Nature's Archive

As cities grow further into wildlands and natural habitats, and as animals attempt to adapt to these urban environments, it is inevitable that people and wildlife will come into more contact.

My guest today, Jessica Wolff, works to help people and wildlife when these interactions occur. She is an Urban Wildlife Coordinator for the Nevada Department of Wildlife. As an Urban Wildlife Coordinator, Jessica educates the public and fields calls from the public. These calls include questions about unexpected animals in people's yards and houses and reports of sick or injured wildlife in the city. And occasionally Jessica is dispatched to assess, capture, move, or otherwise help animals in distress.

Today we discuss the most common wildlife encounters that Jessica handles, ranging from coyotes, to bats, to raccoons, to fledgling birds. And this allowed us to get into some of the natural history and urban adaptations that these animals have..

Jessica also answers listener questions about bat boxes and fox burrows, and adds some insights into some of my own backyard wildlife.

I know that I'm coming away from this conversation with a better perspective on what it means to offer resources - intentionally or unintentionally - to wild animals.

You can find Jessica at jawolff93 on instagram, and the Nevada Department of Wildlife on Facebook or their website.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links To Topics Discussed
The Accidental Ecosystem, People and Wildlife in American Cities, Dr. Peter Alagona. See my podcast episode with him, too.
BatCon International Bat House Resources
Bats and Insecticides from BatCon International
How do pesticides affect bats? – A brief review of recent publications, J. M. Oliveira, A. L. F. Destro, M. B. Freitas, L. L. Oliveira - from the Brazilian Journal of Biology
Merlin Tuttle's Bat Conservation
Nevada Department of Wildlife
PBS "Nature" Coywolf Infographic
Smithsonian Magazine article on "Coywolves" - Coyote and Wolf hybrids in Eastern North America

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
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Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

Did you know that as a group, amphibians are the most threatened vertebrates on Earth? As many as 1/3 are considered threatened.

As a result of this, my guest, Dr. Kerry Kriger, has devoted his education and career to amphibian research and protection. Dr. Kriger has a PhD in Environmental Science from Griffith University, and in 2008 founded of Save The Frogs! - the first global organization devoted to protecting amphibian populations.

As is often the case, we covered a lot of ground in today's discussion! We start with Dr. Kriger's research into the devastating Chytrid fungus and its impact on amphibians. Dr. Kriger points out that Chytridial mycosis is the worst disease in history in terms of biodiversity loss.

We take a few steps back and discuss amphibian diversity and lifecycles, the impact of hydro-periods ranging from permanent water to seasonal pools, frog dispersal and mobility, vocalizations, and more. And did you know that frogs are called gape-limited predators? Meaning, if it fits in their mouth, it's fair game. I just love that concept and term!

Dr. Kriger also discusses other treats to amphibians, including habitat loss, climate change, and the challenges with American Bullfrog importation and their spreading to non-native locations. For example, American Bullfrogs are not native to the American West, and have had a huge impact on western amphibian populations.

Dr. Kriger fills us in on a huge variety of projects, outreach, tours, and more that Save The Frogs! offers. If you want to create habitat, go on an ecotour, or simply get inspired by amphibians, check out savethefrogs.com. Dr. Kriger has personally developed many educational resources as well, and offers 28 days of free access to his deep-dive content in the Frog Academy.

You can also find Save the Frogs on instagram, facebook, twitter, youtube, Pinterest, and more!

FULL SHOW NOTES

People, Organizations, and More

Save the Frogs Day: April 28, 2023. It's an annual event!
Save the Frogs! Academy - get 28 days free access

Books and Resources

Frogs: The Thin Green Line - documentary from PBS Nature
Cosmos - by Carl Sagan. A Classic.
Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness - by Edward Abbey
On the Origin of Species - by Charles Darwin

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

Warning - listen to this episode at your own risk! If you aren't careful, you may find yourself out a few hundred dollars. Why? Today we're talking field guides - the books and apps that help you identify, find and learn about all kinds of amazing creatures.

Joining me are Allen Fish, of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy as Director of the Raptor Observatory and as Associate Director of community science, and Cricket Raspet of the California Academy of Sciences.

We discuss what makes a great field guide, share some stories about our first and favorites, and start with a lively discussion of our first field guides, which transitions into all sorts of interesting guides - everything from bumblebees to fungi to plant galls to lichen to desert holes! We also discuss apps and other technology that can assist, or dare I say, replace physical field guides. That's just the start!

We didn't have time to cover everything in our stacks of favorites, so check our blog for more.

Follow Cricket on IG and iNat, and check Allen's organization, Golden Gate Raptor Observatory @goldengateraptors, or ggro.org.

