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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Celebrate Earth Day! Virtual Field Trip

Our friend Garrett practicing taking care of the Earth. Photo: M. Miller

Everyday is Earth Day if you’re a young naturalist! But the rest of the world will join us in celebrating next Thursday, April 22.

On Earth Day, we like to reflect on what we love about the Earth (see: every virtual field trip we’ve done this year for some examples). Then we like to say “thank you” by doing something to help take care of it!

What is one way you take care of nature? Tell us about it on this week’s virtual field trip! Our friends share some of their favorite stewardship activities in this post.

Join the zoom field trip on Friday, April 16 at 10:30am.

Get inspired by a few of these ways our educators help the Earth.

How will you help? Share a story or picture to tell us how you will take care of nature!

Virtual Field Trip: Friday , April 16 at 10:30 am

This Friday, share how you celebrate Earth Day with us on our virtual field trip! Bring a story or object to show us. It could be something in nature that you love. Or it could be something you do to take care of nature.

Our co-workers at Upcycle Ohio recycled plastic bottles to make these pots! Photo: Zero Waste Event Productions

Our naturalists will show some ways we help take care of the earth: removing invasive plants, composting our waste, and more! Get inspired with us!

If you haven’t registered for past virtual field trips, sign up below to get the link in your email:

This will be our last public virtual field trip until May or June. We’ll announce virtual events on Rural Action’s facebook and newsletter. Teachers and groups can still contact us to schedule a private virtual (or in-person) field trip! Email darcy@ruralaction.org.

How do you take care of nature?

We love the forests, creeks, and fields of Appalachian Ohio. That’s why we take care of them, just like they take care of us. We want these places to be healthy for everyone to enjoy for a long, long time.

There are many ways, big and small, that you can help nature thrive! Rural Action’s educators shared a few things they do:

Madison: Cleaning up Litter

When I think of Earth Day

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, I think of a day dedicated to honoring the earth. I also think about how human actions can negatively affect the earth, or we can take action to help care for our planet. One way I like to take action is picking up litter!

As we all know litter can be anywhere: road sides, public parks, in rivers and lakes. Pretty much anywhere you can think of, if you look long enough you will find litter. All these places are ecosystems of their own, and can be negatively affected by human waste.

In this picture , I’m picking up trash from my backyard. Before there were garbage trucks that drove to each house every week, many people had a section of their yard dedicated to being their own landfills. Many houses still have remnants of these household landfills left over. 

When picking up litter be sure to stay safe! A few things you will need to get started:

  1. Gloves (thick gloves will help make sure you don’t get cut by any trash and will keep you clean)
  2. Trash bags! (If possible try bringing a trash bag for recyclables and a second bag for things that need to go the landfill)
  3. An adult (check in with a trusted adult about what you’re doing and where you’re going before you get started)
  4. Brightly colored clothes (this is especially important if you plan to do a litter pick on road sides, the bright colors help cars see you from a distance)

By helping to pick up litter you will work to prevent trash from polluting the waterways , forest, and many other ecosystems

Emily: Getting around without cars

I love walking places if it is safe for me to do so. I can see the insects buzzing around my face

When places are a bit too far for me to walk to, I ride my bike. I always wear my helmet and choose routes that have the least number of cars. I like biking because I can feel the wind on my cheeks, get some exercise, and still move slow enough to observe my surroundings.

Sometimes I ride the bus. The bus allows me to go farther distances in bad weather

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, like from Athens to Albany or Nelsonville. I enjoy riding the bus because I get to see new people that live in my community and see a route with houses and streets I don’t always see.

I do have a car, because sometimes I go places I can’t reach by bus, biking, or walking. Most cars run on gasoline, a liquid made from crude oil pumped from a well that reaches deep below our feet. Some cars run on electricity that can come from burning coal, from the sun’s rays, or even wind turning a turbine like a pinwheel. Cars that run on fossil fuels, energy that comes from the ground and takes millions of years to form, release pollutants that are bad for our lungs to breathe in and bad for the climate. The smoky grey dust that comes out the tailpipe of a car contains greenhouse gases. These gases trap heat within the atmosphere of earth, changing the temperature of our planet over time. 

