The United States of Anxiety As always, if you find value in this work I do, please consider helping me keep it sustainable by joining my weekly newsletter, � Sparky’s List! � You can get it in your inbox or read it on Patreon,

oh hey it’s a wacky new cartoon of no particular relevance to anything this morning www.dailykos.com/stories/2026...

Manitou Experimental Forest’s 90th anniversary will be celebrated May 8; damn better be a 91st!!

‘On a whole other level’: rapid snow melt-off in American west stuns scientists Experts say brutal March heat has left critical snowpack at record-low levels – and key basins in uncharted territory

We just got off a 6-day float on the Yampa River in NW Colorado, probably high water for the year maybe? We thought we'd be scrapping rocks a lot more than we did, and beautiful warm weather. Going to be an interesting summer! www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026...

And with a potentially terrible fire season coming up across the central Rockies this summer; snowpack is horrible so far.

America Needs Wildland Firefighters More than Ever, but Attrition Is at Record Levels Highly skilled firefighters are the last line of defense against wildfires, but that line is fraying because the government decided long ago that they’re not worth very much

“It Feels Impossible to Stay”: The U.S. Needs Wildland Firefighters More than Ever, but the Federal Government Is Losing Them
www.outsideonline.com/outdoor-adve...

We can move beyond the capitalist model and save the climate – here are the first three steps | Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis Capitalism cares about our species’ prospects as much as a wolf cares about a lamb’s. But democratise our economy and a better world is within our grasp, say Jason Hickel and Yanis Varoufakis

"After all, we are the producers of the goods, the services, the technologies. It is our labour and our planet’s resources that are at stake. And so we must claim the right to decide what is produced, how, and for what purpose."
www.theguardian.com/environment/...

I actually worked on some Callitris years ago for Val LaMarche’s S hemisphere project. I’ll look that old one up, I need more from the south for Oldlist!

Hi Pauline, excellent question, and no we did not consider those at all. I’ve not included any in my Oldlist, mainly due to questions of dating continuity of genets between living and remnants. But a ripe area of study for sure!

Thanks Steve! I do need to modernize the list someday soon…

Lots of old trees! Thanks to Roel and all for the great analysis.

At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich | George Monbiot There are many excuses for failing to tax the ultra-wealthy. The truth is that governments don’t tackle the problem because they don’t want to, says Guardian columnist George Monbiot

At the root of all our problems stands one travesty: politicians’ surrender to the super-rich, says @georgemonbiot.bsky.social

- 0.001% of the global population (56,000 ppl) have three times more wealth than the poorest half of humanity (4,000,000,000 ppl)

www.theguardian.com/commentisfre...

Recently seen in Redwall Cavern on a 30-day Grand Canyon raft trip…

USDA Forest Service publications page with message that the shutdown is the Dems fault...

These motherfuckers...

Another excellent example of “break shit and fuck the consequences” of this fucking administration…

Firefighters claim their own management team set them up for DHS harassment and arrests Yet another basic government task collapses into chaos, distrust, and apparent sabotage.

Some more info on the firefighter arrests by ICE by Hunter on UnchartedBlue; "Yet another basic government task collapses into chaos, distrust, and apparent sabotage." www.unchartedblue.com/firefighters...

In England do they call it a froot?

Completely unacceptable!

“I’ve never wished a man dead, but I’ve read some obituaries with great pleasure.” Clarence Darrow

Biomass production of tropical trees across space and time: The shifting roles of diameter growth and wood density Diameter growth is an important and good indicator of forest carbon production. However, size-related changes in wood density, which are usually neglected, are critical for accurate short- and long-t...

#Tree stems accumulate biomass by adding volume of certain density. Which factor is more important?

Using tropical #treering data we found: diameter increment explains biomass growth at short term; wood density at long term.🌎🌐🍁
#dendrochronology
besjournals.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...

Intensifying Fire Season Aridity Portends Ongoing Expansion of Severe Wildfire in Western US Forests Area burned by wildfire has increased in western US forests over recent decades. However, high-severity fire—fire that kills all or most trees—is also an important metric of fire activity given its d...

1/4
Please see our new paper just published in Global Change Biology: “Intensifying fire season aridity portends ongoing expansion of severe wildfire in western US forests”. 🧪🌍🔥

Good article, but wildfire is never “preventable”; all of the management strategies outlined will never stop wildfire from burning at some point, but will “mitigate” severe effects and damage to human infrastructure. But fire itself is inevitable in these ecosystems; best accept that fact.

‘Bout g-damn time!!

Victoria Falls from Zimbabwe side, with rainbow.

Oh, and Victoria Falls on the mighty Zambezi; easy to see why they always call it mighty!

Elephants coming to drink in early evening at Elephant Sands, Botswana, with full moon in background.

I can die happy: saw a herd of elephants on the Okavango. Photos still to be processed. Meantime here’s a shot of elephants coming to drink at the Elephant Sands in Botswana. Elephants everywhere around here!

low severity surface fire burning through a ponderosa pine forest

The Turkeyfeather Fire in the Gila Wilderness, NM has burned as a low-severity fire over about 24,000 acres (so far). This is a continuation of a fire regime that existed for millennia before the 20th century. This 🧵reviews the fire history of the Gila, as my colleagues and I have studied it. 1/18

Such a neat story!

Hi Isabella, nice write up and interesting work! FYI Ros was the San Juan fire ecologist before her back country career and has published several papers on fire and forest histories. EG Brown and Wu 2005 Ecology, my favorite study!

Yep.

Just arrived back in US on flight from London that was maybe half full. Mostly American accents I heard. Bad time to be in the US tourist business…

The view from the top of the Eiffel Tower yesterday. I was here 51 years ago wandering Europe for the summer but too cheap to pay to go to the top; finally made it!