Nature's Archive Michael Hawk

Forestry is incredibly interesting and important, and it really speaks to me personally, because it’s one of these fields that is inherently interdisciplinary. You have to understand how things relate and connect to create a healthy, sustainable system. But traditionally, forestry was all about resource extraction, which often is done at the expense of long term sustainability.And my guest today, Ethan Tapper, is just the person to help us understand how forestry is changing. Ethan is a ...

Snakes are the perfect topic for Nature’s Archive. They are often over-generalized to fit a worst-case stereotype, but they are critically important to our food webs and ecosystems. And like so much of what we discuss, once you start learning just a bit about them, you see how amazing and diverse they are.And there are few better suited to guide us through the world of snakes than Dr. Emily Taylor. Dr. Taylor is a professor of biological sciences at California Poly San Luis Obispo and has bee...

2024 is going to be another year of the cicada, with the emergence of two periodical cicada groups, or broods (Brood XIII and Brood XIX), at the same time, roughly in late April to early May.Now, throughout much of the world, cicadas serenade us in summer afternoons - you might be familiar with that, and wonder “what’s the big deal”.But in a few special locations, periodical cicadas emerge on a specific cycle, every 13 or 17 years. These emergences are like clockwork - somehow these insects k...

When it comes to understanding nature, it often seems like the ocean surface - that undulating reflective layer of water - is more like an impenetrable curtain than just a layer of water. There is just so much we don’t know about, and are too quick to dismiss, all because we can’t easily observe what’s going on down there.Thankfully, octopuses are having a renaissance in popular culture, and as a result, serve as sort of an ambassador to the oceans. And this is in no small part due to the eff...

My guest today is Dr. Rae Wynn-Grant. Dr. Wynn-Grant is the co-host of Mutual of Omaha’s Wild Kingdom, is a wildlife ecologist and affiliated researcher at the UC Santa Barbara Bren School of Environmental and Science Management. She’s also an author, with her new memoir entitled “Wild Life” coming out on April 2.Today we discuss Dr. Wynn-Grant’s unique and inspiring personal journey into wildlife ecology, her awakening to the world of environmental justice, triggered by Hurricane Katrina, as...

Have you ever seen a fuzzy looking ant? Maybe it looked like a little pipe cleaner with fuzzy red or yellow hair? If so, you probably saw a velvet ant. And here’s the thing - it’s not even an ant at all. They’re wingless wasps, and they often turn up along hiking trails, roadsides, and sometimes even in your backyard! And if you haven’t seen one, hit pause and check out the show notes on naturesarchive.com for a few photos.What’s more, these wasps have quite the reputation and an amazing natu...