Nature is full of heartwarming stories about partnerships. One of my all-time favorites is the three-way mutualism between Western ponderosa pine trees, tassel-eared squirrels and mycorrhizal fungi. The trees house the squirrels in their branches and the fungi on their roots. The mycorrhizae break down nutrients in the soil for easier absorption by the tree [...]
Hi from Madison, Wisconsin, where the annual meeting of the Society of Environmental Journalists is off to a solid start. This video is the product of an all-day workshop using video editing software that I’ve only recently met. Much to my chagrin, I see I’ve got a long way to go.
Still, early indications are that [...]
Back in the 1880s, George W. Coffin lived along St. Vrain creek, which flows in a mountainside ponderosa pine forest northeast of Boulder, Colorado. He made good use of the water, for irrigation. So did the Left-Hand Ditch Company, even though they lived a ways south of it — closer, actually, to another drainage called [...]
The Ted Scripps Fellowship continues to keep me busy and happy. Through Charles Wilkinson’s environmental law class, I’ve become acquainted with Wallace Stegner and his book about John Wesley Powell. Too bad the class discussion won’t likely focus on Powell’s brave first run of the Colorado River; the descriptions triggered big homesickness for canyon country [...]
I couldn’t have known how weird it would be to return to the classroom. It’s only been about nine years, after all, since I left it. It hit me when I was standing in the school supplies aisle at the supermarket yesterday, because I realized I should have a notebook, one with multiple sections for [...]
