Hiking with dogs: Winter romps with our best friends By Angela Schneider, , The Spokesman-Review
Published: December 26, 2020, 3:34pm
Share: Bella the Maremma sheepdog started her winter hiking season on Kit Carson trail at Mt. Spokane State Park. (Angela Schneider/The Spokesman-Review/TNS)
SPOKANE Some outdoors people hang up their hiking boots when winter descends.
The rest of us squeal with glee at the sight of snow falling from the sky, knowing we can bust out our snowshoes or snow cleats and head for more adventures with our dogs.
While we’re pulling our thermal layers and gaiters out of storage, though, we also have to consider preparing our best fur friends for winter hiking.
Oregon State’s Year in Science
December 26, 2020
Coming out of a year in which new technology was used to create a first-ever vaccine, it’s to be expected that scientific progress abounds. In the backyard of every Corvallisite sits a university where these breakthroughs can be developed and seen in use every day. Here is a list of the top discoveries to come out of Corvallis in 2020.
No. 1: Electronic Noses
Assistant professor of chemical engineering Cory Simon led research into the development of an electronic nose that allows for the monitoring of air quality. The goal is to detect safety threats and diagnose diseases which can be measured by the gases in a patient’s breath. Collaborating with engineering professor Chih-Hung Chang, the research focused on materials known as metal-organic frameworks, which have pores that can selectively absorb gases – much like a sponge.
Print article During the darkest days of Alaska’s winter, black-capped chickadees stuff themselves with enough seeds and frozen insects to survive 18-hour nights. Where the chickadees spend those long nights was a mystery until a biologist tracked them. Susan Sharbaugh spent many winter nights trying to find out how a creature as light as a handful of paperclips survived temperatures of 40 degrees below zero. Sharbaugh is a biologist and a fan of the black-capped chickadee, one of the most unlikely residents of the north because of the difficulty of keeping a tiny body warm in a cold place. In her studies, Sharbaugh found that black-capped chickadees gained an additional 10% of their body weight each day by stuffing themselves. The birds then use that fat to shiver all night, which keeps them warm. The human equivalent would be a 165-pound man who spent a frigid night outside and emerged 15 pounds lighter by the next morning.
Home for the night: A chickadee s midwinter roosting place | Alaska Science Forum newsminer.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from newsminer.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Parade of storms heading to Bristol Bay over the holidays December 24th, 2020 |
Bristol Bay is in for some stormy weather this week. The National Weather Service issued a Winter Weather Advisory on Monday for the wider region, including Dillingham, Naknek, King Salmon and Pilot Point. That s in effect until 6 p.m. Monday, and gusts are expected to reach up to 70 mph after midnight, with widespread rain and snow showers. Really quite a parade of storms here, said Rick Thoman, a climate specialist with the Alaska Center for Climate Assessment and Policy at the University of Alaska Fairbanks.
The warm, wet weather is a big change from earlier this month. Storm centers have moved further north in the Bering Sea, which is creating several low pressure systems.