If you want to know whether Spring is on the way, don’t look to groundhogs for the answer. Instead, listen for the frogs. Certain species of frogs, such as the wood frog, begin singing even when there is still snow on the ground.

When it comes to piping plovers, a threatened species, the nesting habitat at Cape Lookout National Seashore is some of the best in North Carolina. That's evidenced by the fact that in 2009 the 37 nests counted at the seashore represented 70 percent of all piping plover nests in North Carolina. While the tally reflected a slight decline from 2008's record high of 46 nests, the number of chicks that fledged was a record high.

They are Jackson Hole’s first family of environmental protection, this valley’s version of Aldo Leopold, John Muir, Henry David Thoreau, Margory Stoneman Douglas, and St. Francis rolled into one clan. Newcomers soon discover the progeny of the Muries, both the amazing children and grandchildren connected to them directly by bloodline and the eminently larger number of ideological descendants.

Deep in Yellowstone National Park's backcountry, our sleep and the predawn darkness was startled by a sound that long had been alien to the park. But on that mid-September day in 2008 the sound was unmistakable. A lone wolf had raised its muzzle to the sky and released a rich, baritone howl that pierced the inky stillness. A long-missing aspect of the park's wildness had very much returned.