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Free Bat Chat Guide And Why Your Backyard Needs a BatBnB Helping bats help us (and snagging 15% off a bat house while you’re at it). Sponsored by BatBnB, a brand we genuinely love and trust. Those little silhouettes you see zipping around at dusk? They’re not trying to get tangled in your hair—they’re out on the night shift, gobbling mosquitoes, pollinating plants, and quietly keeping ecosystems in balance. The problem is, many bats are in steep decline thanks to habitat loss, disease, and plain old bad PR. That’s where a good bat house comes in. Click to access our free Bat Chat Guide. Why Bat Houses Matter Bats need safe places to roost, raise pups, and rest between foraging flights. But not all bat houses are created equal. Cheap, poorly designed ones can overheat, trap moisture, or let predators in. In other words? They can do more harm than good. A well-built, well-placed bat house, though, can host dozens (even hundreds) of bats. Think of it as a high-rise apartment for the night crew—secure, cozy, and a total win for your backyard ecosystem. Our Pick: BatBnB Field Trip has teamed up with the folks at BatBnB—makers of beautifully crafted, science-backed bat houses designed with guidance from Merlin Tuttle (a.k.a. the godfather of bat conservation). Built in the U.S. with sustainable Western Red Cedar, these houses are sturdy, safe, and actually attractive enough to hang on the side of your home. Field Tip: Field Trip readers get 15% off any BatBnB purchase. Just use code FIELDTRIP at checkout at www.BatBnB.com. Quick Bat Tips for Your Backyard Want to boost your chances of bats moving in? A few easy tweaks make all the difference: • Skip the trees. Mount your bat house on a pole or building, at least 12–20 feet off the ground. • Sun seekers. Place it where it’ll get 6–8 hours of direct sunlight a day. • Think south or southeast. Bats like warmth, but not a sauna—orientation matters. • Keep the lights low. Porch lights and floodlights can spook them. Darkness is a gift. • Go native. Plant local wildflowers and night-blooming species to attract insects. More bugs = happy bats. • Be patient. It might take a season or two for bats to find their new digs, but once they do, they’ll come back year after year. Download Your Free Field Trip Bat Guide Want the full scoop—plus bat myths, cleanup tips, and a deeper dive on why these creatures are essential? Grab our Bat Chat printable guide HERE. And remember: every time you give bats a safe place to roost, you’re helping pollinate crops, control pests, and restore balance to your own backyard ecosystem. Not bad for the neighbors you barely see.

Campfire Chat: Life Is Heavy. Pack Light. The world has been pretty heavy around the Field Trip campfire lately. Many of us are carrying hard things: difficult diagnoses for loved ones, sudden deaths of friends, financial hardships, relationships needing extra care, threats of wildfires and data centers in our communities, and the death of a pet. Even the good stuff can feel heavy sometimes: upcoming vacations, weddings, building a home, starting a new hobby, and a new baby in the family. We are a small, close-knit team, and what happens to one tends to happen to all of us. We share the celebrations, and we share the weight of the difficult stuff. I don’t think any of us would have it any other way. But it does mean our little team is a bit fragile right now. So this month’s Campfire Chat feels a little different. There is grief here. And worry. But there are also national parks and new adventures and really good people stepping up for one another. There’s even a new tent camper. Pull up a chair. 🌿 On My Mind How do we show up for one another while keeping ourselves healthy? How do we celebrate good news when someone else is hurting? How do we do the work when it’s hard just to get out of bed? Our Head of Outpost Operations (we don’t do boring titles around here), Coretta, recently wrote Tiny Field Trips for Heavy Days, and I’ve been leaning pretty hard into her advice to “start insultingly small.” On the hard days, I do exactly that. On the better days, I do more. I forgive myself when the laundry piles up. I apologize when I can’t muster the energy to return a phone call. I give myself grace when my body just can’t do one more thing. And I breathe. More on that in a minute. 🛞 On the Ground We have a new toy. Although calling Scout a “toy” already feels a little rude because we love him an unreasonable amount. Scout is our new SylvanSport TraiLOFT microcamper: part rooftop tent, part lightweight gear trailer, part tiny Field Trip correspondent. Scout has already landed his own recurring Field Trip series, Out and About with Scout, where he’ll roll into parks, campgrounds, trails, visitor centers, scenic overlooks, and wonderfully weird roadside stops and report back on what you should know before you go. His first assignment was Mammoth Cave National Park, where my husband and I learned that 500+ underground stairs are an extremely effective cardio program. Scout will be back with more adventures soon. Disclosure: I’m a SylvanSport ambassador, which means I’m compensated for introducing readers to Scout’s wider family of rooftop tents, campers, and camping gear. But, just like everything you read about in Field Trip, we only suggest brands and products to our readers that we ourselves have used and love. 🕯 Inside the Tent Speaking of ridiculously smitten...Can we talk about Coretta for a minute? In addition to holding down the fort as our Head of Outpost Operations, she has officially started writing for Field Trip—and wow, has she taken some weight off my shoulders this month. In addition to Tiny Field Trips for Heavy Days, which explores depression, the outdoors, and what happens when even “go outside, you’ll feel better” feels like too much, she also launched Asking for a Friend, a new column devoted to those oddly specific environmental questions you might be slightly afraid to ask out loud. Can you take a shell from the beach? Wear thrift-store clothes without washing them? Refill disposable water bottles? Leave your dog-poop bag beside the trail if you promise you’re coming back for it? Coretta has answers. Without the guilt trip. She’s also tackling back-to-school season and just wrote about the National Park Service turning 110 on August 25, including how to join the celebration during National Park Week. Having another person who understands what Field Trip is trying to do—and can take an idea and run into the woods with it—has been an enormous gift. Coretta, I am so incredibly grateful you’re here. 🧭 Trail Markers Meanwhile, our Director of Social Storytelling, Julie, spent 16 days rafting the Grand Canyon with her husband and friends. Sixteen. Days. Rafting. The. Grand. Canyon. Whoa. She is now on her way to Alaska because Julie isn’t one to sit still. We’ll be hearing much more from Julie about the Grand Canyon adventure in the coming weeks, and I cannot wait. There are some Field Trips you take for an afternoon. And then there are the ones that rearrange something inside you. I suspect this might have been one of those. 🪵 Kindling A few little things keeping the fire going around here: Scout tucked into his tiny campsite. Watching someone you believe in find her voice as a writer. Friends who understand when you disappear for a little while. National parks turning 110. Planning the next Field Trip. Hearing about adventures so big they make you want to pull out a map. Giving ourselves permission to do less. Remembering that joy and grief are perfectly capable of sitting beside each other. That last one has been important lately. 🏕 Basecamp My yoga- and meditation-loving mama has given me one piece of advice several times over the past few months: “Breathe.” For whatever reason, it hits differently than calm down or relax. Thích Nhất Hạnh said, “The best way to take care of the future is to take care of the present moment.” That’s what I hear when my mom tells me to breathe. Because sometimes we can’t fix what’s happening. We can’t make someone well. We can’t bring someone back. We can’t know how everything will turn out. And we certainly can’t carry everyone we love and every worry about tomorrow all at once. But we can be here right now. 🎒 Packing Out So that’s what I’m carrying out of this month. Start insultingly small. Forgive yourself for the laundry. Let the phone call wait when you need to. Celebrate the new baby and the wedding and the tiny camper even when other parts of life hurt. Show up for your people when you can. Let them show up for you when you can’t. And breathe. Breathe in forgiveness. Breathe out fear. Breathe in strength. Breathe out worry. Breathe in peace. Breathe out what you cannot control. Tomorrow will ask what it asks of us. Today? Breathe.

