We traditionally spend the New Year singing “Auld Lang Syne,” a song that reminisces about times long past. For the first month of the New Year, staff at the USGS Hawaiian Volcano Observatory, and hopefully you too, will reflect on past and ongoing eruptions during the annual Volcano Awareness Month.

Another truckload of bison from Yellowstone National Park has been sent to the Fort Peck Indian Reservation in Montana, where they will complete a quarantine period to ensure they don't carry brucellosis.

If you are ever near the port town of Astoria, Oregon, you should take a little time for a side trip to Fort Clatsop, at Lewis and Clark National Historical Park. Contributing photographer Rebecca Latson visited during her exploration of the Pacific Northwest portion of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and returns with a little history as well as ideas for capturing photos of what you might see during your own visit.

As they launched their slender bodies rocket-like into the unknown of their new homes, the fishers had no idea of the weight of expectation riding on their furry shoulders.