With a little love, it could be a home again. The idea is that species like Western Bluebirds … … will maintain their presence in a grassland if bird houses are erected […]
Fixer Upper in the Okanagan
The Fire Deficit and the Depth of Global Warming
For 10,000 years, the people of the grasslands have been living in a fire landscape. For 100 years, they have been living in a fire debt. This landscape: Selah Creek, Yakama Nation […]
Summer Draws to a Close in the Okanagan
When harvest season starts in the snow in late February, with crops planted in mid-August the year before, the valley’s true seasons reveal themselves quite simply. Spring, for instance, took place in […]
Mariposa Lily Has a Visitor (or two)
It’s always an adventure to see who comes to dance… … and then, after making the circuit … … half-drugged, stumbles out… Good times for all!
Roman Gardens in the Suburban Okanagan
Do you see a storm sewer This wild lettuce sees a future. Welcome to the qanat, the underground river drawing itself from stone, that the Romans spread across the Sahara and the […]
What to Do When You Lose Your Hat in the Wind
Seriously, out in the shrub steppe it does get windy, and losing a hat is a real thing. The sun can then burn you into a lump of tar. I had a […]
Wild Currants are Ready
What I love about Pacific wild currants is that they taste as dry as the land on a hot day. Their sweetness is pale and their juice minimal, and yet if you […]
Evolution in Action
Not all invasive species are trouble. When the land is stripped of life and turned into dust, cheatgrass and sagebrush, the swallowtails seek out alfalfa that has escaped from nearby farms. Western […]
Fate, Race and Populism in the Third Reich and Cascadia, Part 5 of 5
For a week now, I’ve been presenting a view of how time and land have a social dimension. Sometimes Being Social Means Backing Away That was my yesterday. Today, I will conclude […]
Cinnamon Bear in the Sagebrush
I thought we’d go and check out the wetland just behind the top of the hill today, and see if the wet spring had put water in it. It has been dry […]
