Alex Palmer's Natural History Notes and Thoughts

The other week I was sitting on expressway stuck in traffic, with the smog and the fumes fanning around my little Corolla.  I was soo anxious to get out of town and escape to the Cherry Blossom Festival up in DC for the weekend, but the daily 7 mile back up getting into the tunnel was delaying my party-time aspirations. The section of road I was parked on was a busy commuter interstate that winds right past a large military base.  If I seemed a frustrated driver, then this should not be compared to the plethora of oversized SUVs with "fuck Obama" stickers plastered all over them trying to get around all of the cars. Then, out of the corner of my eye, I saw an osprey ( Pandion haliaetus ) fly right over carrying a large stick in its talons.  It preceded to lower the stick to the top of a large metal tower, which was maybe some sort of radio control tower or a monitoring defense apparatus to ensure that terrorists don't bomb the military base.  The tower was surrounded

Introduction Even at the creation of the National Park Service in 1916, ranger-led campfire programs were already well established at public camp grounds and environmental education areas.  Drawing on an age-old tradition of telling stories and gathering with friends around a crackling wood-burning fire, fireside environmental education programs are a well established activity across national, state, and many local parks and preserves.  For example, a recent seasonal position I had as a naturalist for an environmental education summer camp included performing improvised skits in front of youth around a campfire.  The skits would often reflect something on our experiencing in the outdoors, or would have some nature-themed component to them. Performing skits around a campfire, whether at a summer camp or doing interpretive programs at a national park, can aid in creating a valuable and memorable experience for visitors.  In some ways, it resurrects a long-lost tradition of people gath