Sometimes we need cars to get around, especially in places like southeast Ohio. We don’t have subway systems or passenger train to carry lots of people efficiently like New York City. But cars are not the healthiest transportation for our environment. To take care of nature, I walk or bike to places I need to go whenever possible. I take the bus with other folks to reduce the amount of cars out on the road when I can’t walk or bike.

Try walking, riding your bike, or taking the bus to your next destination!

Mia: Planting a pollinator garden

Mia is planting a garden at the Glouster library. She is choosing plants that are native to southeast Ohio

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, plants that have grown around here for thousands of years.

These plants are good food for the bees, butterflies, and insects around here! This garden will help these pollinator insects thrive. Visit the Glouster library to see what will pop up in this garden!

This garden bed at the Glouster library will soon be growing food for bees and insects! Photo: M. Miller, Rural Action

How will you help the Earth this Earth Day?

Press the “+” button below to add your favorite ways to help the environment. Perhaps you’ll inspire someone to try some thing new this Earth Day!

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Sarah’s Spring Book Corner

Our friend, Sarah the librarian, has been enjoying the changes of spring with us. She’s been watching spring plants bloom in the Glouster library garden. She’s checked on the little tadpoles growing in the vernal pools at the Trimble Community Forest. And she’s also been reading books about spring!

Whether you want to identify a wildflower or enjoy a good story

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, Sarah has a book for you! Next time you need to relax after a tromp in the woods, try reading one of these:

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Distance Learning Uncategorized Young Naturalists Club

Green Roof: Virtual Field Trip

The green roof on the new Schoonover building at Ohio University. Photo: Ben Siegel, August 2020

You may have grown plants in the ground. But have you ever grown plants….on the roof? This week, special guests from Ohio University will show us the green roof built on one of their new buildings. How does this green roof help protect water and wildlife? How does it work? And what can we learn from it?

Join the zoom field trip on Friday, April 16 at 10:30am.

Get inspired by a few of these ways our educators help the Earth.

How will you help? Share a story or picture to tell us how you will take care of nature!

Virtual Field Trip: Friday, April 2 at 10:30 am

Every Friday from 10:30 to 11:15 AM, we hold a Zoom call live from the woods for anyone who wants to join. This week

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, students from Ohio University will show us the green roof growing on top of the Schoonover Center building. They’ll also do some experiments that show why the roof helps the environment.

If you haven’t registered for our field trips before

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, register here to get the link in your email:

Teachers: Your class is welcome to join this public virtual field trip. You can also contact us to schedule a virtual field trip just for your class, which sometimes works better. Email darcy@ruralaction.org.

What happens to rain when it hits a surface?

In this field trip, we will explore what happens to rain when it falls onto different surfaces.

Some surfaces let rain and other water pass through. Water can soak through to the soil, where plants use it or it is stored. Those surfaces are permeable.

Some surfaces are hard. Water will sit on them or move across them to natural water sources, such as rivers. Those surfaces are impermeable.

Can you tell which surfaces are permeable and which are impermeable in this picture?

Where in this picture can rain soak through to the soil? Where will it be trapped on top? This bioswale is on Union St in Athens , OH. Photo: Kaia McKenney.

Next time you go outside, can you find some surfaces in your neighborhood that are permeable?

Can you find some surfaces in your neighborhood that are impermeable?

Activity: Take a cup of water and pour it onto a surface. Does it stay there or soak into the surface? Does it move across the surface or get absorbed?

Plants are a good clue to whether a surface is permeable or impermeable. When it rains

Why do we care about this?

Impermeable surfaces (like concrete and asphalt) can create some problems.

If there is a big storm

When water moves across impermeable surfaces, it can carry pollution with it to rivers and streams. Some examples of pollutants are oil drips from cars on the road, or animal waste if someone does not clean up after their pet.

Using plants to protect our water

Green infrastructure means building in ways that protects water. Often plants help us do that. Rain barrels collect water as it rains, but they do not need plants. Some green infrastructure depends on plants, including green roofs!

