DURANGO NATURE STUDIES

Lightning survivor tells powerful story

2008-07-22T19:47:00.000-06:00

by Allison Pease, Executive Director

July 10, 2008

As monsoons thunder in, my eyes now turn to the sky in a way they didn't when I was younger.

Four years ago, my family's backcountry experience was interrupted when lightning struck our camp. The bolt shredded our tents, killed our dog, and sent my daughter and me to the hospital. In the years since, the episode lingered. As our hearts and heads healed, I sought clarity about this beautiful and formidable force of nature.

Lightning strikes the earth's surface 100 times each second. In the U.S., lightning sets 10,000 forest fires and causes $100 million in property damage annually. Between 1940 and 1991, lightning killed 8,316 people, and on average, produces 80 lightning-related deaths a year.

Lightning is an electrical current that flows between clouds or from a cloud to the earth. It results from tiny charges on the surface of water droplets in clouds, positive charges are on larger droplets, negative charges on smaller ones. These droplets produce a spark or flash of lightning.

Flashes between clouds are mostly benign since they travel only through air. Conversely, flashes between clouds and earth cause damage and death since they pass through whatever is in the way - houses, trees or people. Lightning reaches 100 million feet per second, travels up to 20 miles between clouds, and spans eight miles between clouds and the earth.

The current in a mile-long flash is about 1 billion volts, enough electrical power to light 1 million light bulbs instantaneously or one 100-watt bulb for three months. In a half-second flash, surrounding air is superheated to five times the surface temperature of the sun, and the vibrating expansion of air produces the sound of thunder.

In the months after lightning struck us, I had a harder time healing. My physician explained that lightning is not a predicable entity in span, current or path. As a result, I may have been zapped more directly than my daughter, lying inches away. Or not.

Wounds showed I'd been lying on my back when the lightning entered between my shoulder blades, traveled my spine and exited the top of my head. Conversely, it entered my daughter's knee and exited her side through star-shaped blisters. Further, adult bodies, with higher water content, are more conductive than children's. All of that, explained my physician, is why I needed a year to recover, while my daughter was up the next day.

Now, as I look skyward each afternoon, I'm struck, not by lightning, but by irony. The event left a legacy of trepidation, one that has me wondering if I'll ever again dance in the rain and one I keep trying to understand. You see, ironically, I can't even remember it.

Bees: Sometimes the sting is worth it

2008-06-13T23:07:00.001-06:00

by Allison Pease, Executive Director
June 11, 2008

My first memorable bee experience was the day my brother yelped in terror from a sting on his pinkie toe. Scooped into the arms of my mother, he emerged a short time later with a poultice of baking soda on his foot.

Eight at the time, I was unconcerned with my younger brother's malady. Instead, I pondered why the bee lay dead in the grass after afflicting such terror and whether the encounter meant something more. Years later, two events have prompted my return to pondering - the disappearance of bees and the purchase of them by friends.

Scientists estimate there are more than 20,000 bee species worldwide. Except for the highest altitudes, poles and some oceanic islands, bees thrive in warm, arid and semi-arid areas like ours. Ranging in length from 0.08 to 1.6 inches, their colors include black, gray, yellow, red, metallic green and blue.

Bees include three subsets - solitary, parasitic and social - each providing a natural laboratory for studying insect social behavior. Female solitary bees construct burrows of earthen chambers with enough pollen (food) for a young bee to grow from a hatchling to larva. After depositing her eggs, she moves on to construct another chamber.

Conversely, the two parasitic bee types don't forage or make nests. Instead, they capitalize on the workings of other bees. Cleptoparasitic bees invade solitary bee burrows, hide eggs in the chambers before a solitary female can and then close off the chambers. Social parasite bees kill resident queens, lay eggs in the host's chambers, then force hive workers to raise the parasitic young. Ugh!

Social (Winnie the Pooh) bees form highly specialized colonies. Through touch, sound and dance, individual bees focus on defense, food or reproduction. Mating once with multiple drones, the single queen remains fertile for life, laying 2,000 eggs daily. Fertilized eggs become female workers, unfertilized eggs become male drones, and new queens are "created" by feeding young larvae "royal jelly."

