Ecologically important blazes are a crucial part of Western landscapes.
Pepper Trail
Posted inArticles
There’s nothing normal about ‘the new normal’
The phrase is the linguistic equivalent of a shrug.
Posted inFebruary 19, 2018: Unfrozen North
Animals’ advice for surviving trying times
Are you the political equivalent of an armadillo, ant or tiger?
Posted inArticles
Logging isn’t the solution to our wildfire problems
We can’t ‘solve’ fire any more than we can ‘solve’ hurricanes.
Posted inArticles
Why I obsess about the names of plants and animals
Naming things makes individuals out of a landscape of birds, trees and bumblebees.
Posted inArticles
Chasing the rarest bumblebee in the world
A group of Oregonians searches for the disappearing Franklin’s bee.
Posted inArticles
There’s no Brexit from our climate problems
A rant against the mindless pleasure of simply smashing something to see what happens.
Posted inNovember 23, 2015: Water Hustle
The view from the top of the food chain
Today I hiked along a forest trail near my home. Squirrels scolded, a raven croaked. I moved steadily on. Startled at my approach, a deer bounded away, labored up the loose soil of the steep little canyon, and disappeared. I barely paused. There was nothing there for me to fear, nothing for me to attend […]
Posted inFebruary 2, 2015: This Land is Their Land
Give the fossil fuel industry free rein!
In 1729, Jonathan Swift published the most famous satirical essay in the English language: A Modest Proposal For Preventing the Children of Poor People in Ireland from Being a Burden to Their Parents or Country, and for Making Them Beneficial to the Public. And what was Swift’s proposal? Merely that the one-year-old children of indigents […]
Posted inArticles
Ten lessons from the American Robin
For climate activists, this feels like the last moment. The huge marches in New York and other cities around the world were a reflection, among other things, of desperation. How loud must we scream before our so-called leaders will listen? How many hundreds of thousands must fill the streets before any of those leaders act? […]
Posted inApril 28, 2014: Two-Wheel Revolution
Hot Mess and other fears for the future
I live in an idyllic little Western town, rich in natural beauty and culture. I have a great family, no pressing health or financial worries – in short, it’s a utopian life. And yet … somehow I can’t leave it at that. I can’t tune out the news, can’t ignore economic and political injustices, and […]
Posted inWotr
Why we don’t “get” climate change
Does humanity’s poor time-depth perception explain our lack of environmental coordination?
Posted inWotr
Look! Shooting stars!
My favorite Oregon wildflowers are called shooting stars, delicate darts whose blossoms with their sharp-pointed anthers and swept-back magenta petals seem to hurtle toward the soft spring earth from their height of six inches or so. These are among the first flowers to appear in our oak woodlands, long before the oaks themselves show any […]
Posted inWotr
Heading out of fall’s impending darkness
One day in October every year, I leave my home valley and make a pilgrimage up into Oregon’s Cascade Mountains. I am not seeking enlightenment, exactly. I am seeking simply light. My birthday falls on Oct. 10, long enough past the fall equinox that the ever-growing darkness of autumn can no longer be denied. Every […]
Posted inWotr
Pondering change in the Great Basin
I’m standing on the shores of Summer Lake, or, to be more accurate, what used to be a lakeshore but is now a dry lakebed in Oregon’s high desert. I’m here with a group of writers, scientists and artists, all of us gathered to talk about changes in the northern Great Basin. Sharp environmental contrasts, […]
Posted inWotr
No longer the safest place
My little corner of the West — southern Oregon, between the Pacific Ocean and the high Cascades — achieved a brief notoriety during the height of the world’s Cold War anxieties: It was listed as one of the safest places in the United States in the event of nuclear attack. Distant from population centers and […]
Posted inWotr
Survival of the worthless
I recently flew from my home in southern Oregon to Denver, giving me the opportunity to reflect on the fate of Western landscapes. As we took off from the Medford airport, it was easy to see how the neat pear orchards and vineyards of my compact valley are increasingly hemmed in by subdivisions. But we […]
Posted inWotr
The way the West was can be seen again
Back when I was a boy, we used to roll our eyes at tiresome coots who would begin reminiscences with “Back when I was a boy…” Today, as my 50s draw toward a close, I somehow find myself with a lot more sympathy for old-timers. I admit that recollections can be boring. And yet, as […]
Posted inMay 24, 2010: Accidental Wilderness
Birding, fast and slow
First, a confession: I am a serious birder. Maybe too serious: For 364 days a year, I lead field trips for beginners, share my spotting scope and am happy to explain the differences between, say, a song sparrow and a savannah sparrow to anyone who is interested (and, perhaps, to a few who might not […]
Posted inWotr
Bear witness to climate change
One thing I love about the West is that so many people know their elevations. I doubt that many citizens of Atlanta take pride in their thousand-foot-high city. But everyone knows that Denver is a mile high, and most of us are well aware of the elevation of whatever high pass we have to cross […]