OPINION | FRAN ALEXANDER: Invasives are the bullies of the plant world
It's spring and sap is rising. Unfortunately, so is my temper. This happens every year as the joyful spread of early wildflowers begins to cover the landscape …
It's spring and sap is rising. Unfortunately, so is my temper. This happens every year as the joyful spread of early wildflowers begins to cover the landscape …
Recently a newcomer to Northwest Arkansas contacted me to talk about environmental organizations and issues. It's pretty exciting when someone actually holds a…
"A staggering loss that suggests the very fabric of North America's ecosystem is unraveling."
Rather than resolutions for a new year, we might be better off to recall some well-chosen words as guides in making sense of this world and our fellow beings.
"History is a vast early warning system."
When your cup runneth over, looketh out!
What's in a name? There is a lot to dig out of The Nature Conservancy's name, but by playing with Latin and joining "con," (meaning "together") and "serve" (me…
"... European newcomers saw the land as an enemy to be vanquished. The Indians saw the prairie and forests as a benefactor, and they practiced a benign tenancy…
"Money wasn't as important to her as flowers."
Roads shrouded by tree canopies, rock houses and spring-fed creeks of wading depth are some of my favorite things. All three merge into one special short stret…
"Dedicated to the future, that we who live in these hills and valleys will always know what came before us."
"He has to learn the force of air and the pull of wind and the feel of freedom."
Why don't they just burn it?" some folks ask, mistakenly believing fire is the logical answer to trash accumulation, especially when landfills become mountains.
"Yeah, no, absolutely" is a response I've yet to translate into a logical answer for anything, but I'm trying. I understand that "yeah" means "yes," and the ad…
When he was a young boy, Fayetteville mayor Lioneld Jordan and his friends would collect the porcupine-like burrs of the Ozark Chinquapin and hammer the husks …
Invasive species: Any species not indigenous to a region, which becomes established and displaces native species.
Once upon a time in Arkansas there lived a political cartoonist named George Fisher. Proposals by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for damming (thereby damning…
What to do when you want to dig dirt or blast rocks, and the neighbors have problems with that? Seemingly, politics to the rescue -- again.
When I was a kid, my mother showed no mercy if she construed I was staring at someone who seemed different or who had a disability. She would have taken our fo…
"From the free-flowing waters of the Buffalo River to the rolling hills of the Ozark Mountains, Arkansas is proud to be the Natural State and enjoy clean air, …
Charred and hanging in downward cupped positions, like ballerinas expressing sadness or despair, the skeletal arms of the giant sequoias dangle on the hillside…
My dad called my mother "Madame Queen," not in a teasing, chiding or derogatory way, but more to acknowledge her status in our family unit. There were only thr…
Once upon a time a frog sitting on a lily pad noticed it was getting larger, in fact doubling in size each day. His floating platform would cover the pond in 3…
One of the great conundrums about humans is our frequent refusal to accept the fact that water runs downhill. We tend to fight its natural progression, which I…
This is a busy week for citizen input on a couple of major Fayetteville decisions. The options here are probably similar to other civic choices being made else…
Once upon a time, I had a literature professor who said there are only a couple of stories people tell. Writers just move around the characters, locations and …
I've looked at life from both sides now
Last week I got what seemed at first to be a very strange phone call. Lease hounds, also called landmen, have traditionally been people in search of mineral ri…
First it was the screech-scream from overhead that yanked our attention upward. Then, a large bird sliced by us on its way, perhaps, to terrorize smaller critt…
"At some point, they will try again. "
The "start fresh" feeling that spring brings us each year is not completely due to flowers blooming and birds singing. Sometimes we have to do some of the fres…
Flying over our country's mid-section provides a bird's eye view of how we newcomers have reshaped this land in just a few centuries. Looking down, we can see …
"We must dare to think 'unthinkable thoughts. We must learn to explore all of the options and possibilities that confront us in a complex and rapidly changing …
"'Love thy neighbor as thyself' isn't just about Homo sapiens."
This is one of those "heads-up!" articles to remind us the holidays are now over and it's again time to closely watch the mechanisms and manipulations of those…
But we do not live in the past. ...
When I choose from the top of the teetering tower of books in my to-be-read stack, I am rarely reading them in a just-released timely order. Not surprisingly, …
"At least we had an asteroid. What's your excuse?"
"You all come to us young people for hope. How dare you? You have stolen my dreams and my childhood with your empty words."
To be environmentally aware is like being in a rapidly sinking boat with only a thimble for bailing. Sometimes, however, a small ray of hope is tossed our way.
"Water is the driving force of all nature."
When Samuel Coleridge wrote, "Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink," in his poem, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner," he wove the story of a grizzled…
It will probably come as no surprise to anyone that I grew up in a tree. Well, not every waking hour, of course, but let's just say if my mother was looking fo…
We assume they'll always be there, that they'll stand by us through thick and thin, that they're the definition of strength. However, this year's freezing weat…
"Ecology isn't rocket science; it's much more difficult."
"Nothing is safe when the legislature is in session," is a mantra moaned every two years when watching lawmakers slash and burn social and environmental protec…
Cupping hands into a cold spring and bringing drink up to mouths was as fundamental to the first humans as finding food. As our ancestors and the world changed…
"Public lands in Arkansas are the great equalizer. A place where a millionaire and a poor man can share a cup of coffee, a tree, and a conversation. They're a …
Repeated three times, the urgency of "Mayday" is known as a distress call used in life-threatening emergencies. Derived from the French word "m'aider," it mean…
Have you ever looked out the window and instead of the view you're used to, you're staring at a bulldozer? When you learn it is there to widen your street or c…