In our virtual field trip, we will talk about how plants on rooftops (green roofs) or in other parts of our area can help store water and keep it clean.

Plants provide lots of other benefits to our neighborhoods. They keep temperatures cooler in the summer and protect our rooftops. They also support insects and other animals.

We will talk about what kinds of animals can use a green roof. Can you predict what animals you might see on a green roof?

Praying mantis on the McCracken Hall green roof at Ohio University. Photo: Megan Westervelt, 2020

Take a tour or make a model!

On Friday, we will take a trip to a green roof that was recently planted at Ohio University. But you can also “visit” the rooftop yourself here:

There is more information about green roofs on our website. You can also click “virtual visits” to watch a livestream and video tour of the roof!

You can also watch this great video of a green roof in New York for another example.

Make your own green roof model

If you want to create your own little model of a green roof, this video will help you.

How to make a model of a green roof, from the National Building Museum.
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Distance Learning Uncategorized Young Naturalists Club

Animals Waking Up for Spring: Virtual Field Trip

The view from Dumpling Mountain in Katmai National Park, Alaska, on the day we went looking for empty bear dens. Photo: Darcy Higgins

I climbed higher on Dumpling Mountain, scanning the nearby hills for big lumps of dirt. There was still a nip in the air, but I didn’t mind. I was joining a biologist friend on his early spring ritual here in Alaska: looking for (empty) bear dens. The giant brown bears had recently waken up from hibernation, and were leaving their winter homes behind. 

We don’t have brown bears here in Southeast Ohio. But we do have many mammals who start to move around when the cold thaws. Just as I loved watching for fresh signs that bears had woken in Alaska, I also love watching for the first clues that bats, groundhogs, and birds are moving around again here. 

On this week’s virtual field trip

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, we’ll look for signs of animals waking up for spring!

LEARN ABOUT ANIMALS LEAVING HIBERNATION:

Attend the virtual field trip , Friday, March 12 at 10:30 am, for more stories about bears and other animals.

Pretend to be a hibernating animal. How do animals’ bodies change when they hibernate?

Watch for signs of animals outside. What is changing out there?

Virtual Field Trip on Friday , March 12 at 10:30 am

Every Friday from 10:30 to 11:15 AM, we hold a Zoom call live from the woods for anyone who wants to join. This week, I’ll share more bear stories. And we’ll look at other animals who are showing up with the warmer weather here in Ohio.

If you haven’t registered for our field trips before, register here to get the link in your email:

When Brown Bears Wake Up in Alaska

The dens weren’t the first sign bears were exiting hibernation. The first clue was leaving my cabin in the morning, and almost stepping in this:

Do you see all the grass in this bear scat? Unless they find prey, brown bears on the Alaskan Peninsula have little to eat but sedge and grasses in early spring. Photo: NPS/Mike Fitz

Yep–bear scat. But this isn’t just any bear scat. It’s clearly the poop of a bear that just woke up. Why? Because it’s full of sedge (a plant like grass). In early spring, bears are hungry from not eating all winter. But at least in this part of Alaska, there is still not much to eat yet.

When there’s more food later in the year, their poop will start to look different:

This bear’s poop shows that it is clearly berry season. The scat was my first clue that the cranberries are finally ripe!
What do you think this bear was eating? I see evidence of two different meals. Photo: NPS

We also saw a few fresh scratches on the trees near camp. :

If there’s still sap dripping from the tree, you know the bear came by recently. Photo: NPS

So we knew it was time to find empty dens. We knew they’d be near last year’s dens, on steep hills where water runs off and dens stay dry. But these bears dig new dens each year. So we didn’t know exactly where they might be.

We scanned the open hillsides for piles of dirt, a sign of where bear dug entrances to dens. Brown bears have powerful claws and strong, muscly humps on their shoulders, which help them dig their dens. Another clue we looked for was old, dry moss. Bears sometimes use moss and plants to keep warm. The moss can get pushed out when the bear leaves.

