China needs to develop public health officials that inspect food on a regular basis. The last time a coronavirus began in China it was due to the sale and consumption of wildlife. I find this highly suspicious for food demands in this area of China. China has been working hard to raise their people out of poverty and in this region alone there have been 40 or more cities/towns reaching a standard that brings them out of a classification of poverty.

When a country like China with a population of over 1.3 billion people finds itself losing shipments of food, GOOD QUALITY FOOD, from places like the agricultural lands of the USA, there is a desperation to obtain food. Wildlife in China are hunted if there are people starving.

I believe there is a strong suspicion to be investigated in that the issues of tariffs have caused a food depression in China. If that is the case then the coronavirus could be the result of draconian policies of the Trump administration. 

January 20, 2020
By Weizhen Tan

...The coronavirus, (click here) which causes a type of pneumonia, was thought to have originated at a wholesale seafood market in the Chinese city of Wuhan. It was first reported in late December....

January 20, 2020
By Gigi Choy and Alice Yan

The outbreak (click here) of a new coronavirus stemming from Wuhan, China, has killed nine people and afflicted more than 400 others ahead of the Lunar New Year holiday during which hundreds of millions of people are expected to travel.

Health authorities (click here) in the Chinese city of Wuhan said another person had died from the recently identified coronavirus infection, bringing the total to four.

It added that 15 medical staff in Wuhan had contracted the virus, confirming that it is spreading by human transmission and raising concerns that people at the most virulent stage of infection – so-called super-spreaders – could infect many others.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) said it would call an emergency meeting on Wednesday to decide whether the outbreak should be declared an international public health emergency.

The new strain of coronavirus was identified this month after a mystery pneumonia started striking people in Wuhan mid-December. It is so far known to have spread to Thailand, South Korea and Japan in addition to the cases in China, in Beijing, Shanghai and the southern province of Guangdong....

WHO:

On 31 December 2019, (click here) WHO was alerted to several cases of pneumonia in Wuhan City, Hubei Province of China. The virus did not match any other known virus. This raised concern because when a virus is new, we do not know how it affects people.

One week later, on 7 January, Chinese authorities confirmed that they had identified a new virus. The new virus is a coronavirus, which is a family of viruses that include the common cold, and viruses such as SARS and MERS. This new virus was temporarily named “2019-nCoV.”

WHO has been working with Chinese authorities and global experts from the day we were informed, to learn more about the virus, how it affects the people who are sick with it, how they can be treated, and what countries can do to respond.

Because this is a coronavirus, which usually causes respiratory illness, WHO has advice to people on how to protect themselves and those around them from getting the disease....

Moscow Mitch is keeping his word to his Russian Oligarch, “Trump stays in office,  until Putin can re-elect him.”

The Impeachment in the US Senate is more lawlessness.

The US Senate is going to obstruct the requests of the Minority Leader because Trump has no defense to the facts.

The US House prepared a perfectly strong case, but, it will be dismissed. It is unfortunate the US Senate is corrupt to the core. The people got their answer about the US Senate's able to remove the president for high crimes and misdemeanors.

The votes in the impeachment will have to stand on their own as proof of the lawlessness of the Republicans in power.

Patrick Philbin has no defense for Trump and can only attack the US House in hopes it sells to his audience. He knows there is additional facts that have come forward since the Impeachment of Donald John Trump and he has no defense except OBSTRUCT the information.

Former White House communications director and Trump campaign aide Hope Hicks (click here) appeared before the House on Wednesday—and, true to the White House's pattern of stonewalling Democrats, lawmakers weren't able to get much out of her. According to a transcript released Thursday of Hicks's testimony, White House lawyers blocked Hicks from answering questions 155 times during her interview, claiming that they were invoking “absolute immunity” that prevented Hicks from “stat[ing] anything about her knowledge of anything during the period of time in which she was employed in the White House.”...

