Verdant

Verdant

By Chelsea Jandreau Several years ago, I interned at an outdoor school in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains of California. Like much of California, it tended to be dry for most of the year, with a somewhat wetter late winter and early spring. While there, I...
Busy Summer

Busy Summer

By Katie Finch, Senior Nature Educator How many times in a summer have you said something like, “There’s so much to do. The summer is too short. I’m so busy.”? I find myself saying that a lot recently, yet my idea of summer is that it is...
Emergence

Emergence

Many of the summer insects we see do not suddenly appear as the fully formed adult versions we are likely to casually encounter. These insects, along with many amphibians and a few other animals, have life cycles that require us to look in an entirely different...
Harvestmen or Daddy Longlegs? Truth or Myth?

Harvestmen or Daddy Longlegs? Truth or Myth?

By Emma Roth They have eight long, skinny legs and rounded bodies. They crawl all over trees and logs, finding small insects, plants, and fungi to eat. They go by different names, but the most common one I hear is Daddy-longlegs. They are misunderstood creatures,...
In Community

In Community

By Katie Finch Recently, I got married. I mention this because our experiences are the lenses through which we see the world. As I gave more thought to how to live and grow with another human, I also found myself drawn to partnerships and communities in the natural...
Monarchs in Trouble

Monarchs in Trouble

By Jeff Tome It is not really news that Monarch butterflies are in trouble. Their numbers have been dropping steadily for the last twenty or more years. Last week, the International Union for the Conservation of Nature put the Monarch on their red list of species that...