Unnatural Histories

Exploring the peculiar, delightful, sometimes sordid, but always entangled histories of nature and culture. Click on an image for the story behind it.

A group of construction workers build a mother grey whale and calf at the foot of some trees and an old building.

Twenty-three colorful snakes slither across a black road from one forest to another. A big pink sun in the sky.

Image:Ten small pioneers stand at the base of a large geyser plume gazing up at the laundry shot up by the eruption.

A wire-mesh bridge extends over a two lane highway in a lush forest. A car drives underneath. Dozens of crabs are in the foreground and crawling across the bridge into the forest beyond.

Twenty rings of stone walls with an abstract plant at the center. Background: a volcano seeps lava and pink smoke.

An image of a cat wearing cat head pajamas and the text, you're the cat's pajamas

3 men stand in a vineyard. A large hail cannon with smoke rings points upward. Storm clouds recede into the distance.

A woman kneels among potato plants reaching for potatoes in the soil. Among the tubers are sea stars and roots.

A collage of an oval terrarium filled with different textured plants

An Asian elephant bathes in a turquois pond. Single-story stone/concrete housing can be seen behind three trees and a stone wall. An Asian elephant bathes in a turquois pond. Single-story stone/concrete housing can be seen behind three trees and a stone wall. Turn on screen reader support To enable screen reader support, press Ctrl+Alt+Z To learn about keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl+slash

Foreground: a pelican dives into a dark choppy sea. Background: a white mountain of guano with birds and a red sun.

Land/Form

A survey of the myriad spaces, places, land, and form we make and inhabit.

Ocean scene with the ruins of a pool carved in red rocks and wavy swiss cheese like trees.

A mountain covered in golden trees by a lake. In the foreground pine trees dark blue in shadow with dappled light spots

An orange geologic tower in front of a big blue sky. Various types of wild west vegetation scattered in the foreground

Saw-tooth roof of and elevation of a giant greenhouse with stipes of fields and blue mountains in the background.

Clouds obscure blue mountainsides and settle into a forest at sea level where there are several sailboats

Website Content Information Website Content Information 100% 10 ladder 1 of 2 A17 Ladder Monger B17 A painting of a courtyard full of bamboo ladders and the seller sits on a stool. The frame is shaped like an Arab arch. A painting of a courtyard full of bamboo ladders and the seller sits on a stool. The frame is shaped like an Arab arch. Turn on screen reader support To enable screen reader support, press Ctrl+Alt+Z To learn about keyboard shortcuts, press Ctrl+slash

Dark blue trees with abstract shadows lead up a hill to a monastery with Mediterranean vegetation and giant sun.

Four birch trees abstractly layered together on a lawn. Other trees, a shore, water, and mountains in the background

menagerie

A gathering of creatures, flora, devices, and general miscellany.

Ten abstract herons made from paper collages in different poses on a white background.

Magnified bean-shaped sporophytes of moss of various dark greens. They have red stems and blue shadows.

A collaged french horn

A collage of a decaying log laying on its side. New tree saplings grow on top of it, ferns grow from crevices in the bark, and banana slug crawls along it.

Fireweed (Chamaenerion angustifolium) gets it's name from being one of the first and most voracious colonizer plants to establish after fire or other clearing event. It loves sun and grows about 5 feet high. Common throughout the northern US, Canada, and northern Europe (there known as rosebay willow herb), it has been used as medicine, food, tea, and cordage for centuries. Before the Russian Revolution, the fermented tea (Koporye) used to be Russia's second largest export. It was Europe's non alcoholic drink of choice before Chinese tea gained popularity. Across Canada, First Nations people drank a tea made from the plant to treat gastrointestinal issues and used topically to treat rashes, burns, and infections.