Crazy Climate Maps
One benefit of the continual and seemingly never-ending cold and snowy winter (also known as spring now!) is that it provides us a tremendous opportunity to engage and educate people. The topic of our weather invariably comes up in every day life, especially now, and when someone complains about their heating bill or their aching back (thanks, shoveling!) you can mention to them that all of this may likely be due to our changing climate. The above graphic shows our globe and the general temperature percentile categories for meteorological winter, December through February, via NOAA’s...
Read MoreHappy Snowy 1st Day of Spring!
Happy 1st day of spring all! Although the calendar says it’s officially spring, our weather seems to say otherwise. Jamestown, as well as much of the Northeast, will welcome spring in with another snowy system passing through. As winter’s grip begins to slowly loosen, we will be wrapping up our winter projects and the preparation for the upcoming spring and summer field work will begin. It’s going to be an exciting year at RTPI and we can’t wait to report more on what we are up to! So stay tuned and keep thinking warm thoughts!
Read MoreRecord Shattering Cold & Historic Snow
To be entirely honest I meant to write this blog entry a couple of weeks ago. Yes, I have been busy during that time with meetings, gearing up for spring and summer projects, surveying, and much more. Nevertheless, I could not get myself too excited to write about the unbelievably and astonishingly historic cold we have had this winter, especially in February, or the feet of snow dumped on the region, rewriting more records for some locations. After feeling the first signs of spring in the past week I feel renewed, ready for the thaw and once again energized about our weather and climate....
Read MoreStarving Raptors
These photos are of a Northern Harrier on the hunt, swooping over grasslands and fields in search of small mammal prey. While I took these shots mere days ago this type of predatory behavior in itself has been a bit more scarce than usual this winter. Birds of prey, including owls and various hawks, have had a very difficult time finding food during the historically cold and very snowy conditions. Needing more calories than ever to survive in this weather they have had very little to find, and the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation reports there has been a high mortality...
Read MoreSurvey Work Continues
Call us crazy, but we have done it again: bundled ourselves up and trudged around in knee deep snow to survey for the deadly Hemlock Woolly Adelgid. This time, our JCC/CWC/RTPI survey team traveled down to Warren County to visit the Hatch Run Conservation Demonstration Area for the second year in a row. This site is loaded with Eastern Hemlock trees that make up a beautiful and valuable riparian zone between the streams and upland forests. We are happy to report that we didn’t find the pest we were after (which is a good thing!) and being in that particular site made us really think....
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