Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
Crosscut articles of the past 10 days with the most reader comments.
Crosscut blog posts of the past 10 days with the most clicks.
Posted Sun, Oct 4, 7:10 p.m.
The University of Washington's Nuclear Reactor Building has won a place on the National Historic Register, a key step in saving this wonderfully designed structure from demolition.
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Posted Wed, Sep 30, 6 a.m.
A memorable stay at a wilderness lodge in Denali National Park shows a rare example of faithfully carrying out the Park Service's mission of conserving wildlife unimpaired. For now.
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Posted Thu, Aug 13, 6 a.m.
When the North Cascades National Park was created in 1968, key lands were left out for reasons that no longer apply. There's a new push to add to the wildlands.
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Posted Tue, Jul 21, 6:03 a.m.
The author's toes still ache, 22 years later. And there was that Volkswagen-sized boulder speeding down the slope at 80 miles an hour.
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Posted Wed, Jun 24, 4 a.m.
Maritime advocates are looking to have Congress declare most of Washington's coastline, including Puget Sound, a National Heritage Area. It could be a boon for tourism, preservation, and the marine industry itself.
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Posted Fri, Apr 10, 6 a.m.
A new book looks at one spectacular legacy in the Colorado Plateau
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Posted Thu, Apr 9, 6 a.m.
Can a Pacific Northwest utopia be shaped on the shared belief that nature is sacred? This latest installment in a series on regional identity looks at the patron saint of the environmental movement, John Muir, and how his thinking informs the desire for a new, greener, and elusive entity some call Cascadia.
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Posted Tue, Apr 7, 6 a.m.
Seattle nominates the old home of the Klondike strike's originator as a landmark, but the debate over George Carmack's place in local history is far from settled, and landmark status is not assured.
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Posted Fri, Feb 27, 6 a.m.
A feisty newspaper that carried on the Edward Abbey tradition in Moab, Utah, is closing. It's a sign, along with too much good coffee, of change in the West.
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Posted Fri, Jan 23, 6 a.m.
A quick freeze puts a hold on such last-minute regulations as removing the grey wolf from the endangered list, lifting ban on guns in national parks, and expanding oil shale programs.
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Posted Mon, Dec 15, 6 a.m.
Lacking top figures in the Obama administration from the region, area environmentalists are linking forest and salmon issues to a cause Obama understands better: climate change.
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Posted Sun, Nov 9, 11:12 p.m.
Author Bruce Barcott, who wrote a book about the mountain, recounts the visible effects of climate shifts: plants growing higher up, melting glaciers releasing rocks and silt, climbing routes turning from ice to rock.
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Posted Mon, Oct 20, midnight
A new study reveals the changes wrought on Olympic National Park's ecosystem when the wolves disappeared, presenting a compelling argument for reintroducing them.
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Posted Tue, Sep 16, 4 a.m.
Lessons learned from the places where people, animals, and politics collide.
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Posted Mon, Jul 7, 5 a.m.
Portland and Seattle are among the top 10 "best-designed" urban areas, but Seattle ranks lower in part because of its record on historic preservation.
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Posted Thu, Jun 19, 5 a.m.
A new book collects scientific, personal, and poetic responses to Mount St. Helens, 28 years after its eruption.
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Posted Sat, Jun 14, 8 a.m.
Seattle's last old Pacific schooner is about to be dismantled. The Wawona's impending "death" this summer offers a lesson in the challenges of maritime preservation. It's a tough end for a landmark ship that people have worked so hard for so long to save.
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Posted Fri, Mar 21, 5 a.m.
While it's customary for Northwesterners to flock to the beach in summer, an off-season visit stays with you longer.
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Posted Wed, Mar 5, 5 a.m.
Some Northwest lawmakers have pushed the Bush administration to allow visitors to carry loaded guns in our national parks. It gives backpacking a whole new meaning.
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Posted Wed, Sep 12, 5 a.m.
Forget density, cities, and sprawl. Here in the West, we still have land that can swallow you whole, from Nevada's Bermuda Triangle to Oregon's ancient fossil beds.
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Posted Fri, Jun 5, 6 a.m.
The problems (frequent 100-year storms, closed roads, vanishing glaciers) are straining the systems. Some conferences begin to grapple with the immense consequences and trade-offs.
MOREPosted Thu, Dec 18, 6 a.m. 2008
A large group of environmental organizations send Obama suggestions for his first 200 days or undoing Bush policies and getting serious about modern forest protection.
MOREPosted Thu, Dec 18, noon 2008
The office has attracted scoundrels who shamelessly favored private resource interests. Also, it's become a chance for presidents to make a political statement.
MOREPosted Thu, Sep 11, 5 p.m. 2008
You may have read in late August that Hanford's B reactor was granted National landmark status by the U.S government. The B reactor was the world's first full-scale nuclear reactor and it helped drive the famed Manhattan Project. It produced the plutonium used for the first atomic test blast and for the bomb the U.S. dropped on Nagasaki, Japan. The deserved designation offers a hook to check on what's going on with the University of Washington's own historic Nuclear Reactor Building (More Hall Annex) in Seattle. It was slated for demolition this summer while it was also up for national register consideration. So, what happened?
MOREPosted Sun, Aug 31, 5 a.m. 2008
There's little question that Seattle was put on the map by the Klondike Gold Rush. The man credited with setting off that rush, George W. Carmack, spent the last dozen years of his life living in a big Colonial Revival home in what is now Seattle's Central District. The National Park Service says the George Carmack House is fit for the National Register, but it may be too late. A for sale banner hangs on it today touting the property as a 4,800-foot lot ripe for redevelopment.
MOREPosted Mon, Aug 11, 5 p.m. 2008
I couldn't help but laugh at this bold headline on CNN.com: "Gravity, erosion rob Utah park of popular arch." Why so funny? There wouldn't even be an Arches National Park if it wasn't for gravity and erosion. In fact, many of the West's most popular parks are monuments to gravity and erosion (think the Grand Canyon for one).
MOREPosted Tue, Jul 22, 2:07 p.m. 2008
Remember when everyone thought Democratic congressional candidate Darcy Burner wasn't going to get extra money from the party to beat U.S. Rep. Dave Reichert, R-Auburn? Well, think again. The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee has "reserved $949,000 of air time to boost Burner's campaign." Here's the reaction from the right-wingers at Sound Politics. ...
MOREPosted Mon, Jul 14, 3:09 p.m. 2008
Timber! The Seattle Times has a series of special reports about the lack of oversight in the logging industry and the cost to state taxpayers. According to the report, no one checked when Weyerhaeuser started clear-cutting unstable slopes, some of which eventually slid and cost millions of dollars to clean up. Naturally, David Goldstein at Horse's Ass blames Republican-led deregulation. ... MORE