A biologist crawling into a bear den at Gates of the Arctic National Park. See the old moss that helped keep the bear warm? Photo: NPS/Matt Cameron

We didn’t find dens that day, so my friends showed me their pictures from last year. The dens were big enough to crawl inside–so some people did!

Click on the video below to watch Katmai National Park naturalist Mike Fitz exploring a brown bear den:

Exploring a Bear Den

Could you imagine spending the whole winter in there? Where would you pee? Well–you wouldn’t!

When bears go to sleep in winter, their body slows down.

Their heartbeat is slower, and they breathe more slowly.

Their body recycles their pee and poop so they don’t have to wake up at all!

They do all this so that they can survive winter without needing food.

However , bears are ‘light’ hibernators. They can wake up in case they need to defend themselves, or to search for food on a rare warm day. Female bears even wake up to give birth in their dens!

Other kinds of hibernators, like a groundhog, couldn’t do this. A groundhog’s heart and breath slows down even more deeply, and their temperature gets colder. You could pick up an animal like this, and they wouldn’t even react.

Even though bears use less energy in winter, they still use some energy. So when they come out in spring, they are pretty skinny. The entire summer and fall are all about eating enough food to get through the next winter. Bears that get really fat will be better at surviving and having cubs.

Believe it or not, it’s the same bear in both pictures! This young bear (#812) was skinny when he came out of hibernation. Then he ate all he could to get fat before winter. Photo: NPS/N. Boak

You can understand why they might be a little grumpy when they wake up!

What’s it like to hibernate?

Try to imagine your body changing the way hibernating animals do.

  1. Make a den. Most hibernating animals dig into the ground, or make some kind of nest, where it stays warmer. What would make a cozy nest for you?
  2. Take your temperature. Our temperature doesn’t change much unless we’re sick: it’s around 96.8*F. Bears temperatures drop to 88*F when they’re hibernating. But deep hibernators, like groundhogs, can get as cold as 37*! Brrr!
  3. Count your heartbeat. Use a timer for this one. Find your pulse in your wrist or neck. Set the timer for one minute, and count how many times your heart beats. Usually, kids’ heartbeats are between 60 and 130 beats per minute (depending on if you’ve been running around!).

    A groundhog’s heart rate is only 5 beats per minute when it hibernates. Now, set the timer again. Watch seconds pass and clap every 12 seconds. Each clap represents a groundhog’s heartbeat. How much slower is that than yours?
  4. Count your breaths. A hibernating animal may breath only 1-2 times a minute. Set your timer again and count how many breathes you take in a minute. Continuing to breath deeply (like when you fall asleep), how slowly can you breath?

It’s pretty amazing that bears and other animals can slow down their bodies so much, and then go back to normal come spring. Human bodies aren’t built to do this. Some scientists think that studying how bears do it could help make new medicine for humans.

Animals waking up in Ohio

We don’t have brown bears in Ohio. But we do have many other animals that are starting to poke their noses outside their dens now that it’s March! My heart sings every time I see a sign of an animal I haven’t seen for several months.

Black bears do live in Ohio, although they are pretty rare. You’re more likely to see them in nearby West Virginia. Like brown bears, they hibernate lightly. They are even more creative with their dens: they might have spent the winter in a hollow tree , dug beneath some tree roots, in a thick leaf pile, or even underneath a neglected porch! 

Black bears use everything from hollow trees to this hole in the rocks for dens. Photo: NPS

If you are lucky, you might see black bear tracks someday!

Black bear tracks. Image: NPS

Yesterday at sunset, the first bat of the year flew over my head. Most Ohio bats hibernate in the winter, but a few migrate. Hibernating bats often gather in big groups in caves (or, around here, old mines!).

When it gets warm in summer, they’ll move to hollow trees, or even roost under the loose bark of a shagbark hickory!

Keep an eye on the sky at dusk

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, and you might see them swooping for insects.

This little brown bat is an endangered species in Ohio. Photo: ODNR


This time of year, I start to see more critters under logs! Many small animals have been staying warm underground, but are starting to move nearer the surface. Yesterday, we turned over a log near a pond and saw our first red-backed salamander of the year. If you find one

I frequently find red-backed salamanders under logs in southeast Ohio. They stay under logs and rocks to keep wet all year. But they burrow even deeper underground in winter. Photo: Wayne National Forest.

