Environment

They spread disease and pollute the land. They devour birds and baby fauns. They have sharp teeth, weigh 300 pounds, and are now in 38 states across the US. It sounds like the stuff of nightmares, but the wild pig is real and they cause damage to farms and rural communities throughout America.

If you're reading this right now you're consuming energy and that energy has to come from somewhere.  Typically, "we’re killing people in foreign lands in order to extract 200-million-year-old sunlight. Then we burn it... in order to boil water to create steam to drive a turbine to generate electricity. We frack our own backyards and pollute our rivers, or we blow up our mountaintops just miles from our nation’s capital for an hour of electricity, when we could just take what’s falling free from the sky.” Those words from Danny Kennedy, the founder of Sunergy, are the heart of any call for more investment in solar energy.  It’s a hot topic and in Kansas City, Missouri were  80 government buildings will soon be leasing solar panels and getting cheaper energy as a result. In light of that we take a look at our regions solar options with Chuck Caisleym, vice president of Marketing & Public affairs at KCP&L and Susan Brown, VP of Public Affairs at Brightergy.

Summer is the season for camping, walks and bike rides in wooded areas, but this also means it's the season of ticks. From April to September is tick season, and this is when the insects are most prevalent looking for a blood host. 

Not only are ticks a pain to try and remove if they get on your skin, but getting bit by one can cause serious illnesses like Lyme disease. Recently, another tick-related disease was discovered by Scott Folk, a doctor at Heartland Adult Infectious Diseases.

For a second year, the St. Louis Zoo is continuing efforts to bring back an endangered beetle to southwestern Missouri.

The Kansas City area has had its fair share of rain and clouds these last few weeks, but blue skies and sun are on the way just in time for National Trails Day. 

In celebration we put together this handy list of some of KC's best hiking trails: