These are a few shots I took on a recent excursion with my wife Monica to the Angler's Inn section of the Potomac River, in Maryland. It was a few weeks ago, before the leaves had come out. One thing I noticed was that the river can be a little creepy sometimes. On this recent d… Continue

This from Washington's Department of Ecology: OLYMPIA -- The Department of Ecology (Ecology) is seeking to clarify how climate change and greenhouse gas emissions are addressed when state and local jurisdictions conduct environmental reviews. Under the State Environmental Policy Act (SEPA), state and local agencies must consider possible environmental impacts that may result from governmental decisions. These decisions may be related to issuing permits for private projects, constructing publi… Continue

I have always loved wildlife, nature and the environment from the times I spent watching Merlin Perkins and Jim Fowler on Wild Kingdom and Grizzley Adams when I was a kid to getting a job out of High School at the Dakota Zoo in Bismarck, ND, studying wildlife management at NDSU and doing research for 4 months on Prarie Dogs in the Petrified Forest, AZ. It wasn't until this past January when I attended the Audubon Societies Advocacy Training in Washington, D.C. that I became passionate about the… Continue

If at any point in time from now until the end of August I go missing while last being seen at school, then please look for me in growth chambers 3, 4 or 5... Well, I am currently setting up several of my ginseng experiments, one of which is now going into the growth chambers upstairs at school. The growth chambers are like giant refrigerators in which you can set environmental controls like temperature and light. I'm doing a light experiment, so I had to construct a PVC stand to hold up shade… Continue

So, this spring is quite bittersweet. The warmer temperatures and change in photoperiods have signaled the ephemeral plants such as spring beauty, trout lily, dutchman's breeches and trilliums to come up in full boom. However, it also has prematurely caused my ginseng to rise. As… Continue

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1 The Land Ethic by Aldo Leopold 1949 [ This essay is excerpted from Aldo Leopold's book A Sand County Almanac. ] When god-like Odysseus returned from the wars in Troy, he hanged all on one rope a dozen slave-girls of his household whom he suspected of misbehavior during his absence. This hanging involved no question of propriety. The girls were property. The disposal of property was then, as now, a matter of expediency, not of right and wrong. Concepts of right and wrong were not lacking from O… Continue

Here in Wisconsin, Aldo Leopold, for whom the Aldo Leopold Center in BAraboo is named for, was, and still is a leader in conservation science. For my ecology class, we recently read a few excerpts of his writing, i found it to be some of the most interesting writing i have ever seen. His land ethic, i found to be comfusing until i gut used to his style of writing, His point is basically that people try to put a cash value on everything, and sometimes that is not possible. Farmers for example, wi… Continue

So, naturally, I'm going to have to wax sceptical about Nintendo's foray into the exercise game. They are promoting their new console, the Wii Fit, as a kind of virtual personal trainer. The console leads people through fitness routines like soccer games, calisthenics and yoga. Looks li… Continue

Well, today is an exciting day for me, not just because I am writing my first entry in here. I just submitted my first manuscript for potential publication in Biological Invasions! It is crazy to think that 7 years ago, I was just graduating high school and heading to college for wildlife and fisheries management. I couldn't even tell the difference between an oak and a maple back then! Since then, I have learned so much! I have gotten to work with banding owls, electroshocking fish, live-trappi… Continue