Naturalist Resources
The Wild Woods Guide
This website, created by John P. Loegering (a Wildlife Ecologist at the U of M), is a handy compilation of websites for gardeners and naturalists seeking info about land and wildlife management.
The book The Wild Woods Guide is an indispensable book full of interesting and little-known facts about north woods animals, plants, weather, and more. Written by journalists, this books gives a different perspective on what people find intriguing about the north woods. Lots of little facts, like name origins and connections to historic lore, that will make you seem like a super -genius if you spit them out during a program. Also, the couple-page-long chapters make for perfect bus reading and easy referencing.
ScienceBlogs – Environment Channel is a compilation of blogs written by professional earth scientists. Its the best resources for discovering the new research, trends, and for getting sound scientific responses to current issues. These blogs are all personal soap-boxes for the authors, so you get a non-censored perspective which can be refreshing. These blogs are also great inspiration if you are trying to create a press release which connects to current issues.
Website to watch: Telling River Stories is the brain-child of Patrick Nunnally of the River Life Program hosted by the Institute on the Environment at the U. The website is a connection to river stories accessed through a geographic interface. Its similar to the Friends of the Mississippi River‘s Field Guide, but for the entire Mississippi River.
Free images from the Fish and Wildlife Service! As an environmental educator I was always looking for high-res copyright free images of animals, plants, and landscapes to use for programs. This FWS website a great resource!
Those are just a few resource which I hope are new and helpful for you! There are of course lots more (link to a compilation created by the Sharing Environmental Education Knowledge website). If you have additional good resources to share, send ‘em my way!