NOTES FROM ABOVE THE TREE LINE
ROCK PTARMIGAN
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FROM THE FIELD
The Driftless Area: The Part of the Midwest the Glaciers Somehow Missed
Drive across much of the upper Midwest and the landscape can feel broadly legible. Rolling farmland.
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FROM THE FIELD
Local Scout Self-Demotes to Webelos Scout, Says He Wasn’t Prepared
A 13-year-old Scout asked troop leaders Sunday to reverse several years of advancement and return him to Webelos Scout status after arriving at a…
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FROM THE FIELD
12 Trees You Keep Calling a Pine Tree
There is a common tree-identification system in North America. If it has needles, call it a pine tree.
Latest Stories
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Michigan Has Enormous Sand Dunes Because the Great Lakes Are Showing Off
Lake Michigan contains no saltwater. No ocean tides in the ordinary sense. No connection to the sea that…
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Lost Hiker Refuses Rescue After Learning Trailhead Only 400 Feet Away
A hiker reported missing for nearly three hours declined further assistance Sunday after search-and-rescue volunteers informed him he…
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11 Tiny Camping Stoves for Cooking One Enormously Complicated Dinner
The basic backpacking meal requires hot water. This has not stopped the outdoor industry from producing enough stove…
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14 Birds You Have Definitely Seen and Still Cannot Identify
There is a large class of birds whose main field mark is that they have been standing ten…
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The Pronghorn Is Not an Antelope and Has Places to Be
The pronghorn has spent centuries being introduced incorrectly. American antelope. Prairie antelope.
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Marmot Acquires Technical Equipment for Activities It Already Does for Free
A yellow-bellied marmot left a local outdoor retailer Saturday with nearly $900 in technical equipment intended to improve…
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10 Hiking Socks to Spend an Unreasonable Amount of Money On
There is a point in adult life when twenty-five dollars for a pair of socks stops sounding insane…
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Skunk Cabbage Is Heating Its Own House
Late winter in a wet forest looks mostly inactive. Snow. Mud. Dead leaves. Gray trunks. Then, in a…
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Area Deer Freezes in Road to Consider All Available Options
A white-tailed deer brought evening traffic to a complete stop Tuesday after entering County Road 8 and appearing…
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12 Hiking Terms Designed to Conceal How Miserable the Next Hour Will Be
Trail descriptions are written in a dialect of optimism. “Rolling terrain.” “Some exposure.” “Brief scramble.”
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The Palouse Looks Fake
The Palouse of eastern Washington and northern Idaho looks like someone applied a smoothing tool to farmland.
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The Nebraska Sandhills Are a Desert Wearing Prairie
Central Nebraska contains an enormous sand-dune field. Not ancient dunes buried under rock. Not little dunes along a…
The mountain will still be there tomorrow.
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