To borrow a few lines from Joni Mitchell’s arguably most famous song, “Don’t it always seem to go / That you don’t know what you got / ’Til it’s gone / They paved paradise / And put up a parking lot.” However when it comes to Idaho’s Silver Valley district, a century of mining for […]
When it comes to the recounting of history, the focus has traditionally been on either wars or politics. However when it comes to places like the American west, the land itself has played as much a part in shaping what happened there – and indeed what is still happening – as either of these two traditional foci.
When it comes to environmental disasters in the United States, few can match the mess that was made in Idaho’s Coeur d’Alene Mining District—the “Silver Valley”—between 1885 to 1981. Indeed, to this day, and likely for decades to come, nearly a century of unrestrained lead, zinc, and silver mining in this once magnificently forested part of the western U.S. will leave the region’s land and people to bear the burden of an untold host of problems.
Trees have been a particularly popular subject among new natural history books this past year. It’s a trend I’m very glad to see. For when it comes to forms of life that allow us to learn more about our planets ecosystems, the long life cycles of trees are particularly helpful in bearing witness to changes.