Two Useful Nature Skills to Learn this Winter

Greetings,

In anticipation of the winter season, I am excited to announce that two Learn Your Land online courses are on sale this week.

To improve your foraging skills, consider enrolling in Foraging Wild Mushrooms. This 4-season online course is designed to help you safely and successfully harvest wild mushrooms from the forest, from the field, and even from your backyard.

To improve your tree identification skills, consider enrolling in Trees In All Seasons. This online course teaches you how to identify 100 trees in every season. If you want to develop the confidence to look at a tree and say, “That’s black spruce, no doubt about it,” or “That’s most certainly sourwood,” or “That can’t be anything but mockernut hickory,” consider enrolling today.

These courses are self-paced and presented entirely online. Once enrolled, you can start, stop, and resume at any time.

Please note that both courses — Foraging Wild Mushrooms and Trees In All Seasons — are on sale for one week only, from today until Monday, December 23.

Thanks for supporting nature education!

—Adam Haritan

Welcoming the Winter Solstice: A Celebration of Light, Magic, and Nature’s Gifts

Welcoming the Winter Solstice: A Celebration of Light, Magic, and Nature’s Gifts

More Earthworms = Less Lyme Disease?

Cases of tick-borne diseases are on the rise, and people are wondering what to do.

Spray more repellent on clothes? Wrap more duct tape around socks? Ingest more Japanese knotweed? Cull more deer?

How about introducing more earthworms into tick-prone landscapes?

It sounds bizarre, but some ecologists are researching this latter strategy. According to a few studies, the prevalence of earthworms is associated with fewer ticks in certain ecosystems.

How is this possible? Why are earthworms associated with fewer ticks? Could the intentional release of earthworms into wild landscapes work as a viable tick-reduction strategy?

In a brand-new video, I address these fascinating questions.

You can watch the video here.

Thanks for reading and watching! Do you have any unique tick-reduction strategies?

— Adam Haritan

Embracing the Locavore Lifestyle: Benefits of Eating Local

Embracing the Locavore Lifestyle: Benefits of Eating Local

The tree that built America

“Why do you like trees so much?”

People routinely ask me this question.

It isn’t an easy question to answer, but I try my best to explain what it is about trees that makes me feel good.

I love the food trees offer. I enjoy the medicine trees provide. I like the shade trees cast. And I admire their beauty.

But there’s something else about trees I really appreciate: their ability to tell stories.

As it turns out, trees tell remarkable stories of peace, tragedy, death, and — believe it or not — democracy.

One notable tale that trees tell quite well is the story of America’s birth as a nation. While many people associate this story with icons like the Liberty Bell and the Declaration of Independence, the founding of the United States is also strongly connected — both physically and symbolically — to one particular tree.

Tall, majestic, and extremely useful, this tree has been famously labeled “the tree that built America.”

To learn more about this celebrated tree, check out the brand-new video.

Speaking of trees, I was recently interviewed on Harvesting Nature’s Wild Fish and Game Podcast. In the interview, we discussed how trees can help you become a better hunter and observer of wildlife.

You can listen to the interview here.

Thanks for reading and watching! Do you have any unique reasons for loving trees?

— Adam Haritan