Research Blog : nature

"Land art" (and land art for kids)

googler@evpl — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 17:03:00 GMT

There are several artists working in an almost unclassifiable genre sometimes called "land art," "earthworks," or "earth art." Land art involves working with natural materials, outside. Some "pieces" are very large, for instance using thousands of rocks to create a man-made jetty. But many current practitioners work on a much smaller scale, crafting boxes out of leaves or stacking rocks into precise shapes. The pieces are often sculptural in nature, but the most defining feature is that they are placed out in the open, left to change and erode under natural conditions.

One of the foremost practioners is Andy Goldsworthy, and the Library has several books and videos that highlight his fascinating work.

Another practitioner is a lesser known artist named Richard Shilling. The Library doesn't have any of his publications, but I've been following his Flickr stream and his blog. He's just announced a new project, a website titled "Land Art for Kids," which I think is brilliant. As he says, "land art is the perfect activity for kids and adults alike. What could be better than something that gets you active and creative, outdoors in the fresh air experiencing and learning about nature and discovering all you can about this wonderful world we share." He provides examples, instructions, and inspiration on the site, with more content on the way. (You can help create content, possibly, by sharing accounts and photos of the art your kids come up with.)

Sounds like the perfect way to spend time with kids on sunny, crisp November days!

Vacation on a budget...

SuDocQueen@evpl — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:38:00 GMT

Nowadays everyone’s talking about staycations. This reminded me of the wonderful vacations my parents took me on even when we had to watch every penny. How’d we do it? By visiting our National Parks and State Parks (and camping, but that’s a whole ‘nother story). Most parks have entrance fees for an entire passenger car that are cheaper than an individual ticket to Disney World.

Starting in the winter my parents would send away for scads of pamphlets and maps of parks like the Grand Canyon, the Petrified Forest, and Slide Rock State Park. Planning early is still a good idea but now it’s even easier. All you have to do is go to www.nps.gov. From there you can learn about every national park in the country. They have a great search tool on that front page. Just click on the state you’re interested in visiting and you’ll get a list of all the parks in that state. But what if you know the name of a park but not what state it’s in? No problem. Click on the “Advanced SearchTool and Map.” From there scroll below the map and you’ll see a great browser tool that will let you pick your park by name, location, preferred activity, or even topic (like mountains or volcanoes or coral reefs).

But what about state parks? Well, if there’s a site out there that pulls all state parks under one “roof” I haven’t found it yet, but putting “state parks (insert the state name of your choice)” into Google does a terrific job of pulling up each state’s website.

And, if you’re at Central Library stop by and take a look at some of the books and pamphlets the National Parks Service still puts out. We have a whole series of pamphlets on the Blue Ridge Parkway trails. Just ask one of us about Call # I 29.149. Or if you’re interested in the historic details of sites, you might want to take a look in our I 29.88 area. Those are historic structure and site reports on places like Fire Island Lighthouse, the Eleanor Roosevelt Historic Site, and Antietam National Battlefield.

Mosquito control with bats

googler@evpl — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:55:00 GMT

Are there more mosquitoes around this year, or is it just me? One of the best natural ways to combat these pesky bugs is encouraging a local population of bats. Contrary to popular belief, bats do not swoop down into your hair. And you're way more likely to contract rabies from a dog or other ground-dwelling mammal. In short, they're good citizens and excellent neighbors. But their habitats are dwindling (and the mosquito population seems to be rising). You can help by building a bat house in a sunny spot, not too close to trees and other obstacles, about 12 to 18 feet off the ground.

The Bat House Builder's Handbook is in the Library's collection, and you can also visit a variety of websites on bats and their housing needs.

Bat Conservation International has a list of tips for attracting bats, criteria for successful bat houses, and lots of information on building and installing your bat house.

Carlsbad Caverns National Park has instructions on building a bat house.

This is an informative article and an entertaining read: Why I Built a Bat House.

The Fish and Wildlife Service has an excellent PDF file on building a bat house.

This would be a great weekend project for parents and kids -- maybe even Father's Day!

Weird and wonderful wildlife

googler@evpl — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 15:47:00 GMT

I'm an avid blog reader (you don't want to know how many unread posts I have in my feed reader, but let's just say I don't anticipate ever running out of reading material), and I love running across stuff about this amazing planet we live on.

Recently WebEcoist listed twenty of the world's weirdest endangered species, with great photos and wonderful prose like this:

"The huge, traumatizingly ugly spiny fish with the glowing 'fishing rod' lure you saw in Finding Nemo? That’s the female. The male is that tiny little blob attached to his horrific goddess that you never noticed. He burrows in with his teeth and she 'feeds' him ex-utero style until he eventually loses his eyeballs, then internal organs and finally his life. By then, she’s got his sperm so it doesn’t matter."

And National Geographic posted this a while back, a breathtaking photo gallery of toxic sea slugs, which are some of the most bizarrely beautiful creatures ever found.

Wonders never do cease, do they! (At least not at the rate my feed reader gets them.)