Some native bees have also been sleeping underneath logs. These kinds of bees are different from honey bees and live alone. If you find one while they are still sleepy, they may barely move, or move very slowly. But when they warm up, they will fly fast again. So be gentle!

If you find a slow-moving bee under a log , it may still be waking up from a kind of hibernation called diapause. Photo:  treegrow

And of course, birds that we haven’t seen for a few months will start to fly through again! Have you heard the loud calls of geese overhead yet?

Canada geese migrate north in the spring. Photo: bobosh_

When you’re outside this week, keep your eyes open for any animals you haven’t seen for a few months. Are you seeing any new tracks? Who is flying over your head? Is anyone moving around under logs or in the garden?

Have you seen any spring animals moving around? Tell us about it in the comments!

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Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Sarah’s February Book Corner

With all this snowy weather, I love to curl up with a good book! Sarah the librarian has picked out some great books for us about:

  • possums,
  • turkey vultures,
  • and wild plants!

These books pair well with our recent or upcoming virtual field trips. They’re all available at Athens County Public Libraries, or check at your own local library.

Book Recommendations for Young Naturalists:

Children’s non-fiction:

Picture Books:

Field Guides:

You can also check out Sarah’s previous book corner about tracks!

Did you read any of these books? Leave a review or your own recommendations in the comments!

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Distance Learning Uncategorized Young Naturalists Club

Nature Show and Tell: Virtual Field Trip

Our friend Zella showed us these signs of beaver activity. We love sharing our discoveries with each other!

Nature show-and-tell is back! We are calling on YOU to be part of this week’s virtual field trip!

Bring your nature objects, pictures or stories to the zoom call on Friday for show and tell. We will take turns sharing, kids and adults both!

Exploring nature is part of how our team stays healthy and happy. Learn some ways we use our outside time in this week’s “Nature and Self-Care” blog post.

Virtual Field Trip: Friday, January 22, 2020

Prepare for this week’s field trip by finding something to share! You could ‘show’:

  • something you found outside, like a plant, rock or mystery item
  • a picture of a natural object
  • a story about an experience you had outside
  • something about nature you’ve been learning a lot about lately

There are no wrong choices. We welcome any nature-related shares!

Join us at 10:30am on Friday, January 22.

If you’ve registered for virtual field trips in the past, your same registration link will continue to work.

Sarah found this morel mushroom last spring. It was a great day!

What will you ‘tell’ about your nature object for show and tell? You might share:

  • Where you found this nature object
  • Why this nature item is interesting to you
  • Something you’ve learned about the nature item recently
  • Questions you have about the nature item (the other people on the virtual field trips are really smart!)

If you don’t want to share anything, that’s okay too. You can listen to other people.

How Nature Helps Us Be Happy and Healthy

How do we discover most of our cool nature finds? Usually , we just stumble across them when we spend time outside!

Most of us here at Rural Action go outside almost every day to play, walk, or just sit and listen. It’s part of how we take care of ourselves. We each have our favorite way to relax outside. Read about some of ours in our latest post:

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Foraging for Plants in Winter : Virtual Field Trip

Looking at plants at Burr Oak State Park.

Winter…everything has turned from green to brown, and seems quiet. But if you know how to look, you’ll see how plants are surviving the cold and darkness. And you can also gather plants to help you have food and warmth, even in winter!

On this week’s virtual field trip, we’ll show you how plants survive the winter–and how plants can help people through winter too!

Attend the virtual field trip, Friday, January 15 at 10:30am on Zoom.

Gather information about plants by reading this post.

Play a matching game to practice identifying plants in winter vs summer.

Gather winter plants. We share four ways you can eat

Virtual Field Trip, Jan. 15 at 10:30am

Teasel is a prickly plant I see often in fields in winter.

Every Friday from 10:30 to 11-ish am, we hold a Zoom call live from the woods for anyone who wants to join. This week, we’ll be foraging in the winter woods.

