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This episode of Nature Notes brings us to the white sand dunes in Tularosa Basin, New Mexico. Generally considered an inhospitable place for life, the…

Since its first telescope was dedicated in 1939, astronomers at McDonald Observatory have enjoyed some of the darkest skies in the country. Researchers…

As every schoolchild learns from Johnny Appleseed, bringing plants to the people is good work. Since 2002, the Big Bend's Native Plant Society has been…

Dryness is a defining condition of West Texas, and to the casual observer, the Llano Estacado can appear an unbroken and waterless prairie. But the plains…

Bounded by private holdings at the high end of Texas, Guadalupe Mountains National Park may seem like an isolated outpost of federal land. But Eric…

It may be small, but the eastern screech owl is a formidable hunter. Its prey – whether rodent, bird or reptile – rarely survives the raptor's strike. But…

White Sands Missile Range, north of Las Cruces, New Mexico, has been a center of U.S. military testing for 70 years. The first atomic bomb was detonated…

Ringing high above the West Texas plains, the sound is as bracing as a winter morning, as sharp and clear as a November sky. The sound of the sandhill…

The low deserts of the Big Bend near the Rio Grande are the most forbidding of West Texas landscapes. They're at the lowest elevations in the Chihuahuan…

Prickly pear and cholla cactus are among the most recognizable of West Texas plants. They're part of the "opuntioid" subfamily of cactus. In a recent…