Tiny Field Trips for Heavy Days: Depression, the Outdoors, and Starting Where You Are I love getting outside, but there have absolutely been days when getting from the bed to the bathroom felt like a thru-hike. I’ve had depression off and on since my early teens. Sometimes it has lasted a few weeks and sometimes much, much longer. Long enough to know there is a difference between “I feel sad” and “I need help.” Long enough to know that when someone well-meaning chirps, “You should get outside. Maybe go for a walk!” it can feel less like advice and more like being handed a kayak during a flood. The outdoors can help, sure. But the outdoors won't magically fix depression. First, Let’s Not Confuse Sad With Depressed We’ve all been sad. We’ve all had the blahs, the doldrums, the “please do not ask me to do anything today” days. But depression is not just a bad mood wearing sweatpants. Depression can be biological, situational, seasonal, grief-related, hormone-related, trauma-related, stress-related, or some messy little casserole of several things at once. The National Institute of Mental Health describes depression as different from everyday sadness; it can cause symptoms that affect how you feel, think, sleep, eat, work, and move through daily life. And sometimes, depression makes even the smallest movement feel impossible. So before we get into the tiny field trips, let’s say the quiet part loudly: This is not about willpower. If you are depressed, you are not lazy. You are not dramatic. You are not failing at being a person. You are having a real human experience that may need real human support. Nature Can Help. It Cannot Cure. There is good evidence that time in nature can support mental health. The American Psychological Association notes that exposure to nature has been linked to benefits such as lower stress, improved attention, and better mood. Physical activity can also help reduce the risk of depression and anxiety and support better sleep, according to the CDC. But here’s the real deal: a walk is not therapy. A trail is not medication. A tree is not a treatment plan. The outdoors can be a tool. A handrail. A tiny crack of light. It might lower the volume for a while. It might help your body remember it exists. It might give your brain something else to look at besides the same four walls and the same four thoughts. But if you need a doctor, a counselor, medication, a crisis line, a support group, a diagnosis, or someone to help you make a plan, please seek that help. No one here is saying, “Skip care and touch grass.” Absolutely not. Touch grass and call your doctor. Start So Small It Almost Feels Silly When depression has you pinned to the bed, “go outside” can sound absurd. So don’t start with a hike. Don’t start with a workout. Start smaller. Start insultingly small. Start here: Level 0: Bed-Based Nature For the days when getting up is not happening. Open the blinds. That counts. Watch the clouds from bed. Let the sky do sky things without asking anything from you. Crack a window if you can. Let in rain smell, cold air, birdsong, traffic noise — whatever the world is offering. Put a plant, rock, pinecone, flower, shell, or feather where you can see it. Text someone: “Can you send me a picture of the sky?” That’s not nothing. That’s a tiny field trip. Level 1: Doorway Nature For the days when you can stand, but only barely. Open the door and breathe. Sit on the stoop. Stand on the porch for 30 seconds. Let sun hit your face for one minute. Step outside while the coffee brews. Take the trash out slowly and call it a loop trail. No backpack. No boots. No big production. Just you, the air, and the fact that you made it to the threshold. Level 2: Low-Stakes Outside For “I can leave the house, but please do not expect much from me.” Walk to the mailbox. Sit in your car somewhere green. Drive to a park and do not get out of the car. Sit on a bench with sunglasses on. Walk one block. Visit a garden center and sniff a tomato plant. Go somewhere with water — a pond, creek, lake, river, fountain, birdbath, whatever you’ve got. The goal is not exercise. The goal is contact. A little light. A little air. A little reminder that the world is still there. Level 3: Gentle Movement For the days when the fog lifts just enough. Take a ten-minute walk. Do the same boring loop every time so you don’t have to make decisions. Water your plants. Pull five weeds. Look for one bird. Walk with a friend who understands silence. Bring a snack to a picnic table. Depression makes choices difficult. Repetition helps. Same shoes. Same route. Same bench. Same tree. Same “I’m just going to step outside and see what happens.” Level 4: Field Trip Mode For the days when you have a little more in the tank. Take a short hike. Visit a state park. Go look for wildflowers, frogs, mushrooms, meteors, weird clouds, animal tracks, or whatever small wonder can lure you out the door. Join a gentle volunteer cleanup. Bring a friend and make it easy. Pack snacks. Always snacks. But please hear me: Level 4 is not “better” than Level 0. It is just a different capacity. Some days, outside is a three-mile trail. Some days, outside is opening the window. Both count. Don’t Make the Outdoors Another Thing to Fail At This matters. Depression already comes with enough guilt. You do not need to turn nature into homework. You are not less outdoorsy because your brain is having a hard season. You are not failing at the outdoors if you cannot get outside today. You do not have to earn fresh air by being cheerful. There is no merit badge for suffering alone, and there is no shame in needing help. If the only thing you do today is open the blinds, that is a tiny little vote for light. If you sit on the porch in pajamas and unwashed hair, congratulations, you are participating in nature. Nature has seen worse. Make It Easier Than You Think It Should Be A few tricks that have helped me: Put shoes by the door. Depression hates transitions, so reduce the steps. Keep a “porch blanket” or hoodie nearby. Make a no-decision route. Same loop, every time. Lower the hygiene bar. Hat. Sunglasses. Coat over pajamas. Done. Use a timer. Two minutes outside is allowed. Ask for company without making it complicated: “Can you sit outside with me for ten minutes?” Pair outside time with something you already do: coffee, a phone call, feeding the dog, taking out the trash, checking the mail. Avoid making it a performance. No tracking apps required. No mileage. No pace. No “before and after.” This is not Instagram content. This is care. When Fresh Air Isn’t Enough If depression is affecting your ability to function, sleep, eat, work, care for yourself, or feel safe, please talk to a doctor or mental health professional. If you are already seeing someone, tell them what is actually going on. Not the polished version. Not the “I’m fine, just tired” version. The real one. If you are in the U.S. and you are thinking about suicide, self-harm, or you feel like you might not be safe, call or text 988. The 988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline offers free, confidential support 24/7 across the United States and its territories. The outdoors can be part of your support system. It should not be your only support system. You deserve care. Actual care. The kind with trained people and plans and follow-up and maybe medication and maybe therapy and maybe the enormous relief of not white-knuckling it by yourself.

The National Park Service Is Turning 110 — Here’s How to Join the Party 110 looks pretty good in hiking boots. On August 25, 2026, the National Park Service celebrates its 110th birthday, and this year the party is bigger than the usual ranger-program-and-cupcake situation. The birthday falls smack in the middle of National Park Week, August 22–30, which means nine days of events, programs, outdoor adventures, history, wildlife, Junior Ranger activities and plenty of reasons to go play outside! Oh, and there’s a birthday present: entrance fees are waived at national parks on August 25 for U.S. citizens and residents. More on that in a minute. The Parks Came Before the Park Service Did you know America had national parks before it had anyone specifically in charge of managing them all? Yellowstone became the country’s first national park in 1872, more than four decades before the National Park Service existed. More parks and national monuments followed, but a hodgepodge of federal agencies managed them. Some fell under the Department of the Interior, others under the War Department or the Department of Agriculture. No single agency oversaw the whole shebang. Enter businessman and conservationist Stephen T. Mather and his colleague Horace Albright, who helped build public and political support for a dedicated national park agency. On August 25, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson signed the National Park Service Organic Act, officially creating the National Park Service within the Department of the Interior. Mather would become its first director the following year. The agency was charged with a job that sounds simple until you think about it: protect these places while also helping people experience them, leaving their natural and historic resources unimpaired for future generations. Today, the National Park System includes more than 400 sites, and they’re definitely not all the giant western landscapes we tend to picture when somebody says “national park.” The system includes national parks, monuments, seashores, battlefields, historic sites, memorials, recreation areas and plenty more. The 2026 Birthday Party Is a Whole Week This year’s NPS birthday happens during National Park Week, running August 22–30, 2026. The theme is “Celebrate America’s Story,” tying into the United States’ 250th anniversary. Each day gets its own theme, from Safety Sunday and Watch Wildlife Wednesday to Staff Saturday, with the week wrapping up on National Junior Ranger Day, August 30. But Tuesday, August 25, is the big one: the National Park Service’s 110th Birthday and Fee-Free Day. The NPS has even put together a “10 for 110” list of ways to celebrate. You could join a ranger program, hike or bike a trail, earn a Junior Ranger badge, volunteer, visit a monument or memorial, stay out for some stargazing or—my personal favorite—bring your own birthday cake and have a picnic. Their advice: feed the rangers, not the wildlife. Seriously. Solid rule year-round. See all the official birthday ideas here. Field Tip: Yes, August 25 Is a Fee-Free Day. But Check the Fine Print. On August 25, National Park Service sites that normally charge an entrance fee will waive that entrance fee for U.S. citizens and residents. Beginning in 2026, NPS free-entrance days no longer apply to non-U.S. residents. Also important: free admission doesn’t necessarily mean every part of your visit is free. Some parks still require timed-entry reservations, tour reservations or other fees, so check the individual park website before you head out. How to Find National Park Birthday Events Near You Start with the National Park Service’s Find a Park tool. You may discover an NPS site much closer to home than you realized. Then browse the NPS event calendar for ranger talks, guided walks, cultural demonstrations, Junior Ranger programs, birthday celebrations and other special events. There are virtual programs too, so you can participate even if a park day isn’t in the cards. Check your chosen park’s individual website before leaving home. Event times, reservations, road conditions, parking and weather can all vary dramatically from one site to another. Find someplace you haven’t explored. Talk to a ranger. Read the signs. Look at the weird little bug. Learn the story behind the place. Stay for sunset. And if cake happens to make it into the daypack? Hey, it’s a birthday.

