Great Views from AAM and Minnesota Valley

As always, the recent AAM conference (Minneapolis this time) was great fun and extremely informative.  I can’t believe how terrific the exhibit hall was this year – absolutely chock-a-block with cool, innovative, and very USEFUL new techno stuff that no one can resist playing with (and learning from, despite ourselves).  

I also trekked over to the Bloomington Visitor Center of Minnesota Valley National Wildlife Refuge to see the new exhibit installation, which I researched and wrote but hadn’t yet seen.  Wow!  The building itself is a knock-out, all beautiful stonework and natural light, and the exhibit colors and images complement the setting marvelously.  As for the text:  I’m happy.  It’s short, simple, and interpretive in a way that should inspire general readers/visitors to look closely, explore, and learn more in that vast, wild, wet landscape just outside the windows. 

Dreaming of El Yunque....

It's a rainy day in Georgia, and a good day to work on my current project:
El Yunque National Forest, the only tropical rainforest in the USDA Forest
Service.  This beautiful Puerto Rican rainforest is green, green, green....
with flashes of absolutely brilliant color (birds, bromeliads, lizards, even
colorful snails).

The overgrown building in the photo was constructed in the 1930s by the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC), an economic stimulus program during the Great Depression that put young people to work creating some of our nation's great public places, including recreational trails and buildings in national parks and national forests, and scenic drives such as the Blue Ridge Parkway.  Here in El Yunque, the CCC built "Bano Grande" -- a great swimming pool way back when.

Atlanta: City in a Forest

How does a fast-growing city keep its trees? Just ask Trees Atlanta – a non-profit dedicated to protecting existing trees and planting new ones throughout metro ATL.  GIG just finished a set of interpretive signs for TA’s downtown headquarters.  To learn more about what urban trees need to survive and thrive, Trees Atlanta is the place to go!

Here are a few samples of our recent interpretive signs -- fabricated in recyclable aluminum in keeping with TA’s environmental mission.

Swimming Anyone?

A lone lifeguard chair remains at Horseshoe Bend Beach in Montana's Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area.

I'm spending most of a Georgia January daydreaming of faraway places -- I'm working on interpretive materials for places 'way out west. Like Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area in Montana, Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument on the Arizona Strip, Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge along the Rio Grande, and a legendary, not-exactly imaginary place called Paramount Ranch just outside Los Angeles, CA. Lots of classic Westerns were filmed at Paramount Ranch. 

Mexican Wolf Recovery at Sevilleta NWR

Today I'm writing about the Mexican Wolf Recovery Project at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in New Mexico.  Without our help, these magnificent creatures may disappear from the face of the earth.  In the new exhibits at Sevilleta, you'll soon be able to see them by webcam.  Cool! 

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