December 2017 Nature Net News – Winter Landscapes
December Winter Landscapes Do you remember the excitement you felt as a child when you woke to see the first snowfall had changed the landscape overnight? As adults we tend to groan as we look out the window and contemplate shoveling, scraping off the car, and the extra twenty minutes it will take to get just about anywhere. While it may be hard for us to remember that thrill, if you interview any child under the age of fourteen, you'll find that solid precipitation well ...Continue Reading
November 2017 Nature Net News – Owls
November Owls We used to teach students about the silent flight of owls by swinging blocks of wood. The blocks were attached to a rope; one was covered in carpeting and one was not. As we swung the blocks in a fast circle, lasso-style, students could easily hear the plain block whoosh by, but the carpeted block was silent. The differing blocks demonstrated the purpose of a special feathery fringe that covers the leading edge of an owl's wing. According to KQED ...Continue Reading
October 2017 Nature Net News – Ants
October Ants As a young naturalist, someone once told me that ants are to the prairie as worms are to a garden: they move soil and nutrients around and keep the top- and sub-soil layers healthy. I've shared this analogy with many students since that time, but never really dug any deeper. Last month's blog post on prairies got me thinking about the depth of ecosystem intricacies in the prairie, and the role each species plays in creating a balance. I figured it was time to ...Continue Reading
September 2017 Nature Net News – Prairies
September Prairies Aldo Leopold's chapter in A Sand County Almanac entitled "Prairie Birthday" contemplates the existence of a remnant of pre-settlement prairie. A place he estimates may have been old enough to have "watched the fugitive Black Hawk retreat from the Madison lakes to the Wisconsin River." He writes: Every July I watch eagerly a certain country graveyard that I pass in driving to and from my farm. It is time for a prairie birthday, and in one corner of ...Continue Reading
August 2017 Nature Net News – Wisconsin Mammals
August Wisconsin Mammals By best estimations there are about 72 resident mammal species in Wisconsin. Guesses on the Order with the most species? It's Rodentia with 26 species of squirrels, chipmunks, voles, and mice - plus the lemming, porcupine, beaver and pocket gopher. I recall Scott Craven, perhaps Wisconsin's most famous Wildlife Ecologist, once stating that the meadow vole is the most populous mammal in Wisconsin. I couldn't find anything to verify that but I believe him. He has, after all, ...Continue Reading
July 2017 Nature Net News – Bugs That Bug
July Bugs That Bug When I last wrote a "Bugs That Bug" post in the mid-2000s, it was West Nile Virus that had everyone concerned. First documented in Wisconsin in 2002, West Nile - an arbovirus that is transmitted by a bite of an infected mosquito - caught the media's attention and had people brushing up on best practices for avoiding mosquitoes. Now that Zika virus has joined our lexicon and our sleepless night worries, the mosquito's reputation has dipped lower than loathsome. The same ...Continue Reading
May 2017 Nature Net News – Endangered Species
May Endangered Species Have you heard about April the giraffe's live stream birth? It's likely you have, considering at last check the archived footage from the April 14th birth - shown on Animal Adventure Park's "Giraffe Cam" - had well over 14.7 million views. One might assume this level of fandom for one giraffe and her calf indicates an interest in not only April's well being but that of her wild relatives as well. And perhaps that assumption is true given ...Continue Reading
April 2017 Nature Net News – Earth Day
April Earth Day It sometimes gets depressing. The current national administration is suggesting steep cuts to the Environmental Protection Agency (threatening not only the Climate Protection Program, but also grant programs that fund communities seeking to provide clean drinking water, clean up brownfields, protect the Great Lakes, and more). And the state budget process is taking a swipe at clean water protections, forestry education, and renewable energy credits (find out more from the Wisconsin League of Conservation Voters). It's sometimes hard to keep a positive attitude. ...Continue Reading