The Smarter Supply List: Better Back-to-School Picks for Classrooms, Backpacks, and the Planet There is something about back-to-school shopping that still gets me. I am in my 20s. I am in grad school. I buy my own groceries, pay my own bills, and now fully understand why adults used to sigh while standing in the school supply aisle. But… Give me a fresh notebook, a pretty pen, and an excuse to wander past a wall of colorful folders and I am suddenly eight years old again. Some of my favorite back-to-school memories are shopping with my grandparents. My grandmother was a teacher, so our supply runs were a two-for-one operation: her classroom and my backpack. There were pencils, paper, folders, markers, and probably at least one thing I absolutely did not need but deeply believed would help me be the best version of myself at school. Now that I am paying for everything myself, though, I look at back-to-school shopping a little differently. I still love the fresh-start feeling. I just also notice the price tags, the packaging, and how quickly some of those shiny new supplies turn into trash. So I have been thinking about how to keep the fun without buying a mountain of stuff I do not need. Because kids should get excited about choosing school supplies. Teachers deserve things that make their classrooms work. College students need gear that survives long days and longer semesters. And grad students like me would ideally like to accomplish all of the above without draining our bank accounts or the planet. Here is my smarter supply list. First, Keep the Fun Part I am not here to tell a six-year-old that selecting a sparkly pencil case is an irresponsible consumer choice. That is how you get booed out of the school supply aisle. Picking out new school supplies can make school feel exciting. It gives kids some ownership over the year ahead, especially when starting a new grade, new school, or new routine. So instead of eliminating the fun, give it some boundaries. Field Tip: Let kids choose a “special few.” Start by reusing whatever still works from last year, then let kids choose one or two new things they are genuinely excited about. Maybe it is a new lunchbox. A notebook. A folder with a capybara wearing sunglasses. (Because, obviously.) Whatever speaks to them. The goal is not “nothing new.” The goal is making the new stuff feel special instead of automatic. Pre-K and Elementary School: Durable Beats Adorable For younger kids, school supplies go through things. Glue gets smashed. Crayons get snapped. Water bottles roll under playground equipment. Backpacks are dragged across surfaces no textile was ever meant to encounter. This is where durability matters. Look for washable, sturdy, easy-to-open items rather than complicated gear with lots of breakable parts. If a teacher gives you a specific supply list, stick to it. Teachers usually know exactly what works in their classrooms. Middle and High School: Buy for the Actual Student This is around the age when personal style really starts entering the chat. A teenager may care a lot more about what their backpack or notebook looks like, and honestly, I get it. Rather than fighting that, steer the fun toward items they will use constantly. A durable backpack in a color they love? Great. A notebook they are excited to carry? Sure. A reusable water bottle that is actually their style? Much more likely to leave the house every morning. This is also a great age to introduce the idea of buying fewer, better things. A solid binder or backpack that lasts several years often makes more sense than replacing cheap versions every fall. College Students: Your Backpack Is Basically Your Office College was when school supplies stopped being cute and started carrying my entire life. Laptop. Charger. Pens. Notebook. Water. Snacks. Headphones. Emergency granola bar. The big sustainability win here is longevity. Choose a backpack that is comfortable and built to last. Reuse notebooks whenever possible. Skip buying a separate item for every class until you know what each professor actually requires. As for textbooks? Many can be found as digital editions, or you can shop for used online. You might get lucky and get a book previously used by a very diligent note-taker. Bonus. Reusable food containers, coffee cups, utensils, and water bottles can also make a big difference when you are on campus all day. That Starbucks run won’t be nearly as tempting. Grad School: Welcome to the “Do I Really Need This?” Era Grad school has made me ruthlessly practical. Will I use this? Do I already own one? Can I find it secondhand? Can I borrow it? Is this going to help me survive a three-hour seminar? For grad students, the best school supply strategy may simply be buying less upfront. Use what you have until you figure out what your program actually demands. Check campus reuse programs, department swaps, library lending systems, and secondhand marketplaces before buying specialty items. Teachers: My Grandmother Knew the Assignment Because my grandmother was a teacher, I learned early that back-to-school shopping is not just about students. Teachers are often stocking an entire room. Paper. Pencils. Markers. Storage bins. Books. Tissues. Art supplies. Classroom decorations. Things students forget. Things nobody budgeted for. It adds up fast. For teachers, reuse and community sourcing can be especially useful. Check school supply closets before buying. Swap materials with other teachers. Look for creative reuse centers, neighborhood giveaway groups, and donated office supplies. Shop Your House Before You Shop the Store This is probably the least glamorous tip in this entire article, and also the one most likely to save money. Before buying anything, gather last year's supplies. Test the markers. Sharpen the pencils. Flip through the notebooks. Wash the lunchbox. Check the backpack zippers. You may discover that you already have 60 percent of what is on the list. And no, using a partially filled notebook from last semester does not make you less prepared. Just saavy. Refillable, Reusable, and Recycled Are Your Friends When you do need something new, look for options designed to stay in use. Refillable pens can cut down on waste. Reusable lunch containers and utensils can replace disposable bags and plastic cutlery. Notebooks and folders made with recycled paper are widely available. For paper products, certifications such as the Forest Stewardship Council can also help identify products made with fiber from more responsibly managed sources. You can learn more at: www.fsc.org You do not have to overhaul every item you buy. Even choosing a few reusable or recycled options is a start. Secondhand School Supplies Are Surprisingly Good I think we sometimes treat school supplies like they come with an expiration date. They do not. Binders, backpacks, calculators, desk organizers, dorm supplies, art materials, and even unopened notebooks often show up at thrift stores, neighborhood swaps, campus reuse programs, and creative reuse centers. Search “creative reuse center” plus your city. Fair warning: these places can be extremely fun if you are the kind of person who gets excited about bins of random craft supplies. (Hello, that’s me.) Do Not Replace Something Just Because the New Version Is “Greener” You can find bamboo rulers, recycled backpacks, plant-based pens, and all kinds of products marketed as better for the planet. Some of them may be great. But if you already own a perfectly functional ruler, backpack, or pen, the greener option is using the thing you have. The goal is not to build the most environmentally impressive pencil case. It is to buy thoughtfully and keep things in use longer. Make a Smarter Supply Tradition Back-to-school shopping meant something to me growing up because it was not just about buying stuff. It was time with my grandparents. It was getting ready with my grandmother while she prepared her classroom. It was the feeling that something new was about to begin. I still love that feeling. Now I just want a version that makes sense for my budget and the world I am living in. So keep the tradition. Let kids pick something ridiculous. Get excited about the new notebook. Take the first-day-of-school picture. Just maybe check the junk drawer first. The Smarter Back-to-School Checklist Before buying something new, ask: Do we already have one? Can we repair, clean, refill, or reuse it? Will it last beyond this school year? Could we buy it secondhand? Is there a recycled or reusable option? Will my student actually like and use it? And yes, I will probably still buy myself a new notebook this year. I hear there’s one with a capybara wearing sunglasses.

