Like aliens in a horror movie, the velvet tree of Mexico and whistling frog of Puerto Rico are viewed as monster invaders on the Hawaiian Islands, repulsive things that threaten the native forests and disturb the locals' peace of mind. In a state with 5,300 invasive species, the most feared is miconia aka "the purple plague" and "the tree that ate Tahiti." Its huge purple and green leaves layer two stories high, blocking the sun and snuffing out the mosses and ferns below. Unlike other trees, miconia cannot hold the soil. On Tahiti, it is a "green cancer" that has taken over 75 percent of ... Read More
Measuring How Hard ‘Old Growth’ Takes it on the Chin
January 14, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Two hours north of Seattle, a quick exit off I-5 brings you within striking distance of some of this country's last remaining old-growth forests. Here, in season, a wide swath of farmland is normally rife with raspberries, tulips and potatoes, but with summer now only a vague notion, in the distance, the massive North Cascades mountain range shows signs of fresh snow. There, for miles along the bottom of a meandering glacial stream, lies a healthy stand of old-growth Douglas fir, Western hemlock and Western red cedar. Such hauntingly majestic stands of old growth were commonplace when ... Read More
Elegant Solutions in Eco Dream Home
January 8, 2010 • By • Leave a Comment
Located on a thin slice of land between the Santa Ynez Mountains and the Pacific Ocean, California's Montecito is home to a few movie star mansions. However, most of the homes in the area are a modest mixture of closely spaced coastal homes and more remote — and as it turned out, flammable — mountain homes, some not much more than improved-upon cabins. That used to be the case for Ken Radtkey and his wife, Susan Van Atta, who for 10 years lived in an un-insulated 800-square-foot cottage on a wooded mountain lot. Just before last year's Tea Fire burned a 2,000-acre swath of Montecito and ... Read More
A Visit to Dirty Snow Cones National Park
October 31, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Like the long tail of a sleeping dragon, northwestern Montana's jagged peaks snake their way across several hundred square miles of ancient glacial plains. At first glance, this slice of the Northern Rockies, with its massive flanks carpeted by Douglas fir, spruce and lodgepole pine, looks perfectly healthy. But above the tree line, decades of regional warming has taken its toll on the ecosystem's glaciers and permanent snowpacks. At summer's end, even from a distance of 60 miles, the mountainous eastern slope of Glacier National Park resembles a chain of dirty snow cones. "The Little ... Read More
Greywater Dominoes
October 13, 2009 • By • 2 Comments
In the mountains above Santa Barbara, Calif., streams run nearly dry for much of the year. The one running through an area known as the San Marcos Trout Club, however, is a bit different. Even in the dry heat of summer, deep pools of cool water swirl in their sandstone basins as it wends through the little nook on its way to the ocean. For Art Ludwig, founder of Oasis Design — a family-run ecological design company covering everything from water delivery and disposal to permaculture — the spot is more than just a peaceful getaway and outdoor office near his home; it provides inspiration ... Read More
A Victory for the ‘Water Underground’
October 13, 2009 • By • 1 Comment
Plagued by drought and homeowner recalcitrance, California building officials last summer relaxed the rules for greywater use, allowing residents to hook up their washing machines to garden hoses without a permit ... because they were doing it anyway. On Aug. 4, the California Building Standards Commission effectively caught up with an eco-revolution that began here 20 years ago during the last drought. In 1989, the County of Santa Barbara became the first agency in the United States to change its building codes and legalize the use of household greywater — the slightly dirty wastewater ... Read More
Planetary Boundaries? Go Ask the Romans
October 4, 2009 • By • 2 Comments
At the turn of the century, atmospheric chemist Paul Crutzen introduced a new phrase for the current age: Anthropocene. It was a nod to the "Holocene," the geologic term for the existing time period that began about 12 millennia ago; it substituted the prefix "anthropo-" to reflect humankind's impact on the planet. Like all scientific terms, Anthropocene is ostensibly a neutral coinage to reflect the scale of change that human activity has had on the geologic landscape. But in reality, it's anything but a compliment. Now Crutzen, a professor at Germany's Max Planck Institute for ... Read More
Divining the Secret of Deformed Roadkill
September 14, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Hard as it is to be a voice in the wilderness, Judy Hoy has been sounding an alarm in southwestern Montana for more than 13 years. For years she's been documenting, through autopsies, photos, articles and scientific papers, changes — mutations, really — she's observed in various ungulate species in the valley. In particular, she's seen malformed genitalia among male white-tailed deer. Such observations are not unique. More and more scientists are documenting reproductive changes in male animals ranging from cricket frogs to polar bears. But the response from public health and ... Read More
Bumblebees for Crash Avoidance
August 27, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
Back in the 20th century, seatbelts and crash resistant materials were critical components of auto safety. Now engineers at Nissan Motor Company are implementing a bigger-picture approach by mimicking the world's best collision avoiders, bumblebees. By integrating the oval-shaped personal space used by bees, Nissan's "Safety Shield" technology is being developed to allow vehicles to instantly change direction when a crash is imminent. Its testing mechanism, a robotic mini-car known as the BR23C, rotates much like a bee does to dodge barriers and obstacles. Moreover, it imitates the insect's ... Read More
50 Years After America’s Worst Nuclear Meltdown
August 24, 2009 • By • Leave a Comment
For Release Saturday A.M., August 29, 1959 CANOGA PARK, CA "During an inspection of fuel elements on July 26 at the Sodium Reactor Experiment, operated for the Atomic Energy Commission at Santa Susana, California by Atomics International, a division of North American Aviation, Inc., a parted fuel element was observed. The fuel element damage is not an indication of unsafe reactor conditions. No release of radioactive materials to the plant or its environs occurred and operating personnel were not exposed to harmful conditions... In each case, all seven tubes of the fuel element ... Read More
