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 […]
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 […]
Fate Race and Populism in the Third Reich and Cascadia – Part 3 of 5
Two days ago, I took you to the Nimiipu’u and Yakama homelands, to show you the oldest inhabited region in the Americas, as an introduction to a discussion of fate and time […]
Okanagan Native Orach
Here’s some native orach growing wild on the hill. Later in the year, it will be weed-whacked, as usual. I’m going to collect some seeds. Enjoying those June rains! Here’s some red […]
The Universe Underfoot
The mysteries of the universe are not mysterious. They tell their stories far and wide. Look at the infertile serviceberry fruits dropped for the mice on the deer and coyote trail up […]
Big Black Bee
It’s a safe bet that this grassland bee didn’t evolve to harvest dandelion nectar. I’d say it’s improvising because its host is absent. A sitting duck for birds, too. Perhaps, though, it […]
