Hike with Pride this month!

June is LGBTQIA+ Pride Month as well as Great Outdoors Month and so this blog will be about both! LGBTQIA+ is an acronym that stands for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex, asexual and the plus is for gender fluid people - people whose gender identity changes over time or per situation. Queer is a …

Let’s clear the air: a Vulture is not a Buzzard

  Today’s blog focuses on the Turkey Vulture, another one of the most commonly seen birds here in the Southeast. Before we talk about identifying characteristics though, I thought we could dive into the semantics of the terms vulture and buzzard, because it can be pretty confusing. Before researching this topic, whenever I heard the …

Earth Day

Warm sunshine.  Rainy days.  Blooming plants.  The Earth is alive in this wonderful Spring season!  This is the perfect time to have Earth Day.  I guess that is why in 1970, 47 years ago, the first Earth Day was observed.  Earth Day is held to  "demonstrate support for environmental protection".  Topics can include environmental clean …

On Janisse Ray, Environment, and History’s Knack for Repeating Itself

I have recently revisited Georgia-born author Janisse Ray's work of nonfiction titled Ecology of a Cracker Childhood. The book's innards are in the title as Ray alternates chapters where she recounts her  childhood memories with contrasting subject matter of the unique ecology of southern Georgia's coastal plain otherwise known as the longleaf pine wiregrass ecosystem. Janisse Ray …