If you haven’t registered for our field trips before, register here to get the link in your email:

When you register, your registration is good for every Friday.

Teachers: Your class can join these public field trips, or contact us to set up a zoom field trip just for your classroom.

How Plants Make it to Spring

Cold is a problem for plants. When water freezes into ice, it gets bigger. When water in plant cells freezes, it can burst apart the plants cells.

Photo: pmhudepo 

But cold is not the only danger! Winter means less water. If water is frozen, plants can’t get to it. So plants also have to survive without much water until spring.

There’s also less sunlight. So plants are getting less energy from the sun, even as they have to work harder to survive.

So how do plants survive the cold, little water and little sun? Two common strategies are making seeds and making fat roots. A few plants, like evergreens, have special leaves that can stay alive.

Seeds

Some plants die in the fall, but not before making lots of seeds. The individual plants might not survive, but their children will grow when spring comes! These plants are called annuals, which means ‘yearly,’ because their life cycle lasts just one year.

This plant has died, but its fluffy seeds may go on to grow. Photo: Stevesworldofphotos.

Seeds can wait a long time before they sprout, waiting for a sign that it’s safe to grow: they might wait for sunlight, more water, or even a bird pecking them open before they start sprouting.

You can learn to identify plants even in winter, by the shape of their seed heads! Because seeds come from flowers, a plant’s summer flowers often have a similar shape as their seed heads. I love watching plants change through the season. It is fun and helps me find useful plants.

Practice matching winter and summer plants with this game:

Make fire with seed heads

Humans have strategies for surviving winter too. One is fire!

To start a fire, you need light, fluffy, dry material called tinder. People today might use cardboard or paper. That works well if you have matches. But what about before paper or matches existed?

Joe shows us how to start a friction fire on a virtual field trip.

 One way to start a fire without matches is using flint and steel to make a spark. These sparks only last a second, so they need to land on something that catches fire very easily. Another way is to make a friction fire with wood (see the video above). Friction fires make a small, delicate coal. Those coals also need very light tinder to catch fire and grow.

Goldenrod seed heads can be used to start fires. Dry them out first!

Fluffy winter seeds are good tinder for these fires! We like to use goldenrod, like in the picture above. They usually need to dry inside for a few days before they will catch a spark.

Your turn:

Collect some goldenrod seed heads and dry them out. Next time you build a fire, try using them as tinder. How do they work? How fast do they light?

Roots

Some plants live multiple years. They are called perennials, which means something that comes back over and over. One way to do that is to make a fat, sugary root!

Ginseng is a plant that can live 100 years by growing back from its roots each spring. Photo: Sam Droege

Underground is a safe place to be in winter. The freezing and frost on the surface only reaches a little ways underground. Leaves, mulch or snow can also protect the ground from getting too cold. Deep in the soil, it feels more like a refrigerator than a freezer.

Plants make food from the sun. In the fall, some perennials put the food in their roots, saving it for later. If you’ve ever eaten a potato or a carrot, you have benefited from this! Those tubers were the plants’ way of saving food for spring (or your belly).

When it’s safe to come out in spring, fresh stems and leaves will sprout from the root.

Make Fire Cider with Horseradish

Horseradish is one plant that makes a big root. Its root can be good medicine for fighting winter colds! Try making this spicy plant medicine. Next time your head feels stuffy, it will help clear it out. Try it as a salad dressing or in water.

Preparing the ingredients for fire cider. Photo: Multnomah County Library

Fire Cider Recipe:

Ingredients:

  •  3 cups  apple cider vinegar
  •  1/2 cup grated horseradish or garlic mustard root 
  • 1/8 cup garlic , chopped
  • 1/2 cup wild leeks, chopped (or chopped onions)
  • 1/2 cup of grated ginger
  •  1 tsp.  cayenne

Instructions:

Place all ingredients in a 4 cup mason jar and fill with apple cider vinegar leaving some space. Be sure all ingredients are mixed well. Cover.

Steep for 8 weeks in a dark, cool location.

Strain into clean jar. Then store in a dark location up to one year.