Simply through pollination, bees added $15 billion last year to crop values at a time when bees began disappearing at a phenomenal rate because of colony collapse disorder, called CCD. To date, many beekeepers have lost two-thirds of their colonies to CCD. While scientists now believe CCD is attributable to a highly pathogenic virus, others question why the virus was able to invade bee colonies and suggest that environmental factors like pesticides weakened the insect's ability to fight off infection.

As for me, I wonder which sting is worse - my brother's pinkie toe, $15 billion in lost crops, or the long-term impact to blossoms everywhere that rely on bees.

So, to my friends who've bought bees and built hives for an insect that sends shivers up our toes, thank you.

Sometimes the sting is worth it.

Spring hiking helps youngster spin a winning tale of bear

2008-05-19T23:30:00.002-06:00

by Allison Pease, Executive Director
May 8, 2008

When I walked into Backcountry Experience last Saturday, I thought I'd be walking out with a water bottle.

Instead, I left with a story. Actually, two.

Amanda Rydiger, a student in Robert Aspen's sixth-grade class at Miller Middle School, delivered the first; Becky Rockis with Backcountry Experience delivered the second.

Amanda recently won the third annual Backcountry Experience Outdoor Writing Competition in the middle-school class. Backcountry Experience has sponsored the area-wide school competition for the last three years hoping to empower education through nature writing. Backcountry's Becky Rockis said the store gave away more than $3,500 this year to six winners. For Rockis, stuff isn't important.

"I'm passionate about education and nature," she said. "Our writing competition is a way of getting kids involved in the world around them."

For Durango Nature Studies, Amanda's and Rockis' words are magic. Like Rockis, Durango Nature Studies hopes that students like Amanda keep writing, drawing and exploring. Thus, Durango Nature Studies is proud to offer the writings of this year's middle school winner, Amanda Rydiger.

• • •

"Amanda, wake up. We need to be outside. It's a beautiful day," my dad told me early one Saturday morning.

I told him I was tired and didn't want to wake up. "We're going on a really fun hike up to a waterfall," he said. We'd done that hike a few weeks earlier, so I didn't want to give up sleeping. I got up because he told me we were meeting friends. I've learned it's always more fun to hike with friends.

We got to the top of the waterfall and played in the water. Above the waterfall were small stairs someone had made in the rocks. We walked up the stairs and found a giant mud pit. After a great mud fight, we swam in the water and cleaned off.

We were heading back to the mud pit for another mud fight when I saw something moving in a tree. My dad said it was probably just a crow. "Ya!" I said. "Probably a really big fuzzy bird." My sister shouted, "That's definitely not a bird!" Someone else yelled, "That's a bear!" Looking closer, we saw a mother bear and two cubs.

Everyone freaked. We walked away saying the "Pledge of Allegiance" loudly. We saw that the mother bear had sent her cubs up the tree, and we were scared that she was going to come down, but the mother bear didn't. As soon as I got home, I jumped out of the car and ran to tell my mom.

I am so glad I went on our crazy adventure. It was fun to see three bears on one hike. What a great day outside!

Volunteers – Outdoor splendor of the best sort

2008-05-19T23:27:00.002-06:00

by Allison Pease, Executive Director
April 10, 2008

Some of the most amazing things in nature are people. Really.

These are folks who hike, bike, raft or sit under a tree letting the splendor of the outside world engulf them. They are farmers, ranchers and business owners who understand that a connection to nature is a connection to their home and livelihood.

Yet each year, natural changes created by fire, flood, drought and blizzards influence how we work and play. Understanding these changes is essential to ensuring both our present and our future. Even more importantly, as our world becomes more complex, connecting kids to their surroundings is vital. So, how do we gain such understanding and how do we pass it on?

At Durango Nature Studies, we do this in part through volunteers. This last weekend, we completed our 30th volunteer naturalist training. Since 1994, trainings have included fall, winter and spring seasons in which students participate in outdoor education programs. More than 50,000 children from Silverton to Farmington, Pagosa Springs to Dolores, have experienced DNS programs. Guiding them have been community volunteers who have shared experiences, wisdom and passion with children while learning as an adult as well. For example, this weekend we saw more scat than in previous years and wondered if it was because the Durango Nature Center had more protected snow-free areas than other areas. We explored bite marks on trees, tracks and the nipped ends of bushes from rabbits and deer.

