Help Keep Yellowstone's Wolves and Grizzlies Around

Yellowstone’s wolves and grizzlies are doing well after decades of diligent and thoughtful work, according to Caroline Byrd, Executive Director of Greater Yellowstone Coalition.

Now it’s time to make your voice heard about plans Montana’s wildlife agency — Montana Fish, Wildlife & Parks (FWP) — is making for these iconic animals. Please take a few minutes to tell the state that:

• Wildlife commissioners need to stick with their decision not to increase wolf hunting quotas along Yellowstone’s...

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Help Stop the TPP Now!

With one vote, our members of Congress could open the floodgates to threats to our air, water, and climate.

That vote is on a massive trade deal, the Trans Pacific Partnership (TPP). President Obama and Congress know the TPP is unpopular. So they may try to sneak it through after the November election.

We’ve seen corporations use free trade deals to undermine our fundamental environmental protections time and time again. TransCanada recently announced that it intends to sue the U.S. for $15 billion in a secretive trade tribunal under...

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Have You Seen This Hummingbird Before?

I bet this bird doesn’t come to your feeder:

It’s called the Booted Racket-tail Hummingbird.

The male Booted Racket-tail is a spectacular hummingbird with metallic green plumage and an elaborate tail longer than the tiny bird itself! This streamer-like tail features two elongated feathers tipped with blunt blueish “rackets.” Females lack the long tail, but both sexes wear “boots” (puffy white leg feathers).

While reading about this bird, I happen to be outside on vacation in the Smoky Mountains waiting, actually, for the the...

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Hiking Bullers of Buchan to Boddam

Top 5 hikes in and around Aberdeen, Scotland.
#4 — Bullers of Buchan to Boddam.

This great linear coastal walk takes in some of the the finest clifftop scenery on the Aberdeenshire coastline, with stacks, arches, and bird life galore.

The Bullers of Buchan car park is just over 2 km (1 mile) out of Cruden Bay on the A975. From the car park, follow the path past the cottages to reach the clifftop, then turn to the left to begin the walk along the coastal path.

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Webcams Have Been Updated!

The Webcams page has been updated!

There are four new webcams for you to enjoy, and they’re all African Cams located in Central Kenya. Here, you’ll get to watch hippos do what hippos do best (and you too during the summer) — floating in the pool and basking on the beach. You’ll watch all sorts of African wildlife stop by the local watering hole, and you’ll see various creatures just running around either playing or chasing each other. Here are some highlights I snapped:

Save Sea Turtles from Gulf Trawl Nets by June 6

Shrimp trawling is one of the primary threats to sea turtle survival in the United States. Every year, the shrimp trawl fishery incidentally captures and drowns thousands of sea turtles, including the critically endangered Kemp’s ridley in the Gulf of Mexico.

For a very short time, the National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) is accepting public comments on its proposal to continue for another decade the moratorium on issuing new Gulf Shrimp permits. Keeping this moratorium is important to protect sea turtles.

Please give sea turtles a voice and let officials know they need to do more to protect them from the shrimp trawl fishery!

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Is Biodegradable Food Considered Litter?

At this point, I’m sure you’ve all heard most of the information regarding Leave No Trace principles and strategies for limiting your impacts upon hiking trails and those upon your fellow trail users.

As use of hiking trails — and the back country areas through which they pass — increases, all of us must be especially mindful of even the smallest effects you may have on the land and on the experiences of those around you. One example of what some may consider a negligible impact is the biodegradable food waste people might leave behind to decompose.

One person’s food waste left to biodegrade is a significant eyesore for the next person coming up the trail, not to...

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Hiking Oxen Craig and Mither Tap

Top 5 hikes in and around Aberdeen, Scotland.
#5 — Bennachie: Oxen Craig and Mither Tap

Climb the two highest peaks of Bennachie, Oxen Craig and Mither Tap, and enjoy fabulous sweeping views!

Once you start your hike through Bennachie, you’ll find there are very many choices of hiking paths to take in the area, and they seem to all intertwine within each other. But the trail identified in this post is the recommended one that made it...

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What to do When You Find a Baby Bird

Just the other day, when I went to get the mail, I found a baby bird sitting on the ground under our maple tree. When I looked up, I noticed a bird’s nest directly above where the baby bird had fallen and a very frantic mother robin flying around my head. I wasn’t the only one around. Neighbors were in their yards tending to their gardens while others were passing by while out on their walks. The baby bird and stressed mother drew the attention of a small crowd and everyone voiced their theories on what had to be done. I heard everything from old wives tales to improper handling of the little...

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Bald Eagle Abundance May Harm Other Species

If Ben Franklin had known in 1782 what the bald eagles would be up to in Maine in 2015, he might have pushed harder to select the wild turkey as the national bird.

Since being nearly wiped out in the late 1960s due to DDT and other pesticides, eagles and other birds of prey have made a dramatic comeback. However, this breathtaking recovery has brought some unintended consequences surrounding eagles’ prey on Maine’s out-most islands. While their diet consists mainly of scavenged or live-caught fish along lake, river, and ocean shores, eagles have recently begun to turn their sharp eyes, beaks and talons to seabirds.

