Recently, I stumbled across an astonishing place, one where beauty has emerged from a surprising source. In the Los Angeles basin, where water is ever a precious resource, a traditional Japanese garden filled with ponds and streams takes as its source sewage from hundreds of thousands of households. In the 1980s, Donald C. Tillman, an […]
Water
Nothing that is big or grand starts out that way
In the past month, I have twice threaded my way east through the Selkirk and Purcell mountains to travel across the mysterious landscape of river-beginnings. In the Rocky Mountain Trench, the Kootenay River starts on the West Slope of the Rockies, tumbling down to wind along the broad valley. Here, too, begins the great Columbia […]
From Sea to Source
Yesterday found me speaking at the Columbia River Maritime Museum in Astoria, Oregon. It was a fulfilling moment – sharing the story of the impact of Columbia River Treaty storage dams located in the headwaters region, with people who live at its mouth. After my talk, I drove out to the edge of the continent, […]
Water in a dry land
I leave Topanga Canyon at dawn. When I pull over and step from the car, the call of birds litters the dimly lit scrub forest. Lights from the densely populated LA Basin twinkle in the distance. On the cusp of day and night; metropolis and canyon, nature is alive. I head north on I-5, climbing […]
Full Flowering and the Columbia River Treaty
The last time my life was as busy as it has been this spring was the year my second son came into the world. That sunny, damp day in mid-March 26 years ago set off a whirl of caregiving for family that only began to abate in 2002, when my first book emerged in the […]
An Eagle’s Eye
Last week, I travelled south of the international boundary, to Kettle Falls, Washington. Standing on a bluff overlooking the Columbia River, I watched the reservoir pool around a land mass exposed by low water. The indigenous word for this place is ksunkw, “island.” Sinixt and Skoyelpi fishermen, their families and the Salmon Chief once spent […]