This "Digging in the Dirt" starts off with Tom Anderson, who is Director of communications at CT Audubon Society and editor of the Connecticut state of the birds report. We talk about all the threats that our birds are facing.  Habitat loss, pesticides, windows and feral cats.

Then joining me is Megan Clendenan  author of The book Just in Case: Saving Seeds in the Svalbard Global Seed Vault  A recent review said of her book,  "This tale has an unusual ecological theme that makes seed preservation not only an essential task, but a sacred one. A must-have story."

My first guest is Kelpie Wilson  author of The Biochar  Handbook, Kelpie researches and teaches techniques for using biochar in compost and manure management and presents many biochar workshops each year to farmers, foresters, and landowners.

Then Michael Garman the Development Coordinator at the Connecticut League of Conservation Voters joins me. The CTLCV's is a nonpartisan, nonprofit environmental organization that works across the state of CT on a myriad of environmental issues. 

Then I talk to Allison Rugila Associate Soundkeeper for Save the Sound. Allison covers the western half of Long Island Sound (basically the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson line west into the western narrows of the city).  Allison has  been deeply involved with shellfish restoration.

First up this episode is Emily Sanders the senior reporter for ExxonKnews, a project of the Center for Climate Integrity covering fossil fuel industry practices……disinformation, lobbying, and dark money spending -- as well as efforts to hold major oil and gas companies accountable.    ExxonKnews is a partner of the Covering Climate Now journalism collaborative, and Emily's climate accountability reporting has been co-published with other outlets including The Lever, Grist, DeSmog, and HEATED.  (Emily wants you to know that the actual fine levied against Greenpeace was $660 million dollars)

Second, Allison Rugila has joined Save the Sound as Associate Soundkeeper, to cover the western half of Long Island Sound (basically the Bridgeport-Port Jefferson line west into the western narrows of the city.  Allison has  been deeply involved with shellfish restoration and has a PhD. In Ecology and Evolution from Stony Brook, where she studied the resilience of shellfish, such as Long Island Sound blue mussels, Shinnecock Bay quahog clams and bay scallops. Focusing on environmental stressors like sea water acidification and warming, and low dissolved oxygen conditions.

Next up Linley Dixon serves as a Farmer representative and Co-Director of the Real Organic Project.  Linley owns a vegetable farm in Durango, Colorado, with her husband and daughter.  Linley works tirelessly for quality real organic standards with the Real Organic Project. She is here to tell us about the Real Organic Projects upcoming conference in NY called "Saving Real Organic: Antitrust & Food".

My guests on my next  Digging the dirt start with Eric Sepenoski.   Eric is a fourth-generation farmer at Seps Farm in East Marion, NY, on Long Island's North Fork. He’s also is  an elementary school teacher and serves as an elected Trustee for the Town of Southold—where he focuses on stewarding wetlands and protecting coastal features.

Then regular contributor to DITD Gloria Frazee of Rewild Long Island joins me to talk  composting on  Long Island.

 Finally, Author Melissa Stewart joins me to talk about her new children's book about the mighty carbon atom. It's called

 From BAM! to BURP! .

Jeff Masters meteorologist of the Yale climate connections  talks about the heartbreaking tragedy of the recent Texas floods. It's A deeper look at how this happens and what is in store in the future . 

Then I rebroadcast an interview with Wilton, Connecticut fire chief and emergency management Director James Blanchfield on what to do if you encounter swift running floodwaters while in your car, amongst other useful advice for emergency situations.  

Rita Valley is an artist and gardener living in Southbury Connecticut. Her passion for gardening started at an early age, nurtured by her Polish grandmother who tended an impressive vegetable garden. Valley’s love of gardening has persisted and blossomed into a penchant for writing about her gardening exploits as well.
Rita seems to have the same arrangement that my wife and I have: her husband's the veggie guy and she's the flower lady.  She maintains that a good sense of humor is every bit as important as a nice shovel or a sharp pair of pruners. 

Welcome to DITD Greg Lowenthal,   Greg is President of The Long Island Native plant initiative and has served on the Initiatives board for over 4 years. The Long Island Native Plant Initiative (LINPI) is an all-volunteer cooperative effort of over 30 non-profit organizations, governmental agencies, nursery professionals, and citizens. The native plant initiative strives to preserve Long Island's biodiversity by cultivating ethically sourced ecotypic plants to ensure commercial availability of native plants for nurseries, communities, and habitat restorations.

First up Peter Linderoth, the director of healthy waters and lands for Save the Sound comes to “Digging in the Dirt” with the publication of Save The Sounds 2025 LONG ISLAND SOUND BEACH REPORT.  How does your local beach in CT. or Long Island rate?

Then Sandy Wilson joins me. Sandi is employed with the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System. She is the Fairfield County Master Gardener Program Coordinator based out of the Extension office in Bethel.  She has been involved with the Master Gardener program for 25 years. 

Then a little bit about tomatoes.

Peter Linderoth, the  director of healthy waters and lands for Save the Sound Comes to “Digging in the Dirt” with the publication of Save The Sounds 2025 LONG ISLAND SOUND BEACH REPORT.  How does your local beach in CT. or Long Island rate?

My guest is Sandy Wilson. Sandi is employed with the University of Connecticut Cooperative Extension System. She is the Fairfield County Master Gardener Program Coordinator based out of the Extension office in Bethel.  She has been involved with the Master Gardener program for 25 years. 

Vincent Dion is a life-long Artist, Gardener, Connecticut resident and Do-it Yourself enthusiast. He maintains a 1,500 square foot backyard garden in Newtown, CT.  I have it on good authority that Vincent is quite the gardener and we're here to talk about does his garden grow.

