(Jun 27, 2023) The Adirondack Guideboat is a very particular craft. They're made of wood and thousands of screws and tacks. They're wider than a canoe, and rowed instead of paddled. They're only used in the Adirondacks, and they were the boat of choice for professional guides in the 19th and 20th centuries. Very few people still build and repair th…

Door Todd Moe

Door Todd Moe

(Mar 17, 2022) Being young often means trying out lots of different jobs, bouncing around until you figure out what you like. One Akwesasne Mohawk woman has worked various jobs in the service industry, and took away valuable experiences from each one.Door Ana Williams-Bergen

(Oct 28, 2021) Ravens were once a rarity in the North Country, but now they are becoming a common sight. They have a similar appearance to crows, but if you see the two birds together the difference is fairly obvious. Curt Stager and Martha Foley discuss ravens and crows on Natural Selections.Door Natural Selections

(Oct 21, 2021) The pressure to keep billions of humans fed can have a transformative impact on amimal populations. Overharvesting that targets the largest animals can result in reduction of the average size of species, as seen in Caribbean conch snails. And sport-fishing pressure on large mouth bass can winnow out the most agressive in the gene poo…

(Oct 14, 2021) Keratin, the substance wool, hair, and feathers are made from, makes a pretty thin diet, but the clothes moth has been dogging humanity's closets and drawers for hundreds of years, unravelling the work of generations of knitters and weavers to feed its larvae.Door Natural Selections

(Oct 7, 2021) Of all the places a cat can hang out, why do do many of them want to hang out in boxes? According to researchers, cats that spend time in close confines are measurably less stressed than those remaining in the open. As Curt Stager tells Martha Foley, it's not just house cats who feel this way.…

(Sep 30, 2021) Martha Foley has never succeeded in keeping a nature journal long-term, but Curt Stager finds them invaluable in his work. He records his observations on paper, but also finds great data through researching the journals of past observers, from Samuel de Champlain to Thomas Jefferson, to ordinary little-known North Country folk. His h…

(Sep 28, 2021) Sometimes it's not the subject, but the moment that captures an artist's attention. And St. Lawrence County artist Bill Parmer loves to spend time in his pickup in a favorite habitat: along a back road looking for just the right rural landscape in just the right light. You'll find many of Bill Parmer's original oil "plein air" painti…

(Sep 23, 2021) Humans, birds, and whales are not the only creatures who can sing. Martha Foley and Dr. Curt Stager discuss recent research that uncovered bats also use learned songs to communicate.Door Natural Selections

(Sep 20, 2021)Door Doyle Dean

(Sep 16, 2021) We tend to think that dogs do this, and that cats do that. We think animal species have a recognizable set of behaviors that define the nature of their kind. But what about individual animals? Does each have something we could understand as a unique personality?Door Natural Selections

(Sep 9, 2021) The complex web of species interaction is full of odd associations. Stocking a lake with fish cuts down on dragonflies, which helps pollinators, which helps the flowers bloom. Or it can cut down on amphibians such as newts, which is bad for garter snakes. Invasive flowering purple loosestrife is good for insects and birds that feed on…

(Sep 8, 2021)Door Amy Feiereisel

(Sep 2, 2021) Martha Foley? - not a fan of bugs. And Curt Stager took a course on them to steady his own reactions. The Natural Selections team looks at the outliers on the spectrum, the largest and smallest of critters with too many legs. New Zealand's weta makes a real handful. The fairy fly is nearly invisible. Some prehistoric dragonflies were …

(Sep 1, 2021)Door Amy Feiereisel

(Aug 26, 2021) All creatures breathe in some fashion, but how the job gets done has changed from fish to amphibian to reptile to mammal. Curt Stager and Martha Foley chart the evolution of animal respiration.Door Natural Selections

(Aug 24, 2021)Door Amy Feiereisel

(Aug 24, 2021) Ironworking may sound like a terrifying job. Workers maneuver around thousands of feet off the ground, and the metal parts they work with weigh literal tons. But to Walter Benedict, ironworking was just a job like any other.Door Ana Williams-Bergen

(Aug 19, 2021) The ubiquitous bird of cities and towns was designed for a different environment. The pigeon's distinctive style of flight is adapted for maneuverability in tight places - near vertical takeoffs and quick changes of direction. This adaptation to cliff and mountainside environments serves them well among our urban cliff dwellings. Cur…

(Aug 13, 2021)Door Amy Feiereisel

(Aug 12, 2021) Pigeons and doves, both domestic and feral, are the same species. Today's urban environment mimics their original favored habitat, seaside cliffs in Europe and Asia. Martha Foley and Curt Stager discuss this commonest bird companion in densely settled areas.Door Natural Selections

