Heritage turkeys is a classification now popularly used to describe naturally-mating, long-lived, slow-growing varieties of turkeys, most of which have standards defined by the American Poultry Association. They retain historic characteristics that are no longer present in the majority of turkeys raised for consumption since the mid-20th century, and are capable of being raised in a manner that more closely matches the natural behavior and life cycle of wild turkeys.
The Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo) is native to North America and is the heaviest member of the Galliformes. It is one of two species of turkey, the other being the Ocellated Turkey (Meleagris ocellata) found in the Yucatán Peninsula in Central America.
Subspecies of the Meleagris gallopavo include the Eastern Wild Turkey (Meleagris gallopavo silvestris), Osceola or Florida (M. g. osceola), Rio Grande (M. g. intermedia), Merriam’s (M. g. merriami), Gould’s (M. g. mexicana), and South Mexican (M. g. gallopavo—not shown on map).
Taking archeology a step beyond traditional pottery shards, Brian Kemp analyzes ancient DNA (aDNA) from bones, teeth, and desiccated feces (coprolites) to help bring prehistoric Native American cultures alive in ways never before possible. As a molecular anthropologist, Kemp compares archeological findings with genetic information to detect past demographic shifts, population interactions, and movements throughout the Americas.
By plotting aDNA together with artifacts in the ground, specific tribes in the Southwest can be seen to virtually travel across the high desert through the eons. The picture Kemp paints seems so real that one can almost hear the hunter-gatherer songs and shouts drifting in the air.
Eugene Thrasher, a trained Washington State University Beach Watcher with more than a thousand volunteer hours under his belt, has been digging and eating clams in Washington for half a century. Thrasher is the guy to ask if you want to learn how to find and dig a clam.
Follow him through a clam dig at Penn Cove on Whidbey Island, and then learn about types of clams found in Washington. Finish up with a dose of Northwest icon Ivar Haglund singing “Acres of Clams.”
A video of a model Power Augmented Ram Vehicle (PARV), a fast boat designed and built by Konstantin Matveev, an assistant professor in Washington State University’s School of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, and mechanical engineering students Zach Malhiot ’07, Ryan Soderlund ’08, and Alex Ockfen ’07 B.S., ’08 M.S.
The fast boat is intended for transporting cargo and people on land, water, and especially snow.
Not that many years ago Washington’s legislature was covered by more than 30 journalists from around the state. Now that number is eight. The Seattle Times no longer has a bureau on the east side of Lake Washington, and a print Post-Intelligencer no longer exists. Who will give us information and investigation when the papers have all gone?
Read “Paper Cuts” by Hannelore Sudermann in the Winter 2009 issue of Washington State Magazine.
Download a map file (KML) that can be opened in Google Earth or similar. Click a newspaper or online news source on the map below … » More …
Just as several of Washington’s newspapers have vanished from the landscape, librarians and volunteers are bringing our state’s near-forgotten newspapers to light. Through a project in the Washington Secretary of State’s office, library employees and about 15 volunteers are digitizing the Washington State Library’s extensive newspaper collection to make it accessible to teachers, students, and the general public. In addition, WSU’s own Manuscripts, Archives, and Special Collections division recently assumed responsibility for an aging newspaper collection in the Holland library that contains Pacific Northwest papers dating back to 1851 as well as Colonial America papers dating to 1728.
