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Environment

Forestry

Rooted for natural carbon storage

Trees in neighborhoods enhance our environment by creating beautiful green landscapes, providing climbing fun for kids, and offering us shade on sunny days. More importantly, trees play vital roles in our ecosystems, including storing carbon, which is advantageous when discussing the management of...
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Solar panel in field

A sunny, solar summer

July is the perfect summer month.  As a kid it was a month with no schoolwork, my favorite summer camp, and many days spent outside in the sun.  From playing in the backyard and visiting parks with friends, to days at the community pool, one of my favorite feelings was coming home and...
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Male and female mallard ducks sit on a foggy pond

Notice nature’s calendar using the science of phenology 

Dawn is breaking over a quiet pond.  An early December wind sweeps through rustling Big Bluestem, Bottlebrush Grass, and seedhead ghosts of late-season blooms. A muskrat slowly retreats to a half-built lodge as the morning grows brighter. It is unseasonably cold. All is quiet, until a feint...
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teasel

How non-native teasel went from good to absolutely bad

Chances are if you have driven along any country road in Illinois, you have seen a tall plant with a spiky silvery thistle-like flower head swaying in the wind. What you may not know is that this plant hides a sinister side. Cutleaf teasel (Dipsacus laciniatus) and...
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