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X Marks the Spot! Exploring Nature with Letterboxing
By Krista Sonia on
Blog: Just Our Nature
“There is a park named after Chief Ahanton's daughter--find this park to begin your search,” the clue said. As an eager twelve year old, I could not wait to begin the search for real hidden treasure! Having visited that same park with my family for many summers it wasn’t hard to solve the hint’s riddle. Standing at the entrance, my mother read aloud from the “map”, a little sheet of clues we had…
Funtography Tips
By Justin Dalaba on
Blog: Just Our NatureKnowing Your Resources
There is no lack of access to cameras these days. Many of the electronic devices we carry on our person, including smart phones and tablets, have some sort of camera built into them. This can be to your advantage when you come across something that seems worth capturing. While shooting with a traditional film camera may be a skillful art, shooting with digital cameras is…
Lyme Disease Ecology Part One: A Ticky Situation
By Jacob Malcomb on
Blog: Just Our Nature
All year round we await the North Country summer – when the landscape is green and lush, the days are long, and shorts finally seem like a viable clothing option. In early summer we can easily tolerate a few mosquitos and black flies in exchange for the abundance of outdoor opportunities that our region offers. But over the last decade, Lyme disease has emerged as a serious concern for northern…
Sun Time and Screen Time: Infusing Technology in Outdoor Experiences
By Krista Sonia on
Blog: Just Our NatureTechnology has been around for ages!
The use of a fishing rod can be traced back to 2000 BC1, the first plows were used around 4000 BC, and a granary to store excess food was built in 6000 BC2. Even as far back as the Stone Age there is evidence that humans were applying knowledge and using tools to solve problems3. All of these feats can be filed under the overarching term technology whose…
Conservation Field Day Scavenger Hunt at Indian Creek Nature Center
By Justin Dalaba on
Blog: In the SchoolsOn June 4th 2015, roughly 70 students from Colton-Pierrepont, Huevelton and Trinity schools came out to spend a day immersing themselves in the natural environment at Indian Creek Nature Center's Conservation Field Day. Each year, 5th and 6th graders from across St. Lawrence County have the opporunity to get the hands-on experience in a variety of field science activities. On a beautiful sunny…
Garlic Mustard: An Edible Invasive
By Jacob Malcomb on
Blog: Farmed and ForagedWhile any new green growth tends to catch my eye after a long winter, some signs of spring are less welcome than others. Over the past several years I’ve noticed an increasing occurrence of garlic mustard (Alliaria peteolata), an invasive weed native to Europe and North Africa, cropping up around the North Country each spring. True to its name, garlic mustard is in the mustard (Brassicaceae)…
A Shelter for Ten
By Winter Ecology at St. Lawrence University on
This winter Nature Up North is featuring a Winter Ecology Series, in which St. Lawrence University students in Dr. Karl McKnight's Winter Ecology course share their observations from a weekly field trip to Glenmeal State Forest in Pierrepont. We hope you enjoy their accounts from days spent in the woods examining the fascinating ways plants and animals endure the North Country winter.
By Alyson…
The Winter Buds
By Winter Ecology at St. Lawrence University on
By Katherine Gilbert
It’s 3:00pm on an overcast Thursday, and nine kids are crammed into a timber-framed playhouse, decked out in ski pants and parkas, up to their ears in a pile of branches, twigs, and buds collected from the trees around Glen Meal State Forest. Heat pulses from a small space heater and rises up to the high-pitched ceiling while the students debate whether or not it is actually…
Our Neighbors in the Cold
By Winter Ecology at St. Lawrence University on
By Justin Dalaba
Warm gear, check. Snowshoes, check. Lunches, check. Field journals, check. We have all the necessary gear we need to brave the cold for several hours in the woods before making our way back to home base, but what about the animals that thrive in the cold all winter? As college students we take for granted our ability to walk to the dining hall for food to sustain our energy…
Winter Ecology Week 1: New Sights, New Smells, New Snacks
By Winter Ecology at St. Lawrence University on
This winter Nature Up North is featuring a Winter Ecology Series, in which St. Lawrence University students in Dr. Karl McKnight's Winter Ecology course share their observations from a weekly field trip to Glenmeal State Forest in Pierrepont. We hope you enjoy their accounts from days spent in the woods examining the fascinating ways plants and animals endure the North Country winter.
By…