Requiem for the Joshua tree

Disheveled, gangly, the Joshua tree is surely one of the West’s strangest — and most recognizable — plants. Named by…
Conglomerate Mesa, Photo by Louis Medina, Friends of the Inyo
MoreThe fading miracle of migration

For the past few weeks, dozens of turkey vultures have been circling on thermals over my house in Oregon, preparing…
Snow Geese take flight in Oregon, photo by Pepper Trail
MoreA new predator stalks the West

The grizzly bear. The wolf. The cougar. These magnificent creatures, apex predators, how can we not admire them? People cross…
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When immortals die

Giant sequoias come as close to immortality as living organisms can. Many live over a thousand years despite nature’s challenges. So…
MoreWe blame the trees, but whose fault is it?

“But it’s questionable that any amount of “thinning” could protect Ashland from a wind-driven firestorm coming out of the watershed.”
Photograph by Romain Le Teuff, courtesy of Unsplash
MoreTHE WORLD IS ALIVE

Climate change and the conversion of wild ecosystems, if unchecked, threaten to collapse the global bounty of “nature’s services.”
Photograph courtesy of Unsplash
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