A recent book provides a road map to finding literature in nature.
Plants
Posted inArticles
Ranch Diaries: Late summer rain brings new wild foods
How to use wild purslane and algerita berries, and how to not mistake death camas for wild onions.
Posted inAugust 8, 2016: Line of Descent
Inside a seed museum meant to track plant response to climate change
Researchers have collected seeds from across the country in a quiet Colorado storage facility.
Posted inMay 2, 2016: The Gold King Reckoning
Inside the moss mystery: How the organisms helped reveal Portland’s pollution
Surveys of tree moss uncovered contamination that may have led to higher cancer rates.
Posted inArticles
A rare ecological event: ‘super bloom’ in Death Valley
The arid park is covered in wildflowers for the first time in a decade.
Posted inArticles
Invasive plants beat natives in climate adaptation race
In California, native and endemic plants are slower to shift their ranges in response to climate change, a study shows.
Posted inJanuary 25, 2016: The Forever War
The tree in the river
A writer ponders a remnant of past disaster.
Posted inArticles
Can small communities tackle global food security?
Climate change has profound impacts on growing seasons and crop yields, but local solutions have promise.
Posted inArticles
Is this climate change-battered conifer migrating northward?
Scientists in Alaska are mapping what may be the tip of yellow cedar’s expanding range.
Posted inArticles
Researchers find an answer to invasive cheatgrass
Will this native bacteria finally thwart one of the most invasive weeds in North America?
Posted inOctober 12, 2015: The Rise of Lisa Murkowski
For the Lassics lupine, wilderness is a mixed blessing
The Wilderness Act has complicated efforts to protect the rare California wildflower.
Posted inArticles
Wild Science: Will climate change force bees to miss flower season?
Scientists in Colorado investigate ominous climate risks for pollinators.
Posted inArticles
Montana mycologist fights fungus with fungus
To save whitebark pines, apply slippery jack.
Posted inDecember 22, 2014: The Dust Detectives
Non-native goats in Utah’s La Sal Mountains
How bad are these ungulates for the ecosystem?
Posted inJuly 20, 2009: Thinking Outside the Timber Box
Cultural blight
Plant disease threatens traditions of California tribes.
Posted inWotr
Thinking green in the midst of winter
Gardening season starts when you open your first seed catalog in the dead of winter, and it doesn’t end until you’ve dug up the last carrot, plucked the final Brussels sprout or eaten your last pickled pepper of the season. The rewards of gardening begin the minute you open that catalog — long before you […]
Posted inNovember 13, 2006: Bred for success
Trees — A different shade of green
Cities look to urban forests as a natural utility
Posted inAugust 21, 2006: The Lure of the Lawn
The Lure of the Lawn
Can Westerners get over their romance with turf?
Posted inNovember 14, 2005: Back On Track
The native gardens of California
“I’ve always wondered why people call plants ‘wild.’ We don’t think of them that way. They just come up wherever they are, and like us, they are at home in that place.” — Clara Jones Sargosa, Chukchansi In her new book, Tending the Wild, ethnobotanist Kat Anderson examines the state of California’s “wilderness” at the […]
Posted inWotr
Be a patriot — get your hands dirty
While foraging through my backyard garden the other day for cucumbers, peppers and hot-to-touch chilis, a slogan occurred to me: “Support Our Troops – Plant a Garden.” A garden would demonstrate patriotism because each backyard Eden lessens our dependence upon imported oil. Of course, by itself, imported oil isn’t bad, but an addiction so intense […]