Kyle Brooks
@kylefromohio.bsky.social
I'm a wildlife biologist turned conservation communicator.│Currently in the mountains of Virginia.│All opinions mine.
Reposted by Kyle Brooks
Here's a fabulous arachnid for the feed tonight, a Giant Velvet Mite. Their bright colors appear to be aposematic, warning potential predators of their unpleasant taste and smell.
(Dinothrombium sp.) Portal, AZ 2025 #Arachtober
(Dinothrombium sp.) Portal, AZ 2025 #Arachtober
October 20, 2025 at 2:07 AM
Here's a fabulous arachnid for the feed tonight, a Giant Velvet Mite. Their bright colors appear to be aposematic, warning potential predators of their unpleasant taste and smell.
(Dinothrombium sp.) Portal, AZ 2025 #Arachtober
(Dinothrombium sp.) Portal, AZ 2025 #Arachtober
Reposted by Kyle Brooks
An IT worker for the nat'l parks drove to a bridge & called a friend to talk him down.
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
White House officials wanted to put federal workers ‘in trauma.’ It’s working.
Federal workers describe struggling with panic attacks, depression, suicidal thoughts. “Why doesn’t anyone care?”
www.washingtonpost.com
May 20, 2025 at 12:16 PM
An IT worker for the nat'l parks drove to a bridge & called a friend to talk him down.
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
A Medicaid researcher killed herself after repeating "I’m not enough" to her family.
A Social Security worker, whose data was under siege by DOGE, died at her cubicle. www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...
March 10, 2025 at 12:39 AM
I'm a big fan of big trees.
This big ol' Northern Red Oak lives in an old-growth stand in northeast Ohio.
This tree has many features characteristic of old, forest-grown trees: a long, slightly wobbly trunk, a buttressed base, and a few large branches clustered at the tippy top.
This big ol' Northern Red Oak lives in an old-growth stand in northeast Ohio.
This tree has many features characteristic of old, forest-grown trees: a long, slightly wobbly trunk, a buttressed base, and a few large branches clustered at the tippy top.
February 4, 2025 at 1:25 AM
I'm a big fan of big trees.
This big ol' Northern Red Oak lives in an old-growth stand in northeast Ohio.
This tree has many features characteristic of old, forest-grown trees: a long, slightly wobbly trunk, a buttressed base, and a few large branches clustered at the tippy top.
This big ol' Northern Red Oak lives in an old-growth stand in northeast Ohio.
This tree has many features characteristic of old, forest-grown trees: a long, slightly wobbly trunk, a buttressed base, and a few large branches clustered at the tippy top.
I feel like dusky salamanders are the gull equivalent of the salamander world. It's complicated and you have to be reaaaally into it to get.
Trying to understand dusky salamanders and just...wat.
January 26, 2025 at 2:59 AM
I feel like dusky salamanders are the gull equivalent of the salamander world. It's complicated and you have to be reaaaally into it to get.
Trying to understand dusky salamanders and just...wat.
January 26, 2025 at 2:58 AM
Trying to understand dusky salamanders and just...wat.
In areas with fire-adapted ecosystems, there is going to be smoke one way or another.
We can help choose when and how communities experience that inevitable smoke. I know people really don't like smoke and I know it has health impacts, but there simply isn't a "no smoke ever" option.
We can help choose when and how communities experience that inevitable smoke. I know people really don't like smoke and I know it has health impacts, but there simply isn't a "no smoke ever" option.
Prescribed burning can reduce the severity and amount of smoke from wildfires that burn those areas later on, even when accounting for smoke from the prescribed burns themselves, according to new analysis of California’s record-breaking 2020 fire season from @soa-mazing.bsky.social etal. 🧪
Setting fire to a million acres of California could cut smoke by half
As California expands its prescribed burning efforts, a study of more than 180 such projects suggests they are an effective way to reduce a blaze's intensity and smoke
www.newscientist.com
January 24, 2025 at 11:08 PM
In areas with fire-adapted ecosystems, there is going to be smoke one way or another.
We can help choose when and how communities experience that inevitable smoke. I know people really don't like smoke and I know it has health impacts, but there simply isn't a "no smoke ever" option.
We can help choose when and how communities experience that inevitable smoke. I know people really don't like smoke and I know it has health impacts, but there simply isn't a "no smoke ever" option.
It's officially scream loudly into the void time.
January 23, 2025 at 4:35 AM
It's officially scream loudly into the void time.
One of my favorite insects. Just love these tiny dudes.
This doily with legs is a lace bug. Lace bugs are small true bugs with piercing mouthparts that they use to drink plant sap.
Corythucha sp., Pennsylvania 🌿🧪
Corythucha sp., Pennsylvania 🌿🧪
January 15, 2025 at 2:36 PM
One of my favorite insects. Just love these tiny dudes.
This is my first winter here in western Virginia. We received 2 inches of snow last night. You would have thought the world ended this morning based on the reactions in the city's Facebook group.
January 11, 2025 at 10:36 PM
This is my first winter here in western Virginia. We received 2 inches of snow last night. You would have thought the world ended this morning based on the reactions in the city's Facebook group.
It's the eve of Thanksgiving! Who else is just anxiously sitting in their hometown with dread building for tomorrow?
Just me?
Just me?
November 28, 2024 at 1:48 AM
It's the eve of Thanksgiving! Who else is just anxiously sitting in their hometown with dread building for tomorrow?
Just me?
Just me?
The largest clump of Downy Rattlesnake-Master (Goodyera pubescens) I've yet to come across!
This is probably the most common orchid species in the east. While flowers typically take the spotlight when talking about orchids, this species' evergreen leaves steal the show.
#orchid
This is probably the most common orchid species in the east. While flowers typically take the spotlight when talking about orchids, this species' evergreen leaves steal the show.
#orchid
November 20, 2024 at 9:38 PM
The largest clump of Downy Rattlesnake-Master (Goodyera pubescens) I've yet to come across!
This is probably the most common orchid species in the east. While flowers typically take the spotlight when talking about orchids, this species' evergreen leaves steal the show.
#orchid
This is probably the most common orchid species in the east. While flowers typically take the spotlight when talking about orchids, this species' evergreen leaves steal the show.
#orchid
If you're going to make an algorithm-based discover feed, at least make it good.
November 17, 2024 at 1:58 AM
If you're going to make an algorithm-based discover feed, at least make it good.
This year, the fall colors lasted only a week or so in western Virginia. Here is a view from the Blue Ridge Parkway during the peak.
November 15, 2024 at 2:28 PM
This year, the fall colors lasted only a week or so in western Virginia. Here is a view from the Blue Ridge Parkway during the peak.
It's fire season across much of the East. Wildfires in New York, New Jersey, West Virginia, and others have been getting news attention. Many people are shocked, but wildfires are a common thing in the East! Most times they're small and don't get any attention, making it seem like they don't happen.
November 14, 2024 at 2:51 PM
It's fire season across much of the East. Wildfires in New York, New Jersey, West Virginia, and others have been getting news attention. Many people are shocked, but wildfires are a common thing in the East! Most times they're small and don't get any attention, making it seem like they don't happen.
Well, here I am, on yet another new platform.
May I offer a newt to the algorithm?
May I offer a newt to the algorithm?
November 14, 2024 at 2:35 PM
Well, here I am, on yet another new platform.
May I offer a newt to the algorithm?
May I offer a newt to the algorithm?