A wildlife biologist returns to a childhood stomping ground, devoid of its once-plentiful amphibians.
Essays
Posted inJuly 23, 2018: Pay for Prey
Saving baby Jo from the smoke
A mother grapples with her decision to flee the 416 Fire with her infant daughter.
Posted inJune 25, 2018: Little Weed, Big Problem
Monument Valley
The spectral lines between life and the inert.
Posted inArticles
In a desert, I learned to fish
Dams, invasive species and roadways. All this, so I could go fishing.
Posted inJune 11, 2018: Reclaiming the Klamath
What the Ice Age West predicts about our future
An American creation story.
Posted inMay 28, 2018: The River of Lost Souls
A bird’s song adds wonder to the world
If a song defines a place, what does it mean to lose it?
Posted inMay 14, 2018: Death in the Alpine
Your stoke won’t save us
The idea that outdoor recreation leads to meaningful conservation rests on a big ‘if.’
Posted inMay 14, 2018: Death in the Alpine
The nowhereness of airports
The way air travel has devolved says something awful about humans.
Posted inArticles
Why we tell stories of the missing and murdered
A crisis continues across Indian Country, highlighted by a forthcoming documentary.
Posted inApril 30, 2018: Celebrity Scofflaw
This acequia life
The irrigation of the land defines our West in ways I can hardly explain.
Posted inApril 16, 2018: Cashing in on Standing Rock
Frackin’ on heaven’s door
How many people over the centuries have loved the Pawnee Buttes, only to see them ravaged?
Posted inArticles
When boyhood friendships were forged outdoors
After his friend’s passing, a writer reflects on a life spent chasing fish and toads.
Posted inMarch 19, 2018: Desert, Divided
You’re made of the same stuff sloshing around in tidepools
When the tides pull back the water line, a writer takes a trip through time.
Posted inFebruary 19, 2018: Unfrozen North
In Oregon’s Coast Range, a writer explores identity
A collection of essays ranges through the histories, trees and wildlife of the state.
Posted inFebruary 19, 2018: Unfrozen North
A celebration of equality and of the land
At a Wyoming wedding, a musician ponders the big questions of life.
Posted inApril 16, 2018: Cashing in on Standing Rock
A Dreamer dreams of running for office
Over a year into the Trump presidency, reflections from a young immigrant.
Posted inArticles
How to learn to love a new landscape
A writer trades in the ‘crack-me-open ache of space’ in Colorado for the lushness of western Oregon.
Posted inFebruary 5, 2018: Caught Between Crises
On love in Death Valley, and what’s been lost
An ode to a time of both sorrow and new found laughter.
Posted inJanuary 22, 2018: A Separatist State of Mind
Climate change forced me to leave the place that I love
After finding their dream town, a family fled drought and fire.
Posted inDecember 11, 2017: Scorched Earth
A ‘selfish’ decision
As neighbors evacuated, one family stayed behind.