There’s ice coating one of the boulders next to me. Water drips off of it slowly, tracing a path through some moss below. The boulder in front of me is much larger and steeper, but isn’t slippery with ice, and, looking around me, I can see that the only way forwards is up. Gritting my teeth, I grab a nearby exposed tree root that’s jutting out from the top of the boulder, dig my toes into a crack in the rock, and pull myself up.

Days are getting longer, butterflies and dragonflies are out, and it's swimming weather by North Country standards - summer is here! At the start of June we welcomed our three summer interns Alyssa LaCoy, Maggie Jensen, and Jess LaMay to the team here at Nature Up North.

Are you a St. Lawrence County teacher interested in incorporating more nature-based learning into your lessons? Do you want to increase opportunities for integrating outdoor learning with STEM content?

Join the Nature Up North team for our 5th annual summer teacher workshop!

The Memorial Day long weekend is often a time to put in the garden, spruce up the yard, and of course, mow the lawn. After the snow from our prolonged winter melted away, many homeowners were disappointed at the condition of their lawn. Areas of dead grass are sometimes, but by no means always, due to heavy feeding by last fall’s grub crop. Grubs, of course, are beetle babies.

While our springtime in the North Country has been a bit more unpredictable than usual, there’s still the usual spring trend: warmer weather and sunny skies! We’re not the only ones starting to venture out- animals are waking up from hibernation, and we’re starting to see signs of new growth in all our favorite flowers.