I lucked into a beautiful light display recently when the early morning sun went behind a small cloud, resulting in rays of sunlight appearing to shoot out from the cloud edge in all directions. After decades of seeing sunbeams, I wondered what causes them, and my researched answer is forthwith.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer, Cumberland Gap National Historical Park

Native Americans and European pioneers were a tough bunch to be able to eke out a living in the American wilderness. Nothing symbolizes that toughness more than hickory, a common tree of great strength and versatility. It goes back a long way as a revered and useful plant.

The deer population has been steadily increasing over the past few decades, as has the human population. The recent trend of wanting to build a house in the country or in the woods has put both populations in closer contact with each other. Deer are opportunistic feeders and will eat food wherever they can find it, which could be your favorite apple tree, tomato plant, or landscape shrub.

I’m sure you have looked up at a gray winter sky and wondered if it will snow. But have you ever wondered why it snows at all? What follows is God’s recipe for a snow, but I must warn you that the ingredients and mixing directions are tricky to try at home.

First, get around a million tons of water, vaporize it, and mix it in the atmosphere. Next, cool the air down, which will cause the humidity to rise. At 100% humidity the air is saturated with water vapor. Further cooling pushes the humidity above 100% and it becomes “supersaturated” and can’t hold any more vapor. Now add a ton or so of microscopic dust particles for the vapor to condense on, and you end up with countless minute water droplets so light they float on air…in other words, a cloud.

I like hearing the song 12 Days of Christmas, which generates imagery of a lot of interesting people and animals. While it is considered a nonsensical sort of song, it has been suggested that it’s actually a secretly coded song of Christian instruction.

Christmas traditions are often things from the natural world, and I started listing them and it turned out to be a long list. the list. I ended up researching the origin of how some plants and animals became synonymous with Christmas.

By Steve Roark
Volunteer Cumberland Gap National Historical Park
Being “green” is becoming a lifestyle these days, so as the holidays approach you may be pondering over which is better for the environment, a real tree or an artificial one. It's a personal choice, but here are some facts to consider.

Trees are impressive life forms, producing tall, majestic columns that reach to the sky. Besides support, tree trunks perform a number of functions, so here’s a lesson in tree physiology. Growth of the trunk occurs at a thin layer of cells called the cambium. Here and only here does active cell division occur. The cambium is located near the outer portion of the trunk and can be damaged by fire or wounds made by tools or equipment. It grows two kinds of wood cells; one type grows towards the tree center, the other outward.

Thanksgiving is one of the high holidays of the US, involving traditions of being with family, eating a bountiful meal of traditional foods, and hopefully taking time to give thanks for what we have been given. You know the traditional story of the first Thanksgiving involving Pilgrims, Native Americans, feasting and all that, but history is always good to review occasionally, as you often learn something new.

Now that the beauty of Autumn is past and the trees are mostly laid bare, some folks bemoan the starkness of the winter forest. But now that you can see them, the limbs, branches, and twigs of trees offer a silhouette of graceful beauty all their own, especially with the sun shining behind them. Another overlooked aspect is the beauty of their design and function.