In addition to the family-oriented program this weekend, the Nashua River Watershed Association is offering a free, more in depth tracking workshop Feb. 7.
“NRWA Basic Animal Tracking Workshop”
            Animal tracking is a popular tool for understanding wildlife.  We can open a window into their world by examining both obvious and subtle clues that animals have [...]

Coincidentally, I got two messages yesterday concerning trees, and a third today. All came by email, so no trees were killed in the communication, which is a nice bonus.
 
The Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club are trying to beat back a GW Bush proposal to log a wilderness area in the White Mountain National [...]

Destruction by natural forces is seldom all that bad for the environment. The new growth that follows a forest fire, for instance, can be a boon for many grazing and bird species.
(Human acts of desecration, on the other hand, are often irrevocably catastrophic… as witness the Tennessee Valley Authority’s recent coal ash tsunami. Similarly, natural forces [...]

New Hampshire Fish and Game has launched a fundraising drive to support research into “White Nose Syndrome” a mysterious disease that is decimating the brown bat population in the northeastern United States. So far, scientists have identified the fungus that gives the disease its name, but they still know little about what is actually killing [...]

I would have mistaken these bugs for seeds, if I noticed them at all. My dear and observant friend Lisa spotted them during a leisurely ride along the Mason-Greenville rail trail last weekend.
 
 
 
 

 
She waved a hand gently in the air, as if brushing off invisible cobwebs, and coaxed one of the tiny critters to light [...]

I couldn’t bring myself to the gym again last evening despite the rain, so I brought my kayak to the brook, instead.
 
Here’s what I found, more or less in chronological order:
 
One large splash, something between bullfrog and beaver.
Vapor off the warm water, despite the humidity of the cool evening air.
 
Two muskrat, maybe three. 
 
One blue [...]

So… why do the salamanders cross the roads?
To get laid, of course.
I’d heard it was so, and decided I should see for myself. I’d only ever seen a yellow spotted salamander once before last night, and that was in a friend’s basement. They’re common enough, but they live underground. They come out once a year to [...]

Researchers have found “White Nose Syndrome” in some 20 caves around the Northeast this winter, up from four caves during the winter of 2006-2007, the AP reports.Scott Reynolds, of Northeast Ecological Services, wrote recently that he plans to resume his research on bat populations in June, “if they come back.”
Here’s a recent Associated Press story [...]

Just as mosquito-borne diseases such as Eastern Equine Encephalitis and Nile Fever seem to be increasing, a mysterious new disease threatens the region’s bat population.

The federal Fish and Game Service has posted a website with information on the disease, and is accepting donations to fund further study.
Bats are cute little critters, but even if they give [...]