Trail Mail: Deforestation Isn’t Just a Loss. It’s a Leak. Real questions. Field-tested answers. Got something on your mind? Ask away — your friendly Camp Counselor is in. Dear Field Trip, I always thought the reason deforestation was bad for the climate was that we need trees to absorb carbon dioxide. But I recently heard that cutting down forests can actually release greenhouse gases too. Is that true? —Stumped Camp Counselor Says: Yes, it's true. This is one of those climate facts that feels like it should have been explained to all of us much sooner. Most of us were taught the simple version: trees are good because they “breathe in” carbon dioxide and give us oxygen. But forests are not just carbon vacuums. They are carbon storage units. A living forest holds carbon in tree trunks, branches, leaves, roots, fallen wood, leaf litter, and soil. So when a forest is cut, burned, bulldozed, drained, or converted into roads, buildings, or farmland, we do not simply lose future carbon absorption. We can also release some of the carbon that was already stored there. That is the part a lot of us weren’t taught. Deforestation is not just a loss. It is a leak. Think of a forest like a savings account for carbon. Every year, trees make deposits by pulling carbon dioxide from the air and storing carbon in wood, roots, and soil. When we clear a forest, we stop future deposits. But depending on what happens next, we may also start withdrawing from the account. If trees are burned, carbon is released quickly. If they are left to rot, carbon is released more slowly. If the soil is dug up, dried out, compacted, or degraded, carbon stored underground can also escape back into the atmosphere. Some carbon can remain locked away longer in wood products, especially in buildings and furniture, but a lot depends on how the land and wood are managed after the trees come down. This is why “just plant more trees” is not a full solution. Please do not come for me. Planting trees is great. Gold star to all who do it. But a sapling tree does not immediately replace the carbon storage of a mature forest. It can take decades, sometimes longer, for a new forest to rebuild what was lost. And if the land is permanently converted, that forest carbon bank may never fully recover. This is also why national forests matter so much. National forests are not just pretty places to camp, hike, fish, wander, and breathe deeply. They are working ecosystems. They store carbon. They protect water. They shelter wildlife. They cool the landscape. They hold soil in place. They give people access to the outdoors. And yes, they are part of the climate story. When we talk about protecting forests, we are not only talking about saving scenery. We are talking about keeping carbon stored where it belongs. That does not mean every single tree can never be cut. Forest management is more complicated than that. Fire risk, invasive species, disease, community safety, Indigenous stewardship, wildlife habitat, recreation, and sustainable timber all belong in the conversation. But the big idea is simple: When forests fall, we lose more than shade. We lose carbon storage. We lose future carbon capture. We disturb soil. We alter habitat. We change water systems. We open the vault. And once that carbon is out, we cannot just shove it back in by planting a few trees and calling it good. So the next time someone says, “But trees grow back,” the answer is: sometimes, yes. But carbon math has a clock. Mature forests are already doing a job that new seedlings cannot instantly replace. Protecting forests is not just sentimental. It is practical. It is climate work. It is wildlife work. It is clean water work. It is public lands work. And it turns out those quiet trees have been holding more than we realized. P.S. Got your own burning question about outdoor life? Drop us a line — Trail Mail is always open. This story is part of The 89 Percent Project, an initiative of the global journalism collaboration Covering Climate Now.

Asking for a Friend: Shells, Secondhand Clothes, Hotel Shampoo, and Other Awkward Questions Awkward questions. Answered without the guilt trip. My granddaughter says taking a shell from the beach violates Leave No Trace. Seriously? It was empty. Who exactly is going to miss it? Tread Lightly — Fine with a few caveats. First, kudos to your granddaughter for paying attention and speaking up. She has a point. Empty shells can become homes for hermit crabs, shelter smaller organisms, and eventually return minerals to the beach. Leave No Trace recommends leaving shells, rocks, plants, and other natural objects where you find them. But the actual rule depends on the beach. Some protected areas prohibit collecting; others allow visitors to take a limited number of empty shells. So check the posted rules before pocketing one—and never take an occupied shell or anything from a tidepool. And before you ask: this verdict does not automatically apply to rocks. Collecting rocks is generally prohibited throughout the National Park System, and other public lands set their own rules. Different object, different place, different answer. Nature loves fine print. My friend acted horrified when I said I refill disposable water bottles a few times before recycling them. Am I being resourceful or quietly poisoning myself? Better Move — There’s a smarter option. We love that you are thinking ‘reuse.’ And while refilling one a few times probably isn’t a crisis, disposable bottles weren’t designed for long-term use. The narrow opening makes them hard to clean and dry, so bacteria from your mouth and hands can build up. Bottled water also contains micro- and nanoplastics, and wear from repeated opening, squeezing, heat, and general abuse may add more particles. For regular refills, switch to a durable, wide-mouth bottle you can properly wash. And don’t leave either kind baking in a hot car. Water shouldn’t crunch. I picked my girlfriend a wildflower bouquet during our hike. She said it was sweet—and then scolded me. Was the lecture really reasonable? Trail Foul — Please don’t. We love your romantic instinct. Really. But your bouquet sourcing needs work. Wildflowers feed pollinators and produce the seeds that become future flowers. Picking them may also be prohibited, particularly in national parks, preserves, and other protected areas. Even where it’s technically allowed, a busy trail can’t absorb every visitor gathering “just a few.” Take a photo, pair it with a poem coined by you or one of the greats. She feels the love and you earn bonus points for being thoughtful to the trail too. I leave my dog-poop bag beside the trail and grab it on my way back. I’m still packing it out, so why does everyone get so worked up? Trail Foul — Please don’t. We get it. You don’t want to carry a stinky poo bag for the whole hike. Here’s the thing: no one else wants to walk past one. Plus, plans change. People forget. Routes become loops instead of out-and-backs. Leaving one bag also makes the next person think this is apparently where poop bags go now. Carry it from the start. An odor-proof pouch or small dedicated container clipped to your pack makes that much less unpleasant. Your dog carried the raw materials in. You carry them out. One of the small downsides to hiking with your furry friend. Still totally worth it. My wife wears thrift-store clothes without washing them first because she says the store already did it. I say that’s gross. Please choose a side. Better Move — Wash them first. Congratulations. You win this round of marriage. Some thrift stores clean certain donations, but practices vary, and you don’t know what happened to an item before it reached the rack. Clothes may carry dirt, fragrances, allergens, or an occasional unwanted hitchhiker from previous wear, storage, and transportation. Wash and dry them according to the care label. Use the appropriate professional cleaning method for delicate pieces. This isn’t an argument against thrifting. It’s an argument for doing one load of laundry before wearing someone else’s pants. My mom says that once I start feeding birds, I have to keep doing it forever or they’ll starve. That’s an old wives’ tale, right? All Clear — You may stop feeding them. You’re right. Backyard birds generally treat feeders as one food source among many, not as their sole meal plan. Emptying your feeder or taking it down should not leave a neighborhood of helpless birds staring accusingly through your windows. While it’s up, though, keep it clean and use appropriate food. Crowded, dirty feeders can spread disease. You may also need to remove feeders temporarily during wildlife-disease outbreaks or in places where spilled seed attracts bears and other animals. One big caveat: this answer is about managed backyard bird feeders. It is not permission to feed every wild animal that wanders over. Don’t hand-feed squirrels, toss snacks to chipmunks, or leave food for deer, raccoons, and other wildlife. Human food and handouts can change their behavior, concentrate animals, spread disease, and create conflicts. In parks, don’t feed any wildlife—including birds. I take the little hotel toiletries home and put them in our guest bathroom. They’ll just be thrown away otherwise, so that’s actually the less-wasteful choice, right? Tread Lightly — Take what you opened or will genuinely use. The tiny products placed in your room are generally intended for guest use. Taking home the shampoo you opened and finishing it later is totally reasonable—and better than abandoning it half-full. But don’t grab extras or clean out the housekeeping cart under the banner of waste prevention. Unused products likely stay in circulation, while opened products may be recycled or repurposed through hotel waste-reduction programs. We take those we’ve opened with us and then refill them for our guest bath. That way, the little containers have a longer life before recycling, products stay fresh and look cute, and you have control over the quality of the contents. Take what you used. Use what you take.

