rivers and watersheds
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Who knew river restoration could be so much fun?
As far as the North Fork of the Gunnison River in western Colorado is concerned, there’s good news and there’s bad news. On one hand, it drains one of the most beautiful valleys on the planet — its headwaters tumble from the Ragged and West Elk mountains into the broad, gentle North Fork Valley. The […]
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Preaching the gospel of ecotourism
Costas Christ has a knack for handling sticky situations. I got a glimpse of this as I was making my way home from an ecotourism conference in Senegal in the early 1990s. Along with a number of other conference participants, I was stuck in the airport in the capital city of Dakar. For some unknown […]
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A plea to save one of America's great rivers
For more than 25 years, the Missouri River has been like a member of my family. Whether we were backpacking the Lolo Trail in Idaho, camping at Lemhi Pass on the Montana border, or canoeing through one of many thunderstorms, the Missouri River has brought my wife, children, and me together in more ways than […]
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Dead in the Water
Here’s a story of the global economy at its worst and maybe also at its best. Early this month a cry of alarm came over email from my friend Zoltan Lontay in Hungary. The Hungarian news had just announced an enormous fish kill in the Szamos river on that country’s eastern border. A wave of […]
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Trouble Right Here in River City
5,270 large dams blocked rivers in 1950 36,500 large dams block rivers today 17 percent of U.S. rivers are currently dammed 600,000 miles of rivers in the U.S. have been impounded behind dams 235,000 miles of rivers in the U.S. have been channelized 25,000 miles of rivers in the U.S. have been dredged for navigation […]
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Who Consumes the Most?
Singapore, Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, United States, Norway. Those are the world’s five top nations, in descending order, in — well, what category would you guess? If you say income per capita, you’re close, but no cigar. Since the 1985 oil price crash, the Middle East no longer dominates the list of the world’s richest […]
