Saturday, June 1 is National Trails Day
Lace up your hiking boots, Saturday, June 1 is National Trails Day, a nationwide celebration of the amazing trail network we have in the United States. The brainchild of the American Hiking Society, National Trails Day first launched in 1993 as way to promote advocacy and trail service throughout the country. Since the first National Trails Day 26 years ago, more than 150,000 Americans have participated in over 2,000 trail advocacy events across the country. To find an event in your area click here, or pledge to clean up a trail in your neck of the woods.
Asheville, NC to host Gran Fondo National Championship cycling events
The Gran Fondo National Series of Cycling announced on Wednesday that Asheville, NC will host the Gran Fondo National Championship in 2019 and 2020. The Gran Fondo National Series is the most competitive of all of the gran fondo events. The 2019 national championship will be held on July 21 with race distances of 100, 60 and 30 miles. Only the 100-mile racers will compete for the national championship but racers competing in all three distances will finish at Asheville brewery Wicked Weed and can enjoy the festival at the finish line. Jim Rutberg, the communications director for the series, told the Citizen-Times that choosing Asheville to host the championship was an easy decision. “The cycling in the area is phenomenal,” he said.
Puffins in the Bering Sea are experiencing a mass die-off linked to climate change
Scientists have announced that thousands of tufted puffins that live in the Bering Sea have died from starvation and stress caused by climate change. Puffins eat krill and small fish, but their food supply has been disturbed by changes in air and sea temperatures and winter ice levels. The seabirds eat an enormous amount of food, between 30 and 50 percent of their body mass daily, but predators are now consuming the small fish and krill that they typically eat. Those larger predators are eating more because of rising metabolic rates caused by warming water temperatures. This increased need to feed has changed the ecosystem of the Bering Sea, leaving puffins to suffer. During the four-month research period, scientists estimate that between 3,150 and 8,500 puffins died of starvation.