Hey. I’m Scout! 👋 I’m the tiny travel companion my humans didn’t know they needed until I rolled into the picture. Am I a tent? Yes! ⛺ Am I a camper? Also yes! 🛞 Officially? I’m a SylvanSport TraiLOFT microcamper. I give my humans a cozy little basecamp without turning every trip into a whole production. I’m a rooftop tent perched on a super lightweight gear trailer. Part tent, part travel buddy. Part camper, part tiny field reporter. All awesome, if I do say so myself. I’m ridiculously excited to join the Field Trip team, especially since I got my very own recurring article series right out of the gate. Welcome to Out and About with Scout, an ongoing Field Trip series where I roll into parks, campgrounds, trails, visitor centers, scenic overlooks, and wonderfully weird roadside stops to report back on what’s actually worth knowing before you go. My first stop? Mammoth Cave National Park. A quick note from my humans: Kayt is a SylvanSport ambassador, which means she is compensated for introducing readers to my wider family of campers and camping gear. But let the record show: I am not just “gear” around here. I am family. Small, towable family with excellent parking skills. Out and About with Scout: Mammoth Cave National Park Where we go underground, and the humans learn that stairs are, in fact, a cardio program. 👃 Scout’s First Sniff Plenty of room to park, even on Fourth of July weekend. I rolled into Mammoth Cave National Park expecting traffic cones, chaos, and at least one human muttering “we should have left earlier.” But even on one of the park’s busiest weekends, parking was surprisingly manageable. 🛞 Know Before You Roll Dress in layers. The caves stay cool year-round, so even if it’s 90 degrees and super-humid on the surface, you may want a sweatshirt underground. Check tour details before you book. Look at mileage, stairs, duration, accessibility, and difficulty. The name of the tour alone will not tell you whether your knees are about to file a complaint. If heights bother you, prepare yourself. The Bottomless Pit area and some stair sections may be a lot if you are not a fan of looking down into the dramatic dark. My humans recommend looking up, breathing normally, and not making eye contact with your imagination. Give yourself time. Between parking, bathrooms, visitor center wandering, tour check-in, and gift shop snooping, this is not a “roll in at the last second” situation. Pay attention to time zones. The park is situated in the Central Time Zone but is very close to the Eastern Time Zone. If you are staying in EST, be sure to pay attention to CST. 📍 Pull Over for This The cave tour, obviously. But don’t sleep on the above-ground park experience either. There are trails, trees, overlooks, and enough surface-level wandering to make a full day of it. 📸 Scout’s Snapshots It is dark in there. For cave photos: hold still longer than you think. Turn off the flash. Use night mode when possible. Take fewer photos and look around more. Trust me, photos won’t do this place justice, but your brain will hold onto those images. 🪝 Hitches & Glitches Let’s talk stairs. My humans were breathing pretty hard after 500-plus stairs on their cave tour. They said it was worth every stolen breath, but here’s the thing: Mammoth Cave has multiple tours with very different difficulty levels. Do not just throw a dart at the tour list and hope your calves are feeling generous. Some tours are shorter and easier. Some are longer, steeper, tighter, and more up-and-down. And yes, the more strenuous tours come with some of the best views and most dramatic cave moments. No pain, no gain, right? 👍 Another Roll Around? You bet. With so many tour options, it would feel like a new experience each visit. 🥾 Leave No Trace, But Grab a Souvenir Don’t touch cave formations, stay with your tour group, and follow ranger instructions. Do not grab a handful of cave dust (even after learning what it was once used for). Do grab a souvenir, but don’t buy the first park patch you see. Mammoth Cave has multiple gift shop spots. Hunt around first. Tow be continued, Scout 👀 Got a spot I should scoop? Drop me a line. Want a Scout of your very own? Message us for an introduction to Scout’s family — many of whom are up for adoption and ready to roll.

The Ocean Isn’t Far Away: Why It Deserves More Room in Our Conservation Story Sponsored by Ocean Bottle, a brand we genuinely love and trust. I took a recent trip to the ocean with my husband, and as usual, the second I saw the water, my shoulders dropped about three inches. There’s just something about it, right? The sound. The scale. The salty air. The way you can stare at the waves, doing the same thing over and over, and somehow not get bored. The ocean has this sneaky ability to make me feel both very small and very okay with being small. Then, not long after we got home, a few Ocean Bottles arrived at Field Trip. The team loves them. Nice heft but not too heavy, great colors, non-slip grip, 10-year warranty, and sustainable materials—what’s not to like? These bottles are helping us all stay a little more hydrated too. You tap the bottle to your phone, log your refill on the app (it even connects with services like Apple Health), and you can easily track how much hydration you take in each day. But the more we read about the company, the more intrigued we got. Ocean Bottle says each bottle or flask purchased funds the collection of the equivalent of 1,000 ocean-bound plastic bottles by weight — about 25 pounds — through collection work in coastal communities, rivers, and waterways. Their bottles are made with a minimum of 67% recycled materials, including recycled stainless steel, BPA-free plastic, silicone rubber, and ocean-bound plastic. And with the app, each refill you log not only helps you track your hydration but also helps fund collectors in coastal communities. One tap. Five plastic bottles. Real people. Real jobs. Fewer bottles headed toward the ocean. That’s when the Ocean Bottle on my desk stopped feeling like just a bottle and started feeling like a reminder. We Love the Ocean. We Just Don’t Always Think About It. Most of us are not living in a multi-million-dollar oceanside cottage with gulls overhead and sea spray crusting the windows (even if we wished we did). Most of us are inland, landlocked, or at least several hundred miles away from the nearest coast. So the ocean becomes a place we visit. A vacation. A postcard. A screensaver. A candle called “Driftwood & Sea Salt.” We feel called to the sea, but when it comes to conservation, our minds often go somewhere else first. Forests. Trails. Pollinator gardens. Prairies. Backyard birds. National parks. Neighborhood trees. These are the conservation stories we can see right in front of us. A clear-cut hillside is obvious. A dried-up creek is obvious. A lawn with no bees is obvious. The ocean is different. So much of what’s happening there is hidden below the surface, miles offshore, or too vast to fit neatly into our everyday attention spans. Warming water. Acidification. Overfishing. Bycatch. Microplastics. Coral bleaching. Disappearing kelp forests. Changing currents. But out of sight should not mean out of story. We Named the Planet After the Dirt, Which Is Very Us We call it Earth, which makes sense, I guess, for a land mammal standing on the ground and naming things from her own very limited perspective. But from space? This place is blue. The ocean covers about 71% of the planet’s surface, and it holds about 97% of Earth’s water. NOAA also notes that the ocean helps regulate climate and weather, and scientists estimate that roughly half of Earth’s oxygen production comes from the ocean, largely thanks to tiny photosynthetic plankton. So yes, forests matter. Deeply. Hug a tree. Plant a tree. Sit under a tree and have a picnic. But also? Thank the plankton. The ocean is not just scenery. It is climate regulation, oxygen production, food systems, jobs, transportation, biodiversity, weather patterns, and wonder all rolled into one enormous, salty life-support system. Cheers to helping the ocean even if I am in the woods. The Problem With “Save the Turtles” Conservation Let me be very clear: I am anti-plastic-straw-in-a-sea-turtle ’s-nose, so don’t take this the wrong way, but somewhere along the way, “skip the straw” became the public face of ocean conservation. And while it’s memorable, it is not the whole story. Plastic pollution is real, and single-use plastics are a problem. Skipping the straw is a very good habit. So is carrying a reusable bottle and totes, refusing extra packaging, and choosing things you’ll use again and again. However, it’s a drop in the bucket. (Pun unfortunately intended.) Ocean conservation is also about how we fish. How we ship. How we build along coastlines. How we manage runoff from farms, lawns, and streets. How we protect wetlands, mangroves, reefs, kelp forests, and marine habitats. How we reduce carbon emissions, because the ocean absorbs heat and carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The United Nations notes that the ocean absorbs about 30% of carbon dioxide produced by humans, buffering some impacts of global warming. The ocean has been helping us. Quietly. Constantly. At great cost. So yes, skip the straw when you can. But don’t stop there and call the homework finished. The Ocean Isn’t Far Away, Even If You Are Storm drains connect to creeks. Creeks connect to rivers. Rivers eventually connect to larger bodies of water. Plastic litter, fertilizers, motor oil, pet waste, and other pollutants can move through those systems long before they ever make it to a