Earth

 Over the past few weeks I've explored some familiar areas while back home. I visited one of my favorite spots the Ipswich River Nature Preserve! This is one of my favorite places to relax and be out in nature because its one of the closest and biggest nature preserves near me. The Nature preserve sits on Teal Pond which stretches across most of it. My girlfriend and I went on Sunday morning and the weather was beautiful. We were welcomed by all sorts of birds that were colorful against the green grass. I saw a lot of tracks in the snow, some were small others were big, I wondered what made them. As we were walking down the trail I saw many types of mushrooms, some were on trees others were coming out the ground and varied in color.  I could tell the leaves beneath our feet were starting to decompose into soil.  The trees for the most part were begining to look bare, there was little shade as we walked. The last time I was here the trees had all their leaves and the fores...

  Section 1: The endangered species. The New Zealand Sea Lion are similar to seals but they pend more time on land. They are found near the Auckland and Campbell islands and to some extent around the coast of New Zealand's South and Stewart islands. On the food chain the New Zealand Sea Lion is a consumer that   eat a  wide variety of vertebrate and invertebrate prey . Frequently eaten species include opal fish, Munida, hoki, oblique-banded rattail, salps, octopus, squid, and crustaceans. Predators of the New Zealand Sea Lion include adult male sea lions and Great white sharks. They bread in colonies on beaches during the winter months. One a pup is born mother's are said to being them inland while they forage for food in the ocean to prevent hookworm and to keep away from the males fighting for territory. According to the IUCN Redlist there are only 3031 mature individuals still alive and that population is continually decreasing.   ...

 This weekend I visited the Horatio Colony Nature Preserve with my girlfriend to examine some of the different plant species. It was always intrigued me how the species vary depending where you go. I recommend you take some time to check this spot out , there was a lot of different species I encountered. Although I got some good pictures, I would have had more if my phone didn't die.  This was my first time visiting a trail in Keene, and overall it had a lot to offer.  We saw different types of trees throughout our hike, some had smooth bark while others had a more ridged texture. I asked myself why this was the case? I am planning on researching this more to get a better answer in my next blog post.                                                       Smaller tree with moderate indents on the surface taken by Alex Kelley on 10/23/21 ...

  Environmental and Health impacts After reading the article by Mark Schleifstein and Tristian Baurick  about the impacts of continuing to use oil as a source of power, we start to see the many downsides oil has on the environment and our health. According to the article, ".. A wide variety of animals live in or near the water’s surface, where sheens appear. Young fish and sea turtles likely suffer widespread harm .." After Hurricane Ida the oil was visible from the sky in the gulf of Mexico which shows how extreme the situation is. What makes this so difficult to control is the oil companies are not taking any responsibility and cleaning up. According to Yoder, a healthy Gulf scientist, ".. multiple spills can be more difficult to find and clean up, and the responsibility is harder to pin down.." If the regulators stepped up there would be severe consequences that no company would want to deal with fixing the problem. Every Hurricane that happens just make...

                                    Killington Peak from top of Snowdown Mountain by Joe Shlabotnik The past few years my friends and I get together and we rent the same house every time. It is the part of my year that I look forward to because it brings me so much joy to be in the silence of nature. The view from the deck is spectacular, you are so close you can see the ski lifts all the way up the mountain. This is my time to unwind and explore from how busy everyday life is. One day I hope to buy a vacation home near Killington because I never want to forget the feeling of being there. Next year I hope to go on different trails and see new areas.  Killington peak by  Justin Raphaelson                                        

 This is a practice test post to see if everything is working properly.