LINKS - See FULL SHOW NOTES for more links
All That the Rain Promises and More: A Hip Pocket Guide to Western Mushrooms
Beached Marine Birds and Mammals of the North American West Coast
Bumblebees of North America
Crossley ID Guides
Field Guide to Desert Holes
Field Guide to Grasshoppers, Katydids, and Crickets of the United States
Field Guide to Manzanitas
Horned Lizards of North America
Laws Field Guide to the Sierra Nevada
National Geographic Field Guide to Birds of North America
Natural History of Vacant Lots
Plant Galls of the Western USA
Plants of the California Desert
Sibley Field Guide to Birds
The Coasts of California
Tracks and Sign of Insects and Other Invertebrates

Podcasts
Adam Kranz Plant Galls
Charley Eiseman Leafminers and more
Michael Kauffmann Conifers, Manzanitas, and more

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

Do you want to find more butterflies? Paul Johnson can help. Paul is a Wildlife Biologist at Pinnacles National Park, and a long time lepidopterist, or one who studies butterflies and moths. Paul also leads several North American Butterfly Association (NABA) counts in California, which is how I got connected with Paul in the first place, and a primary focus of this episode.

Today, we discuss Paul's path to wildlife biology and butterflies. Being a wildlife biologist at a National Park sounds like a dream job to me, so I also probed a bit about that, and what makes Pinnacles National Park such a unique place. As a hint, Pinnacles is named for geologically unique spires of volcanic origin.

We then turn our attention to butterflies and butterfly counts - North American Butterfly Association, or NABA, Fourth of July counts. Despite the name, these counts are held over the months of June and July.

We discuss the structure and goals of the counts and how to participate. With 450 counts across North America, and most skill levels needed, there might be an opportunity for you!

Paul also discusses butterfly behavior, which aside from being fascinating, is also helpful for finding them. This includes behaviors such as hilltopping, mudpuddling, and larval food plant associations.

You can find Paul on iNaturalist as euproserpinus (you-pro-serpinus). If you are interested in participating in a NABA count, check out naba.org for the count circles and count leaders (or this link for additional details for Northern California counts).

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links
Art Shapiro
Jerry Powell
Liam O'Brien - (instagram)
Xerces Society
Handbook for Butterfly Watchers - Robert Michael Pyle
The Butterflies of North America - A Natural History and Field Guide - James Scott
Checklist of Butterflies at Pinnacles National Park

Related Podcast Episodes
#28 - Milkweeds - Dr. Carrie Olson-Manning and Sydney Kreutzmann
#30 - Dr. Jaret Daniels Butterflies, Creating Habitat in Overlooked Landscapes, Creative Outreach
#37 - Dr. Stuart Weiss – Checkerspots, Cars, and Cows

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

My guest today is Siena Mckim. Siena is a PhD student at UC Santa Barbara studying sponges in the kelp forest, which is arguably one of the most iconic marine communities. In particular, she's looking at sponge symbionts - basically, the tiny marine organisms that use sponges as a habitat.

Today we hear about Siena's unique path to marine biology, developed in part from an unlikely interest in algae while at the University of Michigan, and accelerated by a love of SCUBA diving.

We then quickly transition to the wild diversity of sponges, including glass sponges the size of a minivan, to sponges that sneeze, and even carnivorous sponges! As mentioned, Siena is looking at sponge symbionts, so we discuss that research and some of the discoveries and mysteries that she is tracking.

Siena shares tons of fun facts in this episode, too. For example, I had to ask a cliché SpongeBob SquarePants question that might also be on your minds, but I was surprised at the answer! I'll just say that you'll have to listen to find out the reality of sponge fashion choices. And PLEASE read on below to see photos of some of these amazing creatures!

And of course, Siena offers tips for locating sponges yourself, whether on docks, in tidepools, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, or even in freshwater.

This interview was a lot of fun, and Siena's enthusiasm really shows. You can find Siena on Instagram as imlichentoday, and on iNaturalist with the same handle.

See the FULL SHOW NOTES for photos of many of the subjects discussed today!

Links To Topics Discussed
People and Organizations
George Matsumoto - MBARI researcher
Tom Turner's Lab at UCSB - and Tom on iNaturalist
Ologies episode w/ Cal Academy of Sciences' Rich Mooi about Echinology (Michael mentioned this episode during the interview)
Dockfouling w/ Cricket Raspett - past Nature's Archive episode with all of the ins and outs of finding cool marine creatures on docks.

