In 1991, environmental activist Kieran Suckling was living in a tiny New Mexico town in the heart of timber and grazing country. His nascent group, then called the Greater Gila Biodiversity Project, finally had a budget—$5,000 for the year to cover all the work of a tiny handful of friends committed to keeping species from […]
Local Building Councils are Guided by Environmental Principles About 50 people had gathered in the auditorium at the Fort Lauderdale Museum of Art to hear urban planners, architects and energy engineers talk about the environmental challenges facing South Florida. There was concern about the low attendance, but also optimism that a movement was being born. […]
Agriculture, urban sprawl and fire suppression have left Iowa with less than one-tenth of one percent of its native prairies.
Taking a tour of historic sites in the old city of Baltimore can be a rewarding experience—until you turn a corner in the central business district and find—devastation. What was described in the guidebooks as a block of pubs with architecture reminiscent of London is now mostly rubble and boarded-up bars. What happened to Baltimore? […]
Invasive Species are Changing the Ocean Environment For decades, the coastal United States has been under siege from an invasion of foreign animals and plants (see second feature this issue). New species arrive daily, and in a variety of ways. According to the Pew Oceans Commission, ship ballast water is the primary carrier of marine […]
Like four of his five brothers, my grandfather was a family dentist, and in his semi-retired years he practiced out of his home in New Bedford, Massachusetts. As a child, his office fascinated me, with its old-fashioned porcelain dental chair that weighed a ton, and the vintage wooden instrument cabinets that were fitted with little […]
The Fight Against Highly Toxic Mercury in the Environment Has Just Begun
Bad for What Ails You
In one corner of the United States, mountain goats traipse across the fragile alpine flowers that speckle the snowline of Washington’s craggy Olympic Mountains. They look beautiful, but the goats don’t belong there. Seattle newspaperman E.B. Webster and his mountaineer club 80 years ago pushed to introduce the shaggy-bearded animals to the majestic mountains to […]
Pink flamingos are synonymous with Florida, just as tumbleweeds say “Nevada.” But did you know both are foreign species? Yup. Don't assume everything you see in the wild belongs there, even if it does become a state bird like the ring-necked pheasant in South Dakota. “I'm fascinated by the way so many exotic species become […]
