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Credit: NPS

The Value of a Backward Glance

In the summer of 1988, massive fires swept across Yellowstone National Park. At the time, alarmist news coverage questioned whether the landscape would ever recover. Now, 25 years later, scientists have learned a great deal about the significance and the complexity of fire’s potential impact on an ecosystem. Thoughts on the challenges of interpreting landscape-scale stories that go beyond soundbites as well as the importance of learning from history and change over time.

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Landscapes in Passing

The end of summer, the season of road trips and family vacations, cross-country moves and college drop-offs, is a fitting moment to reflect on how highways and automobiles have changed the ways in which we view and interact with landscape. An exhibit currently at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Landscapes In Passing: Photographs by Steve Fitch, Robbert Flick, and Elaine Mayes,offers varied perspectives on this question as well as evocative views of the late 20th century United States.

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Adirondack Park: Landscape No Longer Contested

Has the time come for the Adirondack Park to be “inspirational, educational, recreational, ecological and economically sustainable?” If so, what has changed in local and state politics to allow for such a transformation. Paul Bray explains how a contested landscape is now becoming collaborative.

Read More »
Credit: Brenda Barrett

Pennsylvania Hallowed Ground: A Landscape of Hope

Efforts are now underway in Pennsylvania to support the stewardship of more than 40 cemeteries where African American Civil War veterans were interred. This important project, Pennsylvania’s Hallowed Ground, builds on many years of work of by dedicated volunteers across the commonwealth. Learn more.

Read More »
Credit: NPS

The Value of a Backward Glance

In the summer of 1988, massive fires swept across Yellowstone National Park. At the time, alarmist news coverage questioned whether the landscape would ever recover. Now, 25 years later, scientists have learned a great deal about the significance and the complexity of fire’s potential impact on an ecosystem. Thoughts on the challenges of interpreting landscape-scale stories that go beyond soundbites as well as the importance of learning from history and change over time.

Read More »

Landscapes in Passing

The end of summer, the season of road trips and family vacations, cross-country moves and college drop-offs, is a fitting moment to reflect on how highways and automobiles have changed the ways in which we view and interact with landscape. An exhibit currently at the Smithsonian Museum of American Art, Landscapes In Passing: Photographs by Steve Fitch, Robbert Flick, and Elaine Mayes,offers varied perspectives on this question as well as evocative views of the late 20th century United States.

Read More »

Adirondack Park: Landscape No Longer Contested

Has the time come for the Adirondack Park to be “inspirational, educational, recreational, ecological and economically sustainable?” If so, what has changed in local and state politics to allow for such a transformation. Paul Bray explains how a contested landscape is now becoming collaborative.

Read More »
Credit: Brenda Barrett

Pennsylvania Hallowed Ground: A Landscape of Hope

Efforts are now underway in Pennsylvania to support the stewardship of more than 40 cemeteries where African American Civil War veterans were interred. This important project, Pennsylvania’s Hallowed Ground, builds on many years of work of by dedicated volunteers across the commonwealth. Learn more.

Read More »