Nature Notes
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Exploring the “Weird White World” of Parks Ranch Cave
An interstate might seem an arbitrary boundary. But an attentive West Texas traveler driving north of Interstate 10, on Highway 54 from Van Horn to the Guadalupe Mountains, can see they’ve entered a…
In Planning a Mars Mission, Scientists Find an Analog in a Desert Cave
How can we limit our contamination of other planets? And how can we prevent bringing potentially harmful life forms back home? To address those questions, scientists have turned to an unlikely place:…
Wild Women for Good: April 25th Book Event Celebrates Texas Women in Conservation
On April 25th, Alpine’s Front Street Books hosts an event to celebrate the publication of “Wild Women for Good,” from Texas A&M University Press.
Seeking Insight into Pinyon-Juniper Woodlands, the Southwest’s Defining Forests
PJ woodlands are the Southwest’s dominant forest type, covering 100 million acres here. Pinyons typically top out at 20 feet – and alongside diverse junipers, they thrive in dry, rocky places where…
Local Nonprofit Works to Celebrate & Sustain West Texas’s Rich Avian Diversity
West Texas avians have passionate local advocates. That includes Trans-Pecos Bird Conservation, or TBC. This small but potent cadre of bird experts is cultivating the bonds between our region’s birds…
In West Texas Pictographs, Archeologist Sees Roots of Today’s Kachina Tradition
Kachina dolls are an iconic Indigenous art form. Their craftsmanship is striking, and non-Native people have long admired and sought to acquire them. But they’re just one element in an encompassing…
Ask the Bones: Practicing “Taphonomy” in Big Bend
Dr. Rachel Laker, of Hanover College in Indiana, specializes in taphonomy, which explores the processes bones undergo between an animal’s death and fossilization. Big Bend National Park is one site…
In the Pecos Canyonlands, Ancients Foragers Created a “Painted Landscape” Charged with Religious Meaning
Painted on cave walls where the Pecos and Devils rivers join the Rio Grande, the rock art of the Lower Pecos canyonlands casts a powerful spell. Its imagery is intricate, depicting human-like figures…
Weather Underground: Studying “Speleometeorology” in Carlsbad Cavern
Cave scientist Riannon Colton is working to unlock one of the cavern’s mysteries: its “speleometeorology.” Because it turns out that big caves, like big mountains, create their own weather.
In the Pecos Canyonlands, Discovering the Daily Lives of Ancient Mural Makers
The Lower Pecos Canyonlands – where the Pecos and Devils rivers join the Rio Grande – contain globally significant rock art. But these same shallow caves have preserved much else from prehistory:…
Dating La Junta: Filling in the Story of an Indigenous Borderlands Culture
It features prominently in the earliest European account of the American Southwest, and it’s a fascinating chapter in Texas history. And yet, much about La Junta – the Native American society that…
Alongside Landowners, the Devils River Conservancy Fights to Save a Singular Place
The Devils River is frequently described as the most pristine river in Texas. Flowing where the Chihuahuan Desert blends into the Hill Country and the South Texas shrublands, it’s a luminous ribbon…
Can We Keep It a Forest? Fire & the Future of the Chisos Mountains
Wildfires burn landscapes, but they also sear themselves into memory, and many Big Bend National Park enthusiasts remember the South Rim 4 Fire of April 2021. It began near a backcountry campsite,…
An Archeologist Uses Pottery Fragments to Illumine Prehistoric Social Relations
Broken pieces of prehistoric pottery – known to archeologists as “potsherds” – are striking artifacts. As fragments of painted vessels, they vividly evoke Native American life, in both its aesthetic…
Science, Art & Community Come Together at Alpine’s Wildlife Weekend
The Trans-Pecos is Texas at its wildest, and, though many of its creatures are secretive, the region stands out for the glorious diversity of its wildlife.
In the Pecos Canyonlands, Pictograph Dating Reveals 4,000 Years of Cultural Continuity
At the threshold of Far West Texas, the Lower Pecos Canyonlands contain some of North America’s most remarkable rock art. Here, where the Pecos and Devils rivers join the Rio Grande, on cave walls,…
Hoo’s That? New Study Reveals the Owls of the Davis Mountains
Owl sightings aren’t unusual in West Texas. You might spot a great horned owl in Alpine or Marfa, a barn owl in a farm building in Presidio or a burrowing owl on the Marathon grasslands. And the…
For Grassland Birds, West Texas is an Essential Winter Sanctuary
Chihuahuan Desert grasslands are the main winter home for birds known as grassland specialists – chestnut-collared and thick-billed longspurs, lark buntings and horned larks, Sprague’s pipits and…
Silent Spring to Snowbird Surge: How Rainfall Shapes Bird Life in West Texas
Extreme drought tests nature’s resilience. And birds are a particularly vivid example of how the creature world responds to drought, and to a landscape recovering from it.
River Revelations: Archeologists Make Surprising Finds in Big Bend Ranch
Big Bend Ranch State Park is promoted as “the Other Side of Nowhere,” and the park’s River Road – FM 170 between Lajitas and Redford – fits that billing. It’s a breathtaking landscape of volcanic…
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Nature Notes has published 20 episodes since November 2025, covering topics in Education, Life Sciences.
Nature Notes is currently highly active with new episodes weekly. Average episode length is 4m.
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