beach. Which means ocean conservation can start in very un-ocean-y places. A parking lot after a rainstorm. A neighborhood stream. A backyard lawn. A lunch order. A reusable bottle refill. This is where I think Ocean Bottle does something particularly smart. It takes a massive, hard-to-picture issue — ocean-bound plastic — and makes part of it visible and trackable. You tap your bottle. You log a refill. That refill helps fund plastic collection and supports people doing the work in coastal communities. Is a water bottle going to save the entire ocean? Of course not. But can a well-made reusable bottle interrupt the disposable default? Can it help fund cleanup work? Can it remind you several times a day that your habits are connected to a much bigger water story? Absolutely. Small Ways to Think Bigger Start small, but don’t think small. Carry a reusable bottle and actually use it. Refill it before you leave the house. Keep one in your car, your bag, your desk. Cut down on single-use plastics beyond straws. Think takeout containers, plastic bags, bottled drinks, random packaging, and all the tiny convenience items that are convenient for twelve minutes and persistent for centuries. Pick up litter near any waterway, not just beaches. A creek cleanup counts. A storm drain counts. The weird plastic fork in the parking lot counts. Learn your watershed. Seriously. It sounds nerdy because it is, and I mean that lovingly. Knowing where your water flows makes the ocean feel less abstract. Choose seafood more carefully. Look for sustainable seafood guidance and pay attention to how fish are caught, not just what looks good on the menu. Use fewer lawn chemicals and fertilizers. What goes on the ground does not always stay on the ground, especially when rain gets involved. Support marine protected areas and conservation groups doing actual policy, science, cleanup, restoration, and community work. Ocean conservation needs personal habits, yes, but it also needs systems. And talk about the ocean as more than a vacation backdrop. Because that might be the biggest shift of all. The Sea Is Calling. Let’s Call Back. After our trip, I kept thinking about that feeling the ocean gives me — calm, awe, perspective, a sudden desire to wear linen pants. But loving the ocean can’t just be something we do when we’re standing in front of it. The ocean is with us when we drink water, check the weather, eat dinner, breathe in, drive over a creek, buy something disposable, or refill a bottle and tap it to a phone like a conservation nerd. Let's give the blue part of the planet a little more room in our conservation story. Not because forests, prairies, birds, bees, and trails matter less. Because the ocean matters more than we remember. And because the things we don’t see still need us to care about them. This content is sponsored by Ocean Bottle. Field Trip always tests products before recommending them to our readers. We genuinely love and trust the brands you find featured on our platform.

From Tampons to Toys: How to Green Your Sexual Wellness Game Let’s talk about sex, sustainability, and the weird amount of plastic hiding in our most personal routines. Yup. We’re going there. Because “green living” usually gets framed as reusable grocery bags, compost bins, and remembering your water bottle. But what about the bathroom drawer? The bedside table? The tampon stash? The mattress you sleep, sweat, snuggle, and do indoor recreational activities on? Sexual wellness is still wellness. And if we care about what touches our food, skin, soil, and water, it makes sense to care about what touches our very absorbent, very personal bits. This isn’t about perfection. It’s about asking better questions, buying fewer throwaway things, and choosing products that are kinder to your body and the planet. Let’s poke around. Respectfully, of course. First: What’s Actually “Green” in Sexual Wellness? The phrase “eco-friendly sexual wellness” can mean a lot of things, and some of them are more marketing glitter than substance. Here’s what I look for: Does it reduce single-use waste? Is it free from unnecessary fragrance, dyes, plastics, and mystery ingredients? Is it made from safer, body-conscious materials? Does the brand explain what’s in the product without making you dig? Is it durable enough to use for a long time? Can it be cleaned, stored, and maintained safely? That last one matters. A reusable thing that’s impossible to clean is not a sustainability win. Period Products: What’s Touching You All Day? Tampons, pads, liners, and wipes are easy to grab without thinking. But conventional period products can come with plastic components, synthetic materials, fragrances, and a whole lot of extra packaging. What to look for instead: Choose organic cotton when possible. Look for products that are fragrance-free, chlorine-free, and transparent about materials. Bonus points for plastic-free packaging, compost-conscious materials, and third-party certifications. Field Trip Pick: Natracare Natracare fits the bill here with organic and natural period care, including tampons, pads, liners, and wipes. The brand emphasizes organic cotton, plastic-free options, and products made without fragrances or chlorine. More at www.natracare.com. This is one of those swaps that feels small until you remember how many period products one person can use over a lifetime. Tiny choices, big trash math. Flushable Wipes: The Lie That Launched a Thousand Plumbing Bills I have serious beef with “flushable” wipes. They aren’t good for pipes, septic systems, or waterways. They also aren’t always great for your body. “Gone from sight” is not the same as “gone from the planet.” What to look for instead: Bidets can be great at home — less wiping, less trash, happy little tushy spa moment — but they still use water and aren’t exactly useful in a gas station bathroom, at a campground, or on a road trip when the restroom situation is… character-building. Field Trip Pick: The UnWipe The UnWipe is a portable alternative to flushable wipes and bidets. You add clean water, press toilet paper into the device, and use the textured, lightly wet paper instead of a disposable wipe. It’s designed as a one-time purchase that works with regular toilet paper, which makes it especially handy for travel, RV life, camping, public bathrooms, and anyone trying to ditch wipe waste. More at www.theunwipe.com. Field Tip: If a wipe says “flushable,” I still wouldn’t flush it. Your plumber agrees. Herbal Support: What Are You Putting In Your Wellness Routine? Sexual wellness is not just toys and tampons. It’s sleep, stress, hormones, hydration, mood, postpartum recovery, perimenopause, menopause, and the general body chaos of being a mammal with a calendar. What to look for: Choose brands that are transparent about ingredients, dosage, sourcing, and intended use. Be extra thoughtful with herbs if you’re pregnant, nursing, taking medication, managing a health condition, or trying to conceive. “Natural” does not automatically mean “for everyone, all the time, in all quantities.” Poison ivy is natural. So are bears. Field Trip Pick: WishGarden WishGarden makes liquid herbal tinctures for categories like stress, sleep, immune support, postpartum, and more. The brand describes itself as woman-owned, family-run, and Boulder-based, with roots going back to 1979. More at www.wishgardenherbs.com. Not medical advice, obviously. Just a reminder to treat plants with the same care you do medications and always consult your healthcare provider. Menopause, Dryness, and “Why Did Nobody Warn Me?” There are whole chapters of sexual wellness that still get whispered about. Vaginal dryness, painful sex, libido shifts, UTIs, hot flashes, and hormone changes are common, but somehow still treated as niche. What to look for: For intimate-care products, look for clear ingredient lists, fragrance-free or low-irritant formulas, and guidance about who the product is for. If hormones are involved, talk with a qualified healthcare provider, especially if you have a personal or family history that makes hormone use more complicated. Field Trip Pick: Parlor Games Parlor Games focuses on hormone-aware intimacy and menopause support, including vaginal dryness, painful sex, hot flashes, sleep issues, mood changes, and libido shifts. I appreciate that they’re upfront about what they are — and what they aren’t. Their products are bioidentical and made as organic as possible, but they do contain preservatives for shelf stability, and their plastic bottles are not recyclable because they can contain hormone residue. That kind of transparency matters. Greenwashing is easy. Saying, “Here’s the tradeoff,” is harder. More at www.parlor-games.com. Another option to know about: Parlor Games also pointed me toward Carlson Labs’ vitamin E vaginal suppositories, which are hormone-free and designed for soothing moisture support. Each suppository is foil-wrapped, so the packaging is minimal. More at www.carlsonlabs.com. Because bodies are not marketing categories. They’re bodies. Sometimes they need moisture. Sometimes they need hormones. Sometimes they need a doctor, a better product, a frank conversation, or all three. Sex Toys: Buy Better, Not a Drawer Full of Regrets Sex toys can be empowering, playful, useful, and fun. They can also be made from questionable materials, impossible-to-recycle electronics, mystery gels, and plastics that don’t belong anywhere near mucous membranes. What to look for in sex toys: Choose body-safe, nonporous materials like medical-grade silicone, stainless steel, borosilicate glass, or ABS plastic from reputable