Palouse prairie of eastern Washington and northwestern Idaho is an endangered landscape. It’s dominated by forbs—flowering plants—that cover the fields with a riot of color that attracts native pollinators.
The Phoenix Conservancy is among the groups restoring Palouse prairie. Led by Chris Duke, a doctoral graduate in biology from Washington State University, the organization works to bring native plants back to endangered landscapes from Madagascar to the Great Plains of North America to the Palouse hills.
In this episode, Washington State Magazine editor Larry Clark takes a field trip with Duke to the apartment complexes on the edge of Pullman, Washington, … » More …
The ancient Roman architect Vitruvius conceived of three primary virtues for structures: beauty, utility, and firmitas, a term that can be translated as permanence. Naturally, buildings can’t be crafted to last through time immemorial. What is permanence if even stone monuments wear away into sand?
Moreover, as Washington State University architecture professor Ayad Rahmani asks in this issue’s essay, maybe the longevity of structures should be questioned. Rahmani writes about Frank Lloyd Wright’s organic view of buildings and their inevitable decay, and that we should perhaps consider their “measured return to the earth.”
We don’t really expect our buildings to last forever, but we rely … » More …
Stories in the Spring 2022 issue of Washington State Magazine probe into Yellowstone's hidden volcanic secrets, the mysteries of bear hibernation, and more. » More ...
*as delineated by its current international and state boundaries
1800 — Mount St. Helens (Washington) The eruption was seen by Native Americans. Oral tradition of NE Washington tribes noted many people starved to death the winter following the eruption.
1812 — Augustine Volcano (Alaska) Augustine has had six significant eruptions: 1812, 1883–1884, 1935, 1963–1964, 1976, and 1986. The 1883 eruption produced a tsunami.
1825 — Isanotski Peaks (Alaska) Also known as Isanotski Volcano, locally as “Ragged Jack,” is a multi-peaked mountain on Unimak Island, the easternmost Aleutian Island. Other … » More …