Books and Videos
EVNautilus - YouTube channel that Siena recommends
MBARI - The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute has an amazing YouTube channel - and look for them on social media, too!
YouTube Video of sponges filtering dye - Jonathan Bird's Blue World

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

Eric Eaton is an entomologist and the well known author of Wasps: The Astonishing Diversity of a Misunderstood Insect, and co-author of the Kaufman Field Guide to Insects of North America. We discuss his most recent work, Insectpedia. Insectpedia is  a fascinating and non-traditional look at insects, the people who study them, and their role in history and society.

Today, learn about Eric's non-traditional path to entomology and writing, and the lasting impact of one of his kindergarten teachers.

And soon enough we get into some amazing entomological facts. For example, do you know what the fly belt is? As a hint, I'll tell you it's not a leather strip used to keep a fly's pants from falling off. Joking aside, you will hear exactly what the fly belt is and how the tsetse fly is filling a preservationist role. You'll also learn about parasitoids - and specifically, the differences between parasites and parasitoids. You'll hear how a wasp targets yellow jacket wasps, but only indirectly through a third party caterpillar. Prepare to have your mind blown.

And Eric tells us why aphids are actually really important to our food web. And as frequent listeners know, I love aphids for that reason!

Eric also gives us some perspective on how we, as individuals, can help make societal-level shifts to help our environment. And stick around to the end - Eric has plenty of fine book recommendations, too (all listed in the full show notes).

You can find Eric on Twitter, iNaturalist, and Facebook. You can also find him on his blog.

People, Organizations, Websites
Arthro-pod Podcast
Birdability
Bird Names for Birds
Eric's Interview on the Ologies podcast with Allie Ward
Mike Houck - Portland Audubon Society
Oregon Entomological Society
senseofmisplaced.blogspot.com - Eric's social commentary blog

Books (affiliate links)
Insects Did It First, by Greg Paulson and Eric Eaton
Late Night Thoughts on Listening to Mahler's Ninth Symphony Lewis Thomas
Lives of a Cell Lewis Thomas
Mariposa Road Robert Michael Pyle
Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland Robert Michael Pyle
What Are People For? by Wendell Berry

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

Today’s guest is Alison Young, Co-Director of the Center for Biodiversity and Community Science at the California Academy of Sciences. Alison has a background in marine biology, including a MA in Marine Biology from Humboldt State University and a BA in Biology from Swarthmore College.

At the Cal Academy, Alison is a driving force behind the City Nature Challenge, which is a 4 day global BioBlitz event that had over 1.25 million nature observations in 2021 across 400 different global locations. Mark your calendars! This year it runs from April 29 to May 2 local time, and I hope all of you plan to participate! I know my calendar is full of fun and unique events all four days!

Today Alison and I discuss the community, science, and fun that is the City Nature Challenge, and how you can participate in this year’s event. Whether you live in a city or not, in northern or southern latitudes, or are stuck at home, you can participate, and Alison offers wonderful insights for all of those scenarios.

We discuss the goals of the challenge, and of course, exactly what it is. Alison also tells us how the City Nature Challenge grew from what was initially thought to be a one-time competition between two rival cities - Los Angeles and San Francisco, to the massive annual event that it is today.

And Alison offers several tips for making useful observations in iNaturalist, taking good photos, and how to make the City Nature Challenge a fun and enticing event even if the season or weather isn’t what you’d consider optimal for your area.

You can get more information at citynaturechallenge.org, and follow the city nature challenge at citnatchallenge on both twitter and instagram. And follow Alison at alisonkestrel on Twitter and Instagram, or just kestrel on iNaturalist.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links
People, Events, Organizations
Great Southern BioBlitz - an event for the Southern Hemisphere
Julia Butterfly Hill - lived in a Redwood tree for 738 days to draw attention and prevent cutting of rare old growth redwoods
Lila Higgins, Senior Manager, Community Science at Natural History Museum of LA County
Snapshot Cal Coast - A California Coast bioblitz event

Books
The Song of the Dodo: Island Biogeography in an Age of Extinction by David Quammen. This 1997 book was influential to Alison.

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

I live in a city of 1 million people that is part of a metropolitan area of close to 8 million people. Yet, at my suburban home I often hear Coyotes howling at night, turkeys gobbling in the morning, and great-horned owls hooting. There are Bald Eagles that nest near a school not too far away. And San Francisco is famous for its Sea Lions. These stories of urban wildlife are quite common across much of the United States and the world. And just a few decades ago, this wasn't the case.

Why the change? My guest today provides a fascinating history and explanation of this phenomenon. Dr. Peter Alagona is an environmental historian and professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara. He's also the author of the new book, The Accidental Ecosystem, People and Wildlife in American Cities, which I've had the pleasure of previewing, and will be released on April 19.