Executive Privilege and/or the Fifth Amendment was never claimed by Trump of his staff. His staff was instructed to claim "absolute immunity" which Trump is hoping will hold water through his impeachment. So, Philbin is lying. He is not even presenting the facts as they exist.

There is no such thing as "absolute immunity" in the USA Constitution. The information must be forthcoming because of all the incompetency by Trump. As a result the House proceedings were being stalled because it was the only action knew to take.

December 17, 2019
By David A. Graham

For most of the impeachment inquiry, (click here) President Donald Trump has passed on opportunities to mount a formal defense of his conduct. Initially, the White House complained that House Democrats were not affording him chances to defend himself. Once they did, he eschewed them, declining to participate in House Judiciary hearings, and refusing to allow testimony from witnesses who (his allies claimed) might vindicate him....

Philbin is lying. Trump was provided opportunity to provide a defense and end the inquiry, then the impeachment itself, but, it never happened until the work was done and the Articles voted on. A six page hissy fit was his defense. 

The US House appropriately was carrying out oversight about the activities of the president, especially in the face of a Whistleblower complaint.

There were no extraneous requests. The requests for information which never was forthcoming were necessary and not invasive past the oversight which was required.

Whistleblowers are vital to a democracy. If the US Senate treats these issues frivolously, then what will Whistleblowers think and do in the future? Maybe that pause by Whistleblowers is what a political party mired in corruption wants in the future, it would make life easier to continue their corruption.

It would be all too easy to end this impeachment if the requested documents were provided and all that was stated as fact so far can seriously be contested. The only reasons the documents and witnesses are not forthcoming is because it would show the truth telling to date by so many were the facts Donald John Trump now faces.

As the Senate prepared (click here) for the impeachment trial, the Government Accountability Office said the White House violated a law that limits a president’s power to withhold money allocated by Congress.

High Crimes and Misdemeanors. The violation of ignoring the order legislated by Congress to provide military aid to Ukraine is a crime. It is not a minor crime. Trump tried to wrongly change the VOTE of the people in the confidence of their Congress. Congress is the place where the will of the people occurs. When Trump refused Ukraine it's legislated military support he placed his own ideas above the will of the people. It is not a minor crime.

Trump acted unilaterally and in an alarming way that set off circumstances that were supposed to happen. Those on the call to the President of Ukraine knew there was something wrong about the dialogue and not only wrong, but, threatening.

It is unclear why evidence would be offered to the US Senate after the facts were presented, except to attempt to eliminate their need and clarity.

Pat Cipollone considers a subpoena a threat. At least he sincerely knows what defines a threat. Does he consider the withholding of direly needed military hardware a threat?

The Javelins are an incredible weapon. It is perfect for the military threat that Ukraine faces. The Javelin is a threat to any enemy Ukraine has to face, even in unjust wars as it is facing now.

So, Pat Cipollone needs to put his idea of threat into context when he finally realizes the threat Donald John Trump has posed to Ukraine and quite possibly the USA.

Now.

Is a subpoena all that much of a threat?

A street name is a sincere tribute. It is not an occassion that occurs easily.

It is interesting to have MLK Day occur on 1.20.2020. Dr. King's birthday is actually the 15th of January. The birthday falls on January 15 through the 21st depending when the Monday occurs. This year it is the 20th.

The reality that Dr. King is celebrated around the world speaks to the solidarity of his message of equality, where “the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.” I am quite sure he intended as included in his statement, sons and daughters.

January 20, 2020

Portland - Every Jan. 20, (click here) we recognize the birthday of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. His fight for racial equality and social justice changed the world as we know it.

Dr. King's legacy lives on through memorials, museums, and movies, but perhaps most commonly through the streets that bear his name. There are nearly 1,000 of them across the world.

Portland is no exception. In 1987, a group of community members organized to rename a street in Dr. King's name. But it was no easy task. Here's the story of how Union Avenue became Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.

