Outdoors with Coggin Heeringa
Every Wednesday on Classical IPR, Coggin Heeringa takes us into the great outdoors. She is the program director and naturalist at Crossroads at Big Creek Learning Center/Nature Preserve in Sturgeon Bay, Wisconsin. And she's taught environmental studies at the Interlochen Arts Camp since 1971.
Latest Episodes
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In Michigan, Arbor Day will be celebrated on last Friday of April. But, it doesn't have to be. The best day for Arbor Day is when conditions are best for planting trees. -
Earth Day was first celebrated in 1970 and was organized to raise awareness of environmental issues, and indeed it did. Earth Day also inspired a number of musical compositions including the lovely “Rejoice in the Sun” sung by Joan Baez. -
Woodland wildflowers seem to magically pop up after April showers, but May flowers — their buds, their leaves, their minimized stems —were formed during the previous growing season. -
The month of April will arrive no matter what but will the lyrics of the Simon and Garfunkel song dictate how wet April will be, or how dry the coming months might end up? -
Which came first: the chicken or the egg? In this case, the egg. But, how does it become a chicken? -
In many ancient cultures, palm branches held symbolic meaning. Still today, they are given out in Christian Palm Sunday services. -
For aspen trees, the wearing of the green is a survival strategy.The greenish tone of aspen bark, appears around St. Patrick’s day indicates the presence of chlorophyll in the bark, meaning they photosynthesize through their bark instead of leaves. -
Environmentalist Aldo Leopold painted the natural world with words, changing the course of environmental stewardship forever. -
A major plot line of the Gilbert and Sullivan operetta "The Pirates of Penzance" is based on the phenomenon of Leap Year, potentially delaying the protagonist's chance to marry his chosen mate. But how do members of the natural world get to select their partners? -
To resist temptations for "forty days and forty nights" is a long time. The question is, do animals experience temptation?
