Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) offers World Soils Maps that highlight different soil types, erosion patterns, carbon levels, temperatures, moisture, and soil stressors.
Discover the amazing world of soils at “Dig It! The Secrets of Soil” from the Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History.
Learn to identify the 12 types of soil orders supporting life around the world.
Climate change is a hot subject! Some basic presentations can get you started. Learn more and get kids involved with the ClimateChangeLIVE! distance learning adventure, now underway.
- Do you want to get serious about your NatureWatch-Earth efforts? Check out the Federal Land Manager Environmental Database for chemical data monitored in air, water, and soil around the country.
- **Another great resource is the Forest Service Air Quality Portal (WEBSITE TBD)
- Natural indicators of air quality include lichens! Lichen biomonitoring is helps federal land managers to detect, map, evaluate trends, and assess the ecological impacts of air pollutants To watch how they are used for reporting, look at the Lichens Database and Air Quality Database and Clearinghouse.
- Would you like to collect air quality data right from home, and see what’s happening at other sites around the world? The Air Quality Egg is a sensor system designed to allow anyone to collect very high resolution readings of NO2 and CO concentrations outside of their home, using the two most indicative elements related to urban air pollution using simple sensors. Citizen Science Air Quality Egg.
One thing NatureWatchers would rather feel than see is air! When we can see air, it is oftentimes a consequence of pollution, although sometimes dust particles or high humidity is the reason.
Want to do some NatureWatching of our nation’s air quality? These web cams cover the Forest Service Region 8 (Southeastern Region) and have the information you need to make informed observations about the air quality near you.
Live cameras are located at:
- Upper Buffalo Wilderness in Ozark National Forest,
- Cold Mountain in Shining Rock Wilderness, Pisgah National Forest, North Carolina
- Joyce Kilmer Wilderness in Nantahala National Forest, North Carolina
How about the rest of the country? Pick a location and watch what’s happening with air in real-time images across the United States (updated every 15 minutes):
- Agua Tibia Wilderness, California
- Boundary Waters at Superior National Forest, Minnesota
- Bitterroot Valley at Selway-Bitterroot National Forest, Montana
- Bridger Wilderness, Wyoming
- Columbia River Gorge at Wishram, Washington
- Dolly Sods, West Virginia
- Cucamonga Wilderness, California
- Gates of the Mountains Wilderness, Montana
- High Schells, Nevada
- Joyce Kilmer National Forest at Slickrock, North Carolina
- High Uintas, Utah
- Bob Marshall Wilderness at Monture, Montana
- Mount Hood, Oregon
- Pasayten, Washington
- Mount Washington, New Hampshire
- San Gabriel, California
- San Pedro Parks, New Mexico
- San Jacinto, California
- Shining Rock, North Carolina
- Shamrock, Colorado
- Upper Buffalo, Arkansas
- White Pine Range, Nevada