From Baltimore to Bologna, Senegal to Los Angeles, avenues, drives and boulevards all bear Dr. King's name. Each street helps to preserve his legacy, marking the ground of the very communities his ideas transformed.

Chicago was the first city to rename a street in Dr. King’s honor. In August 1968, South Park Way became Martin Luther King Jr. Drive. Other cities soon followed.

The process of renaming a street doesn’t happen overnight. It can take years of committee meetings, coalition building and signature gathering before the sign posts change.

Nobody knows this better than Bernie Foster. In 1987, the longtime publisher of The Skanner newspaper had a vision for Portland: a prominent arterial throughfare in Dr. King's name that would be accessible from the major interstates and showcase the newly built Oregon Convention Center.

Foster needed help, so he organized community members and formed a committee. After much deliberation and feedback, the group found a street that met the criteria. They set their sights on Union Avenue....

I find it shameful that some states cannot bring themselves to celebrate
Dr. King's birthday without attaching another meaning to it. In my opinion, that is racism.

In Alabama: "Robert E. Lee/Martin Luther King Birthday".

In Arizona: "Martin Luther King Jr./Civil Rights Day".

In Arkansas: it was known as "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday and Robert E. Lee's Birthday" from 1985 to 2017. Legislation in March 2017 changed the name of the state holiday to "Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Birthday" and moved the commemoration of Lee to October.

In Idaho: "Martin Luther King Jr.–Idaho Human Rights Day".

In Mississippi: "Martin Luther King's and Robert E. Lee's Birthdays".

In New Hampshire: "Martin Luther King Jr. Civil Rights Day".

In Virginia: it was known as Lee–Jackson–King Day, combining King's birthday with the established Lee–Jackson Day. In 2000, Lee–Jackson Day was moved to the Friday before Martin Luther King Jr. Day, establishing Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a holiday in its own right.

In Wyoming: it is known as "Martin Luther King Jr./Wyoming Equality Day". Liz Byrd, the first black woman in Wyoming legislature, introduced a bill in 1991 for Wyoming to recognize MLK day as a paid state holiday, however, she compromised on the name because her peers would not pass it otherwise.

Virginia has corrected the record, however, there are those that continue to hate and find the necessity of bringing weapons of violence as a message to a demonstration. This year those that hate will be stopped from carrying weapons  by a governor that insists on peaceful protests.

Gov. Ralph Northam (click here) has temporarily banned firearms from Capitol grounds, and some of Richmond's streets are barricaded as officials try to ensure the demonstration takes place peacefully.

On April 4th it will be 52 years since Dr. King's death and the issue of racism is still a problem, because, it is linked to politics. It is very wrong for racism to still be a dog whistle agenda item for the Republican Party.

"Good Afternoon, Moon"

Waning Crescent

24.6 days old

25.2 percent lit


What?

The moon happens in the afternoon, too.

The picture above also contains Venus to the left of the moon. 

January 19, 2020
By Hanneke Weitering

The waning crescent moon (click here) will form a triangle with the Red Planet and the bright star Antares in the morning sky on Monday (Jan. 20), and you can catch the trio in the morning sky before dawn.

Mars will be in conjunction with the moon — meaning they share the same celestial longitude — at 2:12 p.m. EST (1912 GMT), but they will be invisible in daylight for skywatchers across the U.S. at that time. However, the pair will be observable for a few hours before sunrise....

People are embracing nature and the trend is vital to return Earth from it's climate crisis.

Cultures of the past where humans survived always included a reverence for nature. That needs to return to the priorities of the USA. Don't ask me how we were the people that developed and made into law "The Endangered Species Act," but, we did and Americans had esteem globally because of our moral character and love of nature. It is time to reclaim that heritage and make it part of the American culture with reverence for our natural spaces. There is plenty of profit in tourism and photo safaris. We have to leave behind the gluttony of the oil culture. It is a must not simply a dream.

