps some of our newer readers haven’t heard the fact that when I met Jean in 2007 she was looking after twenty-three dogs, and numerous cats, and it was pure magic. In 2008 I went to Mexico, where Jean lived, with Pharaoh. Then in 2010 we came north to Arizona to be married. We had sixteen dogs and seven cats with us.
