January and July

Six months and two seasons apart, January and July trigger some of the same feelings in Midwesterners. While we savor the slow progression o...

The Creationists

The prophets of Creationism, like the televangelists and infomercial salesmen, have found a receptive audience who will accept and pay for t...

Monsoon

The summer Southwest Monsoon begins in Mexico as a dome of high pressure builds over that country; usually developing by June, the clockwise...

A Fruitful Year

Thanks to the deep snows of last winter, the heavy rains of spring and the lack of a late spring freeze, we have an abundance of fruit on ou...

Man and Climate Change

The current obsession with Global Warming, promoted and abused by a host of conservationists, politicians and business-minded entre-preneurs...

Pelican of the Plains

Mention pelicans and most Americans think of our southern coasts where brown pelicans doze on pilings or dive for fish in offshore waters. B...

Fade to Brown

Though we're only a month past the summer solstice, the landscape of mid America is taking on that burned-out look. Driving back to Col...

Sea Elephants

Sirenians (manatees and dugongs) are often called sea cows since they are the only totally aquatic herbivorous mammals. While whales and do...

Northwest Heat Wave

We generally think of Idaho and Montana as great places to escape the heat of summer. With their rugged peaks, glacial valleys, evergreen f...

Almost Canada

A piece of northern Canada covers a high, flat ridge in eastern West Virginia. Part of the Allegheny Front, the eastern edge of the Appalach...

Chesapeake Bay

The rivers of North America were molded by the Pleistocene glaciers and reinforced by their meltwaters. By the end of the Epoch, the massive...

The Silurian Rim

Imagine a broad, shallow bowl of rock buried in the ground; you know that it is there because sections of its rim poke above the surface. Th...

From Flood to Feast

The Missouri River flooding of late spring and early summer created shallow lakes across its broad floodplain. Bringing silt and nutrients t...

Messengers of Change

As the summer doldrums settle across the Midwest, that seemingly endless period of hot, hazy, humid weather, we often feel that nature's...

Boston's Drumlins

Small, ovoid hills are common throughout eastern Massachusetts, especially in the vicinity of Boston. Viewed from the air, one sees that th...

Beetles

Beetles are the most diverse group of animals on Earth. Of the 1.2 million species of animal known to science, 75% are insects; since 40% of...

Niagara Falls

One of the most famous natural landmarks in North America, Niagara Falls is a relatively recent addition to our country's topography. As...

Birdwatchers

As a birder for more than 30 years, I have come to realize that we are a heterogenous group. Passive birdwatchers, such as my mom, simply e...

Armored Immigrants

More than 150 years before the Bush Administration established the Homeland Security Administration and began to wall off our southern borde...

Road to the Sky

The Mt. Evan's massif looms west of Denver, connected to the Continental Divide by the Guanella Pass ridge. This magnificent Wilderness...

Mimosas

The mimosas are blooming in Columbia, a week later than usual. A member of the legume family, which includes acacias, mesquite, redbuds, pa...

Live Earth Follies

The Live Earth extravaganza is occuring across the globe today, organized with the goal of raising awareness about the Global Warming Crisis...

Desert Heat

After hearing about the extreme heat across the Desert Southwest over the past week, one might wonder why we never see similar temperatures ...

The Hawaiian Ridge

Mention Hawaii and most of us think of a handful of Pacific Islands known for their fabulous weather, lush vegetation, big waves and volcano...

Freedom

We Americans are frequently reminded (especially on the Fourth of July) that we are citizens of the most free country on Earth. But freedom ...

The Universal Language

While insects, birds, amphibians and whales were singing long before man evolved, early humans also used music as a means of commu-nication ...

Lake Agassiz

As the last Pleistocene Ice Sheet retreated into Canada, 13,000 years ago, a large meltwater lake filled a broad, flat, glacial basin along ...

Wonderland

In the summer of 1960, the year that I turned ten, two friends and I decided to clear a trail into the woods that bordered our Cincinnati ne...