Nature Notes by Dr Frank Lang

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Dr. Frank Lang

Dr. Lang is the host of Nature Notes, a popular weekly radio series on Jefferson Public Radio (JPR). JPR is hosted from here in Southern Oregon, at Southern Oregon University.

Dr. Frank Lang was born and raised in Olympia, Washington. Growing up in the Puget Sound area, his love of biology was fueled by his Boy Scout Merit Badge counselor, the renowned naturalist and author Margaret McKenny.

He took his undergraduate degree in botany at Oregon State College (now Oregon State University) his M.S. from the University of Washington and his Ph.D. from the University of British Columbia.

Dr. Lang is Professor Emeritus of Biology at Southern Oregon University (SOU) in Ashland, Oregon, where he taught for 30 years. After retiring from SOU, Dr. Lang worked in the Ashland Resource Area, Medford District, of the Bureau of Land Management, on an intensive study of the Cascade/Siskiyou National Monument.

Dr. Frank Lang is the father of two grown children and lives in Ashland, Oregon with his wife of 48 years, Suzanne, and their dog, Rupert.

Special Note

Frank Lang is a friend to the Crater Lake Institute and we have posted those articles of his which we feel have some relevance to the visitor of Crater Lake National Park. Take a few minutes and read through Dr. Lang’s wonderful articles. Thank you Frank!

Dr Frank Lang obituary, May 14, 1937 – June 26, 2019

Frank Alexander Lang  May 14, 1937 - June 26, 2019 Dr. Frank Lang Frank Lang's stories are indexed here. Frank was born in Olympia, Washington, and died peacefully of natural causes. He spent his childhood roaming the woods and fields of Olympia and the shores of Puget Sound. These experiences would inform his entire life...

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Alkali Flies

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Years ago "Nature Notes" taught his Biological Illustration course at the Malheur Field Station some miles south of “Where the hell is Burns, Oregon” near Steens Mountain. At first glance, the Great Basin may appear a biological wasteland; the impression you might get zooming by at 70 miles an hour....

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Bald Eagles

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Consider traveling to the Klamath Basin in the winter months to see our national symbol, the bald eagle, at Lower Klamath and Tule Lake National Wildlife Refuges. You will see the largest concentration of wintering eagles any place in the lower 48 states. Bald Eagle by Larry Eifert Many...

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Bull Trout

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang We have heard a lot lately about fish species at risk, especially Rogue and Columbia River salmon. Recently, some eastern Oregon endangered suckers were shipped to a New Mexico fish hatchery to be propagated for replanting. These aren't the only fish in trouble. The western brook charr better known...

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Christmas Trees

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang 0 Christmas tree! 0 Christmas tree! Your leaves are faithful ever! Not only green when summer glows, but in the winter when it snows, 0 Christmas tree! 0 Christmas tree! Your leaves are faithful ever. When I was a child growing up in Olympia, Washington, I knew Christmas was upon...

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Crater Lake

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Crater Lake is one of planet Earth's great scenic wonders. 7,700 years ago, or so, a former mountain of considerable height had an accident.  It blew up, then down.  In the process it scattered ash, pumice and hot rocks all over, then collapsed in upon itself.  Mount Mazama, 12,000 feet or...

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Cryptosporidiosis

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang As if Giardia were not enough, there is a new water-borne disease to watch out for, Cryptosporidiosis. It was first recognized as a cause of diarrhea in humans in 1976, although it has been recognized in animals much longer. It is thought by some to be the most overlooked...

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Cucurbits

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang It's Halloween, what better topic for Nature Notes than a discussion of. . . the Cucurbitaceae. "What?", you say. "I thought you'd pick something creepy, like bats, or spiders, or snakes, or politicians." Sorry to disappoint, pumpkin head, but we are going to talk squash. My inspiration came this morning while I...

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Dicamptodon

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Amphibians: frogs, toads, salamanders and newts usually spend part of their lives in water, part of their lives on land. They live double lives. Many amphibians are in decline for reasons that are not totally clear. Lost or altered habitats seem likely culprits. Cool, clear streams turned crock-pot warm...

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Dippers

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang When I was growing up in Western Washington my father took me fishing.  A familiar sight, sometimes more familiar than that of fish, was a stocky slate-gray thrush-sized bird flying up and down the stream, occasionally lighting on an emergent rock or boulder.  Once alight, the bird bobbed up and...

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Earthworms

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Dog and I ventured forth one morning several weeks ago to discover an earthworm disaster; worms all over the street. It is a kind of gruesome sign of spring. What happened? Our first relatively warm soaking rains of spring filled available pore space in the soil with oxygen-deficient water....

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Fens

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang I was botanizing in the Illinois Valley on a research project with colleagues. We were interested in the relationship between the purple and white-flowered form of the large-flowered bog lily. We collected leaves for chemical analysis, and buds and individual flowers for pollen to try to determine if the...

