Unearthed

At the Hotel Taselotzin, located in the scenic Eastern Sierras, you"ll find local women doing the bookkeeping, managing, marketing and organic gardening for their own internationally acclaimed eco-tourism project.

Conservationists and most butterfly breeders want the same thing; healthy, robust butterflies populating the Earth. Yet, heated opposition divides the two camps. Conservationists believe the ceremonial release of farmed butterflies has an unknown potential to negatively impact native species. Breeders believe their business not only enables a magical moment with nature, but helps to increase butterfly populations.

In the 1930s, Robert Moses, New York City’s master planner, stripped Harlem of open space land along the Hudson River, replacing public access to the waterfront with the West Side Highway. In rather sharp contrast, Moses’ engineers simultaneously created Riverside Park further south for the benefit of the white middle class. Seventy years later, the […]

At Connecticut’s Weston High School, in a small town where cars rule and pedestrians are in danger, the most important rite of passage is getting a driver’s license. "Having wheels" in Weston, as in many other suburban towns, means freedom from dependence on the dreaded soccer mom.Weston’s two-acre zoning, paired with a near-total absence of public transit, results in an inefficient series of residential cul-de-sacs with three-car family garages.

Picking over the produce in their local store, shoppers scrutinize fruit for its color, skin, shape and smell. But how many really take a good look at the label? Maybe they should. Courtesy of Mothers & Others “People subconsciously count on farmers like me to grow products that are okay to eat,” says Peter TenEyck […]

The land that surrounds Yellowstone National Park is famous for its mountain vistas and wide open spaces, for its trout fishing and wildlife viewing opportunities. But as population shifts and development patterns bring in more people to a region popularly known as America’s Serengeti, the outskirts of the nation’s original national park are looking more […]

Message from Seattle to Miami: Give us back our whale.

When Richard Metteer began publicly pitching his vision for raising hundreds of thousands of hogs amidst some of Alaska’s most treasured ecosystems, he was met with protests from a diverse coalition of area residents.

Ironically, China’s only real dragon—the Chinese alligator—may become extinct in the wild in 2000, otherwise known as the Year of the Dragon. One of only two remaining alligator species in the world, this reptile has the dubious distinction of being the planet’s most endangered species. The Chinese alligator—called “Tu Long” or “earth dragon”—and the mythical […]

The Mapimí Biosphere Reserve is a loosely defined 425,000-acre expanse of land in the center of Mexico’s Chihuahua Desert. It’s home to at least 300 vascular plants, 30 types of cacti and 249 vertebrate species, including mountain lions, bobcats and weasels. Much to the chagrin of Reserve scientists, however, it’s also a destination for hundreds of tourists with no interest at all in the natural environment.