By Katherine Hale - There are no graceful ways to mention extinct species in casual conversation. Years ago, on a visit to San Francisco, a local friend asked what I thought of Golden Gate Park. “You're a naturalist, right—isn't that just your thing?” I made the mistake of answering honestly. “It's very pretty,” I agreed,… Continue reading A Tale of Two Butterflies
By Katherine Hale - Grasses do not have a reputation for sexy among gardeners. In May, a chance encounter left me with dozens of leftover plants in need of a home, rejects from a sale at a local organization. It was immediately clear to me why they hadn't sold: they were scraggly bits of green… Continue reading A Prairie Home Companion
By Julie Runcie - Sean and I are in The Vault. We’ve been here for a while—hours now. It’s less grandiose than it sounds, really just a back room in the Charlotte Town Hall, but it gives me the same feeling I get from the New York Public Library or a fancy art museum. Tread… Continue reading Secrets of The Vault
By Gabe Andrews - We want cheap groceries, strawberries in March, and impeccable lawns. We strive for dominion over the web of life, especially our domesticated crops and the pests that threaten them. Bees get caught in the middle of it all. Habitat homogenization and the increased use of pesticides –particularly neonicotinoids – have contributed to… Continue reading For the Love of Bees
By Hannah Phillips - The flower buds from Mrs. Waters’ elm tree are 35,000 feet up in the stratosphere on an express flight to Ohio. The goal is to get them there before they dry up. When they arrive, scientists will lay them on wax paper, collect their pollen as it falls from the stamens,… Continue reading Restoring the American Elm
By Jessie Griffin - Coffee-colored water peels away from our boat, sending ripples across the glass surface of Lake Drummond. The ancient cypress trees begin to dance as our wake bends their reflections. We’re crossing this hidden, undeveloped lake at the center of a once-vast wetland stretching from southern Virginia across a million acres into… Continue reading Fire in the Swamp
Lyra Brennan - Two hundred feet above the lush Ardèche River in the south of France lies the barely visible entrance to a cave slotted between massive limestone cliffs. Narrow passageways connect multiple chambers that, once illuminated, reveal the unmistakable walls of Chauvet Cave, used 32,000 years ago by early humans who adorned this cave in… Continue reading The space between humans and cougars
