Fast Company: This new tool shows you the local mosquito forecast. “If you’re planning a barbecue, you can now check the mosquito forecast along with the weather forecast. A new tool predicts local mosquito activity, from ‘low’ ranging up to ‘severe,’ for a period of seven days, using an algorithm that processes detailed weather data from Google Earth Engine, the tech giant’s massive satellite imagery database.”
ScienceNordic: What our online lives can tell us about how much we value nature. “For the past eight years, several research groups, including ours, have spent a lot of time understanding whether we can eavesdrop on social media posts to figure out where and when people interact with nature. It turns out that we can. We tend to take photos and describe the part of our nature experiences that mattered. So suddenly our online lives is opening the possibility to figure out, at a global scale, where people go to experience nature and what it is they are actually enjoying when doing so.”
USGS: New Research Shows Recreational Fishing Popular During Pandemic Due to ‘Social Fishtancing’. “National CASC Research Fish Biologist Abigail Lynch and co-authors analyzed a survey on recreational anglers and found that recreational angling remained a popular activity for many U.S. anglers during the COVID-19 pandemic due to the perceived safety of social fishtancing.”
Business Insider: Nearly half of adults now want to live somewhere with easy access to camping or fishing, marking a fundamental change that’s rippling through everything from housing prices to fashion. “It seems that the outdoors boom isn’t dying down anytime soon. For nearly half of US adults, easy access to the outdoors for activities like hiking, fishing, or camping is ‘very’ or ‘extremely’ important, according to a new survey conducted by The Washington Post and George Mason University’s Schar School of Policy and Government. The poll was conducted among 1,000 adults between July 6 and July 21.”
National Parks Traveler: Mapping Out Your Lewis And Clark National Historic Trail Trek. “[The site] is designed to help you learn more about the host communities, local businesses, and attractions located along the 4,900-mile trail. Through the portal’s interactive map guide, travelers can plan themed trips and locate recommendations for lodging, historic places, sustainable communities, natural areas, and tribal lands.”
The Mayor EU: Denmark makes sure people of all ages and abilities can access nature. “According to a press release by the Ministry, the Danish Nature Agency has collaborated with the Association of Young People with Disabilities to launch a new website which lists 63 experiences that have been made open and accessible to people of all abilities. The website provides users with a map of 63 locations from all over the country. One must simply click on the location that interests them to see what experiences are offered in the area. The activities and sites which are listed on the website include hiking trails, viewpoints, and campsites, among others.”
Indianapolis Public Library: Indianapolis Public Library reveals digital archive of Indy Parks history. “The new Indy Parks collection includes photographs of 86 parks and golf courses, videos of historic events such as the U. S. Women’s Olympic Swimming Trials at Broad Ripple Park, and board meeting minutes ranging from 1908-2017. Community events, performances, and groundbreaking ceremonies make up the bulk of the collection, offering a unique visual record of Indianapolis’s past.”
NBC Connecticut: New Website Allows Users to Explore Connecticut Public Trails. “In honor of National Trails Day, Connecticut Trail Finder is a free website where users can find trails in virtually every corner of the state. Users can start browsing trails by an interactive map or filtering by categories such as difficulty, distance or popularity.”
Maine Department of Education: Maine Organizations Launch New ‘Teach ME Outside’ Website for Educators. “A collaborative effort between three Maine organizations called ‘Teach ME Outside’ has recently launched a new website to provide support for Maine educators and community members interested in environmental and outdoor learning for all Maine youth. The site contains educational resources, upcoming training opportunities, and data from across the state. Also featured on the website is the brand new Maine Environmental Education and Outdoor Learning Resource Directory, a dynamic and searchable map and tool that parents, educators, and community members can use to discover and connect with environmental and outdoor learning partners in their area.”
KHQ: DNR launches new website showcasing 100 of Washington’s best geological sites. “Waterfalls, glacier-fed lakes and pacific coastlines are just some of the stunning features Washington has to offer. In efforts to showcase some of the state’s marvels, the Washington State Department of Natural Resources created a website showing off 100 geological sites.”
National Park Service: Find your next adventure with the new National Park Service app. “Created by park rangers with visitors in mind, the NPS App gives the public up-to-date information about all 423 national parks in one easy-to-use app. Visitors can download the NPS App in the iOS App Store and Google Play Store to plan a trip, find interactive maps, download maps and tours ahead of time and find things to do and places to visit during National Park Week and beyond.”
Washington Post: Covid-19 sparked a run on outdoor heaters and fire pits. Which is better for the planet?. “Nelson Bryner has set a lot of things on fire in his career. Buses. Trash cans. Life-sized mannequins dressed in firefighting gear. A five-piece wooden dining set. As chief of the fire research division at the National Institute of Standards and Technology, Bryner spends many of his working days inside the division’s 20,000-square-foot laboratory, analyzing how much heat is generated and what byproducts are produced when various items are set ablaze. With coronavirus cases spiking and the mercury dropping, sparking a run on backyard heating devices, I knew Bryner could tell me what will happen when the fuel for those heaters is burned.”
BusinessWire: State of Vermont, NIC Vermont Launch New Outdoor Recreation Mobile App (PRESS RELEASE). “Built in partnership with the state’s digital government services partner, NIC Vermont, the mobile app provides a wide offering of features, including interactive maps, and enables users to easily access policy information and guidelines for activities, such as hunting, trapping, fishing, boating and hiking in Vermont.”
Augusta Free Press: Records related to Shenandoah National Park creation now digitized. “The Piedmont Environmental Council has completed the digitization of thousands of legal documents related to the Commonwealth’s 1930s-era condemnation of private lands in Rappahannock County for the creation of Shenandoah National Park. The digitization project has made all of the deed book records, court proceedings and individual case files for Rappahannock County properties that are now part of Shenandoah National Park, publicly accessible and searchable for the first time.”
Mountain Journal: How Social Media And Bad Behavior Are Leaving Wild Places Trashed. “In this region we call Greater Yellowstone, we are blessed with an uncommon treasure, vast tracts of untrammeled wild country of the sort most people only read about in history books. Here we can climb a ridge and behold horizons filled with great wide spaces, a wind that seems powered by the divine, and mountains, uncivilized and unspoiled. No wonder those from elsewhere want to come here. There will continue to be more residents and visitors, Covid and other disasters notwithstanding. Instead of Instagramming secret places out of existence, what if we used our phone to snap photos of piles of trash, before and after we spent a little time to clean up?”
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