brands. Avoid jelly rubber, mystery “realistic” blends, strong chemical smells, and products that don’t disclose materials. Rechargeable toys are usually better than battery-gobblers. Waterproof designs are easier to clean. A good warranty is a green flag because it suggests the thing is meant to last. Field Tip: Buy the right lube. Silicone toys usually pair best with water-based lube because silicone-based lubes can degrade some silicone toys. Questions to ask before buying: What is it made of? Is the material nonporous? How do I clean it? Is it rechargeable? Can I replace parts or recycle the electronics? Does the company provide real material and safety information, or just vibes? Literal and otherwise. Condoms and Barriers: Less Waste, Same Common Sense Condoms, dental dams, gloves, and other barriers are not the place to get overly precious about zero-waste purity. Safer sex comes first. Full stop. But there are still better questions to ask. What to look for: Consider vegan, fair-trade, or sustainably sourced latex when appropriate. Look for brands that are transparent about ingredients, sourcing, and packaging. Avoid novelty products with unnecessary fragrance, flavoring, dyes, or mystery additives if you’re prone to irritation. And please, do not reuse barriers in the name of sustainability. Ever. Aftercare and Cleanup: The Less-Trashy Tidy-Up The post-sex cleanup zone can be sneakily wasteful: wipes, tissues, paper towels, fragranced cleansers, disposable pads, and single-use packaging. What to look for: Washable towels, fragrance-free cleansers, and wipe alternatives (like The UnWipe) can reduce trash. Keep a few dedicated cotton or bamboo washcloths nearby. Choose simple, gentle products over perfumed intimate cleansers. Pelvic Floor Tools: Not Just Kegels and Hope Pelvic floor health deserves a bigger, smarter conversation. Leaking when you laugh, pain with sex, postpartum recovery, perimenopause changes, and pelvic tension are common — but common does not mean you just have to live with it. What to look for: Choose pelvic floor tools made from body-safe materials and brands that provide education from qualified professionals. Look for medical-grade silicone, clear cleaning instructions, and guidance on whether a product is meant for strengthening, relaxation, recovery, or sexual wellness. Also: more kegels are not always the answer. Sometimes the pelvic floor is too tight, not too weak. A pelvic floor physical therapist can help you figure out what your body actually needs instead of sending you into the wilderness with a silicone gadget. Mattresses: Because Your Bed Matters…A Lot A mattress is one of the biggest, most intimate purchases in your home. You spend hours breathing near it, sweating into it, and often making it squeak like a cabin screen door. What to look for in a greener mattress: Look for organic cotton, organic wool, natural latex, and low-VOC materials. Certifications can help separate real standards from greenwashing. Keep an eye out for GOTS for organic textiles, GOLS for organic latex, OEKO-TEX for harmful substance testing, GREENGUARD Gold for low chemical emissions, and MADE SAFE when available. Also consider durability. A mattress that lasts 10 years is generally better than one that sags in two and heads to the landfill. Questions to ask before buying: What materials are inside each layer? Is the latex natural, synthetic, or blended? Are flame retardants used? If so, what kind? Does it have third-party certifications? Can it be flipped, rotated, repaired, or recycled? Is there a real trial period and warranty? And because this is a sexual wellness article: think about edge support, motion transfer, bounce, cooling, and noise. What About Lingerie? Lingerie doesn’t have to be scratchy lace and pinchy elastic. And it doesn’t need to be made of cheap fabric that won’t last past one rambunctious play session. What to look for: Natural fibers like organic cotton, silk, hemp, bamboo lyocell, and TENCEL can be good options, especially for everyday pieces. For spicy numbers, prioritize durability, comfort, ethical production, and washability. The greenest lingerie is the kind you’ll actually wear more than once and not immediately shove into the back of the drawer. The Bottom Line: Greener Sex Is Still Supposed to Be Fun You do not need to overhaul your entire bathroom and bedroom in one weekend. Honestly, please don’t. That sounds expensive and annoying. Start where you are. Swap the tampons. Switch from the “flushable” wipes. Check the toy materials. Read the mattress label. Ask why your lube has 47 ingredients. Buy the lingerie that doesn’t make you itch physically or emotionally. Choose better where you can. Especially on the stuff going near your downstairs wilderness. Note: Some products featured in this article are sponsored partners. All picks are included because they fit the conversation around more intentional, body-aware, and lower-waste sexual wellness choices. When a product has tradeoffs — like preservatives, plastic packaging, or hormone residue concerns — I’ve tried to include that context, because transparency is part of the point.

Do Butterflies Remember Being Caterpillars? The Science Is Weirder Than You Think I need to tell you something mildly upsetting. A caterpillar does not simply “grow wings.” I know. That’s the cute version. That’s the kindergarten-poster version. That’s the version where nature feels tidy and inspirational and maybe comes with a coloring worksheet. The real version is much weirder. A caterpillar eats and eats and eats, molts a few times, hangs itself up like a tiny sleeping bag, forms a chrysalis, and then proceeds to reorganize its entire body into something with wings, antennae, compound eyes, and a completely different lifestyle. And scientists have found evidence that some moths may actually remember things they learned as caterpillars. First, Let’s Talk About the Goo If you learned that a caterpillar turns into “butterfly soup” inside its chrysalis, you’re not totally wrong. You’re just not totally right either. During metamorphosis, much of the caterpillar’s body breaks down. Tissues are dismantled. Structures are recycled. Things get extremely gooey in there, which I’m sure is the scientific term. But it’s not a complete reset. Certain organized groups of cells survive the process and help build the adult insect. These structures are called imaginal discs (there’s a trivia answer for you), and they’re basically little biological blueprints for butterfly or moth body parts — wings, legs, antennae, eyes, the whole glow-up package. Scientific American describes these discs as using the nutrient-rich material around them to fuel rapid growth into adult structures. Which means the caterpillar was carrying the instructions for its future self all along. Nature is so cool. Metamorphosis Is Not a Makeover. It’s a Total Career Change. A caterpillar and a butterfly are technically the same animal, but they live like entirely different creatures. The caterpillar’s job is basically: eat leaf, become tube, eat more leaf. The butterfly’s job is: fly, find nectar, mate, lay eggs, look delicate while secretly being a marvel of biological engineering. That’s part of what makes complete metamorphosis so brilliant. The young and adult stages don’t have to compete for the same food or live the same way. The caterpillar can focus on growth. The adult can focus on reproduction and dispersal. It’s less “awkward teen phase” and more “one creature occupying two different ecological jobs.” So… Do They Remember Being Caterpillars? Here’s the part that sent me down a tiny science rabbit hole. In 2008, researchers published a study in PLOS ONE with the title: “Retention of Memory through Metamorphosis: Can a Moth Remember What It Learned As a Caterpillar?” The study looked at tobacco hornworm caterpillars, which become hawkmoths. Researchers trained caterpillars to associate a particular odor with a mild electric shock. Later, after those caterpillars went through metamorphosis and emerged as adult moths, some of them still avoided that odor. Whoa. A caterpillar learned, transformed into a moth, and the adult moth still seemed to remember the lesson. Not all of them did. The memory seemed to persist when caterpillars were trained later in their larval development, which matters because parts of the nervous system change during metamorphosis. But the big takeaway is still wild: certain learned associations can survive the transformation from crawling leaf-eater to flying adult. It suggests that metamorphosis is not the clean slate we might imagine. Not Childhood Memories. More Like Survival Notes. This is where we need to be careful, because “butterflies remember being caterpillars” sounds like the setup to a Pixar movie where everyone cries happy tears in the end. The science is more specific than that. Researchers weren’t proving that moths remember their caterpillar lives in a human sense. They were studying associative memory — basically, whether an animal can learn that one thing predicts another thing. In this case, odor equals an unpleasant experience. That kind of memory is practical. It could help an insect avoid danger, choose a better habitat, or respond to environmental cues. The PLOS ONE researchers noted that memory surviving metamorphosis could have implications for things like host choice and habitat selection. So this is not nostalgia. The More You Learn, the Less “Simple” Nature Gets I think this is what I love most about the whole thing. Butterflies are often treated like nature’s motivational posters. Transformation. Beauty. Change. Growth. You