outdoors

I have decreased my use of fossil fuels by buying a hybrid car and planning my trips around town.  I am currently in Churchill, Manitoba, participating in an Earthwatch study that is examining plant growth on the tundra.  The treeline up here is changing, and climate change could be a factor.

I have lived in Northwest Minnesota for 30 years.  I have read that our climate is second only to Siberia in severity and I can well believe it. When I moved to this area in 1978, it was not uncommon to see temperatures of -39 and "warming up" to -10 degrees in December and January. Winter would often roll in around November 7th and stay until early to late April or later! Snow was common until May 15th. We wouldn't have much but it could get deep- after all it wouldn't melt until late March or early April or later! Some years — remember the flood in 1997?

I live in the Northern Nevada Desert on land that about 12,000 yrs ago was "Ancient Lake Lahontan". Gradually it dried up and left the Carson River, which the pioneers were very happy to run across after crossing the "Forty-mile desert". The settlers, particularly a Mr. Newlands, decided to create a farming oasis, hence the name of my town, "Fallon, NV-The Oasis of Nevada".