Member Articles, Trip Reports, Reference Information, etc. 

Members, please send your articles, trip reports, etc. to mailto:rgaines@rgaines.com

• Information: Rain Barrel Helpful Hints From Penelope Marth
• Information: Make Your Yard a Certified Wildlife Habitat by Gail Leis
• Trip Report: Seed Team at Rocky Point Glade in Swope Park by Scott Laurent
• Trip Report: Squaw Creek  by Becky Selzer
• Trip Report: The Flint Hills in KS by Robert Gaines
• Reference: Biographies of Nature Writers by Susan Bray
• Reference: Nature Journaling - Poetic Forms by Susan Bray

Reference Information & Links:

UNDERSTANDING GROUP DYNAMICS and  COMMITTEE WORKSHEET HANDOUTS

Our Ash trees could go the way of the American chestnut

Help identifying species and other helpful sites:

From Crystal: 

IDnature guides.  The Discover Life site provides "free on-line tools to identify species, share ways to teach and study nature's wonders, report findings, build maps, process images, and contribute to and learn from an encyclopedia of life that now contains 614,954 species. The Polistes Foundation and its scientific partners plan to add high-quality identification guides, maps, images, and text for a million species by 2012."

BugGuide.net - an online community of naturalists who enjoy learning about and sharing our observations of insects, spiders, and other related creatures. From Crystal - Great reference site: http://bugguide.net/node/view/15740

Resources for the trail and classroom Acorn Naturalists.  

Environmental Resources - The EnviroLink Network is a non-profit organization which has been providing access to thousands of online environmental resources since 1991.The EnviroLink Network

Leave No Trace Center for Outdoor Ethics Leave No Trace Home

• Dynamic distribution maps showing verified species occurrences
• Photographs of the adult and caterpillar (when available)
• Species accounts containing information on size, identifying characteristics, life history, flight, caterpillar hosts, adult food, habitat, species range, conservation status, and management needs
• Species checklists for each county in the U. S. and state in Mexico

Book suggestions from members: 

Voyage of a Summer Sun by Robin Cody: 50 year old man canoes the Columbia River from it's source in Canada to the Pacific Ocean - Discusses man's impact on rivers.

Walking Down the Wild by Gram Ferguson: Man walks length of the Yellowstone Rockies and talks about ecology along the way. 

Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild by Renee Askins: Written by lady who headed campaign to reintroduce the wolf to Yellowstone National Park.

The Grail Bird by Tim Gallagher: Traces history of the Ivory Billed Woodpecker and it's habitat destruction - goes into current search for the bird.

Songbird Journeys: Four Seasons in the Lives of Migratory Birds by Lynn Lozier: Follows songbirds through four seasons - lots of good information on birds and habitat problems.

City Of the Saints - Among the Mormons and Across the Rocky Mountains by Sir Richard Francis Burton: If you enjoyed Grady's interpretive presentation in December as much as I did you will enjoy reading this book.  Born in 1821, Button was one of the most talented, knowledgeable, colorful and controversial British explorers of the 19th Century.  He was a keen observer that carefully documented what he observed in his travels.

After exploring many parts of the world Burton came to America in 1860 to "explore the West and visit the Mormons". His wagon journey begins in St. Joe, Missouri on the 7th of August, 1860. Burton's detailed descriptions of the land and the people he encounters on his trip west paints detailed and vivid pictures in my mind. Mental pictures of what the plains and the prairies were like back then.

Also see Susan Bray's article, Biographies of Nature Writers, for additional authors/books selections.

 "Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has." Margaret Mead from Daranya