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Fishing

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang For many Oregonians, spring officially begins the opening day of trout season. The poor souls along the northwest coast of Oregon must wait until the end of May to fish for trout in coastal streams and lakes, to enjoy one of the time-honored rites of spring. You can enjoy...

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Grapeferns

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang I expended a certain amount of energy one summer looking for grapeferns, also know as moonworts.  Most readers have never heard of moonworts and those who have, may have never seen a live one.  What an interesting group of plants.  They are vascular plants with special tissues to conduct...

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Helliborine Orchid

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Orchids are always exciting to find. My discovery of the Helliborine orchid in Jackson County was no exception. The beauty of its flower was not that exciting, although it is a step above the tway-blade and rattlesnake plantain. I didn't recognize it; that is what made it interesting. Not...

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Habitat

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang We hear much about habitat these days. Loss of habitat endangers natural salmon runs in the Columbia River. Many acres of ancient forest are set aside as habitat for the remaining populations of spotted owls and for 100 other vertebrates and 1,500 invertebrates found in the same habitat. Besides...

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Hairy Woodpecker

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang The other day at breakfast I heard, "peek," "peek," "peek peek", outside in the birch trees. With that encouragement I peeked as well, out the window. Much to my pleasure, there was a hairy woodpecker very carefully inspecting my neighborhood cat feeder. The feeder was intended for birds and...

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Hibernation

 Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Many warm-blooded animals spend much of their time in a state of greatly lowered metabolism called torpor. Hummingbirds, incredibly active during the day, can conserve energy when food is scarce by becoming incredibly inactive at night. A hummer's temperature may drop from an active high of 104°F to near...

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Jays

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang There are four different jay species in our area: scrub jays, Steller's jays, gray jays, and pinion jays in eastern Oregon. None of them are true blue jays. You have to go back east or to Toronto to find them. Jays are bright, clever, fearless. They are, except the...

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Klamath Midge

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang It's early evening, the wind dies, and near the edge of the marsh a few small flying insects rise. Soon joined by others, the swarm increases and increases and increases until the mass of insects forms a long symmetrical top-shaped mass that swirls about emanating a strong, screaming hum...

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Marshes

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Are small marshy areas in fields, along roads, around edges of ponds, or along streams of any value? Places where cattails grow and redwing blackbirds sing? Whether you said yes or no, you answered another question: Does wildlife have value? We often think of wildlife as game animals we...

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More Yellowjackets

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Yellowjackets, bald-faced hornets and the like don't seem to be particularly bothersome this summer. At least they haven't bothered me much. Our outdoor meals have been mostly devoid of uninvited guests and I haven't had any unpleasant encounters in the field this year. Last year a small paper nest...

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Morels

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Spring brings the best of the edible mushrooms, the morels, popping up out of the ground at various locations in southern Oregon and northern California. If you ask people where to look for morels, they will be evasive, worse than fishermen. Early in the season look for morels at...

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Mosquito Fern

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Have you ever noticed that small ponds, the edges of slow streams and backwaters in southern Oregon sometimes turn brick red: Its enough to make a pharaoh faint. The cause is not an act of retribution, but a tiny, floating fern, Azolla, also known as the mosquito fern, that forms red...

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Mountain Beaver

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang In 1805, Chinook Indians showed Meriwether Lewis and William Clark a soft, brown fur robe made from the skins of a small mammal. Lewis noticed that none of the skins had tails and asked to see the animal. What he saw was a small, chunky, densely-furred mammal about the...

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Myriapods

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Arthropods include insects, spiders, crustaceans and the like. They have external hardened shells that serve as a skeleton and an internal system of muscles. If you have ever eaten cracked crab you know how arthropods are put together. In case you worry about such things, bugs big enough to...

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Painted Ladies

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang News in the Medford Mail Tribune that large numbers of painted ladies were headed this way from California certainly caught my attention. I was only slightly disappointed to learn that they were butterflies. I was delighted to learn, however, that these butterflies are in the genus Veronica, and that there was a recent attempt...

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Pandora Moths

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang This summer Nature Notes was at Crater Lake, again, when someone mentioned Pandora Moths at the Sinnott Center overlook. As my more erudite listeners know, Pandora of Greek mythology was the first woman on earth created by Hephaestus (he-FEE-stus) on orders from Zeus with contributions from other gods to...

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Pikas

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang A few summers ago I had a brief encounter with a favorite animal near the shore of Snow Lake at the base of Unicorn Peak in the Tatoosh Range in Mount Rainier National Park. The sky was as blue as it gets, that alpine blue, a sky un-obscured by...

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Pronghorns

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang One summer some visiting Japanese botany colleagues wanted to collect arid land species to analyze for exotic chemicals. I took them to Harney County: land of the Stinking Water and Pueblo Mountains, the Alvord Desert and Steens Mountain, one of North America's great natural wonders. It was a land...

