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   Last summer when I went to visit the summit of the Irazú, the highest active Costa Rican volcano at 11,260 feet (3,432 meters). It’s so high that you can see both the Atlantic and Pacific coasts of the country.    Its name was derived from the word for “thunder” used by the indigenous peoples of the region. There are several craters scattered throughout, each at different depths, one of which is 980 feet (300 metres) deep.   Boulders and ash during eruptions have been bad enough to destroy acres of crops, as well as dam rivers, causing flooding, and...

Deadly Appetites     This Honey Locust (Gleditsia triacanthos) with an old lock and chain that had been left around its trunk.     This tree has already been given its death sentence. The chain left around its trunk is being engulfed by the tree, but upon being embedded into the bark it will eventually cut off the flow of water and nutrients above the chain.       Though the subject of many a tree meme, the item, whether a chain or a fence, is not "being eaten" by the tree, but rather the tree is continuing to grow...