{"id":149196,"date":"2024-04-10T10:03:08","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T14:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/?p=149196"},"modified":"2024-04-10T10:40:01","modified_gmt":"2024-04-10T14:40:01","slug":"a-walk-in-the-woods-with-wright-state-biologist-don-cipollini","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/2024\/04\/10\/a-walk-in-the-woods-with-wright-state-biologist-don-cipollini\/","title":{"rendered":"A walk in the woods with Wright State biologist Don Cipollini"},"content":{"rendered":"

Outdoor enthusiasts can learn more about the natural world and places to explore through a new project from Don Cipollini, Ph.D., professor of biological sciences<\/a> at Wright State University.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Naturalist with Don Cipollini\u201d is an interpretive walk-and-talk show in which Cipollini explores the woods or a nature preserve and interprets what he sees.<\/p>\n

In each episode, Cipollini shares his knowledge as a biologist and environmental scientist while expressing his love of the outdoors.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would like to share my perspective on nature and places and special trees and special people in some cases, and teach people about these people, places and things hopefully in an interesting way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

He also hopes the series will inspire more people to get outside and even visit some of the places he films.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s very opportunistic,\u201d he said. \u201cYou know the place you want to visit, but you never know what you\u2019re going to see when you\u2019re there, and that\u2019s part of the excitement of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Don Cipollini, professor of biological sciences at Wright State, explores the natural world in his cable access and YouTube series \u201cThe Naturalist with Don Cipollini.\u201d (Photo by Erin Pence)<\/p><\/div>\n

The series is produced in partnership with Yellow Springs Community Access. Each episode initially airs on Yellow Springs Community Access Channel 5<\/a> and then is released on Cipollini’s YouTube channel at youtube.com\/@TheNaturalistWithDonCipollini<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Cipollini films each episode with a GoPro camera provided by Yellow Springs Community Access. Ben Guenther, the station manager of channel 5, edits the footage and adds transitions and the intro and outro.<\/p>\n

Cipollini\u2019s narration is unscripted, casual and conversational. His approach is to help viewers better understand the natural world without sounding like he is giving a classroom lecture.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s pitched at the general public who\u2019s interested in nature, trees, wildflowers, prairies, natural site wonders,\u201d Cipollini said. \u201cIt\u2019s very much sharing what I might know about that place and those things you\u2019ll see and to try to add a little bit of depth and richness to what people would see if they took the same walk.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cipollini started filming last summer and released his 25th show in March.<\/p>\n

Local viewers will recognize many of the locations Cipollini has visited, including the Wright State woods on the Dayton Campus, Glen Helen<\/a> and Clifton Gorge<\/a> in Yellow Springs, Huffman Prairie<\/a> and Pearl\u2019s Fen in Fairborn<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Other sites in Ohio he has visited include Hocking Hills State Park<\/a>, Stage\u2019s Pond State Nature Preserve<\/a> in Pickaway County, Davey Woods State Nature Preserve<\/a> in Champaign County and Great Seal State Park<\/a> in Chillicothe.<\/p>\n

He even took a trip to attend the Groundhog Day festival<\/a> in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat was more for fun,\u201d he said. \u201cI grew up about 30 miles from there, but I had never gone there on Groundhog Day for the big event.\u201d<\/p>\n

Recently, Cipollini started producing episodes on special topics such as fall foliage<\/a>, ginkgo trees<\/a>, pawpaws<\/a> and the art of bonsai<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m pulling from anything that either I have done in the past that I think people might find interesting or would like to learn about or that I\u2019m also interested in learning about for the first time and trying out,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

This semester, he produced three episodes about making maple syrup, starting with tapping trees<\/a> in the Wright State woods and then cooking the syrup in his kitchen<\/a> in Yellow Springs and at a sugar shack<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In another episode, he worked with Mesa Grine, a biological sciences major, to produce coffee from beans<\/a> they grew in Wright State\u2019s greenhouse, where Grine works.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s something I had never done before and I thought, let\u2019s try to make coffee from this, from start to finish, from scratch,\u201d Cipollini said. \u201cThat was fun to go from the fresh fruit to roasting the beans to grinding them and tasting it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cipollini has a lot of plans to continue making fun and educational episodes. He plans to expand his out-of-state episodes with trips to Red River Gorge in Kentucky, the champion trees of Lexington and Louisville and brook trout streams in Pennsylvania.<\/p>\n

As we enter spring and summer, he is interested in producing episodes on spring wildflowers, amphibian breeding, organic farming and kayaking on the Little Miami River or Mad River.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have some destinations in mind too,\u201d he said. \u201cI have traversed this state for years, hiking and looking at nature and so I have far from exhausted all the ideas of places to visit.\u201d<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss an episode<\/strong><\/p>\n

Keep up with \u201cThe Naturalist with Don Cipollini\u201d by liking and subscribing to youtube.com\/@TheNaturalistWithDonCipollini<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Don Cipollini, professor of biological sciences at Wright State, explores the natural world in his cable access and YouTube series \u201cThe Naturalist with Don Cipollini.\u201d Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":43,"featured_media":149218,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[722,729,2064,2066,725,715,18,746],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-149196","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-academics","category-around-campus","category-biology","category-earth-environmental-sciences","category-home-news-sidebar","category-news","category-research","category-science-mathematics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149196","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/43"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=149196"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149196\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":149226,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/149196\/revisions\/149226"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/149218"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=149196"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=149196"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/webapp2.wright.edu\/web1\/newsroom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=149196"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}