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Raccoons

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Years ago we entertained several members of the Stuttgart Symphony Orchestra who were in town for a concert. After dinner we were extolling the virtues of Ashland when the conversation got around to the local wildlife. Raccoons were mentioned. Seeing the Germans' puzzled look, I described a small mammal...

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Robins

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang "Sing a Song of Six Pence, Pocket Full of Rye, Four and Twenty Blackbirds, Baked in a Pie." I took my first visit to Great Britain several years ago to chase the ghosts of David Douglas and John Jeffrey. I was amazed (I am easily amazed, you know) to...

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Shaggy Manes

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang I recently saw a sight that makes the hearts of mycophiles everywhere go pitter-pat. I saw some shaggy manes. In the fall amateur and professional mushroom lovers start to pray for rain. If we are lucky, when it rains and when it freezes will be well placed in time,...

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Silver-Gray Squirrels

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang When I was out for my usual early morning walk with Inu (my dog) we saw one of his favorite animals, rating close, I think, to the neighborhood cats. It was a western gray or silver-gray squirrel, Sciurus griseus, a common, handsome west coast mammal. Dog and I both fume...

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Slugs

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang A recent coast field trip reminded me of one of my favorite animals. In the redwoods we saw banana slugs, big, yellow, slimy banana slugs, some with spots, some without, but all with shiny coats that make your last head cold seem like nothing at all. Slugs and I...

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Soils

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Soil is that and living terrestrial layer of mineral particles, pore space, moisture, organisms that covers most of the surface of earth. Without soil, life as we know it would not exist. Dirt, on the other hand, is what is you find under your fingernails or what you sweep...

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Songbirds

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang When I taught a Conservation of Natural Resources course, I asked my students if they could connect the disappearance of North American songbirds with North American fast food establishments. We would conclude that converting South American tropical rain forests to pastures for cattle destined to become hamburgers sold in...

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Spotted Owl

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang The spotted owl is a resident of dense coniferous and mixed evergreen forests of the western United States and northern Mexico. Ornithologists recognize three subspecies; the northern spotted owl, the California spotted owl, and the Mexican spotted owl. They have different ranges, different habits, different lives. The spotted owl...

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Spotted Skunk

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang We are all familiar with the striped skunk. Bambi's friend Flower and Pepe Le Pew were striped skunks. In southern Oregon we have another, less commonly seen skunk;Spilogale putorius, the spotted skunk, civet, or polecat. Spilogale is the Greek word for spotted polecat: putorius is Latin for stench. Some mammalogists consider our more slender...

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Subalpine Fir

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang I spent one Saturday with Dr. Charles Welden, Southern Oregon University's community ecologist and Gene Parker, the local expert on true firs, on the summit of Mount Ashland taking a close look at the subalpine firs that grow there. Gene was checking out the firs for the Rogue River...

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Ticks and Mites

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang I spent an hour or so showing off the Biology Department's scanning electron microscope to a group of Ashland mid-high science students. They were at the university to celebrate Science and Technology Week. Dr. Jad D'Allura, of the Geology Department, organized the series of tours, as he has for...

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Water

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang "We'll never know the worth of water till the well go dry." This 18th century Scottish proverb has been used and reused, much like water, ever since then. Water is a remarkable substance. Water is a chemical compound of two hydrogen atoms bound to oxygen; H20, as all but...

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Watermelon Snow

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Skiers have probably noticed lemon snow, but what about watermelon snow? In spring and summer, at higher elevations, receding snow banks often take on a pink or reddish tinge. It happens in the bowl on Mount Ashland, near the summit of Mount Eddy west of Mount Shasta, and on...

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Water Bears

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang I like the rustic look of moss and lichen-covered wooden shake and shingle roofs. Mosses and lichens are ecological pioneers, the first plants to invade any bare area: granite outcrop or fresh split shakes. Mosses and lichens put down thin filamentous structures into microscopic cracks and crevices and make...

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Wizard Island Toads

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Nature Notes is a long time member of the Crater Lake Natural History Association Board of Directors. The non-profit Association provides funding to the park and Oregon Caves for interpretive programs through our sale of books and other items. A board benefit is an occasional outing provided by the...

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Wocas

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Upper Klamath Lake's 61,500 or so acres of surface area make it Oregon's largest fresh-water lake and one of the largest in the United States. Although its area is large, it isn't deep - 50 feet at most, with an average of 14. This natural lake's drainage basin is...

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Woodrats

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang The flat bench just below the final itch to the summit of the Lower Table Rock trail in Jackson County, Oregon, is forested with a dense stand of stump-sprouted madrone trees. I often stop here on my wav to the top of the rock to catch my breath and...

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Yellowjackets

Nature Notes by Dr. Frank Lang Yellowjackets are first-order social insects, not because they like picnics so much, but because they live together in large colonies. The colonies consist of many sterile female workers and a fertile, egg-laying queen. The workers play an active role in making elegant paper nests and looking after larvae. At...

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