Diane Hope

The Mormon Lake Guard Station was the first ranger station on the Coconino National Forest in northern Arizona. It was built in 1908 and saw a variety of uses through the 20th century, but had fallen into disrepair. Recently though, volunteers gave the historic structure a facelift.

In hot dry climates, urban trees can reduce the intensity of sunlight, block infrared heat exchange—and act as natural evaporative coolers.  Having shade trees to the center or east of a building’s southern façade can cool it by several degrees.

Suburbs are prime striped skunk real estate, sheltering up to twenty times more of these infamous animals than surrounding wildlands. Because skunks can be a vector for rabies, biologists at Northern Arizona University have been studying their behavior in some detail.

There were no fire lookout towers in the Arizona of the early 1900s. Instead, early firefighters found tall ponderosa pines near mountain tops or other strategic viewpoints. They fitted the trees with handmade steel spikes—known as lags—that they used as footholds to climb the trees.

Wild tobacco is markedly different from its cultivated cousin. The plant’s chemical properties have been known to Native Americans for a long time. Now, researchers are studying the wild form because of its potency and hardiness in the natural world.