By Louie Bond

He moves the fine tip of the brush lightly, but with confidence. 

With each small, silent stroke, a bit of golden light touches the curved horns of the bison, and a few pieces of straw appear on the coarse brown hide. Puffs of steamy breath dance from flared nostrils, while the beast’s luminous dark eyes reflect the snow-tipped winter grasses under his hooves. In the distance, the muted blues and reds of the mountains give the scene a sense of place — this landscape could be none other than West Texas. Read more.

By Russell Roe

The parade of black mats marches through the desert, bobbing up and down through craggy rock outcrops and swerving to avoid cactus and other prickly plants. 

The unusual parade takes place several times a day at Hueco Tanks State Park and Historic Site as rock climbers, carrying “crash pads” on their backs, hike from crag to crag to test their skills on some of the world’s best rock. Every winter, climbers gather at Hueco, east of El Paso, to go bouldering, a type of rock climbing in which climbers scale boulders or short walls without a rope. Read more.

By Melissa Gaskill

Limits and size restrictions are a way of life for those who fish. But there’s one fish that scientists and authorities hope everyone will catch and eat as much as possible: invasive lionfish. 

Blame the aquarium trade for introducing the fish, native to the Western Pacific, to U.S. waters, says Keri Kenning of the nonprofit marine education organization Reef Environmental Education Foundation, or REEF. 

“It wasn’t Hurricane Andrew, as some have theorized, because lionfish had arrived before then,” she explains, although damage from that 1992 storm likely liberated additional lionfish. “And it wasn’t ship ballast water, which is the source of other invaders. If released ballast water contained lionfish, they would be present all along shipping routes.” That isn’t the case. Read more.