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In his 1975 Report, A Language for Life, Lord Bullock said, "Not enough account is taken of the fundamental differences that exist between speech and writing."
Spoken and written language are obviously different, with different purposes. Written language is permanent: the reader can go back over it again and again if the meaning is not immediately clear. This is not possible with speech, which is fleeting and ephemeral. Writing does not usually involve direct interaction, except for personal letters and perhaps some computer based communication such as e-mail.
Children learn to speak before they learn to read and write. Learning to speak appears to happen naturally within the home, whereas learning to read and write is usually associated with the beginning of formal schooling. Thus, we often assume that written language is more difficult to learn, and we perceive speech as less complex than written language. This is not the case: oral language is just as linguistically complex as written language, but the complexity is of a different kind. The inevitable differences in the structures and use of speech and writing come about because they are produced in very different communicative situations.
The greatest differences between speaking and writing are those between formal written texts and very informal conversation. Because it is permanent, writing provides opportunities for more careful organisation and more complex structures.
Formal spoken language is often preplanned, but most spoken language is spontaneous and rapid and usually involves thinking on the spot. It has simpler constructions and fillers such as um and er. It has repetitions and rephrasing. It has intonation patterns and pauses that convey meaning and also attitudes.
All these oral characteristics help the listener to understand the speech. It is usually much more difficult for listeners to interpret language that is read aloud from a written text, where the language is more dense and lacks the pauses and fillers that give us time to absorb the spoken message. Lectures or talks that are read from a script are usually more difficult to follow than those that are delivered with the speaker looking at the audience and improvising from outline notes.
Some constructions probably occur only in writing.
Henry supposed Sylvia to be unwell.
Likewise, some words and constructions are likely to occur only in spoken English: words like thingamajig and whatchamecallit, and phrases like bla bla bla.
"Our teacher just said - told us there was nouns and verbs and adverbs and bla bla bla - you know ..."
Conversations also contain small words which do not appear in writing. In analysing conversations, we are often surprised to realise how many times words like well or just or oh appear.
The following transcript is of the talk of teenagers playing the board game "Scruples".
C: Do you put them face down - hang on
H: Oh - ha
C: Then we get one ballot card each and you put them aside until the vote is called
V: Oh - sorry
C: Did we decide you were the dealer - yes - we did
V: Oh - that was right
C: Oh it's just that the player to the left of the dealer starts play by becoming the first - asking the player to pose a dilemma
H: Oh - what do I do - oh I take one of these
C: Oh - hang on hang on
Words like oh and well have been assigned a number of names. They can be called discourse markers or conversation markers.
They do not fit into the word classes in The Grammar Toolbox.
She is not well. (well = adjective)
She is well qualified. (well = adverb)
In conversation, "well" appears frequently but not as an adjective or an adverb.
Well what do you think? Well I'm not really sure.
These conversational markers are very hard to translate into another language, and they are difficult to define consistently or analyse structurally. Yet they occur constantly in speech. When second language learners begin to use these markers in speaking English, the fluency of their conversation improves.
Comparing Speaking and Writing
Speaking and writing are different, and each should be seen in its own terms.
In the past, writing was often regarded as the primary medium, and casual speech was seen as a sloppy or incorrect version of the written form. Speech was evaluated as if it were writing.
The basic unit of written language is the sentence.
The basic unit of spoken language is the tone group.
The following two text samples are from the same person and tell about the same incident.
Transcript of a recording:
um, well it was something that happened |
when I was living in Western Samoa |
um, I rented a house |
and, er, my bedroom |
my bedroom was actually separate |
separate from the rest of the house |
and, one night |
um, it was quite late |
I was lying in bed |
I was awake |
and, er, my flatmate |
was away at the airport |
meeting some relatives |
and so I was all alone |
and I started hearing noises |
on the roof |
of my bedroom |
it was a tin roof |
and um, I heard footsteps |
and creaking sounds |
on the the tin |
you know |
and an, another noise |
I couldn’t quite |
tell what it was |
but it but it was something strange |
and I was scared |
really scared |
um, and my problem was |
that I |
I couldn’t |
get to a phone |
unlocking my bedroom door |
walking across the lawn |
unlocking the front door |
and going into the house |
the thought of doing this |
while there was somebody on the roof |
[laughs] er, w-was not very, er |
possible so |
there I am |
lying there |
what on earth will I do |
and I finally |
figured that |
probably the person there |
thought there was no one home |
and was just trying to break in |
trying to rob the place |
so I had a brainwave |
[laughs] and immediately the person ran |
across the roof |
and jumped off |
er, and landed on the lawn |
I heard a thud |
um, so then I unlocked the door |
and went across to the house |
and phoned the police |
well they were |
they were there |
really quickly |
I'd say within a couple of minutes |
A written account of the incident by the same person:
When I lived in Western Samoa I shared a rented house with a flatmate.
