Candice Gaukel Andrews | Good Nature

Video: The “Scientific” Beauty of the Northern Lights

Candice Gaukel Andrews February 19, 2019 7

There are many delightful and magical myths about the aurora borealis, also known as the northern lights. The Inuit of North America interpreted the lights as a ball game—with a walrus head serving as

The Stickiness of Learning Outdoors

Candice Gaukel Andrews February 12, 2019 2

Today, the average American child is by far an indoor creature, spending only four to seven minutes a day in unstructured play outdoors and more than seven hours a day in front of a

Grasslands: A Lot More Than Just Flyover Country

Candice Gaukel Andrews February 5, 2019 1

Across the world, they go by many names: downs, prairies, pampas, rangelands, steppes, savannas or velds. But what all of these landscapes have in common is that grass is their naturally dominant vegetation. These “grasslands” occupy what I

Wilderness: Lost and Found

Candice Gaukel Andrews January 29, 2019 5

Today, little more than 20 percent of the world can still be considered “wilderness.” That’s not a lot, especially when you weigh the benefits that those few designated areas provide. In the last two

Traveling Small in the Big Outdoors

Candice Gaukel Andrews January 22, 2019 3

Being an inveterate introvert, I avoid large crowds—well, really, even groups of people numbering 15 or more—like the plague. Yet the places that call to me are some of the most jam-packed because they

The Year-Round Land of Evergreens: the Taiga

Candice Gaukel Andrews January 15, 2019 3

It’s mid-January, the time some people call the “doldrums,” a period of feeling low energy and a lack of motivation after the Christmas and New Year season of celebration and parties. It can be

More than Travel Guides, Maps Tell Nature’s Stories

Candice Gaukel Andrews January 8, 2019 1

Maps are far more than sets of instructions on how to get from Point A to Point B. They tell stories. And whether they’re digital or paper maps, the tales they spin range from

New Year’s Day 2019: What Outdoor Place Misses You?

Candice Gaukel Andrews January 1, 2019 5

My father never had the “urge for going,” as songwriter-singer Joni Mitchell calls it—the desire to travel. I place the blame for that fact squarely on the shoulders of World War II. As a