Our friends at United Plant Savers recorded this class if you’d like more detailed instructions:

Staying low

A few plants stay alive and green by keeping their leaves low to the ground. Cuddled up to the warmer earth, they might be sheltered by dead leaves. Less cold air reaches them. These plants often only live for two years or so.

Mullein can keep its leaves alive in winter by huddling down on the ground. It’s also called “lamb’s ear” because it is so soft and fuzzy. Photo: waldopics.

Gather chickweed for winter salads

This little plant grows in yards and gardens. Some people think it is a weed. I think it is delicious!

Chickweed is an annual, but sometimes you see it grows anyway. Its seed sprout quickly, and it is so low-lying that it can be protected by the cold by hills and leaves.

Try gathering chickweed to add to your salads. Here’s how to recognize it:

Leaves: pointed and oval shaped, opposite growth pattern (that means they grow directly across from each other)

Flowers: Chickweed flowers are very small, they have 5 double-lobed white petals. Double lobed means divided in two, so it might look like they have 10 petals 

Parts to eat: leaves, stems, and flowers are all edible and can be eaten raw. Try adding them to your next salad. 

Evergreen trees

Most plants stop doing anything in winter. They stop photosynthesizing, prepare their seeds or roots, and wait. But not evergreen trees!

It takes a lot of energy to make leaves and needles. Evergreen trees don’t want to waste that energy by dropping leaves. So they make special needle-shaped leaves that are protected from cold and dryness.

White pine is an evergreen tree in Ohio. You can make tea from its needles.

Needles are a better shape for holding onto water. Why? They have less surface area.

Think about hanging up a towel to dry. You want to hang it flat and spread out. More of a flat towel is exposed to the air, so it dries faster. But if you ball the towel up on the bathroom floor, it will stay wet for a long time! Less of its surface is exposed.

A typical leaf is like the flat towel. An evergreen needle is like the balled up towel.

Evergreen needles also have a special wax on them that keeps water from evaporating. It’s like covering food with plastic wrap so it doesn’t dry out. If you’ve ever touched an evergreen needle, you’ve felt this wax! It’s why needles feel heavier than typical leaves.

Make Pine Needle Tea

Historically, plants and vegetables were the hardest food to find in winter. Humans ended up eating more meat (because there were still animals to hunt) or more grains (because you could store grain for a long time). But we need the nutrients in plants to be healthy. 

Sailors used to have this problem too, because there are no plants at sea. Without enough vitamin C from vegetables, they got a disease called scurvy that made their teeth fall out. They started bringing limes with them to stay healthy.

Teas are a great way to get plant nutrients in winter! The garden might be dead, and pine needles don’t make a great salad. But boil the pine needles in water, and you’ll get a tasty tea with plenty of vitamin C. You can add lemon and honey, too.

Here’s how to identify white pine:

Needles: come in bundles of five, 3-5 inches long, bluish green, with fine white lines also called stomatas. 
Cones: 3-6 inches long, thinning out near the tip, with cone scales without prickles and light tan to whitish in color on outer edge of the scales.

Your Turn

Try collecting some winter plants for warmth or food! In this post, we’ve showed you how to:

Choose one and try it! How did it go? Was it hard or easy to find the plant? How did it taste?

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Happy New Year, and see you January 8th!

We’ve been putting nature displays in local windows this winter. Take a walk past the Hive (in Nelsonville), the Glouster library (in Glouster), or the Tecumseh Theatre (in Shawnee) to see them!

We hope everyone enjoys the holiday season, and spends some time outside. We’ll be curled up and hibernating like this fox for the next two weeks. Virtual field trips will start again on Friday, January 8th.

Here are the topics coming up in January:

  • Lichens (January 8)
  • Foraging Winter Plants (January 15) (ACPL program to-go kit available)
  • Nature Show and Tell (January 22)
  • Animal Tracks (January 29) (ACPL program to-go kit available)

Do you have a topic you’d like to see on a virtual field trip? Please leave a comment or email darcy@ruralaction.org! We may use your idea in February!

Categories
Distance Learning Uncategorized Young Naturalists Club

Sarah’s Book Corner: Tracks!