Late one night when he was away meeting some relatives at the airport, I heard strange noises like footsteps on the tin roof of my bedroom, which was separate from the rest of the house.
In order to get to a phone, I would have had to walk over to the main part of the house and unlock the front door.
I decided against this course of action, switching the light on instead, and this had the desired effect of driving away the intruder, who obviously had been thinking there was no one home.
Whoever it was ran across the roof and jumped off, landing with an audible thud on the lawn before running away.
The police arrived very soon after I had called them.
These two examples clearly illustrate the following differences between speech and writing:
Speech uses tone groups, and a tone group can convey only one idea. Writing uses sentences, and a sentence can contain several ideas.
A fundamental difference between casual speech and writing is that speech is spontaneous whereas writing is planned.
Repetition is usually found in speech. Writing avoids repetition.
Repetition of words and phrases:
27 and 28: scared
34 and 36: unlocking
Repetition of syntactic frames:
34: unlocking my bedroom door
35: walking across the lawn
Written language avoids repetition. Writers try to find synonyms rather than repeating the same words and phrases.
The spoken text gives us an insight into the speaker's thoughts.
24 and 25: I couldn't quite tell what it was.
27: I was scared.
46 and 47: and I finally figured that
In spoken language, we use intensifiers.
27 and 28: and I was scared | really scared
Because spoken language is interactive, direct address is used - "I" and "you".
22: you know
Spoken narrative can use the timeless present, which would be unusual in a written text. It adds to the immediacy of the story.
42, 43, 44: there I am | lying there | thinking
A spoken version usually gives an account of events in the order in which they occurred because this is easier to do.
59 to 64: then I unlocked the door | went across to the house | and phoned the police | and they were there | really quickly |
In the written form, the order of events can be changed.
Sentence (f): The police arrived very soon after I had called them.
The spoken and written versions differ in syntax.
The tone groups in the spoken version are sometimes complete clauses but almost always very simple ones.
2: SVA; 5: SVC; 15: SVO
Often, the tone groups are a mixture of clauses and clause fragments that add more information to the clause.
5: my bedroom was actually separate
6: separate from the rest of the house
In the written form, the information is not presented one idea at a time but in a much more condensed way, incorporating several ideas.
3: I rented a house.
Sentence (a): When I lived in Western Samoa I shared a rented house with a flatmate.
The information in sentence (b) is conveyed by 21 tone groups in the spoken account (7-28).
In the spoken text, there is the possibility of direct speech that would be unusual in a written text.
there I am | lying there | thinking | what on earth will I do. (42-45)
This enables the speaker to gain a powerful effect by using the full possibilities of intonation.
The ability to use complex clauses and embedded phrases and clauses is acquired much later in life. We can use these structures because we have time to plan when we write. When we speak, we do not have time to plan: we structure our discourse as we go along, repeating words and phrases and using the simpler constructions that we learn early in life. In the transcript above, we can see this clearly with the subjects of the clauses. In almost all cases, these are simple: by far the majority are I or it. More complex are my bedroom (4) and my problem (29). The most complicated is: the thought of doing this while there was somebody on the roof. It is interesting that after this, the speaker needs to pause; she laughs and gets in something of a muddle: w-was not very er possible (40, 41).
The two texts illustrate sharp differences between speaking and writing. This narrative may not have been entirely spontaneous because the story had been told before, and this rehearsal could explain some of the complexities in the spoken version. Even so, it is much more fragmented and oriented towards a listener than the written version. The written version is planned, integrated, and primarily oriented towards conveying a message.
Spoken and written language can be seen as the ends of a continuum. Above, we have described features of spontaneous speech and planned writing. Often, however, the distinctions between spoken and written language are not so clear cut. A university lecture, a prepared speech, a sermon might be examples of spoken English, in so far as they are delivered verbally. But because they usually began in a written form, they are likely to be closer to written language than to casual spoken language. Personal letters, diaries, and e-mail correspondences are in the written form but are very likely to contain features of spoken language.
