Flower “Extinct” Since 1902 Blooms
Bird watchers walk the woods with eyes up, binoculars in hand, notebooks or phone apps in back pockets. Tom Doubleday knows the exploration posture well. He’s practiced it for 60…
Plants
Spring Flowers Are Blooming Earlier in Greater Yellowstone
You walk into a grocery store only to find the shelves empty of your favorite food. Most of us have experienced this recently. It can be annoying, but not life…
Witches’ Broom and the Conservation of “Ugly”
In the 1960s, park managers cut and poisoned more than 6,000 trees at Craters of the Moon National Monument in southcentral Idaho. The trees were not invasive species. They posed…
What It’s Like to Document California’s Disappearing Kelp Forests
In the summer of 2022, documentary videographer Tyler Schiffman set out to capture an ecosystem that is rapidly fading away. Commissioned to create a short film on California’s struggling underwater…
Saving a Forest, Pandemic Edition
Tara Poloskey tentatively stepped towards the cliff’s edge, out of breath from a long hike at 7,000 feet. Her backpack full, an unwieldy 17-foot pole saw in her hands, she…
Ensuring the Future for Healthy Prairies
Whenever I walk out onto The Nature Conservancy’s Bluestem Prairie preserve, one of the best and largest tallgrass prairies in Minnesota, I love spotting the brilliant blue flower of a…
Floral Arrangement: Can Floating Flower Mats Reduce Nutrient Pollution?
Jazmin Locke-Rodriguez has a new favorite flower in her South Florida garden. She’s looking at it as she explains her research process for the dissertation she recently defended at Florida…
The Search for “Lingering Trees” Offers Hope for Imperiled Species
As some of North America’s iconic tree species are severely threatened by invasive forest pests and disease, scientists are finding hope in the rare individual trees that somehow manage to…
Tree Tapping Isn’t Just for Maples
March is tree tapping season across the upper Midwest, New England, and southern Canada. As the cardinals start to sing again in the northwoods, the long-dormant timbers are also responding…
A Natural and Human History
It’s that time of year again, when it’s difficult to avoid certain songs. Like “I Saw Mommy Kissing Santa Claus.” The tune, written by British lyricist Tommy Connor and performed…