On February 2, 1997, World Wetlands Day was first celebrated. Grown from an international convention held in Ramsar, Iran, on the present and future of the world’s wetlands, the organization is headquartered in Switzerland. Each year on this date, government agencies, citizen groups, and…
On January 9, 1903, President Theodore Roosevelt established Wind Cave National Park in South Dakota, the world’s first cave designated as a national park. It is named for the whistling, rushing noise of the wind at the mouth of the cave. The cave breathes…
On October 14, 1994, Saguaro was redesignated a National Park from a National Monument. This Arizona park covers elevation ranges from desert floor to mountain top, up to 2600 m (8600 ft). The park’s lowest elevation is a desert ecozone with chaparral and grassland…
On September 25, 1890, Sequoia National Park was established to protect a forest of giant trees called sequoias. That’s what to do with the largest trees on Earth – build a national park around them! The largest tree is named the General Sherman tree…
On September 14, 1907, Jasper Forest Park was established, expanding into national park status in 1930. With its 11,000 km² (4200 mi² ) area, Jasper National Park of Canada is larger than the country of Jamaica. On hundreds of individual sites throughout Jasper, there…
On September 12, 1940, close to the town of Lascaux, four teenaged boys enlarged the entrance to an old river cliff cave so they could explore. They found it to be so large and complex … they got their teacher involved and… anthropologist Henri…
On May 22, 1993, the United Nations sanctioned this date as the International Day for Biological Diversity to increase awareness of biodiversity issues worldwide. 4-piece Logo of 2022 International Day for Biological Diversity Building a Shared Future for All Life is this year’s theme on International Day for Biological…
On April 10, 1865, Canadian naturalist, Jack Miner was born. At 39, he established the Jack Miner Bird Sanctuary for the conservation of migrating Canada geese and ducks on an Ontario peninsula between Lake Erie to the south and Lake Saint Clair to the…
On April 5, 1815, the Tambora stratovolcano erupted after several thousand years in repose. This Indonesian super-volcano signalled its awakening with a few years of steam releases, tremors, and small eruptions until the April 5th explosion, heard up to 1,400 km (870 mi.) away,…
On April 3, 1837, writer/naturalist, John Burroughs was born. In his early adult years, he alternated teaching with studying at different institutions or colleges. The works of Wordsworth and Emerson inspired him to write from his personal vantage point – a man raised and…