In this section, we have deliberately concentrated on the language of conversation rather than the language of oratory, prepared speeches, debates, or other formal forms. We made this decision for two reasons. One was that some teachers appear to think of the classroom study of oral language almost exclusively in terms of prepared and planned speaking but do not consider spontaneous speech. The second was that teachers probably know very little about the structure of conversation. It is important that conversation be understood, not only because it is the most common use of spoken language in our lives but also so that teachers recognise the important distinctions between speaking and writing. Neither form of language is better than the other: the two forms are different and should each be seen in their own terms.
What do these differences mean for speakers and writers?
|have eye contact with the listeners||do not usually write with their readers present|
|point to or refer to things in their environment||cannot assume a shared environment with their readers|
|expect encouragement and co-operation from listeners to produce conversation||have to create and sustain their own belief in what they are doing|
|use intonation, stress, loudness, and body language to help make their meaning clear||use graphic cues such as punctuation, paragraphing, bold print, and diagrams to help make their meaning clear|
|rephrase or repeat when they think their message is not clear||take time to think and rethink as they write, often revising and editing their work|
|know that all their hesitations will be heard by, and acceptable to, the listener.||know that the reader will not see any rephrasings and alterations they make to the text in the process of writing.|
From Speakers to Writers
When children are learning to write, their starting points are their understanding of the syntax and structure of oral language. The ability to write begins from a sound foundation in oral language. The interrelationships of speech and writing can be seen in writers' acquisition of written language at the "emergent" and "early" stages. Initially, children's oral language greatly outstrips their ability in written language. As children master the mechanics of writing and develop a method of approximating spelling, they are able to put down on paper what they can already say. At the "early" stage of writing, children's writing catches up with their spoken language, and their writing has many of the personal, context-bound qualities of their speech. Students' writing and speech diverge as they become fluent writers. Their writing takes on its own distinctive structures and patterns of organisation. Often, too, fluent writers' speech incorporates some features of their writing.
The popular belief that written language is speech plus the conventions of print underestimates the demonstrable differences between oral and written language. Although oral work is undeniably of great value in students' learning in general, it does not specifically help them acquire the grammatical patterns they need in their writing. The models of written language patterns come from children's reading, and having read to them, good models of written language.
Natural language is often referred to as being important in texts for young learner readers. "Natural language" does not mean writing that reflects the oral language patterns of children: rather, it refers to the use of authentic "book" or written language that uses natural rhythms and conveys real meaning, in contrast to the artificial and meaningless structures that were used in many early reading texts in the past. Compare:
Mrs Delicious got a truck full of flour for the biggest cake in the world. (natural language)
Joy Cowley: The Biggest Cake in the World
(Wellington: Department of Education, 1983)
Go up to my ox. Is she on an ox?
An early reading text
The oral language patterns that are natural to young children are extremely difficult to read, and teachers should not oversimplify the links between written and spoken language. It is essential that students' early reading provides good models of written language. Although the topics and vocabulary reflect children's experiences and interests, the structure of these texts is those of written language and may be unfamiliar to some students. If teachers have an explicit awareness of these differences, they are better able to help students move from the familiarity of spoken language to the unknown forms and functions of written language. The two forms then enrich each other in a two-way process.
It is not only the nature of the spoken and written texts themselves that differs but also the understanding of the relationship between speakers and listeners on the one hand and readers and writers on the other. In discussing the co-operative principle of conversation, we outlined the understandings that listeners and speakers have of conversation. Young children's early writings show that they understand the nature of conversation and that their expectations of readers are similar to those they have of listeners.
We can help children bridge the gap between spoken and written language by keeping in mind the new understandings about texts and audiences that children are developing.
If we look again at Grice's Maxims from the point of view of writers, we can see the shifts in understanding that students need to make.
Maxim of quality
Speakers are expected to tell the truth. They should not say things they know to be false or for which they lack adequate evidence. However, the first written texts we introduce young children to are most likely to be fiction, and we expect children to write fiction. To be imaginative and creative in writing is often highly valued, whereas in conversation it is frowned upon.
Maxim of quantity
Speakers are expected to be brief, giving sufficient but not too much information. In writing, however, young children need to elaborate to make their meaning clear. One of the first things a teacher encourages a beginning writer to do is to add information to their text. This is done in much the same way as in conversation, through questioning the writer and asking for more detail.
Maxim of relation
Speakers' responses are expected to be appropriate and relevant. Much of students' spoken language is in response to something someone else has said.
It is not difficult to see why students, especially beginner writers, have difficulty generating text on their own. Thinking of new topics to talk about, and new and exciting ways of expressing ideas, are not things speakers in conversation need to consider.