January 3, 2020
By Mark Sommer

Water flows along Hunters Creek. 

A 222-acre forest with old-growth trees in Wales (click here) has been saved from potential logging and subdivisions.

Mossy Point will become a nature preserve.

The Western New York Land Conservancy (click here), working with Friends of Mossy Point, announced Thursday that it had raised the $1.6 million it needed to buy the land before a Dec. 31 deadline.

“This campaign was a tremendous effort by everyone involved,” said Nancy Smith, the conservancy's executive director. “[We] came together to make this dream a reality. Since the Great Lakes contain almost a quarter of the world’s surface fresh water, it is so inspiring to protect a forest that enhances the quality of the fresh water we all rely on.”

As a headwater forest, the land naturally filters water from the Niagara River and helps prevent flooding in communities downstream....

A New York story.

April 8, 2018
by Gwendolyn Craig

Tom Rauber, of Dansville, holds an immature bald eagle.

About 53 years ago (click here), Tom Rauber saw something he never expected to see.

It was 1965 and the lineman with the Rochester Telephone Corporation would sometimes escape the city to eat his lunch in his truck parked near Hemlock Lake in Livingston County. He always loved the outdoors and wildlife, said his daughter Shelly Rauber Mistretta, but perhaps no one knew how much until he discovered the last pair of bald eagles in New York state.

They were in a shagbark hickory tree, Mistretta said laughing, sitting in a coffee shop in Skaneateles Tuesday, pictures of her father holding juvenile bald eagles sprawled on the table top.

"He just watched them quietly for I think the first four or five years, and we knew he was watching a bird, but it was weird," she said, recalling her elementary school-age memories of that time. "It was like we were in a secret society. We couldn't talk about it."

Rauber would keep a canoe hidden in the cattails on the lake to check on his endangered birds. Between the 1940s and 1960s, New York's nesting bald eagle pairs went from about 70 to just one. The devastating trend was seen across the country, except for Alaska, as hunters, habitat loss and a pesticide called DDT threatened the very existence of the eagle. Rauber, ecstatic about coming across this special pair, contacted the Albany branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, where he was asked to monitor the birds and keep the agency updated.


More than three decades later, Rauber was still keeping bird journals. The telephone lineman turned wildlife rehabilitator became one of the most instrumental players in bringing the nation's bird back from the brink of extinction, along with the state Department of Environmental Conservation wildlife technician Mike Allen.

Both men died within about two months of each other last year — Allen on Oct. 28 and Rauber on Dec. 27....

Fire suppression allows for mature Shagbark hickory forests.

FIRE ECOLOGY OR ADAPTATIONS : (click here)

Periodic fires tend to favor oak over over the less fire-resistant
hickory.  The slow-growing, thin-barked shagbark hickory is reduced by
short fire intervals.  Frequent burning at prairie margins reduces
or eliminates shagbark hickory seedlings.

Fire suppression in parts of the Northeast has reduced fire frequency
and converted oak-hickory forests to more mesophytic stands.
However, in an oak-hickory forest in Indiana, fire suppression since
1917 has contributed to the recruitment of shagbark hickory, sugar
maple, white ash (Fraxinus americana), and American elm (Ulmus
americana).  Increases in tree density in oak-hickory forests in
Michigan have also been attributed to fire suppression.  In the
Great Smoky Mountains, fire suppression since 1940 has allowed hickories
to reach fire-resistant size.

Shagbark hickory usually sprouts from the root crown or stembase after
abovegrund foliage is killed by fire.  Seedling establishement may also
occur.

Burn, babe, burn is not the answer for healthy forests. Mature trees can be fire

resistant.

The reason these corals are healthy is due to water temperature and the lack of First World influence.

They aren't fished commercially. There is subsistence fishing. Up to now no one cared about these reefs in an international dialogue. They need to be protected and the people of the islands supported through any medical help they need to improve their quality of life. That comes as a mission and not a profit motive.