(Aug 11, 2021) Local advocates say many North Country providers and centers will receive the grants, but that the money won't address the deeper financial trouble than many are in.Door Amy Feiereisel

(Aug 10, 2021)Door Amy Feiereisel

(Aug 9, 2021) After months of waiting and wondering, the state did NOT release any official guidance to schools on how to reopen this fall, leaving districts less than a month to come up with their own guidelines.Door Amy Feiereisel

(Aug 5, 2021) The Northern Flicker is one of the most recognizable birds. This distinctly-marked member of the woodpecker family, instead of browsing wood for their food like their relatives, digs for food in the ground. Martha Foley and Curt Stager explore its habits.Door Natural Selections

(Jul 29, 2021) Animals that resemble each other may not be closely related. Sometimes the setting shapes their bodies more than their ancestry. Manatees may look like whales or walruses, but that is only because they adapted to the marine environment in a similar way. Martha Foley and Curt stager talk about convergent evolution.…

(Jul 29, 2021)Door Amy Feiereisel

(Jul 22, 2021) The big marine herbivore, the manatee, is thought by some to be the origin of mermaid legends, but it's not closely related to humankind or even to whales and other marine mammals.Door Natural Selections

(Jul 15, 2021) Caretaking for seasonal homes has long been a common job in the Thousands Islands region. In the early 1950s, caretaker Gerald Heath got an exceptional gig: looking after Dark Island, home to the red-roofed granite towers of Singer Castle. For Health’s son, Doug, the island was like home.…

(Jul 15, 2021) Lake trout require a lot of cold, oxygenated water to survive. Lakes in the Adirondacks of upstate New York are at the southern edge of their natural range. Although about 100 Adirondack lakes and ponds are still home to lake trout, even a small increase in temperature could sharply cut that number.…

(Jul 9, 2021) Two North Country school districts in Hamilton County aren’t getting ANY federal stimulus money, because they don’t fit into a particular federal formula.Door Amy Feiereisel

(Jul 8, 2021) Stimulus money recently made its way to New York and North Country school districts. Watertown received 22 million dollars. Now schools have big decisions to make on how to spend the money.Door Amy Feiereisel

(Jul 8, 2021) Researchers have found that variations in the wingspan of cliff swallows has a measurable impact on their survival in a human-dominated environment.Door Natural Selections

(Jul 1, 2021)Door Natural Selections

(Jun 29, 2021) In the North Country, it can be hard to find work. But if you can fix a dryer, Chris Beldock says you’ll have more work than you can stand.Door Amy Feiereisel

(Jun 24, 2021)Door Natural Selections

(Jun 17, 2021)Door Natural Selections

(Jun 10, 2021)Door Natural Selections

(May 27, 2021) A coral reef is kind of like Manhattan, a huge number of mouths to feed in a packed parcel of real estate. A reef doesn't have upstate farms to keep them all fed. So how do they get by?Door Natural Selections

(May 21, 2021) In early March, the snow crunched underneath Erica Burns’s boots as she walked from the horse barn to the pasture. A white horse had dug through the snow to find some grass and was grazing. “This is Lola. She’s our oldest horse,” Burns said. “That one’s Clover. Hey, Clove!”Door Andy Flynn

(May 19, 2021) Syracuse University epidemiologist David Larsen answers questions and shares background on the COVID-19 vaccine.Door Amy Feiereisel

(May 13, 2021) Few creatures move with more grace than deer. Martha Foley compares them to ballerinas. Curt Stager says there's a reason for that. As ballerinas often do, deer walk on their tip-toes.Door Natural Selections

(May 13, 2021) Summer's the perfect time to get your friends together for a low impact lawn game: bocci, croquet, horseshoes. Turns out there's another game to add to your list: Irish road bowling.Door Sarah T. Harris

(May 11, 2021) Most summer camps were unable to open last summer because of the pandemic. But this spring, summer camps got the green light and ones in the North Country are filling up.Door Amy Feiereisel

(May 3, 2021) While students in rural America, like the North Country, graduate high school at relatively high rates, they’re less likely to pursue higher education, and more likely to drop out once they’re there. It’s called the ‘rural opportunity gap’.Door Amy Feiereisel

(Apr 29, 2021)Door Natural Selections

(Apr 22, 2021) $2.3 billion federal dollars have been set aside in New York’s 2022 budget for child care, which passed in early April. It's a historic amount of money, which supports and changes the way child care works in NYS.Door Amy Feiereisel

(Apr 15, 2021) Curt Stager has his students start the semester by picking out a "pet rock." At the end of term, they have to tell the story of that rock - what it is, what it's made of, and what happened to shape it it over the ages.Door Natural Selections