NOTES FROM ABOVE THE TREE LINE
ROCK PTARMIGAN
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FROM THE FIELD
Quaking Aspen Is One Giant Tree Pretending to Be a Forest
The first problem is the word **tree**. You walk into an aspen grove and see hundreds or thousands of pale trunks.
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FROM THE FIELD
Local Beaver Project Now Six Months Ahead of Municipal Infrastructure Work
A beaver working without an engineering consultant, procurement schedule, traffic-control plan, or visible public-hearing process completed a functioning water-control structure this week approximately six…
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FROM THE FIELD
10 Water Filters for People Suddenly Very Interested in Protozoa
There is a particular moment in backpacking when a clear mountain stream stops looking like water and starts looking like a microbiology problem.
Latest Stories
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National Park Elk Announces It Will Be Handling Traffic Today
A bull elk assumed temporary control of traffic operations Thursday after standing in the center of a two-lane…
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10 Birds Whose Calls Sound Nothing Like Birds
The beginner birding problem is not merely that birds are difficult to see. It is that several birds…
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8 Two-Person Tents for One Person and All Their Shit
The phrase **two-person tent** sounds clear until two actual people attempt to put themselves inside one.
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The Woodcock Is a Perfectly Serious Bird Despite All Evidence
The American Woodcock is a shorebird that lives in the woods. It has a long bill, a round…
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Chipmunk With One Peanut Announces Retirement
An eastern chipmunk announced its immediate retirement Tuesday after obtaining a single unsalted peanut from beneath a picnic…
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10 National Monuments With Surprisingly Specific Reasons for Existing
A national monument can protect an enormous landscape. It can also protect one cave. One volcano. One fossil…
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Why Joshua Trees Look Like That
A Joshua tree looks like someone tried to build a tree from verbal instructions. Tall trunk. Branches.
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Orienteering Merit Badge Group Fails to Return From Orienteering Exercise
Six Scouts completing an orienteering exercise returned 47 minutes late Saturday after successfully applying several navigation techniques in…
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10 Emergency Radios to Purchase Immediately Before Forgetting Where You Put Them
Emergency preparedness has a natural life cycle. First, a severe storm happens somewhere else. Then you read an…
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The Great Basin Is Hundreds of Basins and None of Them Know Where to Go
The Great Basin sounds like one object. A basin. Large. Simple. Perhaps somewhere near Nevada. This is false…
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Black Bear Disappointed to Learn Subaru Contains Only Climbing Equipment
A black bear that investigated a parked Subaru Wednesday abandoned the vehicle after determining that its contents consisted…
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9 Wildflowers You Should Probably Stop Picking
A wildflower is doing several jobs at once. It is feeding pollinators, producing seed, storing energy, interacting with…
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