First Dinosaur Tail Found Preserved in Amber

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2016/12/feathered-dinosaur-tail-amber-theropod-myanmar-burma-cretaceous/

December 13

10:00 Winter World by Bernd Heinrich

12:00     Winged Migration

Cuba’s Biodiversity Emerges from the Shadows

https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/cubas-biodiversity-emerges-from-the-shadows/

How to Bring a Devastated Forest Back to Life

www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-bring-devastated-forest-back-life-180951164/?no-ist

The Ocean is Losing its Breath

theconversation.com/the-ocean-is-losing-its-breath-and-climate-change-is-making-it-worse-66192

Largest Marine Reserve In Antarctica

http://www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2016/10/28/499717685/nations-reach-deal-to-establish-worlds-largest-marine-reserve

Bees can learn to pull strings for food

http://earthsky.org/earth/bees-can-learn-to-pull-strings-for-food

Trees are much better ...

Trees are much better at creating clouds and cooling the climate than we thought

https://theconversation.com/trees-are-much-better-at-creating-clouds-and-cooling-the-climate-than-we-thought-66713?

A Frog Dies in Atlanta

A Frog Dies in Atlanta, and a World Vanishes With It

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/10/opinion/a-frog-dies-in-atlanta-and-a-world-vanishes-with-it.html?_r=0

October 11 - The Sixth Extinction

Without a Trace

‘The Sixth Extinction,’ by Elizabeth Kolbert

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/02/16/books/review/the-sixth-extinction-by-elizabeth-kolbert.html?_r=0

Climate Change & The Astrobiology Of The Anthropocene

http://www.npr.org/sections/13.7/2016/10/01/495437158/climate-change-and-the-astrobiology-of-the-anthropocene

Vertical farming

High Times: Vertical farming is on the rise — but can it save the planet?

Groundbreaking advances in vertical farming, which doesn't break ground at all, raise hopes it can feed the world - DIANE STOPYRA

http://www.salon.com/2016/09/25/high-times-vertical-farming-is-on-the-rise-but-can-it-save-the-planet/

Birds, Bones, and Other Beautiful Specimens

The Birds, Bones, and Other Beautiful Specimens in Museum and National Park Collections

http://www.slate.com/blogs/behold/2016/09/16/leah_sobsey_photographs_the_collections_of_national_park_museums_in_her.html

Near-record low 2016 Arctic Sea ice

Grandaddy of climate indicators is sick

http://www.salon.com/2016/09/17/grandaddy-of-climate-indicators-is-sick-these-images-show-near-record-low-2016-arctic-sea-ice_partner/

The Planet Is Going Through A ‘Catastrophic’ Wilderness Loss

The Planet Is Going Through A ‘Catastrophic’ Wilderness Loss

https://thinkprogress.org/most-wilderness-is-gone-thanks-to-humans-ad828409f4b6#.oxepieoxh

September 13

A History of the World in 6 Glasses 

In this book, Tom Standage tells a popular history of the world through six beverages: beer, wine, spirits, coffee, tea and Coca Cola. A thoroughly enjoyable read, the book is full of those kinds of anecdotes and stories that help students to enjoy and remember history. Better still is the book's ability to provide a possible narrative of world history. The book is organized chronologically, allowing each beverage to tell the story of a period through local stories, global processes, and connections. Along the way, the reader can make comparisons amongst these drinks as to which have been seen as medicinal drinks, currency, social equators, revolutionary substances, status indicators, and nutritional supplements. In studying drinks, as with food, class and social structure are emphasized allowing a social historical perspective.

Tea Plantation

Yes, America Has A Working Tea Plantation
Ithttp://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/08/23/488817144/america-s-only-full-time-tea-taster-talks-about-life-on-the-charleston-tea-plant

The Taming of the Wild

As we celebrate the centenary of the National Park Service, a meditation on “the best idea that America ever had”

https://theamericanscholar.org/the-taming-of-the-wild/

Bird Feeders

How a Bird Feeder Revived My Marriage

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/08/14/fashion/modern-love-how-a-bird-feeder-revived-my-marriage.html?emc=eta1

Thank you Maureen for bringing this article to my attention

The Oyster Makes its Return

The Oyster Makes its Return to the Hudson and the Chesapeake

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/08/15/the-oyster-makes-its-return-to-the-hudson-and-the-chesapeake.html

Terrifying Glass Skywalk

Whatever You Do, Don’t Look Down From This Terrifying Glass Skywalk

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/china-glass-cliffside-skywalk_us_57a08c5de4b0e2e15eb710b1?section=&

NATURE LOVERS BOOK GROUP MEETING & BARBECUE

NATURE LOVERS BOOK GROUP MEETING & BARBECUE

Galena Creek Recreation Area (South Entrance)   Tuesday, August 9th 10:30: Lake Tahoe book discussion

12:00: Barbecue

Please RSVP waltsue62@gmail.com, or call  851-4555 no later than Tuesday (Aug. 2rd) and advise if you will/will not be attending and what you plan to bring for the barbecue/picnic so we can finalize plans.  Thank you. 