Maxim of manner
Speakers' responses are expected to be clear and avoid ambiguities. Information in speech is usually given in a linear or chronological order. Young children do not use complex grammatical constructions in their talk, and therefore these are not present in their writing. It takes time to learn that, in writing, information can be organised in many different ways.
It would be extremely frustrating to hold a conversation with someone who used the strategies often used in writing to build suspense. In spoken language, we encourage speakers to "get to the point", whereas in written narrative, we encourage young children to take time setting the scene.
Challenges for the Learner
Students need to be helped to "think through" what they want to write.
When speaking, children produce oral language in interactive settings. However, when writing, they are learning to produce a text without prompts and responses from the reader.
Students need to be helped to understand that writing is more explicit than speech.
The absence of the reader poses a problem for children, who often have difficulty imagining their audience. Their writing often has the implicitness of speech with much left unsaid, because learner writers assume that their readers bring a shared understanding to the text.
Students need to be helped to become familiar with the structures of written language.
When learning to write, children are faced with learning a new syntactic, semantic, and textual unit - the sentence. Sentences are a feature of writing rather than of speech. In speech, clauses tend to follow each other in a linear way without necessarily having a known end-point. The sentence, on the other hand, needs to be capable of standing alone. It requires planning, and a decision has to be made as to which is to be the main clause and what will be its supporting structures. Understanding and using the concept of a sentence requires more than the ability to use capital letters and full stops.
Learning to write involves learning new ways of thinking. As Gunther Kress has written in Learning to Write, it involves "learning new forms of syntactical and textural structure, new genre, and new ways of relating to unknown addressees".
Exploring Language is reproduced by permission of the publishers Learning Media Limited on behalf of Ministry of Education, P O Box 3293, Wellington, New Zealand, © Crown, 1996.


Fairmont Army Airfield is one of 12 airfields in the state of Nebraska and numerous facilities throughout the Midwest constructed prior to and during World War II as part of an extensive construction program undertaken by the U.S. military. September 16, 1942, marked the beginning of construction at Fairmont Army Airfield, and it was promptly completed by the latter part of November of that same year. Originally opened as a satellite base for the Topeka, Kansas, Army Airfield, it was converted to an individual facility in 1943. The airfield was utilized as a heavy bombardment training facility during WWII as bombardment groups were trained in the Consolidated Vultee B-24 Liberator and eventually in the more technologically advanced B-29.
Fairmont Army Airfield
Fairmont was an "advanced training" facility where men would arrive to be tested in the aircraft that they were assigned to fly, in addition to practicing formation flight and long distance navigation, two fundamental aspects of strategic bombing tactics. Overall, seven bombardment groups were trained at Fairmont throughout the course of the war: the 485th, 451st, 504th, 15th, 98th, 467th and 489th. Lieutenant Colonel Paul Tibbits, commander of theEnola Gay, selected certain men from the 504th group to form part of the 509th Composite Group, the team that would commandeer the atomic bomb missions over Japan in 1945. However, it is not certain whether any of the pilots selected at Fairmont indeed flew the atomic bomb mission.
During the war, the Fairmont Army Airfield encompassed approximately 2,000 acres of converted farm land and consisted of 275 support buildings and structures, with the capacity to accommodate 3,700 military personnel. Presently there are three mostly extant runways which extend nearly 7,000 feet in length, alongside their related taxiways and aprons. There are six surviving buildings which include a small oil storage building, a small pump house and four large bomber aircraft hangars. There is also a water tower surrounded by a 20-acre area containing numerous ruins and foundations. Fairmont Army Airfield still retains several WWII era structures and sites whereas the other remaining airfields in the state have lost the majority of their primary structures and buildings associated with Nebraska's WWII legacy.
Visit the National Park Service Travel American Aviation to learn more about Aviation related Historic Sites.


About the Source Protection Committee
The Source Protection Committee exists to ensure an open process is followed in the development of reasonable, science based policies that protect municipal sources of drinking water now and into the future.
The Source Protection Committee is responsible for developing (and has completed the development of) three key pieces of documentation as part of the source protection planning process for the South Georgian Bay Lake Simcoe Source Protection Region:
1. Terms of Reference
Lays out who is responsible for each part of the Source Protection Plan and how the work will be conducted. (Approved June 29, 2009)
2. Assessment Reports
These highly detailed documents identify and assess threats to local drinking water sources and how to address them. Their creation involved significant public and municipal consultation. (Approved January 26, 2015)
3. Source Protection Plan
The Source Protection Committee is supported by Conservation Authority staff, scientists and working groups who helped develop these documents.
The Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority (with representation from the Black River watershed), Nottawasaga Valley Conservation Authority and Severn Sound Environmental Association, all act as Source Protection Authorities, and are responsible for reviewing these documents, recommending them for approval to the Ministry of Environment and Climate Change, as well as overseeing/reporting on implementation efforts.


Utilising an interleukin-12 plasmid: a novel COVID-19 vaccine
Dr Bernard Fox from Providence Cancer Institute explains how OncoSec’s CORVax12 vaccine works to potentially combat COVID-19.
A novel, DNA-encodable COVID-19 prophylactic vaccine candidate, CORVax12, has been developed by researchers in the US. This candidate combines the use of an interleukin-12 (IL-12) plasmid and a plasmid encoding for the Spike (S) protein from the novel coronavirus. Upon gaining US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval, OncoSec’s CORVax12 vaccine will be studied by Providence Cancer Institute in a first-in-human Phase I clinical trial.
Dr Bernard Fox, from Providence Cancer Institute, spoke to Drug Target Review’s Victoria Rees about the new vaccine candidate.
“We are very excited to be working with OncoSec because of their technique of incorporating IL-12 into tumours as a therapy. However, in this case, we are going to use their IL-12 plasmid, which has already been in clinical trials, in an infectious disease setting. We are cross-referencing their plasmid for this study and using new, more effective low voltage electroporation settings to move the DNA into the cells of the body.”
The importance of a COVID-19 vaccine
Fox began by explaining why the need for a COVID-19 vaccine is so significant; no one can say how the human population is going to respond in the long-term to this coronavirus and researchers have seen that humans do not maintain strong immunity with other coronaviruses.
He also highlighted the need to see if populations can develop herd immunity. As the coronavirus is so novel, it will be important to protect those most at risk.
“We already know from most of the other vaccine studies and from patients that have been infected with coronaviruses, that immunity can fall off with time. Although boosters might work, it may be better to figure out if you can induce a stronger memory response initially so that you will need less boosters and it may even provide more protection,” said Fox.
How the CORVax12 vaccine works
The CORVax12 consists of OncoSec’s existing product candidate, TAVO™ (the IL-12 plasmid), in combination with an immunogenic component of the SARS-CoV-2 virus, explained Fox. The SARS-CoV-2 S protein used was recently developed by researchers at the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and licensed to OncoSec on a non-exclusive basis.
The IL-12 vaccine strategy, originally developed by OncoSec to combat cancer, uses electroporation to deliver the IL-12 plasmid directly into tumour cells, which then produce and secrete IL-12 protein into the local microenvironment.
“We know that IL-12 in a cancer vaccine can augment the development of a Type-1 immune response by activating innate cells,” said Fox. “We are hoping to show that we can augment the response that we get with vaccine alone by combining it with the IL-12.”
While many potential COVID-19 vaccines include the S protein, Fox explained that the CORVax12 vaccine is unique because it is formed as a trimer of the S glycoproteins which additionally have a slightly altered amino acid sequence. This modified S protein has been shown by researchers to be more stable and therefore has the potential to generate a stronger anti-SARS-CoV-2 immunity response than a non-modified S vaccine.
Fox also said that the researchers have, at present, constructed the plasmid and sequenced it. They have made a master cell bank where the scientists are continuing to select different culture conditions and different branching conditions to obtain a maximal immune response.
Timeline for the vaccine
Touching on the potential timeline to get the vaccine to patients, Fox said “it is going to move much faster than anything else we have seen before.”
Fox hopes that by the end of May, the FDA will grant approval for the vaccine’s Investigational New Drug (IND) application.
“I think we were pushing it pretty quickly to get all the pre-clinical studies completed before we move to clinical trials,” said Fox.
The next steps for development
Fox explained that once the FDA grants approval, the Phase I clinical trial to evaluate the CORVax12 vaccine will begin. The study will consist of two groups; in the first, patients will be injected and electroporated with a plasmid encoding for the stabilised S protein and in the second, patients will be injected and electroporated with both the stabilised S protein plasmid as well as the IL-12 plasmid.
This strategy allows the researchers to compare the impact of the S protein alone against the S protein plus IL-12.
Fox said that if a strong immune response is not seen in patients, then the design of the vaccine may be altered; utilising techniques that cancer immunotherapy researchers have been evaluating for many years to boost weak anti-cancer immune responses. He said that this is likely to be an option big pharma will reluctantly and slowly embrace – instead, smaller biotechs will be the ones to champion this strategy.
