Mustelids are a diverse group of animals that possess distinctive characteristics. By Monica Macoubrie, Wildlife Education Specialist When we think of stinky animals, our brains routinely conjure up images of a skunk spraying. However, you might be surprised to learn that skunks only make up a fraction of the “stinkers” in the animal kingdom. In Nebraska, we have an entire group of musty smellers known as mustelids, or Mustelidae. Mustelids are a group of animals that have long, tube-shaped bodies, …

A celebration of the ways seeds transport themselves around the world and onto our pants and pets. Story and photos by Chris Helzer We’ve all been there. You’re in the middle of a perfectly pleasant walk through a woodland, wetland or prairie and you glance down to find your pant legs covered with sticky seeds. “Well, dadgum,” you exclaim, “would you look at that incredible seed dispersal adaptation!” “Golly,” you continue, “those little hooked spines sure are effective at catching …

By Ronica Stromberg, NRT Program Coordinator, University of Nebraska-Lincoln On almost any given day, a person can drive by grazing land owned by The Nature Conservancy in Nebraska and see an artist in residence. Recently, the conservancy’s science director Chris Helzer told National Science Foundation Research Traineeship students at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln that the environmental group uses cows as “habitat artists” to build resilience in grasslands. The conservancy is experimenting with various methods of creating a “shifting mosaic” of …

By Amber Schiltz, Wildlife Educator Dirt, soil, ground, outer crust layer — we walk, skip and drive on top of it every day without giving it much thought. Humans and most animals we know spend their lives above it, under blue skies and the light of the sun, in the wide-open space we call home above ground. But life doesn’t stop at the ground surface. There’s a whole world of nature found below. Let’s dive into this underground world and …

Grassland habitat doesn’t always equal an abundance of cover. Some of the most barren places in the Sandhills attract a lot of wildlife, including a broad diversity of small creatures that think bare sand looks pretty dang hospitable. Story and photos by Chris Helzer Blowouts in the Nebraska Sandhills need a better public relations agent. They’re unpopular with ranchers, who tend to focus on the reasonable fact that bare sand contains very little cattle food. Among the other residents of …

The story of a prescribed burn By Gerry Steinauer, Botanist My introduction to the central Niobrara River Valley came in 1984 when, fresh out of college, I interned on The Nature Conservancy’s Niobrara Valley Preserve located east of Valentine. My job on the recently-acquired preserve was to design and build nature trails, help move cattle between pastures on horseback, and fix windmills and fences, along with other miscellaneous ranch duties. On evenings and weekends, I explored. For a kid from …

Story and photos by Chris Helzer I was on the way out to The Nature Conservancy’s Platte River Prairies when the preserve manager, Cody Miller, called. “Hey, have you ever seen a spadefoot toad?” “Just once,” I said, “but never along the Platte. You got one?” “Yep,” he said. “I saw it hopping away from the mower, and so I moved it to safety. It wasn’t the kind of toad I expected! I’m holding it until you get here.” Fifteen …

My Favorite Insect Gets Even Better Story and photos by Chris Helzer It’s hard to pick a favorite insect, but I have anyway. It’s the camouflaged looper, which is an inchworm that turns into the wavy-lined emerald moth. The moth is pretty enough and I’m sure is fascinating in its own right, but it’s the caterpillar I love. The camouflaged looper feeds on flowers of many kinds. What makes it incredible, though, is that it also selects pieces of the …

Story and Photos by Chris Helzer Wasps are amazing. No, seriously, they’re startlingly cool. To begin with, there are more than 100,000 wasp species that have been cataloged by science and many more that haven’t. Among all those species, there is incredible variation in size, shape, lifestyle and aggression toward humans. Spoiler alert: Only a tiny percentage of wasps pose any threat to us at all. Categorizing all wasps as aggressive, winged canisters of pain is like categorizing all Husker …

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, …