Below you’ll find texts and images that accompanied Kurt Heidinger’s lecture on “Re-Presenting Nonotuck: The Landscape Paintings of Hitchcock and Gloman” 1) The Hitchcock’s science was their religion: “geology and the Bible speak the same language” “The undevout  geologist  is mad” “it is in the facts of the natural world that most strikingly discover to...Continue Reading

How do spring peepers know when to start singing? They don’t have weather reports, or the ability to see the buds forming on trees, the snow melting, or teens walking around in shorts and T’s when it’s 40 degrees and climbing.How do spring peepers know when to start singing? Certainly, there are scientific reasons that...Continue Reading

A path makes decisions for us. Walking off path forces us to us make decisions (strengthening our decision-making powers). Freewalk: to walk off path, without (feeling anxiety about) getting lost or hurt, or being disrupted. Freewalkers use whole terrains as paths, creating the path most interesting and delightful, without being destructive (by crushing delicate lives)...Continue Reading

Now Voyager Four Corners is a field environmental philosophy expedition that prepares students to be environmental protection action leaders. Early announcements did not make this clear, so Biocitizen is adding a subtitle to the course: Now Voyager Four Corners: Escalante- and Bears Ears- National Monuments Campaign of Witness DETAILED INFO Sometimes bad things happen that...Continue Reading

Hard to believe but Biocitizen is 10 years old now! One of the deepest joys I (Kurt the director) have experienced is derived from witnessing our students develop from little kids, into adolescents and then into young adults. The school’s CIT program and our junior staff is made of Wings who became Sharpshins and then...Continue Reading

After weeks of freezing, our river ice is melting—and it’s time to witness the tumult and power of FLOOD! 1000’s of tons of car-sized bergs are beginning to dislodge and tumble down watercourses, hitting boulders like bowling pins, slamming into trees, shuddering the earth, and re-arranging entire valleys. Imagine a runaway freight train crashing down...Continue Reading

After several weeks of unusually cold weather our biome has become unusually beautiful—especially in the Westfield River watershed. The river has frozen over, allowing us to go places we are normally prevented from going. Our non-hibernating mammal neighbors are crossing rivers and brooks, moreover, giving us a chance to gauge the vitality of the biome,...Continue Reading

New Year’s Day Ice Walk— 12:30 to 3 pm   The arctic cold delivers a bonus point that is seldom redeemed—we get to walk on rivers and brooks! A very rare treat— Few walking experiences are as fun and defamiliarizing as walking river ice, first because the ice shapes are weird and magical, second because...Continue Reading

Our Place goes to Central Park! Wednesday, December 27: 7:30 am – 7 pm We’ll be in the heart of the best part of NYC, doing a few hours at the AMNH (emphasis on evolution by natural selection), a few hours at the Met (exploring the Classical era so when students return home they’ll understand...Continue Reading