Posts tagged with “Arb Talk” (All posts)
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The Deadly Designs of the Elm Bark Beetle
4 March 2024Walking through the Arboretum earlier this month, student naturalists came across weird designs etched in the wood of a fallen tree. Was this a practical joke on curious students, or a particularly artistic woodpecker? As we learned, these were actually the galleries of bark beetles.
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No Ice? What Does This Mean For Wildlife?
4 March 2024Winter 2024 is on track to be the warmest winter on record for much of Minnesota, and with unprecedented warmth comes anomalies to the environment around us, one of which…
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Squirrels!
20 February 2024The morning after the Midwinter Ball, campus was blanketed with silence. As I sluggishly trudged to the libe to chip away at my mountain of homework, something stopped me in my tracks.
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The Cannon River
13 February 2024What lies at the heart of the Arb? Is it the plentiful prairies? The lovely wooded paths for wandering? The Hill of Three Oaks? I would argue for The Cannon…
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The American Tree Sparrow
28 January 2024Many people think of winter as the time when birds are gone from Minnesota, having migrated south during the last autumn. However, some birds have an opposite trend to this, like the American Tree Sparrow.
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The Princess Pine in the Arb
17 January 2024Not many things are still green these days in Minnesota, but this plant and family is one of them.
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Lots to do in the Snowy Arb
12 January 2024Winter has arrived in the arboretum, turning it from beautiful forest to frigid wasteland, right? Not so! There’s plenty to do and see in the arb, even in the midst of (admittedly quite a mild) Minnesota winter.
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Roll Call in the Changing Season
8 November 2023The first snow has come and gone, the last of the color is falling from the trees, and the change in season is apparent. Plants and animals alike are making preparations for the coming cold. It’s time to bundle up and see who’s out and about!
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Tree Climbing in Gray Foxes
1 November 2023Several weeks ago, a gray fox was observed wandering around the Arboretum. Unlike the more familiar red fox, gray foxes are recognized by their beautiful coats, a gradient from a silver-gray on their back and face to a red on their legs and chest with a white throat.
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Identifying the Hackberry
25 October 2023One of the best trees to learn to identify in Northfield might be the hackberry, Celtis occidentalis.
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The First Flounces of Fall Foliage
26 September 2023A smidge of gold has doused the Northfield foliage a touch earlier than last year, and a touch later than the year before. These shortening days, as well as the cooler temperatures we experienced the first week of classes kicked off the annual Minnesota spectacle.
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River Flooding: Formidable or Foundational?
26 May 2023Earlier this term, the Cannon River flooded and engulfed the soccer fields next to West Gym and the entirety of the Arboretum’s floodplain. Flooding can cause issues for humans, but…
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How to Enjoy the Arb During Tick Season
19 May 2023After a cold winter and a rainy spring, the weather is finally perfect to get out into the Arb! In these last couple of weeks, you can get out and see the wildflowers blooming, the leaves on the trees budding, the flooding Cannon River, and the geese with their newborn goslings.
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Otter Encounter
12 May 2023During the annual frog and toad survey that happened in Week 4, we were very fortunate to see and hear at least one river otter (Lontra canadensis) in the retention pond near the Lower Arb entrance.
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Prairie Fire in the Arboretum
5 May 2023Spring has arrived, and the Arboretum is starting to flower and leaf out. But spring has also brought a couple of non-traditional signs to the Arboretum. Burned patches of ground, plumes of smoke — what are we up to?
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Woodcock Funk
28 April 2023With a funky tune in the background, a plump, long-beaked brown bird treads daintily, bobbing its body forwards and back while keeping its head perfectly stable and keeping up with the beat.
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The Spring and Squirrels
21 April 2023With what may be the last of the snow, southern Minnesota has seen a flurry of activity amongst its many feathered and furry creatures.
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Trees in Jeopardy
14 April 2023The city of Northfield recently published a press release confirming that emerald ash borers have started to infest Northfield ash trees. This is bad news for the campus Arboretum, as green ash (Fraxinus pennsylvanica) makes up 20-30% of the trees in
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The Heavy Preserver
7 April 2023The Trumpeter Swan (Cygnus buccinator) is the heaviest flying native bird in North America and has an average wingspan of 185 to 250 centimeters.
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What’s Under the Ice?
3 March 2023For the majority of the long, frigid, Minnesota winter, Lyman Lakes and the Cannon River freeze over, and layers of snow cover the frozen lake. As a result, it may seem like the lakes are dormant and in a stagnant state, but that is certainly not the case. While there are animals that hibernate or migrate south throughout the winter, many aquatic and semi-aquatic species stay active despite the harsh conditions
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