Step 1. Get yourself a snake. Preferably a dead one, on the fresh side. The Pacific gopher snake (Pituophis catenifer catenifer) in this post is from road kill. I could never kill a snake because I’m a snake worshipper, but if I…
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When I received the alert that Ian Irwin (72) and Carol Kiparsky (77) had disappeared on Valentine’s Day in Inverness, I was sick with worry. I live less than two miles from where they were last seen. Were they lost…
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This morning our road was blocked by tree workers, trucks, and chippers, and I could not get my son to his class. I had received no notification that this work was being done, and so had not made any arrangements…
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As a child, I was inherently wild. There were no computers or cell phones in the old days, and I spent my time outside immersed in nature. I was an inquisitive creature fascinated by everything that moved, and I enjoyed…
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Dec 21st, 2014. I walk to Kehoe beach with my son. A winter storm is raging from the northwest, blurring the boundary of sky and sea. We have the place to ourselves. The tide is out, but the wind carries…
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Not so long ago the people – our ancestors – lived in close relationship with the land. They knew the names of the plants, trees, stones, mountains, valleys and streams. They knew the names of the wind and the rain,…
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One of the steps towards building community resilience in the Transition Towns movement is to “Honor the Elders.” When I first learned about this, I thought it meant that we needed to listen carefully to the stories of the old…
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My home, the Point Reyes National Seashore, recently announced plans to control invasive weeds in the park through the use of broad spectrum herbicides, specifically Roundup. They claim that this is the most environmentally appropriate and cost-effective option to restore endangered plants…
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When I took the California Naturalist Training program a few years ago, I focused my capstone project on the problem of non-native invasive plants in the Lagunitas watershed. I had been volunteering for the Salmon Protection and Watershed Network working to restore…
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Not so long ago our people knew how to weave cloth, bake bread, build shelter, forge tools, and grow food. Goods were crafted with care and skill, treasured and re-used. Services were honored and respected. People took pride in their…
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