Columns
Guest Editorial by Alison Hawthorne Deming, with audio
A gargantuan storm gathered in the Atlantic this fall, a hurricane sweeping two winter storms into its galactic arms. New York City took a major hit. I happened at the time to be on Grand Manan Island watching the Bay of Fundy churn, the surf rake rock against rock on the Castalia shore in front of my home.
By Deborah Fries
When I drive by it on my way to the post office, or coming back from Target, I never look too long. I am vaguely aware that the natural environment is in the process of reclaiming the built, that the trees, covered with vines, have taken on that rounded, gumdrop look that occurs in wild, abandoned places; that the building has become a kind of rock face we pass, an escarpment of the romantic past, rising up out of high grass. I pass it like a cemetery.
By Ken Pirie
In a graduate planning course I teach, I try to encourage students to learn about the physical structure of cities, through deep exploration of the layers of urban history, culture, and nature as well as the more prosaic details of things such as utility lines and street dimensions.
By David Rothenberg, with video
Last summer I ran across so many examples of Ruin and Renewal I hardly know where to start. So I’ll just tell you about two wondrous places I’ve seen, that may or may not have anything to do with one another. You be the judge.
By Simmons B. Buntin, with photo gallery
On Mount St. Helens recovery is a four-letter word. Considering its context, that seems a bit harsh. After all, this is a place where pyroclastic flows of 1,500 degrees Fahrenheit are, geologically speaking, a regular occurrence; where disturbance ecologists measure mycorrhiza efficacy by the micrometer over a vast plain of pumice and ash; where the avalanche lily, despite its tough-guy name, hasn’t bounced back.