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Exploring All Five Stops Of The Halifax Defence Complex

The garter snake shoots me the side-eye as I arrive at Fort McNab National Historic Site and inadvertently disturb the peace. Endangered barn swallows swoop confidently about, almost as if they know they’re a species at risk and it’s illegal to disturb them or their nests. It’s also against the rules to camp which is probably news to the young couple who’ve kayaked over to McNabs Island and brazenly pitched a tent in the ruins.

USGS, NPS Finalizing Disaster Recovery Plan For Hawai'i Volcanoes

The monthslong eruption of Kīlauea volcano at Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park back in 2018 did a great deal of damage to the park and its infrastructure, including impacts to the Jaggar Museum and nearby buildings on the brim of the volcano that left them unusable. Now the National Park Service and U.S. Geological Survey are ready to move forward with a disaster recovery plan that is open for public comment.

Walking Among Kejimkujik's Troubled Hemlocks

On route to an old-growth Eastern hemlock stand, we’re waylaid by a hiker keen to share her sighting of a Lady’s Slipper, a prolific orchid with a pink, pouch-shaped flower that she has confused with the rare Hooker’s orchid the park wants citizen scientists to keep an eye out for. We pause to admire ruby red teaberries and bunchberries with tiny but showy white “flowers” made up of four oval bracts, rub sweetfern to inhale its namesake scent, and gently finger the ragged lung lichen that proliferate on tree trunks.

Mystery Photo Solved: The Jones' Family Outhouse At Tallgrass Prairie

Stephen F. Jones in 1878 established the Spring Hill Ranch that today is preserved within Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve in Kansas. He spent lavishly on his 11-room Second Empire limestone mansion, and since indoor plumbing didn't exist at the time, he saw that a proper outhouse -- one made from limestone -- was built not far from the mansion's back door.