We see pollinators at flowers, and marvel as they collect nectar and pollen. Besides bees and wasps, we may not know what many are and only see them when they visit blossoms. But where do they come from and where do they go? Visiting flowers is only one part of their lives. Oh, and what is a pollinator in the first place? These are the unseen aspects and questions about the multitude of pollinators that fill our world. This is the story of why we owe them our lives.

The phrase “the largest, unobstructed, free-flowing river in the lower 48 states” is known by many people that love and promote the Pascagoula River. Largest, refers to the volume of discharge at the river’s mouth, that drains 9,600 square miles or one fifth the area of Mississippi, and small parts of Alabama. Three large tributaries and countless small streams contribute water to the Pascagoula that flows 82 miles from its headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico.  But that phrase we know so well today did not come out of nowhere or spread without a spark that started fifty years ago. 

Andrew Wilson’s love of weather has taken him from a Mississippi State classroom to a TV station and now into a hurricane.

Seeds can fly – I kid you not! I have witnessed this force of nature on many occasions and admire the strategy of the plants that launch their precious projectiles toward a future life. OK, OK, I may have stretched the definition of fly a bit, so let’s just say sail instead. A variety of plants have evolved fruit that upon drying, explode open to expel their cargo into the air – flying, if you will.