The return of a missing species can pay huge ecological dividends for a landscape. But sometimes people bring wildlife back for other reasons. The Kalispel people brought buffalo back to a ranch on their tiny reservation near Usk on the Pend Oreille River in the 1970s. The one-hundred-and-fifty bison live behind fences in a field …
Holmes Rolston, III (1932-2025): A Giant in Environmental Ethics
Holmes Rolston, III, was my mentor for over thirty years. I met him when I moved from England to Colorado for a master’s degree in 1990. A renowned environmental philosopher, Rolston died in early 2025. I made the four-thousand-mile journey for two reasons. First, there was Rolston, the so-called “father of environmental ethics.” He put …
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“Not the Dark Ages”
Science is still doing great things! A few weeks ago, I was thrilled to join Justin Angle and Amy Martin, of the Peabody award-winning podcast Threshold, for a live recording of A New Angle. The event, sponsored by Climate Smart Missoula, was part of Climate Solutions Week. Amy and I talked about some of the …
Wild….and getting wilder
A remarkable life is over. Blean Woods’ matriarch, the first Bison bonasus brought to the UK to live semi-wild outside of a zoo, died in November aged twenty-one. Her tenure served its purpose well. The matriarch provided three years of sound leadership and stability for the animals that followed. Photo Credit: Hannah Mackins The bison …
They Must Roam
An essential principle of wildlife recovery is that animals must be free to move across the landscape. The ability to roam is necessary to search out unoccupied territory, to track down resources in a changing climate, and to secure an influx of fresh genes when breeding. My piece in the Fall issue of Sierra Magazine …
Can Carbon Capture become Respectable?
Last summer, I visited America's first commercial carbon capture plant in Tracy, California. Heirloom Carbon use ground up limestone to capture 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide a year. It's a trial run for a plant planned for Louisiana that could ultimately capture 300,000 tons each year when fully developed. The strangest thing about a technology …
Christopher J. Preston 