LAKE TAHOE BOOK DISCUSSION (10:30 am – Noon):  Please bring a book you have recently read on Lake Tahoe. We will each provide a short talk related to an area of interest about the lake.  For example:  Some of its history, inhabitants, environmental issues of the lake and surrounding area, Tahoe area habitat (plants, flowers, animals, insects), etc.BARBECUE:  Immediately following the book reviews, we will set up for the picnic. Guests are welcome to join us for the book discussion and barbecue.  The barbecue chicken, tableware and water will be provided.  Estimated attendance – 15 to 20.  

Please consider bringing one of the following:Salad  (green or vege, potato, pasta, etc.)Beverage other than waterDessert (fruit, baked goods, etc.)      Bread or rolls, butter, cheese, etc.

DIRECTIONS:  Take the freeway (Hwy. 395) until you get to the Mt. Rose Hwy turnoff (431).  Stay right and continue past Raley’s Shopping Center, Galena High School, and keep heading west up Mt. Rose Hwy (the road will narrow from 2 to 4 lanes) for approx. 5 1/2 miles.PARK LOCATION:  The Galena Creek Recreation Area is on the right side of the highway.  There are two park signs. DO NOT TURN OFF AT the first sign that says, NORTH ENTRANCE. Continue driving another 3/4 mile until you see the SOUTH ENTRANCE sign for the Galena Creek Recreation Area, which is on the right, just behind the NDOT staging area.  When you turn into the South Entrance, continue up the road and look for a posted sign “NLBG”, or one of us waving at you.  We’ll be in the shaded picnic area, which has 3 tables and a barbecue grill, just across from the restrooms.  If you’d like, stop and unload your food first, then drive down to the parking area (which is just below the picnic site), park and walk back up.  Don’t hesitate to call (691-3762) for assistance.     We look forward to this special day with all the NLBG and guests.

How a Wild Bird Leads People to Honey

Thanks to Maureen for bringing this article to my attention.
http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/how-a-wild-bird-leads-
people-to-honey

How Trees Talk To Each Other

http://www.ted.com/talks/suzanne_simard_how_trees_talk_to_each_other?utm_source=tedcomshare&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=tedspread

What a Fish Knows

What a Fish Knows: The Inner Lives of Our Underwater Cousins (2016) by Jonathan Balcombe 

A New York Times Bestseller
Do fishes think? Do they really have three-second memories? And can they recognize the humans who peer back at them from above the surface of the water? In What a Fish Knows, the myth-busting ethologist Jonathan Balcombe addresses these questions and more, taking us under the sea, through streams and estuaries, and to the other side of the aquarium glass to reveal the surprising capabilities of fishes. Although there are more than thirty thousand species of fish―more than all mammals, birds, reptiles, and amphibians combined―we rarely consider how individual fishes think, feel, and behave. Balcombe upends our assumptions about fishes, portraying them not as unfeeling, dead-eyed feeding machines but as sentient, aware, social, and even Machiavellian―in other words, much like us.
What a Fish Knows draws on the latest science to present a fresh look at these remarkable creatures in all their breathtaking diversity and beauty. Fishes conduct elaborate courtship rituals and develop lifelong bonds with shoalmates. They also plan, hunt cooperatively, use tools, curry favor, deceive one another, and punish wrongdoers. We may imagine that fishes lead simple, fleeting lives―a mode of existence that boils down to a place on the food chain, rote spawning, and lots of aimless swimming. But, as Balcombe demonstrates, the truth is far richer and more complex, worthy of the grandest social novel.
Highlighting breakthrough discoveries from fish enthusiasts and scientists around the world and pondering his own encounters with fishes, Balcombe examines the fascinating means by which fishes gain knowledge of the places they inhabit, from shallow tide pools to the deepest reaches of the ocean.
Teeming with insights and exciting discoveries, What a Fish Knows offers a thoughtful appraisal of our relationships with fishes and inspires us to take a more enlightened view of the planet’s increasingly imperiled marine life. What a Fish Knows will forever change how we see our aquatic cousins―the pet goldfish included.

