American treasures

September-October 2022 Yellowstone floods highlight

American treasures

Not just national treasures but true wonders of the world

For years I have told anyone who would listen that I think every American should see Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon. Basically in opposite corners of the country, they are two amazing places you can experience in multiple ways.

The sight of the deep, wide and clear Niagara River plunging off the face of a cliff into a pool of water nearly 200 feet below is incredible.

If you take a boat ride to the base, the sound of the crashing water and the feel of the spray are unforgettable.

The Grand Canyon is not only a national treasure, it is considered one of the seven natural wonders of the world, ranking alongside places like Mount Everest, Victoria Falls and the Great Barrier Reef.

The vast views of the time-chiseled stone appear to go on endlessly. A rim-torim, 24-mile hiking experience is a frequent bucket list item for fitness fanatics and many others who want to challenge themselves.

But even the more sedentary can absorb the amazement of the Arizona desert feature that is more than 200 miles long and nearly 20 miles wide.

THE UNIQUE

YELLOWSTONE

Then I went to Yellowstone National Park, and I judged it to be a most unique location in our universe. There are places throughout the massive public property that seem like they could be from a different planet.

The earth bubbles up in mud pots that randomly spurt and shoot globs into the air. The gurgling ground looks like something that could have been featured on a 1960s “Lost in Space” episode and caused viewers to groan about the ridiculous special effects.

The park has dozens of geysers that spray showers of heated water skyward, many randomly launching their show and sometimes splashing down with tiny particles of sediment that have accumulated into mounded features over the eons. Then there is the famous, and most reliable, Old Faithful, which produces its performance like clockwork.

The Grand Prismatic Spring makes the bubbling earth escapades seem mainstream. About 300 feet in diameter, the largest spring in the park is ringed by a rainbow of colors produced by different microorganisms that live in the gradient cooling water at the hot spring’s edges.

WILDLIFE WONDERS,

HUMAN OVERKILL

All of the exotic features don’t attract the attention of the wildlife restoration that backs up traffic on the roads. Herds of hundreds of American bison provide a hint of how the west once looked when millions of the massive creatures populated the plains.

The mind picture that is most vivid for me is the sight of a majestic Rocky Mountain bull elk monitoring his harem in the lush green valley of the Madison River. Tall, thick grass lined both sides of the swift and clear stream. He crossed the water to get to an island where three or four cows grazed on the grass.

I was reminded of my visit there a couple of years ago when torrential rains earlier this summer led to unprecedented flooding and ravaged the landscape. The park was closed for several days as crews worked to restore roads and secure stream beds.

The Maid of the Mist boat rides take tourists close enough to the base of Niagara Falls to feel the splash.

Yellowstone’s only detriment is the volume of people who, in many cases, are loving it to death. Stories of negative interactions between people and the wildlife in the park are almost always the result of someone not following appropriate safety measures and not giving the wild animals their space. Encouraging more people to experience it for themselves seems counterproductive.

LIMITATIONS WILL BE COMING

This year’s weather disaster is going to cause limitations for people to visit Yellowstone even more significantly than regulated entry allotments.

The crowds will be immense and the recovery monumental, but places like Yellowstone, Grand Canyon and Niagara Falls, and the other national parks rely on the economic boost of tourism. So I still say all three are must-see, but be sure to pack your patience.

John Winkelman is associate editor for Outdoor Guide Magazine. If you have story ideas to share, e-mail ogmjohnw@aol.com, and you can find more outdoor news and updates at john-

jwink.com.

Page 31 Moths not all pretty, but pretty important

By DAN ZARLENGA Missouri Department of Conservation

Just because people go to sleep at night, it doesn’t mean nature does. One of nature’s busiest nocturnal creatures of summer are the moths.

You’d be forgiven if you were to mistake a moth for a butterfly, since the two groups of insects are both members of the order Lepidoptera and re closely related. You might say they are even cousins! While related, moths and butterflies nevertheless have distinct differences.

For one thing, moths have thick, stout bodies filled with hairs, while butterflies are thin and have “clean shaven,” smooth bodies. The antennae of moths tend to be either simple, or fringed or feathered.

Compare that to butterflies, who sport long, “clubbed” antennae, meaning they have an enlarged segment at the outer end. While butterflies are aflutter during the day, moths are more creatures of moonlight, being active either at night, dawn or dusk.

Butterflies often display splendid and striking colorings, while most moths (but not all) are dull or drab in color.

VITAL POLLINATORS

While moths may not be able to compete with their daytime cousins for beauty, they more than make up for it in the work they do for pollination. Like butterflies, moths are key pollinators, and they ensure this vital activity carries on both day and night. In fact, they are so helpful in this regard that some flowers have even made special adaptations to accommodate moths.

Missouri evening primrose, often found on dolomite glades or dry, rocky prairies, relies on moths for its propagation. It produces showy, yellow blossoms which are easier to see at night, and the flowers give off a strong scent during the evening that attracts moths.

Moths also blow away butterflies in number! There are about 160,000 varieties of moths in the world, most of which are nocturnal. Of them, 12,000 moth species occur in North America. With so many moths, their diversity of shapes, sizes, colors and habits is nothing short of mindboggling.

There are way too many to even begin describing here!

Mighty though they may be, moths do have a weakness – artificial lights. Streetlights, porchlights and other sources of artificial illumination disrupt the darkness moths are used to. The unnatural light confuses them and locks them into a never-ending orbit as they fly around the source. Moths circling around these lights are distracted from their vital job of pollination.

HOW WE CAN HELP

There are some things we can do to help minimize the effects of light pollution on moths and other nighttime creatures:

• Don’t leave porch and yard

lights on all night; use lighting only when needed. • Light just the areas with a real need for light; avoid decorative or landscape lighting.

• Choose lights that are no Unlike butterflies, moths have thick, stout bodies filled with hairs.

– MDC photo

brighter than required, and try to avoid those with blue emissions. • Where lights are used, use fully shielded fixtures that direct all the light downward where it is truly useful. Scattered light in other directions wastes energy and creates glare, making it harder to see.

• Employ motion-detection

lights over constant ones where security is a concern.

Many of us do our best to help bee and butterfly pollinators, so why not also extend a helpful hand for our nocturnal pollination heroes, the moths? They may not be as pretty, but they are certainly pretty important!