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Aberdeen Scotland: Bullers of Buchan

Exploring the best places in nature around the world.

The name “Bullers of Buchan” refers both to a collapsed sea cave and to the adjacent village. Located twenty-five miles (40 kilometers) north of Aberdeen, Scotland, in the Cruden Bay along the North Sea, this collapsed sea cave forms an almost circular chasm — also known as “the pot” — some 98 feet (30 meters) deep, where the sea rushes in through a natural archway.

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Conservation Canines, the Latest in Ivory Police

Don’t let that sweet face fool you. This pup can sniff out ivory no matter how smugglers try to hide it.

And guess what?

There are more four-legged heroes just like him — eager to put an end to wildlife trafficking.

They’re called “Conservation Canines!”

African Wildlife Foundation (AWF) recently graduated their first class of sniffer dogs and handlers specially trained to...

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Aberdeen Scotland: Linn o' Dee

The River Dee is one of the two rivers in Aberdeen, Scotland. The other one is called the River Don. In Scotland and Northern England, a Linn is a geographical feature describing where a watercourse has cut through a shelf of hard rock creating a narrow, steep-sided cut in which the watercourse runs. Many rivers have this particular feature, and some even have more than one, but the Linn of Dee — or “Linn o’ Dee” as they say in Scotland — is the most beautiful.

Though it’s over an hour west of Aberdeen, if you happen to be visiting the city, I highly recommend you treat yourself to...

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The Top 15 US City Parks

In the midst of the teeming bustle of a city, it can be difficult to get out into a forest, mountain, or ocean setting when we need it. Fortunately, most cities have created spaces where we can still get the benefit of nature’s healing and soothing powers. Because of that, we are able to spend some time in a city-park oasis, getting away from it all in a cool green expanse, as an alternative. But these days, there’s a whole lot more to America’s great city parks than a swing set and an open field. As far as parks go, Thrillist.com has named the 15 best city parks to kick back and relax, hike and bike some nice trails, and even catch a concert or two.

I don’t know exactly what went into deciding the top 15, but I would put a few of these parks onto a different number ranking. For example, there are some parks that deserve a better ranking, and there are some parks, even, I’m not sure why they made the list at all. But that’s just me. What do you think?

The comments below each park are facts about the parks, no personal opinions. Make your own.

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Aberdeen Scotland: Balmedie Beach

Upon first glance, Aberdeen, Scotland doesn’t look like a place a nature fanatic would like to visit. It’s called the “Granite City,” the “Grey City,” and the “Silver City” — nicknames that don’t necessarily scream the greens and blues of a nature lover’s dream.

Don’t get me wrong, this place is really pretty. As a fantasy geek, I find it has a certain medieval charm to it that draws me in. After all, it is over 1,000 years old. If I had a separate blog about medieval history, Aberdeen would definitely be on it.

Nevertheless, I am determined to find out where a true nature fanatic would go if one wanted to visit. I checked a few...

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Charity Spotlight: Teton Science Schools

This week’s charity spotlight is the Teton Science Schools (TSS). Proceeds from The Nature Store will go to benefit TSS from May 22 through May May 28. To tell you more about TSS, I believe that in this particular case, telling the story of how they got started will give you the best understanding of their vision and accomplishments. It’s truly inspiring.

In the 1960s Ted Major, a science teacher, thought students would best learn about the natural sciences out in nature — a novel concept at the time. By immersing students in relatively undisturbed ecosystems, he felt they would gain a...

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Spring, Our Greatest Indicator of a Changing Climate

One of the greatest perks of living in a temperate region like the Mid-Atlantic is experiencing the on going march from one season into the next. The most recent transition from winter to spring is one of my favorites. Every year I am amazed by the relative speed with which trees come back from their dormant winter state with a flush of new buds and leaves — producing tons of additional biomass in a matter of a few weeks.

This time of year is marked by a massive “green up” of our hemisphere as plants have awaken from winter and begun to...

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Alaska DOT Tries to Ignore Stellar Sea Lions

The Juneau Access Improvements Project is a proposed $570-million road project to extend Glacier Highway out of Juneau for closer road access to the southeast Alaskan towns of Haines and Skagway. Juneau, Alaska’s capital, is the only capital city in the United States whose roads do not connect with the continental road network. Currently travelers either have to fly between Juneau, Haines and Skagway, or travel on one of the ferries of the Alaska Marine Highway System.

The plan by Alaska’s Department of Transportation and Public Facilities calls for extending the road 48 miles along the...

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The Return of the Cicadas, Brood V

The noise will be almost constant as the males assemble in huge “choirs” to sing and attract mates.

They’ll hit windshields, annoy bicyclists, possibly damage young trees, and scare the living crap out of you by landing in your hair.

They’re cicadas, specifically 17-year cicadas, or periodical cicadas, which have spent the past 17 years underground, feeding on sap from tree roots. Now they’re emerging to breed and lay eggs.

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