One’s sense of powerlessness these days can stretch wide and deep, from Washington to Uvalde, around the world and back. By comparison, the struggles of a small citizen’s group in Southern Oregon to hold a reckless farmer accountable seem tiny. For those of us caught in the fray, though, they have been consuming. When I moved from Brooklyn to Ashland …

Image from NASA’s Worldview software of actively burning fires.  “Reports of our inadequate response to the climate emergency roll in as regularly as the tides,” David Remnick writes in this week’s New Yorker. The latest came from the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), telling us that the crisis is getting worse even faster than we’d imagined. It’s hard to envision …

“Alone in my Oregon studio, the world rushes in and I have a compelling need to give form to the local and global events reshaping our lives,” Ashland artist Betty LaDuke says in the introduction to the catalog of her newest work. Her exhibit, Fires, Fury & Resilience, opens this week at the Grants Pass Museum of Art north of …

On March 12th, Oregon’s mask mandate ends. In a world at war—in Ukraine, in our own democracy, in a planet of rising seas and burning forests—dropping our pandemic masks raises a sigh of relief, though our hearts are broken still. For years I have turned to poetry, as some of you may too, for perspective on darkness and resilience. Sometimes, …

Local reservoir levels, 2.13.22 (Rogue Basin, Jackson County Watermaster) The view of the Rogue Valley from Grizzly Peak, a spot named for the last known grizzly bear in Oregon, is nothing short of amazing. The Siskiyou Mountains flank one side, the Cascades the other, Mount Shasta looms in the distance, and rolling grasslands descend to the valley floor. As the …

A week before Christmas, Mt. Ashland Ski Resort, 20 miles south of downtown Ashland, kicked off its 2021-22 ski season.  Opening Day on this small mountain is an outsized affair. Enthusiasts grab every parking space long before the lifts begin to vibrate. By tradition, folks dressed in “onesies” (one-piece snowsuits) ski for $25. Skiers who have not seen each other for …

Tony and I began our cross-country trip this past August in the far northeast corner of Oregon, home of the Wallowa Mountains. Known as the “Alps of Oregon,” they offer grand views and long trails. We’d also come, though, to learn more about the Wallowa logging community of Maxville, where African-American and White loggers worked side by side in the 1920’s …