Emerald Ash Borer is an invasive beetle that has killed tens of millions of ash trees since its discovery in Michigan in 2002. EAB reached St. Lawrence County in 2017. If you have ash trees on your property, it is important to plan for EAB.

Read more about Emerald Ash Borer

You look out your window on a mid-summer day: the sun filters through the full, bright green leaves on the big ash tree in your yard, making patterns that dance across your floor. You hear birds sing too; a pair of robins is nesting again in one of the upper branches. It’s a pretty picture, until you learn that emerald ash borer larvae (Agrilus planipennis) are slowly destroying this tree, eating away the layer just under the bark. Fast forward a few years, and the tree will be at risk of falling on your home or electric wires, and no birds will be nesting in its branches.

New York State has over 900 million ash trees. They line our streets, they shade our parks, and they’re in our yards. What would happen if those 900 million ash trees, 7% of all the trees in the state, died in only a few years?

Calling all North Country nature photographers! 

Have you dusted off your camera yet this season? Well now's the time, because Nature Up North is once again hosting our annual calendar contest for nature photos that will be featured in our 2019 wall calendar.

It’s a rare blessing to have a job I absolutely love, but it’s not all roses. Although some of it is, literally, roses. All too often it is my dubious honor to bring to public awareness a new invasive pest or disease, and history has not always been kind to the bearers of bad news. There is an old saying that knowledge is power, but there is another one that ignorance is bliss, and some days I’d be happy to trade some alleged power for a little bliss.

Many of us rely on crosswalks to safely navigate through bustling traffic, but wild animals are often not so lucky. Road kill is a major issue that continues to decrease animal abundance and biodiversity. While road signs are established for animal crossing in certain areas, there is no way to determine exactly when and where an animal will cross.

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. They'll be with us through early August, and are looking forward to spending their summer visiting farmer's markets, organizing community events and workshops, and leading hikes and paddles around the region.