Most songbirds head south for the winter, as food supplies disappear, returning to breed in the spring, when booming insect populations can satisfy clamoring broods. Not crossbills. This colorful ...

When evolutionary biologists decide that one sub-population of birds has been isolated from all others, does not interbreed, and has evolved enough genetic differences to suggest many thousands of ...

Lodgepole pine (Pinus contorta) is the most widespread pine species in North America; ranging from the Yukon to California’s Baja. The Latin part of its scientific name “contorta” refers to the twists ...

Here are a few easy statistics for you to remember: 80 percent of Yellowstone’s landscapes are forested and 80 percent of Yellowstone’s forest is made up of lodgepole pine trees.

If there’s a plant-based poster child for wildland fire in the subalpine forests of Yellowstone National Park, it would be the cone of the lodgepole pine tree.

All pines are conifers, but all conifers are not pines; and further, all pines make cones, but all cones are not “pine cones.” Such details swirled through my mind as I walked Loveland’s streets named ...

GRANTS PASS, Ore. Scientists predict that lodgepole pine one of the most common trees at higher elevations in the Cascades and Rockies will be largely gone from the Northwest by 2080 due to the ...

As might be expected for a recently discovered bird species in the continental United States - only the second in nearly 80 years - the Cassia Crossbill (Loxia sinesciuris) is range-restricted. It ...

On a nice winter day, a cluster of Parks and Rec hikers perched for lunch at the edge of a beautiful muskeg. Someone observed that many of the shore pines were rather stunted and often crooked, while ...