Somebody got the idea that plants filter water and stabilize slopes. That’s true, but it’s only part of the story. What plants are really doing is living. In terms of work, the […]
Bad Green Good Brown
Hints at a New Science of Life
The science of botany got its start in plant classification and botanical gardens. Because of that, contemporary human understanding of plant communities largely revolves around species and their interactions. The results can […]
Hawthorns in Danger of Extirpation
Somebody read that hawthorns grow wild here. Domestic varieties show up in low-water gardening just about everywhere, with their pretty pink flowers and their red berries for the birds. Full marks for […]
Standing Still
A long time ago, orcharding started in the Okanagan when Lord Aberdeen and Lady Aberdeen planted the Coldstream Ranch with fruit so they could make jam and compete with these folks from the old […]
Making Light of Gravity
Gravity is the point at which the energy of the universe touches the earth. We should be able to use that. Who needs fossil fuels. Here, for example, is the energy that […]
Different Borders
Here’s how the American and Canadian governments think about the border that cuts our valley in two: Oroville-Osoyoos Border Crossing, Highway 97 It is, as you can see, pretty hard to tell […]
The Garden and the University
Here’s one of the gardens at the University of British Columbia Okanagan Campus, right smack dab in the middle of the grasslands of Ellison, north of Kelowna. Given that the American half […]
Respect
Time is a strange thing. The farther in distance we look into the night sky, the father back in time we are seeing. If we look far enough, we see the beginning […]
Spring Carnival
The snow keeps falling.Just this last week, the British Columbia Winter Games came to Vernon. Hundreds of young athletes celebrated personal and community excellence. On those parts of the valley where humans […]
Life Raft for the Grasslands
Can you imagine drowning on dry land? It happens. On the grasslands, the difference between breathing and drowning is so slight. For instance, at a height of 860 metres, after a day […]
Okanagan Okanogan 