Alison Gillespie

Alison Gillespie

Alison Gillespie is a freelance writer who covers stories about the environment from her home in Silver Spring, Maryland.

Meghan Fellows sprays flame on a patch of lesser celandine, an invasive weed, while volunteer Jim Anderson looks on. If "flaming" the plants (heating them up but not burning them) kills them reliably, the technique may replace pesticides in vulnerable stream environments.

A New Weapon in the War on Weeds: Flamethrowers

Long used in agriculture, land managers are now wondering whether cooking weeds to death is better than pesticides

The porcupine is among the animals that thrive beneath winter snows.

There's a Secret World Under the Snow, and It's in Trouble

How do animals survive under the snow? We're only beginning to understand—just as climate change may rewrite everything

A "wind tree" installed at the COP21 climate talks in Paris. Each tree produces enough energy to light 71 parking spaces (or power one average American home for four months).

These Creative Wind Turbines Will Have You Rethinking What You Know About Wind Power

Wind turbines don't have to all look the same. Here are some that are helping cities go green—and look like art in the process

Mary Seton Corboy, founder of Greensgrow Farm in Philadelphia, took a Superfund site 20 years ago and turned it into a thriving urban oasis.

Inner-City Farmers May Have Toxic Soil on Their Hands

Lead is a particular risk as people try to turn potentially contaminated urban sites into productive and sustainable farms

Baby tree saplings, cloned from giant redwoods in California, chill out in the Archangel Ancient Tree Archive's propagation area.

The Race to Save the World's Great Trees By Cloning Them

A nonprofit dedicated to preserving old, iconic trees is cloning them in hopes of preserving them for the future

Page 1 of 1