Well, this is a first. Oregano that has decided to go feral. Interestingly enough, it doesn’t look as burnable, in the short term, as this bunchgrass… … and about the same as […]
Fighting Fire With Weeds
The Wisdom of Rabbitbrush
Rabbitbrush defines this country in the fall. It catches the sun and shines. Well, not this year, but it still has its magic. There’s nothing quite like this showy aster that pulls […]
Let Me Show You Some Water
Here’s some. Like it? Here’s some more: Thirsty for more? Sure: Well, light showers, sure. Here’s a right downpour: Or maybe a hail storm? Or a spring flood? Enough of this talk […]
Honeybees are a Red Herring
Bees are attracted to pretty flowers. Wasps, too. In a healthy grassland, flowers continue all spring and summer and into the fall, with flowers for the big bumblers and tiny wasps and […]
Cattle are Burning Down British Columbia
Yes, they are. There’s a strange, elite idea that cattle grazing in forests and on grasslands is an efficient use of the land, and then we turn around and spend hundreds of […]
The Only Hope for the Okanagan and Similkameen Valleys in a Culture of Fire
I hate to say it, but the dream that has kept my family tied to the land for 91 years in this trough in the Columbia Plateau is over. Instead of a […]
Roots Are Not Wood & Trees Are Communities of Water: What the Future Promises in the Fire Forest
This root may be exposed and, to all appearances, dead, yet it still holds up an old Douglas-fir into the sky. But that’s not the true beauty of it. I mean, look […]
After Nature, Living Water
The land is your village. This might mean that forests look a little different. This Douglas-fir grove on the Big Bar Eskers is dying, partly because of the stress of the ingrowth […]
What is Water For?
In a time of great fires, water is for putting them out, and for playing with your friends, in memory of times when the sky was clear. Pretty important things, eh. But […]
A Walk in Nature
In the Okanagan, trails are wide. That way, people can use them as exercise routes. The idea is to get out into nature. More practically, the invasive weeds thrive so well that […]
Okanagan Okanogan 