When we started DNS, we served primarily Durango. Today, we serve students from across the region. State and county lines don't matter to the students, teachers and parents. What does matter is the education and experience. Our greatest limitation is finding the necessary resources to give all these learners what they need. Our resources include the Durango Nature Center, established programs and a volunteer pool that is vital to helping us keep costs low for schools. Our greatest challenge is finding and training new volunteers who have the time to deliver programs during the school day. It comes down to increasing our capacity to serve.

We are thrilled then to be joining four area nonprofits in sponsoring AmeriCorps VISTAs - Volunteers in Service to America. VISTAs will join DNS, Del Alma, Southwest Conservation Corps and the Boys & Girls Club in helping increase our organizational capacity. While each organization has specific goals, our hope is to provide more services to youths. We know the need is there - we just have to find a way to make it happen.

For DNS, it's about connections - children with nature, adults with nature, and especially adults with children. After all, sharing bunny bite-marks with a child is a natural connection as beautiful as all the other outdoor splendor that engulfs us.

Our unique sun: Bringing light and warmth to Earth

2008-05-19T23:23:00.002-06:00

by Allison Pease, Executive Director
March 13, 2007

As the heaping piles of snow finally start to melt and the days at last grow longer, the sun's warming glow is a welcome reprieve from this winter's snowy blasts.

And as next week's vernal equinox approaches, I thought I'd share some tidbits about the sun.

Two unique characteristics of our sun are that it's the only thing producing light in our solar system and that it's quite big compared to the other celestial globes in our corner of the universe.

Although you can block the sun from view with your thumb, the sun is actually enormous and contains 99.8 percent of all the mass in the solar system. How big is that really? If you used a ball 8 inches in diameter to represent the sun, the Earth would be the size of a 0.08-inch-diameter peppercorn. If the sun were hollow, 1 million Earths would fit inside. If the Earth were the size of a basketball, the sun would be the Louisiana Superdome looming over the court.

All that mass ultimately fuels another unique characteristic of the sun - light. Our sun is a gaseous globe containing mostly hydrogen (the most basic element) and a spattering of other elements such as helium. The enormous amount of stuff in the sun creates a huge well of gravity. On Earth, gravity keeps us rooted to the sidewalk as we spin about the axis at 1,000 mph and cruise around the sun at 67,000 mph.

The same gravitational forces that keep us rooted to the sidewalk on Earth exert tremendous pressure on all that hydrogen in the sun. That pressure is so great that hydrogen atoms are squeezed (fused) together, producing a thermonuclear reaction. In simple terms, for every pair of hydrogen atoms that are fused, a helium atom is produced and energy (light) is released. That energy reaches us in the form of delightfully warm solar rays.

Because the Earth's axis is tilted 23.5 degrees to its path around the sun, these solar rays reach us at different angles throughout the year, producing seasons.

During our winter, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted away from the sun. The sun appears low in the sky and we receive less light and warmth. During our summer, the Northern Hemisphere is tilted toward the sun as we bask in the sun's more direct and warming light.

Next week, the vernal equinox will mark the moment when day and night are the same length. From this point on, our days will grow longer until the summer solstice in June. As for me, after this winter, I can't wait.

February’s Lunar Eclipse – Not To Be Missed!

2008-01-23T23:36:00.000-07:00

by Allison Pease, Executive Director

Last August, a few of my friends hauled themselves out of bed at the frightful hour of 3:00 a.m. Their excuse? To see a lunar eclipse! While aghast at their willingness to crawl from slumber at such a contrary time, I grudgingly wondered if I’d missed something wonderful, especially after glowing reports of colors that engulfed both moon and soul.

As I lamented missing the wondrous nocturnal wonder, our program director, Becky Gillette, announced, “February’s full moon is a total lunar eclipse visible around sunset. Our full moon hike will be under a lunar eclipse!” As Becky gleefully went back to planning the hike, I realized that the first total lunar eclipse of 2008 was perfect for those of us not predisposed to wee morning hours. Its timing was also a thing to be celebrated.

Each month, a full moon occurs when the Earth passes between the Moon and Sun. Peering through night’s darkness with the Sun behind us, what we see is reflected sunlight off the face of the Moon. Lining up in a near plane, light from the Sun illuminates the face of the moon forming an almost perfect circle of light.

