What Is a Beaver to Do in Utah?
Posted by Lois Barton on October 11th, 2008 05:43 pm
On an August trip to southeast Utah I learned of a program in process there to re-establish beaver in southern Utah’s three national forests: the Fish Lake, Dixie and Manti-la Sal. An article in the Grand Canyon Trust’s magazine, Colorado Plateau Advocate, lists nine ways dam-building beavers change everything.
Fifty years ago our free-ranging elementary school age sons discovered the presence of beaver in the south Spencer Butte area of Lane County, Oregon. More "recently," only about fourteen years ago, a friend who lives down Spencer Creek from us reported that beaver had cut down their pear tree to their chagrin.
I have found a six-page article on the web titled "Nature’s Fish Habitat Contractor" which presents some history, how beaver can help both land owners and fish populations and addressing the damage they can do. Al... Read More
The Dinosaur Story: An Allosaurus
Posted by Lois Barton on October 13th, 2008 11:13 am
A recent vacation in southeast Utah provided me with an experience I will savor for years. Twice in our exploring there we saw and marveled at dinosaur tracks in the rock.
One example was at 9,000 feet altitude in the La Sal mountains. We looked up the Allosaurus dinosaur, said to have made those tracks, on the computer. There it was described as "a 30-foot-long two-legged cross between a crocodile and a mountain lion" and at the top of the food chain; a creature 30 feet long weighing two and a half tons.
An article in a 1993 National Geographic says "This...remarkable animal was the most common and successful predator of the late Jurassic... Thousands of fossilized bones (in a few cases nearly complete skeletons), positively identified on more than one continent, has made Allosaurus the most well understood of all predatory dinosaurs."
My mind boggles trying to picture the events leading to tho... Read More
Meet Suzie and Sammy Squirrels
Posted by MG Hudson on August 8th, 2008 02:38 pm
A Squirrel's Summer
Not so long ago and not so far away, over the ridge from the city, down the old Lorane Highway, over the wooden bridge and up the dirt road to where the forest meets the meadow at the Creek, there lived a family of squirrels in an old oak tree. They were Mama and Papa Squirrel, the parents, and Suzy and Sammy Squirrel, the children. They were red squirrels, proud of their native heritage, and they were kind squirrels, mostly, glad to be part of the Magic Forest where the animals pledged not to eat their neighbors. The very real magic at work is simple kindness, mostly.
It was a warm summer morning, gloriously green with the sun glowing through the oaks, maples and alders, little water skippers dancing on the sparkling creek and berries ripening everywhere. Dizzy with perfume, butterflies --brown, blue, yellow and orange--swam through the blackberry scented air fliting from the daisies in the meadow to s... Read More
Why I Love My Mother
Posted by Lois Barton on October 10th, 2008 06:25 pm
In the summer, we too often hear tragic stories about children, (and adults), drowning. Here is a cautionary tale that celebrates a good ending to a scary event. May it help you have a safer summer.
This is a story about motherhood. It involves a six year old and parents who separated several years ago. The child lives with her mother and sees her father only now and then because he lives miles away
"On the last day of school this spring Dad picked me up at school and took me to his home where I visited for most of a week. I missed my mom and was glad when she came for me Sunday morning. I was scheduled to participate in a "horse camp" the next week, but it didn’t start till Monday morning, so Mom and I had the whole day together before she left me with my riding teacher."
"Mom and I visited friends for a bit but it was a sunny warm day and I wanted to play in the water. We checked for a suitable place along the nearby river without finding any thing that ... Read More