Bumblebees and buzz-pollination

The Secret Buzz Only Bumblebees Know To Unlock Our Favorite Crops

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/07/19/486501293/watch-the-secret-buzz-only-bumblebees-know-to-unlock-our-favorite-crops

The Falconer

Gaspari-Crawford raises and trains her falcons at her home, Rafter 66 Ranch, in Reno, Nevada.
http://kunr.org/post/falconer#stream/0

POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE

MEET DALE DUALAN. HE'S TURNING POINT REYES NATIONAL SEASHORE 100 PERCENT GREEN.

http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/video/meet-dale-dualan-hes-turning-point-reyes-national-seashore-100-percent-green?utm_source=insider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletter

How do octopuses change their color?

http://earthsky.org/earth/incredible-color-changing-how-does-octopus-do-it

Outstanding New Books

The Invention of Nature: Alexander Humboldt’s New World (2015) by Andre Wulf
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/27/books/review/the-invention-of-nature-by-andrea-wulf.html
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2015/nov/13/the-invention-of-nature-the-adventures-of-alexander-von-humboldt-andrea-wulf-review



Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight Over Controlling Nature (2016) by Jordan Fisher Smith
http://dijkstraagency.com/book-page.php?isbn13=9780307454263
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/26891330-engineering-eden

Blind Man And His Friend With No Arms Work As One To Plant A Forest

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/10000-trees-planted-in-china_us_576b6268e4b09926ce5dcb15?section=

Lab Girl by Hope Jahren

I highly recommend this fascinating book.
Here is a review from goodreads
Acclaimed scientist Hope Jahren has built three laboratories in which she’s studied trees, flowers, seeds, and soil. Her first book is a revelatory treatise on plant life—but it is also so much more.

Lab Girl is a book about work, love, and the mountains that can be moved when those two things come together. It is told through Jahren’s stories: about her childhood in rural Minnesota with an uncompromising mother and a father who encouraged hours of play in his classroom’s labs; about how she found a sanctuary in science, and learned to perform lab work done “with both the heart and the hands”; and about the inevitable disappointments, but also the triumphs and exhilarating discoveries, of scientific work.

Yet at the core of this book is the story of a relationship Jahren forged with a brilliant, wounded man named Bill, who becomes her lab partner and best friend. Their sometimes rogue adventures in science take them from the Midwest across the United States and back again, over the Atlantic to the ever-light skies of the North Pole and to tropical Hawaii, where she and her lab currently make their home.

Born Free Foundation

http://www.bornfree.org.uk/

Book Marks

When a book is reviewed at least three times, those reviews are averaged into a result at Book Marks.
Note Nature category -
http://lithub.com/bookmarks/

Terry Tempest Williams's Dark Love Letter to the National Parks

http://www.outsideonline.com/2087511/hour-land-terry-tempest-williams-dark-love-letter-national-parks

Can Planting More Milkweed Save Monarch Butterflies? It's Complicated

http://www.npr.org/sections/thesalt/2016/05/31/479763154/can-planting-more-milkweed-save-monarch-butterflies-its-complicated

Rising Seas Push Too Much Salt Into The Florida Everglades

http://www.npr.org/2016/05/25/477014085/rising-seas-push-too-much-salt-into-the-florida-everglades

The Little Ice Age by Brian Fagan

Discussion Questions:
What do we learn from the two graphs at the beginning of the book?
How is the book organized?
What influence does Fagan think changes in climate have had on human history?
How does Fagan explain the causes of global warming since the 1850s?
When and what was the Little Ice Age?
How do historians know what the climate was like in past centuries?
What does Fagan consider to be the two "lessons" of the Little Ice Age?

