Nature & Wildlife
From my perspective, the best thing about winter is snow. When it falls, this natural element covers everything in a white blanket, creating a sense of cleanliness, purity and quiet. Snow can also symbolize peace, like in the poem Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening by Robert Frost, one of my favorite poets.
Nature & Wildlife
Every year, without fail, Thanksgiving and Christmas seem to come right on top of each other. The four weeks between the two holidays fly by, with hardly enough time to savor one before the other is upon us. Magical, flying reindeer, in other words, quickly follow the turkey feast.
Churchill Polar Bears
As the end-of-the-year holidays approach, themes of ice-skating rinks, snowflakes and cute polar bears in sweaters decorate many homes and shops.
Nature & Wildlife
The beginning of November always makes me think of the fall migrations of birds. In the United States, this annual ritual typically begins around August 1 and lasts through November 30; although, some birds may migrate earlier or later, and migration can start as early as mid-June and last until early January.
Nature & Wildlife
Our world is a colorful place. Just think of the vivid blues, greens, oranges, reds and yellows of Grand Prismatic Spring in Yellowstone National Park, the rainbow-hued mountains of Zhangye National Geopark in China or the shimmering green and purple bands of light in the aurora borealis above the tundra in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada.
Nature & Wildlife
You’ve no doubt heard the phrase “size matters,” used today quasi-humorously in almost every imaginable context in which the size of a particular object—animate or inanimate—is discussed. For example, one ESPN Classic article by writer Mike Puma on the racehorse Seabiscuit was titled Size Doesn’t Matter.
Nature & Wildlife
When people are deciding where to live, factors such as a community’s cost of living, employment opportunities, ease of transportation, and proximity to family and friends are usually considered on a somewhat equal basis. It turns out that for other mammals, the process is a bit more straightforward.
Conservation
There are many types of intelligence in the animal kingdom, and it seems that almost every day, we learn something more about them.
Travel Tips
On its finest days, summer feels like it could last forever. But, alas, all good things must come to an end. Or, when it comes to the seasons, sublimely shift into something new. As F. Scott Fitzgerald famously said, “Life starts all over again when it gets crisp in the fall.”
Conservation
If you look at a U.S. $1 bill today, you’ll find an image of an eagle holding arrows in one talon and an olive branch in the other.
Conservation
Water is the driving force of all nature. And it seems to take on an added significance in summer when heatwaves roll across the nation. Water cools us and sustains us, but we are abusing it.
Antarctica & Arctic
American environmentalist, historian and novelist Wallace Stegner called our national parks “the best idea we ever had.” In 1983, he wrote: “National parks are … absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”
