Via kottke:

In 1981, [[Coevolution Quarterly]] published a 20 question quiz written by [[Leonard Charles]], [[Jim Dodge]], [[Lynn Milliman]], and [[Victoria Stockley]] that is designed to reveal how well you know your local natural environment. Here are the questions:

Trace the water you drink from precipitation to tap.
How many days til the moon is full? (Slack of 2 days allowed.)
What soil series are you standing on?
What was the total rainfall in your area last year (July-June)? (Slack: 1 inch for every 20 inches.)
When was the last time a fire burned in your area?
What were the primary subsistence techniques of the culture that lived in your area before you?
Name 5 edible plants in your region and their season(s) of availability.
From what direction do winter storms generally come in your region?
Where does your garbage go?
How long is the growing season where you live?
On what day of the year are the shadows the shortest where you live?
When do the deer rut in your region, and when are the young born?
Name five grasses in your area. Are any of them native?
Name five resident and five migratory birds in your area.
What is the land use history of where you live?
What primary ecological event/process influenced the land form where you live? (Bonus special: what’s the evidence?)
What species have become extinct in your area?
What are the major plant associations in your region?
From where you’re reading this, point north.
What spring wildflower is consistently among the first to bloom where you live?

I feel emotionally troubled about how few I can answer! I wonder if anyone else is similarly spurred to put this together for [[Seattle]]... They're obviously not all of equal weight; it's far more embarrassing that I can't tell you the dates of first and last frost than our shortest-shadow date.