Jack Greene

The Eclipse Soundscapes project is looking for observers to record and share “field notes” of the changes they see, hear, and feel during the eclipse, whether they’re in the total path or not.

Canyons deliver our waters and nurture our souls. These priceless landforms deserve our love and protection.

Those masked bandits raiding our gardens by night and bird feeders by day, who often wash their food (actually enhancing tactile experience), have human-like highly sensitive hands, love to eat chickens, as do I, and have a very clever brain- an animal full of contradictions much like us human animals.

What about birds? Why are they so alluring, so beloved by so many? Whatever the reasons, the bird is the word!

Looking ahead, Salt Lake City may once again host the winter Olympics in 2034. May our internationally renowned Great Salt Lake be present to welcome them, and may our snow be white and bright, not brown and gone, from a covering of dust blown from an empty lake bed.

Hundreds of people gathered at the Bear River Massacre site to plant trees and plants that were once sacred to the area. They came to heal the land, to offer some retribution for those whose bones had once littered some of these same grounds.

The intrinsic value of connecting to nature has been realized and capitalized. It’s becoming more common for health workers, both mental and physical, to subscribe nature as a potential cure for many ailments.

Shorebirds are a diverse group of birds including sandpipers, plovers, avocets, oystercatchers and phalaropes. There areapproximately 217 recognized species globally, 81 of which occur in the Americas for all or part of their lifecycle with 52 species breeding inNorth America, many of whom visit Utah.

The normal range of the western tiger swallowtail covers much of western North America, from British Columbia to North Dakota in the north to Baja California and New Mexico south. Individuals occasionally turn up in eastern North America, though it is generally replaced by the similar eastern tiger swallowtail.

We have toxic plants here in Utah. One that is reported to have caused death in humans and livestock is the foothill death camas, one of a few extremely toxic plants found in our area, and a very common early spring plant throughout much of Utah’s foothills. Death camas plants include several species of Zigadenus. At least 15 species are native to North America and grow in all kinds of habitats: moist mountain valleys, dry hills, forest, grassland, and even coastal and marsh areas. There may be some variation in toxicity level from one species to the next, but ALL should be considered dangerous.