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France loses 18,000 hectares of farmland every year to standard ground-mounted solar arrays. They decided to stop choosing between food and power. Across 2,400 hectares of fields in Provence, they raised the panels five meters into the air. Sensors in the soil track crop water stress. When the sun gets dangerously hot, the panels physically tilt to shade the plants beneath them. Water needs dropped by 30 percent. Heat damage during heatwaves plummeted by 64 percent. In drought years, these shaded vineyards actually produced 27 percent more grapes. The fields generate 500 megawatts of clean electricity while producing full agricultural output on the exact same dirt.

June events highlight Women's Fly Fishing Month - FFI Gulf Coast Council Did you know that women are the fastest growing demographic in fly fishing? Fly Fishers International recognized the value in mentoring women by establishing a women-focused program over 10 years ago. It is now known as FFI Women Connect. In … Continue reading →

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The dragon lasts about ten weeks.

Then the ice goes and it is gone, and Gus Halvorsen waits until January and does it again.

Gus is 69. He has fished Lake Inari in northern Minnesota his entire life. He started carving the first dragon in 2008 on a whim — a long January, a sharp chisel, a flat stretch of ice. He finished it in three days. In March the ice broke up and the dragon disappeared with it.

In January 2009 he went back and did it again.

He has not missed a year since.

Each dragon is slightly different — different pose, different level of detail, depending on how the ice comes in and how much time Gus has. The best ones, he says, are when the winter is long and cold and he can spend two weeks on it.

"It disappears," Gus said when asked why he keeps making something temporary. "So does everything. At least I know where this one goes."

This January, someone posted a drone photo. It had 11 million views by February. The dragon melted in March as always.

Gus is already ...

With Mike Mckinstry – I just got recognized as one of their top fans! 🎉