Vertical Farming - Could WSU Feed the City of Pullman?
The Art of Science: Watching The Future Melt
We seldom think about the art of science, but we should, because art may enhance understanding and communicate the science of global warming better than we think.
Lost Memories and Empty Forests: The Passenger Pigeon
Can we miss a memory we’ve never had? Few people realize that the hardwood forests of eastern U.S. are now devoid of what was once the most abundant bird in North America – the passenger pigeon.
Battling Environmental Depression: Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene
Many people confess to feeling depressed or pessimistic about the state of the global environment, but ‘Learning How to Die in the Anthropocene’ can help.
Dodos, Dimwits, and Fat Arses
Ever wonder about the knee caps of extinct dodos? Scientific discoveries challenge our preconceptions about extinct species like the dodo (e.g., weak, dim-witted, poorly adapted, inevitably doomed, etc.).
Zombie Science
While it’s scary to realize there real zombies in the real world, we also have the living dead among us right now in the form of endangered species that cannot be saved from extinction.
Arboretum & Wildlife Center Fall Report 2011
Activities of students and volunteers working in the WSU Arboretum & Wildlife Conservation Center (AWCC) are highlighted in the Fall Report 2011. This report illustrates and describes fieldwork and development projects on the AWCC, including the new citizen science project on pollinators in Palouse Prairie that was prototyped by students during the fall. NOTE: The … Continue reading
Bees in January
What do honey bees do in January in eastern Washington? Why, they come out and fly around, of course! At least they might if the weather is as warm as its been on the Palouse Prairie and the campus of Washington State University through early winter. One day in early January, while stopping to take … Continue reading
Are Worms Natural? The Global Worming Debate
To be more specific, are earthworms natural? For the chronically busy and distracted, the short answer to that question is – absolutely not! Earthworms are not natural! Not even a little bit! At least they’re not natural if they’re non-native, introduced earthworms that are devouring the forest floor and radically changing the ecology of some … Continue reading
A Natural Education at WSU
I just witnessed a race to survive on campus – quite literally. And the winner managed, but ever so barely, to survive. That’s what I call reality – and it’s certainly not like the fake, highly contrived reality offered on television. It makes me wonder how much natural education students miss by spending their days … Continue reading
How to Grow a Tortoiseshell
If you’re an ordinary tortoise, growing your shell might take you more than 150 years. But if you’re a tortoiseshell butterfly, life goes by much more quickly than that. It was such a cool and wet spring on Palouse Prairie in eastern Washington, that it didn’t seem like there were as many butterflies around as … Continue reading
Fall Crocus in the Garden
It was tempting to use the title, “Naked Lady in the Garden”, to attract the attention of those who don’t ordinarily dwell much on fall flowers, but I thought perhaps it was a bit risque for a university arboretum story. But it’s entirely true that fall crocus, meadow saffron, or naked lady, are common names … Continue reading
Stalking the Wild Bee
Hunting season is open in the WSU Arboretum – at least if you’re a student or visitor with a camera and are looking to carefully watch or shoot a picture of a bee or other pollinator! Students in WSU’s class in Restoration Ecology currently are prototyping a future “Citizen Scientist” project to census bees and … Continue reading
Throwing the Frogs Out With the Bath Water
Say hello to our new Columbia spotted frog friend, Fred, or Fredricka, as the case may be. We don’t know which it is yet, but we were quite surprised recently to discover this little frog sitting in our amphibian breeding pond at the Endangered Species Lab in the Wildlife Conservation Center at Washington State University. … Continue reading
Tree Quiz
For those of you who love trees, here’s a little quiz. We discovered this three tucked away in the naturalized woodland in the WSU Arboretum & Wildlife Conservation area. The arboretum woodland has naturalized from tree and shrub plantings that were originally made by the USDA, Pullman Plant Materials Center, starting back in the 1930s. … Continue reading
Vertical Farming Part 2: Pumpkins in the Sky
Imagine if we could grow vegetables and other crops up in tall trees. Just think of all the space we could save. Okay, maybe not. I can see some of you are thinking about pumpkins and watermelons dropping out of wind-blown tree tops, like David Letterman throwing things off of a five story building … Continue reading
Earth Day / Arbor Day in the Arboretum
Any day that you can plant a tree that might live to be 300 – 500+ years old is a good day. And when you plant that tree on Earth Day or Arbor Day in the WSU Arboretum and Wildlife Conservation Center, it’s even better. We want to thank the members and friends of Beta … Continue reading
Build It and They Will Come: Beavers in the Arboretum
While driving past the WSU Arboretum today, I noticed a small 2-3 inch diameter aspen (Populus tremuloides) toppled over on the ground on the banks of our small Airport Creek that runs through the arboretum. In a split second, the thought flashed in my head – you don’t suppose it could be the work of … Continue reading
The First Flutterby (…Butterfly) of the Season
I saw my first butterfly of the season today on April 9th. It was orangish, medium size, maybe with some darker spots or patterns of some kind on the wing, moving fast – okay it’s already gone! What was it? How in the world can I figure out what species of butterfly that might have … Continue reading
How to Save an Endangered Species
I recently had an interesting dialogue with Brian Palmer, who writes for the Green Lantern series for Slate Magazine, an online publication of the The Slate Group, a Division of the Washington Post Company. Brian contacted me to see how I would answer a question that a reader had posed to him, “Which endangered species … Continue reading
Camas Flowers in the WSU Arboretum
The native camas (Camassia quamash) flower is beginning to emerge in the Arboretum, although it is not yet blooming. However, the leaves from some surplus bulbs that we planted in a garden plot in the arboretum last fall are growing vigorously already and it might not be that long until we see the central flowering … Continue reading
Authors
Rod Sayler
Nature @ WSU 