Journal & Essays
The Driftless Region refused to be flattened by the glaciers. But even a landscape this resilient is fragile — and photography may be our most powerful tool for making sure people see what is worth protecting.
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Resilience is not a personality trait you either have or don't. It is a practice — and these six books, taken together, form one of the most honest reading lists I know for building it.
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✦ Guest VoiceStanding in tallgrass with wind moving through the stems, Gary Kurtz reflects on prairie restoration, Indigenous stewardship, and the quiet act of learning to listen — to the land, and to each other.
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✦ Guest VoiceWater is a perfect test of the balance between private gain and public cost. From frac sand mining in Winona County to the Gulf dead zone, the math of who pays — and who profits — is never abstract.
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Resilience is not a policy or a program. It begins inside each of us — and ripples outward into the communities and ecosystems we are part of.
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What if we treated every street as a living system — one that manages water, supports biodiversity, and builds community at the same time?
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We are living in a moment of extraordinary material abundance and extraordinary civic poverty. What do we actually need, and what have we been sold?
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The karst landscape of the Driftless region is one of the most ecologically distinct places in North America. It is also one of the most threatened.
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Across the Upper Midwest, small cities are asking hard questions about their futures. The answers have less to do with economics than we think.
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The research is unambiguous: time outdoors is not a luxury or a childhood pastime — it is a biological necessity.
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We have more tools, more data, more options, and more noise than any generation before us. What do we actually want?
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After decades of single-use zoning, American cities are rediscovering what Jane Jacobs knew in 1961: streets that mix housing, commerce, and civic uses are more resilient, more equitable, and more alive.
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Native plant landscaping has moved from fringe to mainstream — but the reasoning behind it matters. This is not about aesthetics. It is about restoring the ecological relationships that make landscapes function.
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Duplexes, triplexes, courtyard apartments, and small apartment buildings once formed the backbone of American neighborhoods. Their near-disappearance from new construction is not an accident — it is the result of policy choices that can be reversed.
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Rain gardens, bioswales, permeable pavement, and constructed wetlands are not just environmental amenities. They are infrastructure — cheaper, more resilient, and more beautiful than the gray alternatives.
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