Earth Day, April 22, 2017

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/C3l4BcAXAAEXa64.jpg

Sponsor: Rep. Gaetz, Matt R-FL-1

Committees: House - Energy and Commerce; Agriculture; Transportation and Infrastructure; Science, Space, and Technology

https://www.congress.gov/bill/115th-congress/house-bill/861/committees?r=5

The National Park Service just turned 100 years old! Celebrate the start of our second century by visiting a park in 2017. During ten days of the year, all National Park Service sites that charge an entrance fee will offer free admission to everyone.

https://www.nps.gov/planyourvisit/fee-free-parks.htm

As you walk among the California Sage Scrub plant communities, you may happen upon the showy bright yellow flower clusters of the Bladderpod plant (Peritoma arborea). This native shrub blooms from November to June and the seed pods appear after pollination resembling small oval inflated balloons. But upon closer inspection, one will see the inhabitants of this pungent shrub, the Harlequin Bug (Murgantia histrionica).

https://www.nps.gov/cabr/blogs/it-s-not-a-beetle-but-a-true-bug.htm

Technology Helps Illuminate Ecosystems in Urban Areas

A citizen-science movement has been growing over the last few decades, in which amateur and professional researchers collaborate informally and mostly without pay to compile information on various scientific topics. Technologies like the Internet, smartphones, handheld GPS devices and mass-market drones have been a boon to the spread of citizen-science programs.

http://www.potreroview.net/urban-wildlife-adapt-to-san-franciscos-changing-landscapes/