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Rants from the Hill: Arid Lands Bibliopedestrianism

By Michael Branch / On September 9th, 2013
I’ll admit that those of us who live in remote desert places tend to be idiosyncratic, though it is unclear to me whether the weird are attracted to the wild, dry country or if we are instead sculpted by it. And when you live in relative isolation—and in a physical environment that conspires with that isolation to scour away affectation and superfluity—you discover some odd things about yourself, among which is that you are odd.
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Why I listen to Talk Radio: Confessions of a Mediator

By Lucy Moore / On August 13th, 2013
I am a talk radio addict. I listen to everything, including certain hosts you wouldn’t expect someone of my persuasion to listen to. I am fascinated both by hosts and callers, what they say, how they express themselves, what they are afraid of and what they are proud of. As a mediator of public policy and natural resource disputes I encounter all kinds at the negotiating table, and by hearing this range of random voices on the radio I can get a glimpse into what makes these people tick.
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Giving and Taking: Images and Nature

By Rafe Sagarin / On August 6th, 2013
Once again I’m promoting science writer Michelle Nijhuis, this time for a little piece in The New Yorker on the history of the daguerreotype, an early type of photographic technique.  What I like about the piece is it makes me imagine what it might have been like at that dawn of a new technology, to think about the possibilities of what could happen by merging observation, art, and technology.  It’s hard to say this early technology wa
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Relaxation and the Mediator

By Lucy Moore / On June 11th, 2013
This is a rare moment of relaxation for an environmental mediator. Several years ago I was plunged into the war over aircraft noise at Grand Canyon. For decades environmentalists and recreation interests had been pushing Congress and the courts for some regulations on the air tours over the Canyon. They yearned for quiet in which to enjoy and contemplate the wonders of this world-famous site. Certain favorite trails were directly under the flight pattern of the helicopters and fixed wing planes that offered tourists a spectacular experience, viewing the Canyon from the air.
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A Conversation on Art & Environment with Rafe Sagarin

By Admin / On May 10th, 2013
Observation and Ecology author Rafe Sagarin discusses art and the environment with poet Eric Magrane from the University of Arizona. Eric Magrane: Rafe, you write and speak about observation, most pointedly in your bookObservation and Ecology, with Aníbal Pauchard. I’d like to discuss the way that observation interacts as a hinge between science—and particularly environmental science—as a way of seeing and understanding the world, and art as a way of seeing.
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Island Press Staff Picks

By Admin, Jason Leppig / On December 12th, 2012
This week’s pick is from Lauren Koshere: “How’s the Park lookin’ these days,” asks a gravelly voice on the other end of the telephone line, “after they let those fires ruin the place?” As a reservations agent for in Yellowstone National Park, I answer hundreds of questions a day. But few guests’ questions refer to the Yellowstone fires of 1988. Fewer still reflect such disapproval about the management of those fires.

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