National Parks Traveler

Kirby Adams

Biography

I'm an amateur ecologist, amateur writer, amateur photographer, amateur everything ad infinitum. I'm only 35, so I'll figure out what I want to be when I grown up. Plenty of time, yet. I suppose you could call me a professional coral farmer. Yes, I spend most of my days propagating coral for sale to the aquarium trade. There are probably very few people who handle as many live Cnidarians as I do, especially surprising given that I live in Michigan.

Working on a website for "armchair ecologists." Those would be people who like to study ecology as a hobby, not people who study the microbial communities on chair arms.

Kirby's Most Recent Comments (view all)

11/18/2009 7:46 am - Reader Participation Day: Where is Your Favorite National Park Campground? : One of many secret spots in the backcountry is my favorite campground. As far as formal campgrounds go, my best experience was at the Cottonwood Campground in Theodore Roosevelt National Park. When strange noises awaken you at dawn and you walk a hundred yards behind your tent down to the ...
11/16/2009 5:10 pm - Traveler's Gear Box: How Do You Cook Your Food in a National Park's Backcountry? : [quote]Exothermic reaction to water while in a self contained pouch/box.[/quote] Are they full of calcium chloride pellets? Hmmm. Just looked it up. Magnesium, Sodium, and Iron. Sounds like the same general composition of the self-heating hand-warmers.
11/16/2009 5:03 pm - Padre Island National Seashore: Wintering Grounds For Sandhill Cranes : We spend October here in southern Michigan watching the cranes gather before taking off for parts unknown. Several thousand usually gather at an Audubon-owned sanctuary just south of where I live. Last year we went canoeing on the Weeki Wachee River in Florida in February. Around one of the bends ...
11/15/2009 7:18 pm - Collecting National Park T-Shirts: The Passion and the Pain : I'm in it for the embroidered patches, myself. Have a box of about 60 of them sitting beside me right now. I just haven't had the inspiration to figure out how to display them. I could see myself as an old man wearing a vest covered in gaudy patches...but at ...
11/15/2009 9:08 am - Newspaper Turns Back the Calendar and Calls for "Buffalo Commons National Park" in Kansas : Interesting idea. I'm trying to picture what the marketing plan would be to get people out to West Kansas. Europeans do love the American West, but they tend to like mountains in the distance and things to do outside the parks. I think a park like this would need to ...
11/15/2009 8:58 am - Lawsuit Over Deer Culling At Valley Forge Highlights Troubles Of Squeezed National Parks : The folks complaining about their flower beds might be the voice that gets heard by the politicians, but the real issue re plants is what's going on in the natural areas overpopulated by deer. Species of wildflowers are being extirpated and forest regeneration is greatly impacted if not completely halted. ...
11/11/2009 1:11 pm - Wayward Hikers Demonstrate How Easy It Is To Get Lost In Great Smoky Mountains National Park : I grew up hiking every summer in the Monongahela National Forest in West Virginia. You learn to respect Rhododendron thickets real fast. I've become disoriented only a few dozen yards off the trail sometimes. Your faith in your senses of sight and sound quickly disappears.
11/11/2009 12:50 pm - Reader Participation Day: What's the Most Important Part of Your National Park Trip? : Holly, that's good to hear about Lora, though USFWS's gain is certainly Acadia's loss. I hope all the rookie rangers out there took notes! Owen, I didn't mean to imply I was disappointed in interpretive talks because they were lacking in any way. I just happen to be consumed with ...
11/11/2009 8:29 am - Reader Participation Day: What's the Most Important Part of Your National Park Trip? : For us the most important thing is, by far, avoiding crowds. We plan trips for times of year when crowds will be minimized, and during the trip we plan any front country sight-seeing, programs, and visitor center browsing to happen on weekdays - preferably rainy ones. Don't care about rooms, ...
11/06/2009 8:40 pm - Wolves, Moose, and Nutrient Flows at Isle Royale National Park : Thank you!

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