know the drill. But the actual science is so much stranger and better than the metaphor. A caterpillar doesn’t become a butterfly because it believes in itself. It becomes a butterfly because its body contains hidden developmental instructions, because hormones trigger an ancient biological process, because tissues break down and rebuild, because evolution figured out that one animal could live two wildly different lives in a single lifetime. And maybe, somehow, some tiny trace of experience can make it through. That’s no less magical in my opinion. That’s more magical. A Tiny Identity Crisis, With Wings If one creature can dissolve, reorganize, emerge as something almost unrecognizable, and still carry some small lesson from before… what exactly counts as the same self? That’s the thing about nature. You go looking for a cute bug fact and come back wondering whether change means becoming someone new or becoming more fully what you were already built to become. So, do butterflies remember being caterpillars? The honest answer is: not the way we remember childhood. But research on moths suggests that at least some learned associations can survive metamorphosis, especially when learned later in the caterpillar stage. That means the transformation from caterpillar to winged adult may be less of a total erasure and more of a radical renovation where a few important wires stay connected. Which is somehow even cooler. The caterpillar doesn’t just vanish. The butterfly isn’t just a costume. And somewhere inside one of nature’s most dramatic transformations, a tiny lesson may make it through. Want to go down a rabbit hole yourself? Resources: PLOS ONE: “Retention of Memory through Metamorphosis: Can a Moth Remember What It Learned As a Caterpillar?” https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0001736 PubMed: “Retention of memory through metamorphosis: can a moth remember what it learned as a caterpillar?” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18320055/ Scientific American: “How Does a Caterpillar Turn into a Butterfly?” https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/caterpillar-butterfly-metamorphosis-explainer/ Ask an Entomologist: “What Happens Inside a Cocoon or Chrysalis?” https://askentomologists.com/2015/01/14/what-happens-inside-a-cocoon/

People Who Give a Damn: Jim Kaslik of The UnWipe on Wet Wipes, Public Restrooms, and Solving the Tiny Problems That Add Up You know that moment when you’re in a public restroom, staring down the world’s saddest toilet paper, wondering why modern society has given us self-driving cars but not a better way to feel clean away from home? That’s the very human problem behind The UnWipe, a portable alternative to wet wipes and bidets that uses regular toilet paper, a little clean water, and texture to help people clean up without synthetic wipes, mystery fragrance, or plumbing drama. Because here’s the thing: “flushable” wipes may disappear from the bowl, but they do not magically disappear from the planet. Or the pipes. Or the sewer system. Jim Kaslik, The UnWipe’s founder, didn’t start with a grand plan to reinvent the bathroom routine. He started with a dried-out pack of wipes, an article about how wipes can be harmful, and the kind of problem-solving brain that sees an everyday irritation and thinks, Wait. There has to be a better way. Here’s how Jim turned one very awkward little problem into a more durable, less wasteful solution. The Cabinet Clean-Out That Started It All Field Trip: What inspired you to build The UnWipe? Jim: I was cleaning out a cabinet and found a dried-out pack of wet wipes. I don’t know when or how they got there. A week later, a friend shared an article about how harmful wet wipes are to sewers and the environment. That got my problem-solving brain going. I knew from the start that I wanted a portable solution — some people use bidets, but they’re affixed to the home toilet. And I knew that to replace billions of wipes each year, we’d need to combine direct skin contact with the safe flushability of toilet paper. The R&D from there was pretty typical. I looked for a method that would make the paper stronger than just wet paper. What we landed on is the really thick texture The UnWipe offers — because texture cleans better. That’s something wipes actually can’t match, because of how they’re made and packaged. Why Wet Wipes? Why Now? Field Trip: Wet wipes are one of those products people use without thinking too much about where they go afterward. What made this feel worth solving? Jim: For me, it was the combination of scale and simplicity. People use wet wipes because they solve a real problem. They help people feel clean. So the question wasn’t, “How do we convince people they don’t need that?” It was, “How do we give people that same feeling without the synthetic wipe?” A lot of the damage happens after the wipe leaves your hand. That’s the part most people don’t see — the sewers, the landfills, the clogs. But the need itself is real. People want to feel clean, especially away from home. Texture, Not Trickery Field Trip: We love that the answer wasn’t some complicated gadget. It was texture. Why does that matter? Jim: Texture is the whole thing. Wet toilet paper by itself can fall apart, and wipes are limited by how they’re made and packaged. We needed something that could make toilet paper stronger and more effective without adding another disposable product into the mix. The thick texture is what gives it cleaning power. It’s simple, but it took a lot of testing to get there. Public Restrooms, Camping Bathrooms, and the Case for Portable Solutions Bidets can be great at home — less wiping, less trash, happy little tushy spa moment — but they still use water and aren’t exactly useful in a gas station bathroom, at a campground, or on a road trip when the restroom situation is… character-building. That’s where portability becomes the whole point. Field Trip: Why was it important that The UnWipe worked away from home? Jim: A lot of people have anxiety about using restrooms away from home. Some of it is social — the discomfort of a private need in a public space. Some of it is practical: most public restrooms offer nothing beyond the cheapest toilet paper, so if you care about hygiene, you’re just out of luck. One customer put it perfectly: “I want to come out of a public restroom feeling as if I’d never had to be in there.” That’s what we’re going for. Something simple and portable that turns an uncomfortable moment into a non-issue. Orders That Still Matter Field Trip: What’s been your proudest moment since launching The UnWipe? Jim: Honestly, every new customer order still feels meaningful — someone is trusting that our product can improve a pretty personal part of their day. Beyond that, knowing we’ve collectively helped keep tens of millions of synthetic wipes out of sewers and landfills is the thing that really sticks with me. And the week The UnWipe went viral from a CNN Underscored review — I won’t forget that one anytime soon. The Business of Not Selling You Refills Forever A lot of companies talk about sustainability while quietly building business models around “please buy this refill forever.” The UnWipe went the other direction. Field Trip: How do you balance running a mission-driven company with running, well, a company? Jim: I’ve been lucky that these two goals rarely pull against each other. The decision to use no plastic, for example, fits our sustainability mission, keeps costs reasonable, and gives customers something so durable that it will last indefinitely. Nobody has to compromise. We also made a deliberate choice to design it in a way that doesn’t require repeat purchases of consumables. That means customers aren’t generating extra shipping and packaging because of us — which feels right. A Fellow Problem-Solver Worth Watching Field Trip: What’s a non-UnWipe product or project you’re excited about right now? Jim: Staying in the same general territory: I’m genuinely fascinated by Poo-Pourri. Part of it is personal — I was born without a sense of smell, so the problem they’re solving doesn’t hit me directly. But I’ve heard from other people, and clearly it matters enormously to them. What caught my attention was learning that they didn’t just build a better air freshener — they rethought the problem entirely and came at it from a different angle. Simple, effective, and kind of elegant once you understand it. That kind of thinking resonates with me and aligns with our mission. Identify the irritating thing. Make it go away. We could all use a bit less irritation right now. Giving a Damn, Defined Field Trip: Complete the sentence: “Giving a damn means…” Jim: …caring about the life experiences of people you’ve never met, and putting real effort into making even a small part of their day tangibly better. Field Trip: And there it is. Not every conservation-minded idea starts with a sweeping wilderness vision or a dramatic mountaintop moment. Sometimes it starts in a cabinet with a dried-out pack of wipes and the realization that one tiny convenience has a much bigger environmental cost than most of us realize. The UnWipe is not trying to make bathrooms glamorous. Thank goodness. That would be a lot to ask. It’s trying to make them better: cleaner, less wasteful, less awkward, and easier to deal with when you’re out living your actual life. Learn more about Jim and The UnWipe at www.theunwipe.com. People Who Give a Damn is a recurring Field Trip series highlighting folks who make a difference for the outdoors and the earth. Know someone we should meet? Drop us a line.