23 December 2019
By Shreya Dasgupta

Mass grouper spawning aggregation in French Polynesia. 

Over the course (click here) of seven months in 2012 and 2013, more than 70 scientists collaborated to study and map the coral reefs around the islands of French Polynesia in the South Pacific.

This was a huge undertaking. Researchers covered over 8,000 kilometers (5,000 miles), including places never studied by scientists before. They conducted nearly 4,000 coral reef and fish surveys in 264 dive sites across 29 islands, and mapped over 9,300 square kilometers (3,590 square miles) using satellite imagery. No other coral reef survey in French Polynesia has been conducted at this scale, said Renée Carlton, a marine ecologist with the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation.

Findings from this massive expedition, published in a new report, offer hope. At the time of the surveys, French Polynesia had one of the world’s healthiest coral covers, and some of the highest diversity and density of reef fish on the planet.

The surveys were part of the Global Reef Expedition (GRE), a global mission supported by the Khaled bin Sultan Living Oceans Foundation that aimed to map coral reefs around the world.

“The goal of the Global Reef Expedition was to collect as much data as possible on the status of coral reefs, given the rapid changes we are seeing to reefs around the world,” Carlton told Mongabay. “Having a baseline understanding of the status of coral reefs is important for scientists and managers alike.”...

Staminate (male) flowers are borne on long stalked catkins at the tip of old wood or in the axils of the previous season's leaves.

A monoecious plant has separate male flowers and female flowers occurring on the same plant. Plants that are dioecious (die-EE-shus) have either staminate or pistillate flowers on separate plants.

Pistillate (female) flowers are in short terminal spikes.

Shagbark Hickory (click here) is monoecious, producing separate male (staminate) and female (pistillate) flowers on the same tree. The male flowers are produced in drooping yellowish green catkins near the tips of twigs; these catkins are arranged in groups of 3 (catkins in each group sharing the same basal stalk) and they are 3-6" long. Individual male flowers are less than 1/8" (3 mm.) across, consisting of several stamens and an insignificant calyx; each male flower is partially hidden by a 3-lobed bract. The female flowers are produced in short greenish spikes (about 1/3" or 8 mm. long) at the tips of young shoots; there is typically 2-3 female flowers per spike. Individual female flowers are about 1/8" (3 mm.) long and ovoid in shape, consisting of a calyx and a pistil with spreading stigmata at its apex. The blooming period occurs from mid- to late spring as the leaves develop. The flowers are cross-pollinated by the wind. Fertile female flowers are replaced by nearly sessile clusters of 1-3 fruits that develop during the summer and mature during autumn of the same year.

January 17, 2020
By Tom Venesky

Bernie Okuniewski explains the process to make hickory syrup to customers at the Pennsylvania Farm Show. Education is a key part of his business, as many people aren't familiar with syrup made from hickory bark.

Harrisburg -  After Bernie Okuniewski (click here) cooks up a batch of syrup, the main ingredient that he pours into the bottle isn’t from the sap that flows inside a maple tree.

Instead, the ingredient that makes Okuniewski’s syrup unique is found on the outside of a tree.

Hickory bark, actually.

There is a difference in twig size and formation in the different varieties of the Shaghickory.

C. ovata twigs and buds (middle) are intermediate in size. The same is true of the Hickory nut. C. ovata is in the middle as well.

They make meals for wildlife as well. The nuts are green before they dry.

Hickory nuts (click here) are the most calorie-dense wild plant food. One ounce of shelled out hickory nut meats packs a whopping 193 calories, with most of that coming from fat.

World Economic Form, Davos Switzerland held January 21 - 24, 2020

Davos (click here)

It is time to change the paradigm before Earth changes it forever. The reason there is truncation of the future to the underpinnings of government are crony industries that believe they must last forever. THEY DON'T. Every economy has it's day and then it is time to move on. The current generations have to let go of the financial performance of the past and realize the future is going to be very, very different.

