Along the Urban Ecotone

The skirt of Las Vegas, Nevada, is a frictional zone scrubbed with busted tortoise shells and Joshua trees that lean toward the sun. High tension power lines intersect at substations and disperse from there into the desert. A buddy and I camped in this liminal space a couple months ago and all night long the […]

The Best Bugs

Cicadas are the best bugs. The 17-year cicadas emerged here in the D.C. area two years ago and I haven’t gotten over it yet. Everyone knows this, and that’s why Our Kate texted me on Monday with a link to a new paper in the journal Science about the effects of cicadas on the food […]

Snapshot: Roadside Lupine

One enthralling aspect of writing a book about roads and nature is that the world suddenly blossoms with odd interactions and novel ecosystems. Once you’re attuned to how our transportation infrastructure alters landscapes, every walk or drive becomes an occasion to observe some strange geo/hydro/ecological dynamic. To wit: I’m fascinated by roads as concentrators of […]

The Children of Floods

Snow has been heavy this winter and spring where I live in the Southwest, and sunny days are coming, meaning the white is about to turn to water and desert rivers will soon be raging. Whenever water starts to move I get excited. How could I not? It’s like an animal come to life, nosing […]

Flora, Fauna, Funga

This post first appeared in September of 2019 and the mushrooms never stop coming. Paul Kroeger is a wizard. Rolling his quick little cigarettes like skinny sticks of dynamite, he halts and flows like bearded water, crossing streets of East Vancouver at angles between the cars. He slips behind houses, not the path of his […]

I choose what grows

An affirmation for everyone out there who happens to have a uterus: WE BELONG TO OURSELVES. Our bodies are ours, no matter what the law says, even if we have to fight like hell for our inherent human rights.