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Just Our Nature - news, updates and insights
St. Lawrence State Parks: A History of Land Use and Recreation
By William de Chabert on
Blog: Just Our NatureThe North Country is home to a rich set of state parks, but have you ever wondered how these beautiful, serene places came to be? Many of them sit on land that was once heavily used for logging, even before the timber industry dominated the landscape. These sites are the historical lands of the Mohawk and Iroquois, which are members of the Haudenosaunee. Over time, local advocates and state…
Rockin Rollers: The Beatles' Endless Tour
By Paul J. Hetzler on
Blog: Just Our NatureGreek mythology holds that Zeus punished the murderous tyrant-king Sisyphus by banishing him to Tartarus for eternity, where he has to roll a big rock up a hill, only to have it tumble back down as he nears the top. Big deal – he got off easy.
Zeus could have condemned him to push a towering sphere of solid excrement that weighed ten times more than he did, walking backwards the whole time, and…
The Story of St Lawrence's State Parks
By William de Chabert on
Blog: Just Our NatureThe North Country is home to a rich set of state parks, but have you ever wondered how these beautiful, serene places came to be? Many of them sit on land that was once heavily used for logging, even before the timber industry dominated the landscape. These sites are the historical lands of the Mohawk and Iroquois, which are members of the Haudenosaunee. Over time, local advocates and state…
April Showers Bring May (Black) Flies
By Donatella DeFazio on
Blog: Just Our NatureAs we move from winter to spring and spring to summer, everyone's “favorite” insects are blackflies. So, where have they been for the past few months? Why do we even need flies in our world? Wouldn’t we be better off without them? We wouldn't be.
During the winter, most flies take cover to protect from the freezing temperatures in warm, insulated places either in houses or underground…
9th Annual Earth Day 7K Recap!
By Dan French on
Blog: Just Our NatureThe weather tried to stop us, but we are thrilled with the turnout to this year's 9th Annual Earth Day 7k! Despite the rain, more than 30 community members helped to raise over $600 for environmental programming. The North Country community demonstrated what generosity, grit, and passion look like this past Saturday. With the course starting on the muddied Kip Trail shoe laces were…
Why did the salamander cross the road?
By Liz Anderson on
Blog: Just Our NatureThis may seem like the start of a joke (to get to the other side, right?) but it actually has a serious answer and some complex systems at play.
On April 1, 2025 a friend and I went to Indian Creek Nature Center for an afternoon birding trip. While we didn’t see too many birds - a singular Song Sparrow, some Buffleheads, and a lot of Canada Geese - we did encounter a whole bunch of frogs.…
Plant a Tree, or Rent It?
By Paul J. Hetzler on
Blog: Just Our NaturePlanting a tree isn’t rocket science, which is good. If it were that complex, I’d wager we’d have a lot fewer trees around. It may not take a genius to plant a tree correctly, but a lot of money is wasted each year to buy and install trees which may as well be rented, because they will only live a fraction of their potential lifespan.
When trees decline and die after 20 or 25 years, the last…
Tracking Tracks with Adventurous Girl Scouts
By Dan French on
Blog: Just Our NatureThe North Country has been blessed (or cursed depending how you look at it) by a blanket of white gold this winter. Several winter storms accumulating several feet of standing snow shows that Punxsutawney Phil might not be that unreliable of a winter predictor after all. Phil and his hibernating friends tend to stay indoors during the winter, but if you take a walk out on a trail this time of…
7th Annual Cardboard Sled Race Recap!
By Dan French on
Blog: Just Our NatureThe 7th Annual Cardboard Sled Race this past Saturday, February 8th was better than we could have hoped and a great way to kick off Canton's Winterfest! It was a balmy 25 degrees and sunny morning, perfect for speeding down SUNY Canton's sledding hill. Competition was fierce, with many racers fighting their way to the finish line by dragging, flipping, rolling, or getting a boost in their sled…
Tree Species Focus: Basswood Best for Wooden Bass
By Paul J. Hetzler on
Blog: Just Our NatureAfter receiving my first pocket knife at age eight, I wasted no time in launching my career as a sculptor. How hard could it be, I thought, as I gathered 2x4 scrap-ends from behind the garage. To warm up before producing my masterpiece, which I figured would be done by supper, I set about to carve a fish.
I had just graduated from Dad’s rigorous Sharp Object Safety Course (“Always cut away from…
