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
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
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
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
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
Green Grass, Muskrats, and Geese
While checking on the Arboretum yesterday to see how the spring rains were treating the landscape, I came across a pair of Canada geese (Branta canadensis) grazing on new grass emerging from the seeding of a constructed area we call the Gathering Circle. The geese brought back memories of my relative youth as a budding … Continue reading
Rod Sayler
Nature @ WSU 