Future Farming

“With climate change increasing, drought increasing, and more high rainfall events, I think there’s more of a need to incorporate permanent vegetation into agriculture systems.” Susan Stein, Director of USDA National Agroforestry Center In the movie Interstellar, the near-future world is being consumed by climate change, and one-by-one the monocultural crops that feed the world […]

Tree Forts

 I have a Fort Theory of Ecology, Fort Theory of Conservation. Every ecologist I know, every conservation biologist I know, every conservation professional I know, built forts when they were kids. If we have a generation that doesn’t know how to build a fort, we’ll have a generation that doesn’t know how to care about […]

Coming Clean

“A little water clears us of this deed.” Lady Macbeth, The Tragedy of Macbeth, William Shakespeare As I entered the utility building I was met by a combination of unidentifiable smells. Here, the sewage plant, the water treatment plant and the solid waste incinerator for the pipeline construction camp were protected from the Alaskan winter. […]

The Dam

It was cold and windy at the top of Glen Canyon Dam, and most of the fledgling engineers huddled against one of the massive concrete supports. I stood on the reservoir side staring into the distance and wondering what it had been like before the water covered it. Looking over the other rail, the narrow […]