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Ellis Abel Learns.

In my own words · Springfield, IL

Why I love forests

The dark ragged skyline of a Douglas fir forest at Point Reyes, California, silhouetted against a pale grey sky. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Forests" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.
The dark ragged skyline of a Douglas fir forest at Point Reyes, California, silhouetted against a pale grey sky. National Park Service, via U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain
  • It is all connected under the ground.
  • A tree keeps a record of every year it lived.
  • Everything in here is eating or being eaten.

You can love forests in Springfield.

What it really is

A forest is a system where soil, water, plants and animals depend on each other.

Three things to try today

  1. Find a tree stump and count the rings.
  2. Find a wide ring and a thin one.
  3. Say what a thin year might mean.
USGS forest ecologist Jenny Briggs holds a measuring tape against the trunk of a pine tree killed by mountain pine beetles. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Forests" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.
USGS forest ecologist Jenny Briggs holds a measuring tape against the trunk of a pine tree killed by mountain pine beetles. U.S. Geological Survey · Public domain

For the grown-up reading this

A child in Springfield, IL who loves forests is not unusual. A child in Springfield, IL who is told that loving forests is unusual — that is the problem. The Springfield, IL metro area has about 206,033 residents, ranking 230th in the country.

Tree rings are a data set a child can read with their eyes. Wide equals a good year.

If the kid who loves this is a girl

Read what one popular teacher said to one little girl who took out the classroom trash without being asked — and what that girl did with the rest of her life.

Girls are great at math — Springfield, IL →

Love something else too

A honeybee queen marked with a yellow dot on her back, surrounded by worker bees on the honeycomb. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Bees" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love beesA cultivated agricultural field stretching to the horizon with a wetland strip along its edge. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Farming" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love farmsAn alligator moving through a brackish waterway at Kennedy Space Center, only its eyes and back above the water. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Animals" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love animalsRed leaf lettuce, mizuna mustard and green lettuce growing under pink-white LED lights in the Veggie plant growth hardware. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Plants" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love plantsA pair of American bald eagles perched on the rim of their large stick nest on Kennedy Space Center property. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Birds" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love birdsA blacktip reef shark swims just under the sunlit surface, above a head of coral, at Palmyra Atoll National Wildlife Refuge in the Pacific Ocean. Real USGS photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Sharks" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love sharksAstronaut Mike Fincke reaches into the sealed Life Science Glovebox to run a biology experiment aboard the space station's Kibo module. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Biology" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love living thingsA test model of the long magnetometer boom for the Europa Clipper spacecraft laid out for checkout at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Real NASA photograph used on the Ellis Abel Learns "Why I Love Magnets" page — read by families in Springfield, IL.Why I love magnets

Near Springfield

Why I love forests, everywhere in the US · All things to love · STEM jobs you could do · Summer camps in Springfield