The future is more local, self-sufficient with global interactions for artists. The quality of life is dependent upon a change in values that will embrace more abstract thought such as the arts. Rather than every car in the driveway, let's think about a precious original work of art in every unit of every floor of a high rise in the city.

Focusing people to the city, with Japan as an example, will bring the need for cars to near obsolescence. Mass transit is necessary to go from city to city. I don't see the suburbs surviving the change. Rather than using every inch of American land for real estate development, there needs to be a consolidation of people and their activities to cities where transportation is as near as the next subway stop. The USA needs to build high speed rail with innovative ideas such as magnetic and pneumatic rail.

For those that see the world differently, I assure them their thinking is obsolete. Earth covered in concrete is one huge heat island where life no longer exists.

I must remind at this point one of the reasons for conservation in the first place. The Endangered Species Act was an understanding that if the minor species started to fail, it would lead to those along the food chain to fail. It is true and the first place to witness it are the oceans where major fisheries are failing due to over harvest and heating waters. The most common place for fish to live, breed and flourish often begins in the coral reefs and today it is prudent to ask, "How are the coral reefs doing? Are there many left?"

Start making an economy that is focused on the sins of the past and the promises of the future and MITIGATE the damage so far and RESTORE natural areas IN ABUNDANCE.

Currently, burnt forests are the legacy to children. That has to be completely reversed with more land dedicated to forests and more effort to end forest fragments and a demand for the return of the "Core Forest."

NOW!

The promise to generations to come is a strong apology for the destruction of Earth and reinvigorate land while targeting a ZERO GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSION.

January 19, 2020
By Sam Meredith

Burnt trees are seen in Mallacoota on January 15, 2020 , Australia. The Princes Highway between Mallacoota and Orbost remains closed to public due to the risk of falling trees following the devastating bushfires that have swept through East Gippsland in recent weeks.

Over half of the world’s GDP (gross domestic product) (click here) is exposed to risks from nature loss, according to a new report.

It comes following a 12-month period which reportedly saw the hottest year on record for the world’s oceans, the second-hottest year for global average temperatures and wildfires from the U.S., to the Amazon, to Australia.

The report, which was produced by WEF in collaboration with PwC U.K., found that $44 trillion of economic value generation — more than half of the world’s GDP — is “moderately or highly dependent on nature and its services and is therefore exposed to nature loss.”

Policymakers and business leaders from around the world are due to arrive in Davos, Switzerland for the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Monday.

The annual January get-together is scheduled to focus on the intensifying climate crisis....

Northern Shagbark Hickory

There are five leaflets to the entire leaf.

Carya ovata var. ovata has its largest leaflets over 8 in long. That is each leaflet, not the entire leaf which is seen to the left.

The blades are ovate, most often obovate (narrow end at the base) or elliptic. The picture to the left is that of the ovata variety.

The overall length of the leaf can be 11 to 23 inches. The top of the leaf is glabrous (without hairs). 

The edges of the leaf are finely serrate with tufts of hair at the proximal end to the tree. There is a central vein with parallel veins off the central vein throughout the leaf.

There can be hairs underneath the leaf, but, usually confined to the major central vein.

January 19, 2020
By Adam Wagner

Raleigh - Global warming made Hurricane Florence wider and wetter, (click here) a study published this month in the journal Science Advances confirmed.

Days before Florence made landfall in September 2018, a team from Stony Brook University’s School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences compared 10 forecast ensembles to a hypothetically cooler world to determine that the actual storm would produce as much as 50% more rainfall and be about 50 miles wider than it would have been without a warmer climate.

After the storm, the team refined its methodology and ran 96 different ensembles, comparing forecasts under the actual conditions in which Florence developed to those of a world where the sea surface temperature near the Carolina coast was about 1.4 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. Those ensembles showed that Florence’s average rainfall increased about 4.9% in the warmer world, while the storm was about 5.6 miles — or 1.6% — wider than it would have been without warming, the researchers reported.

