Plants don’t grow in dirt. Well, maybe snow buckwheat. The old glacial river eddy (above) high above Priest Valley had its gravel bed stripped away fifteen years ago. So far, nothing has […]
Weeds, Nature, Erosion and Hope. With a Fly, too.
Let’s Set the Delicious Apocalyptic Dream of Settler Culture to Rest
“Settler Colonialism” is a serious thing. In fact, in North America it is one of the most serious things of all. It should be handled carefully, like the toxic nuclear waste it […]
Fighting a Losing Battle with the Wind in Cascadia
Here’s a cherry orchard just south of The Dalles, at the western terminus of the Oregon Trail, looking west to the Mount Hood Volcano. The rounded crests of these glacial flood hills […]
Getting Our Land Back 4: What to Do With Disenfranchised Land
In this series of posts I am exploring what might be required to set colonialism behind us and create a country for our future children’s children’s children, all of us, human, blackbird, […]
Flowing in Place
Isn’t naming great. Why don’t we call the homeland of the Wanapum, the “Wana” “Pu’um”, the water people, a river, and be done with it. But there’s a catch to this, because […]
Valley Energy: the Similkameen Story
In the Similkameen, the mountains are rounded around Cawston, at least to the East. Look how hard they fight to remain horizontal. This is flat country. Note the sharp peaks at the […]
Holding on to Our Water for Dear Life
It’s fun to go out and read the weather by looking down, too. It gives a longer term view. For instance, the really poor shape of the early season cheat grass below […]
The Glory That is Paul Terbasket’s Apricot Tree
In 1915, Paul Terbasket of the Lower Similkameen Indian Band was jailed for disobeying a foolish court order and watering his orchard. One apricot tree remains. His land is leased out to […]
Waiting for the Fire in Lake Country
So, here’s the deer, porcupine, snake and coyote trail going up the hill. The bear likes to stay down in the gully to the left. That’s a siya? bush, fruitful with berries […]
When Trees are Weeds: Truth and Reconciliation from the Ground Up
Yesterday I started a meditation on classicism, and how the cultures within Canada have some choices, given German experience with the power, failure and abuse of classical models as a means of […]
Okanagan Okanogan 