Ah, so green, right? So full of life! Not so great in the grasslands, really. The green is a sign of nitrogen uptake, and this is the season of lichens… They draw […]
Starvation in the Okanagan
Hiding in Plain Sight
Garter snakes know how to do it. Mariposa Lily seeds do it. Water knows how to do it, too. In each case, appearances are deceiving, as an obvious thing is revealed (a […]
Okanagan Architectural Bloopers 4: The Thing About Gravity
Gravity is a weak force, but it’s awfully persistent. It gives us hills, with bits that are up and bits that were up and are now down. So, that’s nice. Oh, one […]
The Human Bias in Narratives About Climate Change
We are a curious bunch. We create groups through social interaction, but otherwise run around independently of each other and of the stuff we run around on, and when that running is […]
What We Need More Than Fences
Fence posts. Sincerely, your friend, California Quail.
Balancing the Atmosphere With Algae
So, on the grasslands, blue green algae (part of this healthy soil crust in the Cariboo) pulls nitrogen from the sky and makes it available to plants. So does the lichen on […]
Brave Bees… Perhaps
The balsam root blossoms on the hill were visited by these furry brown bees yesterday. These are the first bees I’ve seen on the flowers that were not shy. They wouldn’t scare. […]
Rivers on the Land
I made this image of the sagebrush buttercups to show a friend how they run in lines off underground stems, but then I noticed something else. It’s faint, but can you see […]
Grassland Education: Reducing Climate Risk 8
The Okanagan Valley is home to a nearly extirpated grassland ecosystem, that exists only in a few endangered pockets. Even so, it is a key grassland area for studying the effects of […]
Living Inside the Mountain or Flying With the Ravens
When it got down to 20 Below last week, ice appeared along the ditch of the Grey Canal Trail in Vernon. This is not ice from the water the city has been […]
Okanagan Okanogan 