Happy Earth Day

http://www.earthday.org/

Happy Birthday John Muir

Great Scot -- It's John Muir's Birthday

Thursday, April 21, will be the 178th birthday of writer and conservationist John Muir, who founded the Sierra Club 125 years ago. Is there a better way to celebrate his legacy than by watching this lovely four-and-a-half-minute film by Michael Coleman? Actually, we're pretty sure John Muir would say yes, there is: We should "break away, get out into the mountains."



http://www.sierraclub.org/sierra/2016-2-march-april/green-life/coming-home-celebrates-john-muir-s-birthday?utm_source=insider&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=newsletterThis

Collins Almanor Forest

All three Collins forests—Pennsylvania, Almanor, and Lakeview—have been independently certified by SCS Global Services in accordance with the standards and policies of the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC)

http://www.collinsco.com/

May 10 Book

The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850 by Brian Fagan 
The Little Ice Age tells the story of the turbulent, unpredictable, and often very cold years of modern European history, how this altered climate affected historical events, and what it means for today's global warming. Building on research that has only recently confirmed that the world endured a 500year cold snap, renowned archaeologist Brian Fagan shows how the increasing cold influenced familiar events from Norse exploration to the settlement of North America to the Industrial Revolution. This is a fascinating book for anyone interested in history, climate, and how they interact.

http://www.uctv.tv/shows/Brian-Fagan-The-Little-Ice-Age-How-Climate-Made-History-1300-1850-5885

April 12 Book

Walker, Gabrielle - An Ocean of Air: Why the Wind Blows and Other Mysteries of the Atmosphere (2007)

Most of the time we hardly notice that we're moving through air. But when a storm system whips it into a whirling mass that grows into a tornado or a hurricane, then the air around us makes headlines. Science consultant Walker (Snowball Earth) presents a lively history of scientists' and adventurers' exploration of this important and complex contributor to life on Earth, from Galileo's early attempts to show that it has weight to the explorations by 20th-century scientists Oliver Heaviside and Edward Appleton of the ionosphere, which acts as a giant mirror bouncing radio waves from one side of the globe to another.

Walker provides readers with easy-to-follow discussions of the science behind the discovery that carbon dioxide levels are rising exponentially; the theoretician who left her computer for Antarctica and discovered a huge ozone hole created by chlorofluorocarbons; why hurricanes form only in the tropics and why global warming may lead to more violent storms. She goes far afield at times, spending too much time on the Van Allen belts, for instance, but readers will find this informative book to be a breath of fresh air.


From Publishers Weekly

Will Stolzenburg - May 13, 2016

An Evening In Celebration of the Mountain Lion, featuring author Will Stolzenburg talking about his new book, Heart of A Lion.
Friday, May 13th, Nevada Museum of Art (Reno),  6:30 p.m.

http://www.nvwildlifealliance.org/event/2465/

Eastern Monarch Butterfiles Risk Extinction

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/monarch-butterflies-extinct_us_56f6e5c9e4b0143a9b48699a

Seed Banks - Missing Crucial Pieces

http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2016/03/23/3762451/food-banks-wild-crop-relatives/

Ocean of Air

The atmosphere is as substantive and wild as water.
http://www.slate.com/articles/arts/culturebox/2015/06/pilots_think_of_the_atmosphere_as_an_ocean_of_air.html

What's Killing Hawaii's Trees?

A mysterious plague that one expert calls “tree Ebola” threatens to wipe out the islands’ iconic ohia forests—and no one knows how to stop it

http://www.outsideonline.com/2060691/whats-killing-hawaiis-trees?utm_source=dispatch&utm_medium=newsletter&utm_campaign=03152016&spMailingID=24975835&spUserID=NzQ1NjI1MzQyNzgS1&spJobID=762376007&spReportId=NzYyMzc2MDA3S0

Super Bloom Brings Death Valley to Life

http://www.thedailybeast.com/videos/2016/02/24/super-bloom-brings-death-valley-to-life.html?autoplay=true

March 8 Book

Private Lives of Garden Birds: How to Understand the Everyday Behavior of the Birds in Your Backyard by Calvin Simonds

From the Inside Flap

Calvin Simonds has spent a lifetime learning to see the world as birds see it. And all those years of patient study have paid off: Private Lives of Garden Birds is the classic introduction to the most intimate, engaging secrets of eleven common backyard birds -- ones most often seen in gardens, yards, and parks.

Simonds conducts a kind of backyard safari where you'll witness the singular behavior of already-familiar birds. You'll learn how to distinguish different types of swallows by their flight patterns and how to recognize individual blue jays by their distinctive facial markings. You'll listen in on a song sparrow jam session where the lead bird tries out new songs and teaches his repertoire to the rest of his flock. And you'll learn why the power mower and the lawn sprinkler have become the robin's best friends.

Brimming with practical wisdom, charming personal stories, and genuine scientific insight, this updated and expanded third edition is essential reading for bird lovers, nature lovers, and especially familes who want to know their feathered neighbors better.