Contrary to popular belief, some rural Americans are extremely invested in environmental protection and conserving resources for future generaitons.
Notes from the urban/rural divide: Yes, there are environmentalists here
Tag: conservation
Spotted owls and Sophie’s choices
The debate over how to handle spotted owls highlights tensions in conservation, animal welfare, and ecology communities.
Hope for an environmental future in the Sears Point Wetlands
It was years in the making, but last fall, an excavator punched through a levee at the Sears Point Wetland and allowed the Bay’s tidal waters to flow in for the first time in over 100 years. The wetlands restoration project required the coordinated efforts of multiple groups and millions of dollars even before breaking […]
The highway of flowers
When I travel urban areas, I am always seeking for something green. A pocket park, a strip of landscaping, a row of potted plants, in some cities ancient cemeteries tucked away, New York’s High Line. I crave the green just as plants themselves crave the sun, turning myself towards it to bask in the light […]
What If We Lose Half Our Birds?
Birds are all around you, even if you live in the depths of the city and sometimes they feel like an abstract concept with the exception of the ubiquitous city pigeons. They’re a beautiful and diverse and splendid and amazing part of the natural environment, whether they’re soaring eagles or tittering sandpipers or songbirds that […]
Cross-Cultural Conservation
The Western Snowy Plover is a tiny creature, one that darts along our shorelines and nests in our dunes. It’s also a threatened one, due to habitat fragmentation and lack of protected space, forcing a recovery effort to take aggressive steps to try to protect it, including fencing off nesting areas, monitoring existing populations, and […]
Hypocrites and Watering Cans
I get a little bit het up when it comes to water. I could beg off by attributing it to my childhood, growing up in a house with a 1,000 gallon rainwater collection tank as our sole source of water, but it’s also because I’m a dirty hippie (sometimes literally), and I care about things […]
Give a Little to Get a Lot: Conservation and Sacrifices
One of the things humans seem to struggle with most is the idea that, to put it bluntly, we don’t always get what we want. We can’t have our cake and eat it too. We need to accept that sometimes we need to make sacrifices for the greater good. You get the general idea, and […]
Waste Not, Want Not, and Food Politics
Food waste appears to be a hot new topic this year, which is actually something I am really excited about. Not food waste—I find the volume of food wasted in the West horrific—but that people are talking about it, and more than that, thinking about ways to directly address it, rather than trying to shovel […]
The Value of Ancient Forests
There are many ways to think about the value of a forest—from an industrial perspective, it’s about the economic value of the resources contained therein, including millions of board feet of timber, minerals that many be locked beneath the soil, and other potential moneymakers, such as rare plants containing compounds that might be useful for […]