Lunar eclipses don’t happen every month because the orbits of the Moon, Earth, and Sun don’t regularly form a perfect linear plane. Instead, the Moon’s orbit around the Earth is tipped about five degrees to Earth’s orbit around the Sun. Thus, the Moon spends most of its orbital path above or below the Earth/Sun orbital plane. Even during a full moon, the Moon usually passes just outside that plane missing the shadow the Earth. A few times each year however, the Moon aligns with the Sun/Earth orbital plane and passes through the Earth’s shadow. The result is a lunar eclipse in which the Moon takes on a deep, rich red color.

Unlike a solar eclipse, a lunar eclipse is completely safe to watch. What is so dramatic during a lunar eclipse is the vibrant red color of the Moon. That color results from sunlight first passing through Earth’s atmosphere, which filters out most of the blue-colored light, then bending (refracting) through the atmosphere. The resulting sunlight reaches the Moon dimmer and redder than normal. Without Earth’s atmosphere, the Moon would be completely black during a total eclipse.

On February 20, a total lunar eclipse will be visible across the Four Corners just after sunset. We invite you to join us at the Durango Nature Center at 6:30 pm for an evening of lunar exploration. Take a hike, learn cool Moon facts, or sit back to enjoy the show. For details, visit www.durangonaturestudies.org.

Creative Sparks and Artistic Inspiration

2008-01-07T19:51:00.000-07:00

by Sally Shuffield, Community Coordinator

Thoreau wrote, “Nature is full of genius, full of the divinity; so that not a snowflake escapes its fashioning hand.” These words describe the special relationship between nature and those who create. At Durango Nature Studies, we believe in the importance of getting people outdoors so they can connect with the natural world.

But, why do we do this?

According to Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods, and others studying the phenomenon, “Nature Deficit Disorder,” it is imperative that children spend time outdoors, especially now when the world is overrun by technology more and more every day.

Children and adults learn by sensory exposure to a subject, and as many scientists, activists, and naturalists understand, the way people learn to care about the future of the natural world is to first love it. Positive, early experiences outdoors help to create this lifelong connection.

However, I believe there is another, equally important reason to expose children and adults to the magnificence of the natural world - to create inspiration for art, music, and literature. In addition to my work with DNS, I am a touring singer/songwriter and was an artist in residence with the San Juan National Forest. I am often asked where the inspiration for my songs comes from. I reply that words come to me most often when I am sitting alone in nature.

As an artist, I truly believe that listening and connecting to the energy of the natural world generates a creative spark in each of us. This spark is one of the greatest gifts we can give to children. It is also something we can reintroduce adults to through events, venues, and support.

To honor nature’s role in creativity and inspire youth and adults to tap into their own creative potential, DNS is reinventing Wild Words as a celebration of nature and the arts. The ongoing series will include music, authors, film, and lectures – each focused on enhancing opportunities for the community to be exposed to and inspired by those who create through nature’s inspiration.

Our first Wild Words event this year will be a celebration of songwriters. Held at the Abbey Theater on February 9, I will be joining songwriters Danny Schmidt and Carrie Elkin from Austin, TX, as we share stories and experiences that have influenced our songwriting. Danny is also the winner of the Kerrville Folk Festival’s Songwriting Contest.

Our relationship with the natural world can guide us on an amazing journey of exploration into our own creativity. It is a relationship worth nurturing – now and throughout our lives.

(Visit www.durangonaturestudies.org to learn more, hear song clips from the songwriters, or see a calendar of upcoming Wild Words events.)

Kids At One With Nature: It's More Than Mere Play

2008-01-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

by Allison Pease, Executive Director

For many of us, childhood memories are rich with images of playing in nature - exploring woodlands, climbing trees, building snow forts or watching stars late at night.

As it turns out, those experiences were more than just play. They gave us lifelong foundations of imagination and wonder.

Building boats with sticks, we became engineers. Exploring alleyways and window wells, we became adventurers. Catching salamanders and grasshoppers, we became biologists. Trying to keep them alive, we become doctors and nurses.

Our childhood experiences have filled the world with technological marvels spanning everything from medicine to communications, cell phones to hybrid cars. By playing outside in nature, we learned to explore and create.