Some of you met our friend Sarah–and her dog, Mabel–on last week’s tracking virtual field trip. Sarah is not only an excellent dog walker, tracker, and nature artist. She is also the youth librarian at the Glouster library, here in Athens County.

Sarah showed us Mabel the dog’s foot on our tracking field trip.

“Darcy, I know how you and the young naturalists love nature,” Sarah said to me. “There are so many great nature books here at the library. Would you like me to share them with you?”

Of course , I said YES! After a nice hike (like on virtual field trips), I love to look at books to learn more about what I saw.

Are you still excited about animal tracks? If so, try some of these book recommendations! They are all available at Athens County Public Libraries. Check your local library if you live elsewhere.

Juvenile Non-Fiction

Picture Books

Field Guides

Sarah will be sharing book recommendations twice a month, whenever Program To-Go bags are available at the library.

Do you have a favorite animal book? Share your recommendation in the comments!

Categories
Distance Learning Young Naturalists Club

Nature Show and Tell! a Virtual Field Trip

Have you ever found something interesting outside? We found lots of crawdads at summer camp!

We are calling on YOU to share in this week’s virtual field trip! Is there something in nature that you think is really cool? Have you found a neat plant, rock, or animal recently? One of our favorite things to do is tell our nature nerd friends about our outdoor finds.

Bring your nature objects, pictures or stories to the zoom call on Friday for show and tell. We will take turns sharing, kids and adults both!

WAYS TO DO NATURE SHOW AND TELL:

Join the virtual field trip, Friday, Oct. 16 at 10:30 am.

On your own: Become “In Charge of Celebrations”

On your own: Show and tell here on the blog!

Nature Show and Tell! Virtual Field Trip: Friday, Oct. 16, 2020

Prepare for this week’s field trip by thinking of something to share! You could ‘show’:

  • something you found outside, like a plant, rock or mystery item
  • a picture of a natural object
  • a story about an experience you had outside
  • something about nature you’ve been learning a lot about lately

There are no wrong choices. We welcome any nature-related shares!

Sarah found this morel mushroom last spring. It was a great day!

What will you ‘tell’ about your nature object for show and tell? You might share:

  • Where you found this nature object
  • Why this nature item is interesting to you
  • Something you’ve learned about the nature item recently
  • Questions you have about the nature item (the other people on the virtual field trips are really smart!)

If you don’t want to share anything

Join us at 10:30am on Friday, Oct. 16.

If you haven’t registered for our fall field trips yet, go here: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUpcu6qqTsoHNKDfYwskjOqiSjAU_4HxFma. You’ll receive the link to the call in your email.

If you can’t make the field trip, or want to get more out of it, try some of the activities below!

I’m in Charge of Celebrations

Every experience or interesting find in nature is, in our opinion, worth a celebration. We love this book, I’m in Charge of Celebrations, by Byrd Baylor. It inspires us to make our own holidays, just for us, to enjoy our favorite nature times.

Watch this teacher read this book out loud below, or look for it at your library:

Your turn

This week, keep track of the things that are worth celebrating! Do you have a calendar, planner or notebook? Write your celebration down or draw a picture.

We’ll share some of our own celebration-worthy nature experiences in the virtual field trip. Tell us about your celebrations in the comments below!

Show and Tell Online

Here at Rural Action, we have a bit of a nature show-and-tell problem. Our phones are full of pictures of bugs and weird leaves. We text them to our friends all day.

We even started a BioBlitz project on a website called iNaturalist. People share pictures of plants and animals they’ve found in our area, then help each other identify them. Some high school students found a dragonfly that had never been seen in Morgan County before!

A few of the many nature pictures clogging up my phone…

Nerd out on nature with us! Take a walk , find a nature book, or just sit outside near your house for ten minutes. Then, share something you’ve found that interests you! You can:

  • Post about it in the comment section of this blog! (We love that!)
  • Email a picture/story to me at darcy@ruralaction.org!
  • Add it to iNaturalist to get ID help from other nerds! (Here’s our post about how to use iNaturalist).

Looking forward to learning from you!