Environmental Almanac

Weekly commentaries on the environment and appreciating the natural world, by Rob Kanter from the School of Earth, Society, and Environment at the University of Illinois.

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A black and yellow spider hangs from a web

Rob Kanter

October 30, 2014

Enjoying Spiders

Halloween, the time of year people put up spider webs at home instead of taking them down, is also a great time to celebrate and explore some of the things that creep us out - like spiders


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(Duration: 3:59)
A bicentennial oak, one more than 200 years old

L. Brody Dunn

October 16, 2014

Ancient Oaks Link Us to the Big Grove

When people think about the landscape of central Illinois prior to European settlement they tend to think “prairie,” vast expanses of flat land covered in tall grass and tall flowers. And for the most part, that image is accurate. But groves of trees intruded on the grasslands here and there, especially on the eastern edges of rivers and streams, creating natural breaks to prairie fires driven by winds from the west.


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(Duration: 3:59)
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