More than a thousand years ago, Indigenous people created a vibrant community at Chaco Canyon, in what is modern-day New Mexico, where they celebrated spiritual traditions, observed the heavens using ancient observatories, and developed an urban center unlike any other. For more than 300 years, the people of Chaco worked extensive agricultural lands, built massive stone buildings containing hundreds of
I write from the most ordinary of places – from ordinary urban parks in an ordinary American city, Louisville, KY, located on perhaps the most ordinary river in the U.S., the Ohio River. I also sit on my screen porch in my urban/suburban backyard of trees and native plants. I’m on summer break from teaching, working on day-to-day tasks of
Recently, I was loaned a book. I was reading it outside, got distracted, and left it outside. That evening it rained and the book was ruined. I felt terrible. How do I make it right for the owner of the book? Even if I replace it, can I expect the owner to loan me another? Will I even ask? Stewardship
One hundred fifteen years ago Tuesday, June 8, then-President Theodore Roosevelt signed into law the Antiquities Act, allowing himself and future presidents to permanently protect certain unique and special public landscapes where we hunt, fish, farm, ranch, connect with and honor our land-based culture and heritage. Baseless arguments have sometimes been invented against national monuments. Opponents try to leverage the
Located just north of heavily developed Clearwater Beach, Florida, the Caladesi and Honeymoon Islands State Parks are the most visited parks in Florida — and for good reason. The islands boast pristine wildlife habitat, award winning beaches, and incredible hiking and kayaking trails. They are a birder’s paradise, a beautiful destination for family occasions and a fantastic place to seek
By Rev. Andrew Black “All I’m saying is simply this: that all life is interrelated, that somehow we’re caught in an inescapable network of mutuality tied in a single garment of destiny. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly. For some strange reason, I can never be what I ought to be until you are what you ought to be.
Stanley, age 7, on the top of his namesake mountain in Colorado, looking south into Clear Creek County. He was born on December 5th, and Mount Stanley has an elevation of 12,500 feet.
By: Ruby Gene Topple Hello! I’m a shoe, a hiking shoe to be exact. The giant who wears me says that my twin shoe and I are her favorite. She wears me everywhere, so much, it’s too many to count. I have so many precious memories, good and bad, you know… I think I’ll tell you a story now! Should
(3 nights/4 days ~28 Miles) – Sept 4 – 7, 2020 By Rev. Chester Craig Topple, Hospital Chaplain “A period recourse into the wilds is not a retreat into secret silent sanctums to escape a wicked world, it is to take breath amid effort to forge a better world.” – Benton MacKaye This pandemic period has certainly shifted much of
By: Rev. Andrew BlackMany have wondered what lengths the Trump administration would go to in its quest to turn our public lands over to oil and gas drilling – satisfying its so-called energy dominance agenda. It seems we have an answer: despite the fact that the Navajo Nation and many tribal communities have been disproportionately hit harder by the COVID-19