 My other guest  is Craig Floyd. Craig is a tenth generation Farmer who has been here on DITD several times before. I always like talking with Craig, because of his incredible knowledge of regenerative and organic growing and for his work ethic and empathy for those who have less than the rest of us. Craig is retired from running the Giving Garden in Stonington CT. after a Farm  accident severely damaged his left eye. The Coogan farm renamed itself after Craig to honor his legacy. He's now embarking on becoming a public speaker full-time as he teaches us about regenerative growing.

 We pay our respects to the passing of Pope Francis, who followed in the footsteps of his name sake St. Francis of Assisi, honoring the planet earth and all its creatures. In 2015 he wrote it in encyclical about this and the introduction was by none other than my guest Professor Naomi Oreskes.  Professor Naomi Oreskes is a Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.  Naomi who along with her colleague Erik Conway are bestselling authors of the book Merchants of Doubt…about the machinations of the fossil fuel industry and the book “The Big Myth, about the myth of the free market.   

Then Barry Kresch President of the EV Club ( Electric vehicle Cub) of CT. is my guest to talk about everything electric vehicles.  Barry Kresch has long been involved in environmental activism. He has been a club member and EV owner since 2012. His participation in the club includes doing analytics, including the Interactive EV Dashboard tracking and EV adoption in CT.

Finally Gloria Frazee of Rewildlongisland.org gives her monthly Long Island report.

Professor Naomi Oreskes is a Professor of the History of Science and Affiliated Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Harvard University.

Naomi who along with her colleague Erik Conway are bestselling authors of the book Merchants of Doubt…about the machinations of the fossil fuel industry and the book “The Big Myth about the myth" of the free market.  I invited her here today as we pay our respects to the passing of Pope Francis who followed in the footsteps of his name sake St. Francis of Assisi honoring the planet earth and all its creatures. In 2015 he wrote it in encyclical about this and one introduction was written by none other than my guest professor Naomi Oreskes.

Barry Kresch has long been involved in environmental activism. He has been a club member and EV owner since 2012. His participation in the club includes doing analytics, including the Interactive EV Dashboard tracking EV adoption in CT.

Chuck Collins , co-founder of the Climate Accountability Research Project. He’s a researcher and campaigner based at the Institute for Policy Studies, where he coedits Inequality.org.  He is the author of the forthcoming book, Burned By Billionaires: How Concentrated Wealth and Power are Ruining Our Lives and the Planet. He is also a major force behind climatecriminals.org

Then Julie Tighe  President of  the New York league of conservation voters joins me.  As President, she oversees the organizations’ policy, political, development, programmatic, and communications team.

 Professor Mann is a scientist and author.  He is a Presidential Distinguished Professor of Earth & Environmental Science at the University of Pennsylvania. And Director of the Penn Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media. He is Vice Provost for Climate Science, Policy, and Action. He has contributed our understanding of the science  behind our planets historic climate change.  We discuss recent current events that will have a deeply negative effect on the health of our planet.

Bruce Becker is President of Becker + Becker, an integrated sustainable architecture and development firm in Westport, Connecticut. Bruce designs buildings that have a transformative social and environmental value.  Bruce has transformed the Armstrong Rubber Company Building in New Haven into the  Marcel hotel, the country’s first fossil-fuel free hotel.

Bruce Becker is President of Becker + Becker, an integrated sustainable architecture and development firm in Westport, Connecticut. Bruce designs buildings that have a transformative social and environmental value.  Bruce has transformed the Armstrong Rubber Company Building in New Haven into the  Marcel hotel, the country’s first fossil-fuel free hotel.

-Priya Parrotta is a Senior fellow at the Safina center in Long Island NY. Priya is a historian, author, songwriter, composer, singer, and multimedia artist dedicated to furthering environmental consciousness across borders.

-Bill Freese is the  Science Policy Analyst For the Center for food safety on the efforts by the pesticide industry to protect pesticide               manufacturers from lawsuits brought by those harmed by their products.

-DITD regular contributor Gloria Frazee joins me to go over what is happening on Long Island this spring with RewildlongIsland.org 

Digging in the Dirt guests this show are Ann Molloy Sales Director at Neptune's Harvest Organic Fertilizer Company which fully utilizes 100% of the fish they catch, by turning the gurry (everything that’s left after you fillet a fish) into an organic fertilizer.

Up next Jeff Masters of the Yale Climate Connections  talks with me about the effects the DOGE initiated cuts at The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration Are having on tracking major weather events and climate change.

Then citizen scientist Victor DeMasi member of The Pollinator Pathway drops by to telling us why he dressed as a Bee, (looking like Belushi) while visiting our politicians up in Hartford.

And last but not least  Freedom Gerrado puts a human face on the budget cuts and freezes by DOGE with his story of losing his grant to develop a Connecticut  Hemp industry.

After several years of traveling around the country and world, ( more on that later ) she settled back there and has been helping run her family business. For over 30 years.  Ann has overseen the marketing and sales for the Neptune’s Harvest division of Ocean Crest Seafoods, which came about to fully utilize 100% of the fish they catch, by turning the gurry (everything that’s left after you fillet a fish) into an organic fertilizer. Ann  has a wide knowledge of organic fertilizers, and the fishing industry. 

I like to welcome for a second visit to digging in the dirt, Peter Linderoth, director of science and watersheds for Save the Sound's Healthy Waters Institute. Then Louise Washer joins us. Louise is President of the Norwalk River Watershed Association and serves on the Board of the Pollinator Pathway.  Louise is here again to continue the conversation about neonicotinoid pesticides in our local waters. Finally, Gloria Frazee of Rewild Long Island.org joins me now. Rewild Long Island is always busy doing something good for our local ecology.  She's here to tell us what's up on their calendar now and the growing number of community gardens Rewild is nurturing,