Here’s the bank and flat of the old lakebed high above Okanagan Falls, and the shore the first people here would have walked along in the back, some, what, 12,000 years ago. […]
Okanagan Falls in Shadow and Starlight
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 […]
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 […]
Ponderosa Pine: Almost a Loner
Ponderosa pines are not a species that likes to mingle with other tree species and communicate root to root. They prefer to stand out in the grass and wait for fire. Still, […]
The Last Great Grassland
Here under Cipak, the sacred mountain of the Similkameen, the maiden wearing her wedding veil at this time of year and the eastern toe of the Cascades, lies a grassland without weeds, […]
In the Grasslands, Tiny Effects Aren’t Tiny at All
When I was working on the Spirit in the Grass book with photographer Chris Harris, one of the ecologists on the project told me that the effects of sun and shadow at […]
Sumac and Red Dogwood
What a pair, where the grass and the water meet! Gintys Pond, Cawston, Similkameen Valley
Irrigation the Other Way
Rather than pumps and pipes and all those expensive systems, why not just lay out the land in flats and catch the snow? Because the effects are short-lived? Well, then amplify them. […]
Mule Deer Landscape Architecture and the Architecture of the Human Eye
Note the mule deer trail in the left of this image, at an angle up this gravel pit. That’s a pretty normal angle for a mule deer to go up a slope. […]
If You Lose the Water, You Lose the Land
Lichen is a colonizer. It eats rock and releases minerals that other plants can use. Most of the lichen on the stone below has died. It’s a good chance to see the […]
