My family arrived in Ohio from Jamaica in the mid-1970s, during a time of environmental turmoil. The previous decade had brought to light significant issues around the treatment of land and water in the United States. The Cuyahoga River, which flows into Lake Erie, caught fire in 1969 due to… Read More
“To change someone’s behavior, there must be rewards,” says Lizzy Plotkin. Her voice is earthy, grounded, easy and full of conviction. Horns honk, people talk, buses drive and a city thrives in the background, but she doesn’t sound like part of the chaos; she is instead superimposed into the scene. Read More
Leah Penniman is the cofounder of Soul Fire Farm in Grafton, New York, where she works toward her commitment “to ending racism and injustice in our food system by increasing farmland stewardship by people of color, promoting equity in food access and training the next generation of… Read More
A round of applause and a hurrah of thanks for President Donald Trump: he’s finally bringing the Endangered Species Act (ESA) the attention it deserves! Last fall, the president announced a number of administrative “rule changes” to the ESA, changes that may sound trivial, but which attack… Read More
Three years ago, on December 28, 2016, President Obama used his executive power under the Antiquities Act to establish the 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National Monument. This was the first time that tribal sovereign nations allied to petition the president for a national monument designation. The Hopi Tribe, the Navajo… Read More
Activism doesn’t have to be all wonk and politics. The townspeople of Crested Butte, Colorado, show us that when you’re fighting for what you love, you can still have fun. At one point on our way toward Red Lady’s summit, Julie Nania stops in her favorite aspen grove as we… Read More
In Japan, it is possible to simultaneously stand both in a cultivated field and under a solar array. A group of engineers and entrepreneurs developed a model whereby solar panels can be installed on top of existing farmland and still allow the required amount of sunlight to reach the crops… Read More
In the Arctic, Gwich’in youth are learning that protecting land means preserving a way of life. On Alaska’s North Slope, where polar bears den and gray wolves howl, protecting the land isn’t about supporting a cause or posting on social media from a protest at city hall. Here, it’s a… Read More
Lately, Jasper Pääkkönen has been struggling to maintain his fish-life balance: high-profile acting projects keep interfering with days spent on the water. Pääkkönen had been working, and winning awards, as an actor in Finland long before recent roles on the television series Vikings and in Spike Lee’s BlacKkKlansman brought him international… Read More
As seen in the November 2019 Journal. For the recipe behind Carston’s Spicy Magic Sauce, scroll to the end of the story. Although my tongue felt as if it might melt, Carston Oliver assured me I was not, in fact, going to die. “That’s just the capsaicin,”… Read More
Eric “EB Extreme” Brown scurries up the root wad, surveying the devastation that once was Cougar Ridge Trail. Located on the east side of Lake Whatcom, east of Bellingham, Washington, “Cougar” was once an unsanctioned downhiller trail scheduled for closure. Now it’s one of the area’s premier—and legal—rides. This section,… Read More
