March 2013
I work alone. I have almost always worked alone. That’s the nature of freelance writing – or so I assumed.
A year ago I began working with Winifred Bird on a series of stories about managing forest ecosystems in the wake of nuclear disasters – Fukushima and Chernobyl. What started with an occasional exchange of emails grew to an almost daily correspondence before...
December 2012
East of the Tehachapi Mountains, east of the jumbled junction of five ecoregions that forms one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, Joshua Tree offers yet another unique convergence. The national park created in 1994 by the California Desert Protection Act brings the Mojave Desert smack dab up against the Colorado Desert. In this transition zone bighorn sheep...
October 2012
Chernobyl is most remarkable for what it does not reveal: radiation. You cannot see, hear, smell or feel the region’s best-known product. During my time there I relied on a hand-held dosimeter to record the level of nuclear contamination. The April 26, 1986 explosion of the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant released cesium, strontium and...
July 13, 2012
I don’t generally get jazzed by bridge construction but the Spanish Creek Bridge is an exception. It spans 354 feet — longer than a football field! — across Spanish Creek, which meets Indian Creek to form the east branch of the north fork of the Feather River halfway between my home in Indian Valley and Quincy, the Plumas County seat.
The $29 million...
April 26, 2012
Spending a week in Owens Valley is humbling. With Mt. Whitney looming to the west at 14,505 feet above sea level, and Death Valley off to the east at 282 feet below, it puts mere humans into perspective. I think of the late T’ang dynasty landscape paintings, which represent my environmental worldview. Lost among misty mountains and deep gorges are the tiny...
March 4, 2012
I have been following Eureka-area Veterans For Peace and their progress restoring the Golden Rule, a 30-foot wooden boat that in 1958 sailed toward the Marshall Islands atomic test area to protest nuclear weapons. I was invited to the veterans’ Whiskey Plank Party celebrating completion of the restored hull. What an eclectic gathering: local activists, Quaker pacifists, boat...
I will be attending the University of Oregon law school’s conference to moderate a panel, “Native American Land Acquisition for Federally Unrecognized Tribes.” The invitation stems from stories I have written for High Country News and the Sacramento Bee about Maidu tribal leaders’ efforts to acquire Humbug Valley, near Lake Almanor, California. The panel includes Hawk...
The Power of Partnership
March 2013 I work alone. I have almost always worked alone. That’s the nature of freelance writing – or so I assumed. A year ago I began working with Winifred Bird on a series of stories about managing forest ecosystems in the wake of nuclear disasters – Fukushima and Chernobyl. What started with an occasional exchange of emails grew to an almost daily correspondence before...
read moreJoshua Tree
December 2012 East of the Tehachapi Mountains, east of the jumbled junction of five ecoregions that forms one of the most biodiverse places on the planet, Joshua Tree offers yet another unique convergence. The national park created in 1994 by the California Desert Protection Act brings the Mojave Desert smack dab up against the Colorado Desert. In this transition zone bighorn sheep...
read moreChernobyl, Ukraine
October 2012 Chernobyl is most remarkable for what it does not reveal: radiation. You cannot see, hear, smell or feel the region’s best-known product. During my time there I relied on a hand-held dosimeter to record the level of nuclear contamination. The April 26, 1986 explosion of the No. 4 reactor at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant released cesium, strontium and...
read moreSpanish Creek Bridge
July 13, 2012 I don’t generally get jazzed by bridge construction but the Spanish Creek Bridge is an exception. It spans 354 feet — longer than a football field! — across Spanish Creek, which meets Indian Creek to form the east branch of the north fork of the Feather River halfway between my home in Indian Valley and Quincy, the Plumas County seat. The $29 million...
read moreOwens Lake
April 26, 2012 Spending a week in Owens Valley is humbling. With Mt. Whitney looming to the west at 14,505 feet above sea level, and Death Valley off to the east at 282 feet below, it puts mere humans into perspective. I think of the late T’ang dynasty landscape paintings, which represent my environmental worldview. Lost among misty mountains and deep gorges are the tiny...
read moreFollowing the Golden Rule
March 4, 2012 I have been following Eureka-area Veterans For Peace and their progress restoring the Golden Rule, a 30-foot wooden boat that in 1958 sailed toward the Marshall Islands atomic test area to protest nuclear weapons. I was invited to the veterans’ Whiskey Plank Party celebrating completion of the restored hull. What an eclectic gathering: local activists, Quaker pacifists, boat...
read moreMarch 3, 2012
I will be attending the University of Oregon law school’s conference to moderate a panel, “Native American Land Acquisition for Federally Unrecognized Tribes.” The invitation stems from stories I have written for High Country News and the Sacramento Bee about Maidu tribal leaders’ efforts to acquire Humbug Valley, near Lake Almanor, California. The panel includes Hawk...
read more