In our discussion, Dr. Alagona provides a deep perspective, highlighting that even animals such as the Eastern Grey Squirrel were once considered exotic, and white tailed dear were a threatened species in much of the first half of the 20th century. He describes how things became so bleak in cities, and some of the reasons that some animals find success in cities today.

To help explain this, Dr. Alagona provides a framework for thinking about urban ecology and the creatures living in urban environments. We talk raccoons, squirrels, deer, mountain lions, bald eagles, wolves, and more. And even learn a bit about Dr. Alagona's other passion - grizzly bears.

You can find Dr. Alagona at PeterAlagona.com, and you can learn about his grizzly bear project at calgrizzly.com.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links To Topics Discussed
People and Organizations
The California Grizzly Research Network

Books and Other Things
The Accidental Ecosystem, People and Wildlife in American Cities, Dr. Peter Alagona's latest book
After the Grizzly: Endangered Species and the Politics of Place in California, Dr. Alagona's previous book
Coming into the Country by John McPhee - a wonderful account of Alaska and the Brooks Range

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

You know conifers, right? They are those wonderful trees that include some of the tallest, widest, and oldest living trees on Earth. Think Giant Sequoia, Coast Redwood, and Bristlecone Pines. Conifers are also the oldest lineage of trees on earth. This is just a small taste of what conifers have to offer.

My guest today is Michael Kaufmann, a lifelong educator, ecologist and author, and also the founder of Backcountry Press. He’s also an expert in conifers.

Today we discuss the many things that make conifers such an amazing group of plants. Michael walks us through their evolutionary history, what makes them different from other trees, and gives us a special look at the amazing diversity of conifers in his area - the Klamath region of far northern California. This deep dive reveals many interesting ecological processes that likely can be generalized to other regions and other plants. It's truly fascinating.

Michael also discusses how he turned his love of conifers into two amazing projects. With the creation of his first book, Conifer Country, Michael established Backcountry Press. It has since grown to produce several wonderful natural history books, and he gives us a preview of some new ones due out soon. And the second project is his establishment of the 360 mile Bigfoot Trail. It's a playful name for a truly serious trail if you are in to backpacking or botanizing, and it boasts 32 conifer species.

You can find Michael at MichaelKauffmann.net, on Instagram, or on iNaturalist.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Links To Topics Discussed

Griff Griffith - past podcast guest that introduced Michael and I
The Miracle Mile - the species Michael documented in the famed 1 square mile of the Klamath.

Books Mentioned
California Desert Plants
Conifer Country by Michael Kauffmann
Conifers of California by Ronald Lanner
Conifers of the Pacific Slope, by Michael Kauffmann
The Klamath Knot by David Rains Wallace
The Klamath Mountains: A Natural History Tour
Field Guide to Manzanitas, by Michael Kauffmann, Tom Parker, and Michael Vasey
Northwest Trees by Stephen Arno

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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!

My guests today are Rhett Barker and Curtis Sarkin of the incredibly popular Wild Green Memes for Ecological Fiends.

If you don’t know Wild Green Memes, it’s a Facebook group of over 475,000 members. And it’s quite possibly the most enjoyable place I’ve found on social media.

Before I go any further, yes, today’s episode is a bit different than my typical episodes. But you’re still going to learn some fascinating ecology! You’ll hear about spiders that keep frogs as pets, the amazing nomadic steller’s sea eagle, a tree that has exploding seed pods, lungless salamanders, and more.

But the focus of today’s episode is how the humble meme has turned into an amazing tool for fun, education, and even nonprofit fundraising! In case you’re wondering what the heck a meme is, I found this nice succinct definition. A meme is a virally transmitted image embellished with text, usually sharing pointed commentary or humor about cultural symbols, social ideas, or current events.

Today Rhett and Curtis discuss how Wild Green Memes came to be, and the clever ways that they manage the group, facilitating its insanely rapid growth while maintaining the group’s culture. You’ll hear how they turned a trend of wildlife “gang” memes into a basis for highly successful nonprofit fundraising.

And of course, we talk about the funniest memes and meme trends that they’ve seen.

As Curtis, says, we’re only scratching the surface of the potential of memes.

You can find Wild Green Memes for Ecological Fiends on Facebook, and they also have a presence on Instagram, TikTok, and Twitter, as well as a podcast called Wild Green Streams.

FULL SHOW NOTES

Support Us On Patreon!
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Music: Spellbound by Brian Holtz Music
License (CC BY 4.0): https://filmmusic.io/standard-license
Artist site: https://brianholtzmusic.com

Discover the Jumpstart Nature Podcast - entertaining and immersive, it's the nature fix we all need.

Check past Nature's Archive episodes for amazing guests like Doug Tallamy, Elaine Ingham, and Rae Wynn-Grant, covering topics from bird migration to fungi to frogs and bats!