But what if the next generation never plays outside, builds a snowman, or catches fireflies? What if the next generation is more concerned with video games, television and virtual sports? What if the next generation is the generation growing up now?

Emerging research suggests that the way children play has changed from outdoors to indoors in a single generation. One study reports that children 8 to 10 spend an average of six hours a day watching television and using computers, while another says that on any given day a child is six times more likely to play a video game than ride a bicycle.

Research is measuring everything from escalating childhood obesity to decreases in a child's ability to self-organize. While these studies cite too much time with computers and television, they highlight time spent outdoors as a critical factor in increased physical health, emotional well-being and attention spans among children.

And that's not all. Time spent outside may also have direct implications for nature.

Our children may be overly informed about big ecological events like hurricanes, tsunamis and fires. While these events offer opportunities to teach children about ecology, biology and even philanthropy, without joyful experiences that connect them to nature, kids are associating nature with disaster. They are becoming afraid of the outdoors, disconnecting from nature in a cycle that pushes them even further into the realm of video games.

Yet all too soon, our children will have to solve nature-based problems like local water rights and forest management or global warming and petroleum declines. What's increasingly clear is that children need early, direct and joyful connections to nature, connections that will inspire them to solve problems as adults.

The good news is that connecting children to nature is easy. All you need is patience and a picnic.

Take children outside. Let them bring a favorite doll or figurine. Collect rocks for a fort or sticks for a boat. Let them play, just play.

It's in the wonder and joy of nature that children become great adventurers or discover magic under a rock.

CAEE Award

2007-12-15T23:22:00.000-07:00

DNS received word this week that our Nature Year Project received the 2007 Colorado Alliance for Environmental Education (CAEE) Award for Excellence in Higher Education. (WAHOO! Can you imagine how giddy we're feeling right now?)

The project started as the brainchild of Leigh Gillette and Jennifer Kleffner, both of whom were rock stars at DNS for many years (Leigh and Jen are now at the Division of Wildlife). Their idea was to combine several DNS programs into a richer, deeper experience for students, while conducting pre- and post-assessment tests to measure the effectiveness of DNS EE efforts.

Based on their work, DNS received a grant from the Anschutz Family Foundation in 2006. Becky Gillette, our program director, changed the scope of the project to create a program that targeted at-risk students and focused on winter topics like habitat, snow physics, and animal adaptations.

What was SO COOL is that the pre- and post-tests of fifth and eighth grade participants showed awesome results. What's even cooler is that the project involved students from Fort Lewis College (FLC) and AmeriCorps from the Southwest Conservation Corps (SCC) as "volunteer naturalists" to serve as field program deliverers.

The FLC students were not necessarily majors in education, ecology, or environmental studies. In fact, most were from non-EE backgrounds who were simply participating in a senior-level English course. Their professor wanted to integrate eco-texts (Rachel Carson, Aldo Leopold, etc,) with real world venues for connecting to nature and community whether the focus was on volunteerism, kids, teaching, or the environment. SCC used the experience as an early training ground for the work they would do in the upcoming year with at-risk youth.

Each of the participating organizations - FLC, SCC, and DNS - brought something unique to the project, yet none were trying to do the same thing or fill the same niche. Instead, the project was a wonderful synergy of what each of us does well and what each of us needed from the others. For example, FLC needed a venue, SCC needed experience, and DNS needed volunteers. Pretty simple, yet so rich.

While the Nature Year Project had specific goals related to at-risk youth, science standards, and measuring the effectiveness of EE, the richness of the project was enhanced to a level we never thought possible through the participation from and collaboration with FLC and SCC. Even more, FLC and SCC are on board again this year for training, classroom learning, and field program delivery.

Collaboration is cool...

Allison Pease - Executive Director

No child left inside - part 2

2007-12-08T00:02:00.000-07:00

This year, we embraced an idea that resonates with us. It is an idea that is growing across America and Canada. “Leave no child inside” is a concept pioneered by Richard Louv in his book, "Last Child in the Woods: Saving Our Children From Nature-Deficit Disorder." Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) picked up the charge and introduced the “No Child Left Inside Act” to the Senate in August 2007.

