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Outdoors

Trail center celebrates community of hikers

DAMASCUS, Va. (AP) — After 15 years, the Damascus Trail Center has finally opened its doors to all trail hikers, bird watchers, nature enthusiasts, and tourists. In her opening remarks during the Damascus Trail Center opening ceremony, Sandra Marra, the president and CEO of the Appalachian Nature Conservancy, explained the Damascus Trail Center will serve as a hub for conservation and education. “The Damascus Trail Center is a place of welcoming. It will serve as the hub of education and conservation throughout Southwest Virginia and its surrounding areas,” Marra said. “The ...

DCNR to update wild plant regulations

Harrisburg — Department of Conservation and Natural Resources Secretary Cindy Adams Dunn has announced that the department will be updating regulations applying to the conservation of native wild plants in Pennsylvania. “Many people don’t realize that there are many more species of plants in the world than there are animals,” Dunn said. “Pennsylvania is home to about 3,000 plant species — about two-thirds of those are considered native to the commonwealth, and 349 of them are currently listed as rare, threatened, or endangered.” As a part of its mission, DCNR and its ...

Are you a birder?

Though I didn’t always think so, it doesn’t take much to be a birder. We come in all shapes and sizes. The eight year old who lives next door to me is a birder, just like the 78 year old Lycoming Auduboner who lives in the next block. Their knowledge and skill levels might be vastly ...

Elk cam is back for another season

HARRISBURG — Can’t wait for the September peak of Pennsylvania’s elk rut? Get a jumpstart now with the Game Commission’s Elk Cam. The Game Commission again has installed a camera on State Game Lands 311 in Elk County, in a field that typically is a hub of elk activity as the bugling season heats up. Video and sound from the camera are being livestreamed at www.pgc.pa.gov, and viewers can expect not only to see elk, but turkeys, deer and other wildlife, as well. Elk, which in the coming weeks will ramp up activity — with bulls becoming more vocal and competing with one ...

Do spiders sleep? Study suggests they may snooze like humans

NEW YORK (AP) — It’s a question that keeps some scientists awake at night: Do spiders sleep? Daniela Roessler and her colleagues trained cameras on baby jumping spiders at night to find out. The footage showed patterns that looked a lot like sleep cycles: The spiders’ legs twitched and ...

US sued in bid to force decision on Rockies wolf protections

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — Wildlife advocates sued federal officials Tuesday after the government missed a deadline to decide if protections for gray wolves should be restored across the northern U.S. Rocky Mountains, where Republican-led states have made it easier to kill the predators. The Biden administration said in a preliminary finding last September that protections for wolves may need to be restored because increased hunting in Idaho and Montana posed a potential threat to wolves across the region. A final determination was due June 1. The Humane Society of the United States ...