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Flora & Fauna

Bear With Me a Moment

By Roger Welsch Maybe it’s just a habit of old romantics like me, but I like to think that sooner or later, even the most unimaginative Nebraskan must wonder — maybe while watching an old movie or cruising along on Interstate 80 — what these Plains must have been like before the white man came. We know that many things have changed. The herds of bison that stopped trains for hours and the clouds of passenger pigeons that darkened the …

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A Researcher’s Field Season — Part III

By Allison Barg, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Graduate Assistant Read Part I: https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2022/04/a-researchers-field-season-part-i/ Read Part II: https://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2022/05/a-researchers-field-season-part-ii/ One of the hardest and most interesting aspects of research is that answering one question generally leads to at least three new ones. For example: What is the best way to count pheasants? Answer: Males crow regularly during the breeding season, so we can listen for those calls and count how many we hear. Easy, right? But to make those counts useful, we …

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Nebraska’s Crayfish

By Grace Gaard, Outdoor Educator Crayfish – also known as crawdad, crawfish and mudbug – is no fish. It’s an arthropod and more specifically, a freshwater crustacean. With their jointed legs and protective exoskeleton, crayfish are a unique part of Nebraska’s aquatic ecosystems. A crayfish’s body is comprised of three main parts: head, thorax and abdomen – similar to their distant insect relatives. Where crayfish begin to differ from insects, however, is that they have five pairs of legs, giving …

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Gumweed Bonanza!

Story and photos by Chris Helzer, Nature Conservancy As a short-lived plant, gumweed lives the life of a scrappy and unfairly maligned opportunist. When grasses are heavily grazed, a streambank erodes, or repeated travel creates a trail of bare ground, curlycup gumweed jumps up and says, “Hold my beer!” It can’t fight toe-to-toe with perennial grasses, but if those grasses are temporarily sidelined, gumweed can ably fill the space until the regulars can return. As a reward for its service, …

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Get Your Buzz On

By Monica Macoubrie, Wildlife Education Specialist I grew up believing that the western honey bee (Apis mellifera), also called European honey bee, was the god of all bees. Now as an adult, I see things differently. Sure, the species is crucial to the production of honey and a central money maker in agriculture, but let’s face it: The western honey bee is essentially cows with wings. And because they are a domesticated species, almost all of their genes have been …

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Going fishing? Don’t let the big one get away!

All of us who love to fish have a story or two about the one that got away, don’t we? Invariably, the tale involves hooking the fish of a lifetime and losing it to unforeseen circumstances or mistakes. Trust me, I have made my share of mistakes when it comes to large, prized game fish. Your blogger mishandling a nice-sized channel catfish. Photo by Rich Berggren/Conservation Officer with the Nebraska Game and Parks Commission. Without question, these stories, however embellished, …

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Raven’s Return

By Joel G. Jorgensen Before Nebraska was settled by European Americans, its vast open areas were inhabited by the common raven. Ravens are similar to American crows, but are larger with a more extensive vocal repertoire that includes husky guttural croaks. With the disappearance of the vast herds of bison in the late 1800s, the raven was soon to follow, retreating to mountainous areas of the west and forests of the far north. However, this adaptable and widespread species was …

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My City Sanctuary

Story and photos by Marissa Jensen Quiet amid noise seems like a contradiction, and yet, I’ve discovered it in the most surprising of places. Omaha is a bustling city where everyone is in a hurry to get somewhere — now. This incessant busyness is overwhelming. Every day, as weekdays feel longer and demands scream louder, I feel a part of me slipping away in all the noise. It was on such a morning, while in search of something “more” both …

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A Researcher’s Field Season – Part II

By Allison Barg, University of Nebraska-Lincoln Research Graduate Assistant Welcome back! We are now a little over halfway through the pheasant breeding season, a.k.a my field season. Here is an update on what’s going on in the field this week. If you missed reading Part I of this series, catch up here: http://magazine.outdoornebraska.gov/2022/04/a-researchers-field-season-part-i/ May 2, 2022 3:30 a.m. – If you read my last post, you may be thinking, “Wow, that seems a lot earlier than last time.” That is …

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Wetland Wander

A busy outdoor educator spends a day outside on her own. By Grace Gaard, Outdoor Educator When I was younger, time seemed to go on forever as I spent much of it exploring the outdoors. Now as an adult, I’ve recently realized that my time in nature has changed. While I absolutely love facilitating students’ exploration of nature as an outdoor educator at Game and Parks, I’m realizing that making time to explore nature for myself is something I need …

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