Their equipment list was unusual — carabiners, 200 feet of rope, strips of towels, water, clippers, tree harness, ice chest, plastic bags, notebooks, growth hormones, tin foil and cameras. This month, the New College Tree Climbing Club participated in an important scientific mission, and also a once-in-a-lifetime climbing assignment. They scaled the world’s largest known slash pine (Pinus elliottii), located on the campus of the New College of Florida, and cloned the tree as part of a national tree conservation project.
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In south Sarasota County where I live, the residents mark their seasonal clocks with the arrival of baby sand- hill cranes. These awkward, almost prehistoric-looking creatures are an endearing feature of the natural landscape in wet marshlands of Southwest Florida. My children have an annual competition to be the first to see a baby accompanying its parents for an early dawn breakfast along the roadsides near Publix or along Central Sarasota Parkway. The roadside as a dinner table, you might inquire in horror? What is an endangered species of wading bird doing in such a dangerous place near fast-moving traffic? Their story is a wonderful success illustrating that wildlife are adapting to urban sprawl.
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