The importance of funding
Fox highlighted the importance of funding for projects such as the CORVax12 vaccine. He said that due to the US National Institutes of Health (NIH) cutting funds for the FDA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), there is a lack of money and resources available for researchers.
However, the silver lining of the current situation is the charitable actions of others. Fox remarked that the CORVax12 project was moved forward rapidly due to this and he emphasised that philanthropic investment will remain one of the main driving forces behind COVID-19 therapeutic and vaccine development.
“I think from an academic side and small biotech standpoint, we have been very fortunate,” said Fox.
FDA Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), OncoSec, Providence Cancer Institute, US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), US National Institutes of Health (NIH)
Dr Bernard Fox


When you walk through the mountain treelands, the ground welcomes your booted feet with a sinuous strand of plant and rock material, both reduced into a debris that renders them unrecognizable. This is the path that makes your walking simpler, more agreeable.
But everything gets more interesting at the edge of the path.
Out there to the side is where the story waits to be told. Waits to be heard, to be understood, to be accepted. It is the story. The story of survival. Survival against all odds.
In their own voiceless whispers the wildflowers tell us the story. In their presence and in their absence, they tell us.
Out there, off the paths and the trails, last year's leaves and stems, flowers and fruits, lie atop the same plant material from the year before. And the year before that. And the year before that. The deeper you look, the more the plant parts loose their identity and the more they creep downward into the mineral grit where together plant and rock form soil.
In this gradation of duff and soil, the plants ready themselves to grow or not to grow depending on the conditions of the season. Different plants meet the need to grow or to wait in different ways.
- Bulbs are specialized underground buds that store food in thickened leaves. Our wild onions and the ever-lovely wood lily survive as adult plants and grow anew each year from bulbs.
- Caudices are thickened stems at or below the soil surface. Each caudex is tough and fibrous giving the impression of being woody, but a caudex is an indicator of a nonwoody perennial such as the larger penstemons.
- Corms are flattened, disklike stems that store food. The gladiolus is the common corm-bearing garden plant; mariposa lily, avalanche lily and the calypso orchid -- often called "fairy slipper" -- are all wildflowers that survive as and grow from corms.
- Rhizomes are food-storing stems that grow at or below ground surface and specifically in a horizontal orientation. Irises are the best-known rhizomatous plants, but many grasses and the dainty bistort that graces mountain meadows also grow from rhizomes.
- Tubers are enlarged shoot tips found on rhizomes; their swollen form derives from their capacity to store food. Potatoes usually come to mind as tubers, but many wildflowers are also tuberous including the ladies tresses orchids that grow in mountain wetlands.
- Seeds are embryonic plants that grow to a certain stage complete with tiny root, stem and leaf before development halts and the plant goes dormant. Some plants -- cottonwoods -- bear seeds that must germinate within a few days or else they perish; some plants -- bindweed and tamarisk -- bear seeds that may survive for decades.
These specialized body parts serve plants well. When snow fails to pile up in winter and when rain fails to trickle down in spring, the plants can sense the less than favorable growing conditions. Some will put up a 3-inch shoot instead of a 3-foot shoot; some will send up three shoots instead of three dozen shoots; some will wait and send up no shoots at all.
When this growing season passes through winter into next growing season, the plants will take measure once again. And if the water is there, they will spring back to life.
If your paths through the woods seem a bit colorless, be of good cheer. The plants know what they are doing. In their presence or their absence you can know their story.
Kevin J. Cook is a freelance writer and naturalist based in Fort Collins. His Wildlife Window column appears in the Reporter-Herald every Thursday.


Transportation Information Center Subsystem
The 'Transportation Information Center' collects, processes, stores, and disseminates transportation information to system operators and the traveling public. The physical object can play several different roles in an integrated ITS. In one role, the TIC provides a data collection, fusing, and repackaging function, collecting information from transportation system operators and redistributing this information to other system operators in the region and other TICs. In this information redistribution role, the TIC provides a bridge between the various transportation systems that produce the information and the other TICs and their subscribers that use the information. The second role of a TIC is focused on delivery of traveler information to subscribers and the public at large. Information provided includes basic advisories, traffic and road conditions, transit schedule information, yellow pages information, ride matching information, and parking information. The TIC is commonly implemented as a website or a web-based application service, but it represents any traveler information distribution service.
Last Updated 3/22/2022