Here at DNS, the idea has taken hold as something that just makes sense. If children are going to be prepared to solve the problems of the world, they are going to need more than books, especially in a world that is increasingly about video games. They will need to feel connected to the world around them in ways that are joyful and full of wonder. We invite you to explore these links to learn more:

“No child left inside” by DNS staff
http://durangonaturestudies.blogspot.com/2007_11_01_archive.html

"Kids at one with nature: It's more than mere play” by DNS staff
http://www.durangonaturestudies.org/articles/101107.htm

“No Child Left Inside” website
http://www.cbf.org/site/PageServer?pagename=act_sub_actioncenter_federal_NCLB

“The Children and Nature Network” sponsored by Richard Louv
http://www.cnaturenet.org

Thanks for a great Benefit Day

2007-12-02T21:03:00.000-07:00

Every one at Durango Nature Studies would like to extend a heartfelt thanks to DMR for a phenomenal Benefit Day. The Purgatory staff and crew on Sunday and leading up to the event were outstanding, and DMR’s commitment each year to the nonprofits of our community is something to cherish and celebrate.

We would like to thank the teams of the Durango Winter Sports Foundation, as well as the folks at Magpies and Steamworks, each of whom contributed to building excitement for a great Benefit Day. Our thanks goes out as well to all of you who came out to ski or ride. Without you, Benefit Day has no meaning.

Lastly, the entire DNS family would like to thank Mother Nature for doing her part in dumping close to three feet of snow and then letting the sun shine on.

What a great day. Thank you all.

No Child Left Inside

2007-11-15T20:55:00.000-07:00

No child left inside... What a great idea... and long over due.

Imagine for a moment that you share something in common with everyone associated with Durango Nature Studies. That something is a deep, a heartfelt connection to nature. When you look at a sunset, you see a painting. When you see the first leaves change in the fall, you feel joy. When you sit next to a babbling brook, you hear music. It’s a connection that is deep - something we all get.

Now ask yourself where that deep, heartfelt connection comes from. Close your eyes for a moment and think back to the first time you remember being outside. Maybe it was fishing with your dad. Maybe it was a picnic with your family. For me it was hunting for salamanders in window wells after a rain.

Those experiences were more than just fun. We learned to organize our day (after all, hunting for salamanders was very important work), and we learned to explore and question the world around us. We gained a connection to nature, to the environment, and to our home. We also learned not to be afraid. Nature was a place to play; it was a play of freedom and joy. It was really fun!

What’s alarming is that the way children play has shifted from outside to inside in a single generation. A study by the Kaiser Family Foundation reports that, during the school year, children ages 8-10 spend an average of 6 hours each day in front of a TV, video game, or computer screen. Six hours!

You might say, “Knowing how to use a computer is a great thing.” And it is. The problem is that as children spend more and more time indoors, they are becoming more and more disconnected from everything outdoors. They are getting lots of information about big ecological disasters like tsunamis and hurricanes, but if that’s the only experience they have with nature, they begin to associate nature and the outdoors with hopelessness and doom. They become afraid.

I don’t know about you, but I vote because I’m passionate about an issue or a candidate. I get involved with my community because I love where I live. I even have my job with DNS because I feel a deep, heartfelt connection to nature and children. The key here is that I’m involved, not because of what I know, but because of what I feel. It is really important have those connections in a community, because that’s where solutions to problems come from.

There are things happening globally that are going to need some pretty big solutions - things like global warming. It doesn’t matter whether you believe global warming is real or that human beings had anything to do with it. The fact is, the polar ice caps are melting, the Sahara is getting bigger, and our oceans are increasingly polluted.

The next 10-50 years are likely to bring changes to the planet that we don’t even understand yet. Those changes are going to require solutions that we haven’t even thought of yet. The people who will have to find those solutions are not those of us who are adults today. They are our kids and grandkids.

Yet, if all they know about nature is fear, if they never have the experiences you and I had when we were kids, they won’t have the passion to care.

As children’s lives shift more and more inside, it’s becoming more and more important to give them a place outdoors in which they can explore and learn. A place where they feel safe. A place where they feel joy. A place where they make those connections, memories like the ones you and I have, so that in 10, 20, or even 50 years they will have found the solutions we need.

If we get them outside today, if we give them every opportunity to roll in a meadow or catch a bug, they won’t be afraid. Instead, they’ll share that same passion for nature and community that you and I do. They’ll see a painting in a sunset and hear music in a babbling brook.

Allison Pease - Executive Director