In a prepared statement, Kevin Reed, the Stony Brook professor who led the study, said, “We found predictions about increases in storm size and increased storm rainfall in certain areas to be accurate, even if the numbers and proportions are not exact. More importantly, this post-storm modeling around climate change illustrates that the impact of climate change on storms is here now and is not something only projected for our future.”

Slow-moving Florence dropped record-setting rain across Eastern North Carolina in September 2018, with the National Weather Service reporting local highs of nearly 36 inches in Elizabethtown and 34 inches in Swansboro. Flooding from the storm damaged an estimated 75,000 structures in North Carolina, including in many areas that suffered flooding during 2016’s Hurricane Matthew....
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

THE NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE (click here) IN NEWPORT/MOREHEAD CITY NC HAS
CONFIRMED A TORNADO NEAR HAVELOCK IN CRAVEN COUNTY NORTH CAROLINA ON
THE EVENING OF SEP 13TH 2018. THE TORNADO WAS ASSOCIATED WITH
HURRICANE FLORENCE. A LARGE SWATH OF SNAPPED PINE TREES WERE FOUND
IN THE CHERRY BRANCH NEIGHBORHOOD OF HAVELOCK. THE DAMAGE WAS MOST
EXTENSIVE FROM NEAR THE DEAD END OF SEATTLE SLEW DRIVE SOUTHWEST
TOWARD THE INTERSECTION OF ROUTE 306 AND PINE CLIFF ROAD. OVER 100
PINE TREES WERE SNAPPED IN THIS GENERAL AREA, WITH A FEW PINE AND
HARDWOOD TREES UPROOTED NEAR BOTH ENDS OF THE DAMAGE PATH. MAXIMUM
ESTIMATED WINDS WERE 105 MPH. 

There are three varieties of Shagbark Hickory. The variety in New York State is Carya ovata var. ovata. This is the appearance of the bark of these trees.

Mature shagbarks are easy to recognize because, as their name implies, they have shaggy bark. This is on mature trees only, the young have smooth bark.

To the right is the smooth bark of a young Shagbark Hickory.

January 19, 2020
By Anya Kamenetz

Xiye Bastida to left.

A teenage girl, Greta Thunberg, (click here) has become the world-famous face of the climate strike movement. But she's far from alone: Thunberg has helped rally and inspire others — especially girls.

NPR talked to four teenage climate activists, all girls, from the U.S. and Australia, alongside their mothers. These teenagers are juggling activism with schoolwork and personal time. And their families are working hard to support them as they grapple with the heavy emotions that come with fighting for the future.

In Castlemaine, Australia, Milou Albrecht, 15, co-founded School Strike for Climate Australia, which organizes student walkouts. As massive bush fires engulf parts of her home country, Albrecht's group has been pressuring the German corporation Siemens to withdraw from an Australian coal mining project.

In New York City, Xiye Bastida, 17, led her school in the city's first big student climate strike last March, and along with traveling and public speaking, she and some of her classmates have continued to strike on Fridays ever since. ("Gym is on Fridays, so I have a very low grade in gym," she notes.)...

In Louisiana, 16-year-old Jayden Foytlin was one of 21 young people who sued the federal government for violating their rights to a livable planet. The young plaintiffs hailed from communities around the country that have been directly affected by global warming — Foytlin, for example, is from south Louisiana, where her home has been flooded in storms....

November 12, 2019
By Angela Heathcote

Milou Albrecht, Harriet O’Shea Carre and Nimowei Johnson.

...The first strike (click here) by the group happened yesterday, when the temperatures in Bendigo hit a scorching 34°C. They sat outside their Federal Senator, Bridget McKenzie’s office for the entire day, playing cards and chess, and drawing with chalk. They’ll be doing the exact same thing today....