Posted: April 13, 2026
Those of you who remember the comedian, actor, singer and pianist Jimmy Durante probably also remember his big nose. He often joked about it. If you can imagine his nose hanging a few inches farther down his face to cover his mouth, you will have an idea of what proboscis monkeys look like. The monkeys’
Continue Reading “Native Trees Help Proboscis Monkeys”
Category: Blog
Tags: Borneo, Hutan, Jimmy Durante, Malaysia, native trees, proboscis monkeys, waterfront forests
Posted: March 30, 2026
When life gets a little hectic or rushed, when things happen that make you disappointed or sad, there’s something you can do to help yourself feel calmer. Some people call it forest bathing. Other people call it spending time among trees. You don’t have to be in a forest. Even if you find only one
Posted: March 1, 2026
Over time, several scientific studies have discovered that microbes in tree bark feast on hydrogen, methane and carbon monoxide. For a long time, people have known that trees capture carbon dioxide as they grow. But it took several studies, some of them in Australia, to show that microbes in tree bark eat those other gases
Continue Reading “Microbes in Tree Bark Capture Gases”
Category: Blog
Tags: Australia, carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, methane, microbes, paper bark trees, Science News, tree bark
Posted: February 4, 2026
As I walked around my front yard in northwest New Mexico on February 3, I saw weeds popping up through the gravel. Lots of them. Weeds in the middle of winter? Usually, the ground is frozen this time of year, and weeds aren’t on my mind at all. Not so this winter. The ground hasn’t
Continue Reading “Weeds in the Middle of Winter?”
Posted: January 22, 2026
After little snow, in early January over two inches fell. It coated tree branches with white and turned the landscape into a wintry scene. The young blue spruce in my front yard continued to wear its snow jacket for several days. It made January feel like the Januarys of past decades that once filled the
Continue Reading “Where Is Winter?”
Posted: January 6, 2026
As we enter 2026, now is a good time to let go of things that upset us in 2025 so we can begin the new year without those old burdens. Some trees have a way of doing that. They shed their bark to get rid of the brittle exterior layer. That lets a fresh and
Posted: November 19, 2025
In October, I snapped a picture of this western bluebird sitting on my garden fence near an eastern redbud bush in my neighbor’s yard. The leaves have since turned yellow and are starting to fall off. It made me wonder what other signs of autumn I could find if I walked around my yard and
Continue Reading “Signs of Autumn”
Category: Blog
Tags: ants, autumn, cosmos, cottonwood tree leaves, eastern redbud bush, leaf blower, sweet pea vines, western bluebird, zinnias
Posted: May 12, 2025
Some friends of mine decided to plant a tree in their yard. They loved the idea of watching it grow. It would provide shade for the front of their house and part of their yard. They took good care of the tree. They watered it. They put stakes around it when the trunk was small
Continue Reading “Love Helps a Sick Tree Recover and Thrive”
Posted: April 1, 2025
Lots of Bradford pear trees flourish near where I live in northwest New Mexico. Their white blossoms cover the trees like cotton candy in early spring. On some streets, the trees line entire blocks, filling the skyline with beautiful blossoms. I wanted to get a picture of the trees in bloom, but I waited too
Continue Reading “Bradford Pear Trees”
Posted: March 9, 2025
On Easter Island, also known as Rapa Nui, a tree once popular for construction, firewood, feeding cattle and making sacred artefacts became extinct. Easter Island is a special territory of Chile in the southeastern Pacific Ocean. The overused tree also was challenged by changes in environmental conditions. By the 1960s, Easter Island’s vegetation was 90
Continue Reading “An Extinct Tree Returns to Life”
Category: Blog
Tags: Chile, Easter Island, extinct, Guardian Weekly, Pacific coast, Rapa Nui, rhizobia, soil bacteria, sophora toromiro tree, symbiotic relationship
