Cambridge Wildlife Arts

This week, Massachusetts residents have the chance to tighten regulations about rat poisons, especially the ones that wreak the worst havoc on important local bird predators, coyotes , other animals and pets.

ALL HANDS ON DECK THIS WEEK IN MA ON RAT POISONS!!

I know folks are very upset about FAE. I wanted to first underscore we don't know what killed her yet. But we do know bald eagles face many challenges in the wild and already have high mortality rates. They don't need rat poisons adding to those risks. If you're as outraged as I am that we are majorly stacking the deck against these magnificent creatures and our other wildlife, THIS IS THE WEEK TO ACT.

The Pesticide Board Subcommittee is having a hearing THIS WEDNESDAY, the 18th, about the legal petition to suspend the registration of anticoagulant rat poisons in the state.

The hearing is on ZOOM and takes place from 1-3pm. You can sign up to offer public comments. Even if you don't want to comment, if you're free consider just BEARING WITNESS as that is still so important. We need every person who is available there.

Then BY FRIDAY, public comments ARE DUE to the Board.

Email Taryn LaScola at [email protected].

EVERYONE should submit comments. Make it personal to you, your community--what you care about that is threated, what emergencies or tragic outcomes you know of in your family/neighborhood due to these destructive poisons. Write from the heart.

For FB tax, a photo I took of my first sighting of MK and KZ's offspring, C25, who did DIE of confirmed SGARs poisoning only a couple of months after this photo was taken. She, along with her sister (C26) were the first eagles to hatch in Arlington in a century.

And look how we humans didn't learn our lesson. To go through so many decades recovering from DDT to kill eagles with another class of poisons our state and country won't take action on.

We're going to change that though.
The time is now.
Who is with me?
(Zoom and other links for Wednesday's meeting in the comments)

Visit Minara in Huron Village, Cambridge, to see our community-sewn banner on exhibit along with these arteworks that also incorporate other living things as subjects.

We're glad to share some good news! Grants from the Somerville Arts Council and the Cambridge Arts Council will allow Wildlife Arts to expand our wildlife trading card series and offer hands-on art opportunities at The Somerville Community Growing Center's Earth Week Events, at The Community Art Center's Port Arts Fest and Fresh Pond Reservation's Fresh Pond Day. We hope to see you at all of those, and please pass on this call for young artists to illustrate the new trading cards!

Want to do something to support local kids and their connection to the environment? Volunteer to help run our art contest that lifts up young artists, challenges them to engage with local species as their subjects, then turns their winning art into posters around the city that educate, surprise, and delight the public. We can't do it without volunteers—this is our first year as an all-volunteer organization (and Year 7 of the Cambridge City Nature Art Challenge). Sign up for Thursday's info/orientation session at the link in the first comment. Photo: three of our 2025 winners at the awards ceremony.

Wildlife Arts is now an all-volunteer organization! If you're well organized and love being the engine behind the scenes for something wonderful, take a look at this volunteer listing for our kids' art contest team. https://bit.ly/4jFKlON

We regret that today's sewing circle has been cancelled. We'll send the new date to all who preregistered for today. 🐿️

Sign up at https://tally.so/r/LZZRMO to join our collaborative sewing circle on Martin Luther King Jr.'s birthday on Monday, 1/19, in Union Square. You can bring your own project or work with others on one of the banners.Time: 10am–1pm.
Come for all or part of the session.
Beginners welcome. KN95 or N95 Masks will be required (no surgical masks) but available if you don't have one. Further info is on the signup.

Our latest newsletter...and also, drop in this evening to Cafe Zing! to sew for a bit! https://mailchi.mp/d16fb08dc321/novnews25

Even beginners are welcome to our sewing circle! See you Monday!

Some good news on the Charles River! But stay tuned to the Charles River Watershed Association, Charles River Conservancy, and Mystic River Watershed Association for updates.

Water Authority Board Tables Vote on Proposal to Dump Sewage in Charles River Forever (Press Release) — Charles River Watershed Association Following a wave of public outrage over the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s (MWRA) recently-proposed plan to allow for sewage to continue to be dumped into the Charles River forever, the MWRA Board of Directors has tabled a scheduled vote on the proposal at its November 19 meeting.