June 2017

Thanks to Martin van Hemert for this lovely photo of Hi Ute Ranch, one of our easements in Summit County. Today, Bonanza Flat is 1,350 acres of undeveloped mountain on the dividing line between the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake’s side of the range) and the …

Feng shui for your body, house and mind. On June 21 we enter the season of summer, the most yang or active time of the year. With the sun being at its northernmost point in relationship to Earth, it marks the longest day of sunlight, creating heightene …

A story of unexpected conversions from missionary to drag queen. James Bunker, president of Provo Pride. His stage name is Jackie Ohh Starr, but he’s known within the troupe as Mom. Photo credit: Karena Angell Lights come up on a towering figure, his b …

Make it memorable! Plot something special, or plan some serious lassitude. Here are some ideas to get you started. Star gazing Best viewing time for star gazing is the week of, or before, the new moon (June 23, July 23, August 21), when moonlight does …

Thanks to Martin van Hemert for this lovey photo of Hi Ute Ranch, one of our easements in Summit County. Today, Bonanza Flat is 1,350 acres of undeveloped mountain on the dividing line between the Wasatch Front (Salt Lake’s side of the range) and the W …

Back in 1994, Utah Open Lands, a local non-profit land trust conservation association, was in the process of acquiring and protecting an area of the Wasatch Back called Snake Creek when they noticed an adjacent drainage called Bonanza Flat and recogniz …

Ella Mendoza Ella Mendoza, 27—artist, writer, activist. Born—Lima, Peru, brought to the United States when she was 12. Ella Mendoza’s storytelling, her art and her activism, is often told through the lens of skin color. Her father, she says, is light-s …

It all started in the college Praxis Lab at the University of Utah, in 2016. Ten students taking one of the University Honor’s College’s special semester intensive courses were asked to dig into the problems facing our food systems. According to the Un …

In 6th grade, my class studied the Great Salt Lake, a body of water that lay only 16 miles from our classroom but which we hardly ever saw and really only thought about on the days when the wind blew in the briny smell of the lake and of bird shit and …

“I am a minimalist,” says Cynthia Wong, a witty, passionate and tenacious woman who is, to date, the most successful advocate for tiny home living in the state of Utah. “I’ve had dreams of living in a tiny home for seven years now and if there’s anythi …

Donald Trump may hate Bears Ears, but artists and writers in Utah are inspired by our new national monument. Torrey House Press has just released two anthologies celebrating Bears Ears: Red Rock Stories: Three Generations of Writers Speak on Behalf of …

Will Bears Ears disappear into the clouds — a national monument only briefly, now to be diminished or denied by short-sighted political leaders? —Stephen Trimble In a colonial enterprise, profitability is the measure by which all endeavors and even the …

San Juan County can have an off-road vehicle trail, just not in the bottom of Recapture Canyon. In 2014, after BLM closed an illegally constructed trail to motor vehicles, San Juan County Commissioner Phil Lyman (apparently fired up by anti-government …

In 2012 President Obama shut down plans to build a high-level nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada, but President Trump’s proposed 2018 budget includes “$120 million to restart licensing activities for the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste r …

More Americas are directly employed by hunting and fishing than by oil and gas extraction, says a new report from the Outdoor Industry Association. Outdoor recreation supports 7.6 million American jobs and $887 billion in consumer spending, making outd …

The September 2017 BLM oil and gas lease auction includes priority habitat for sage grouse in Utah’s Sheeprock Mountains. The Wild Utah Project calls sage grouse “canaries in a coal mine” since their presence indicates a healthy sage brush ecosystem. T …

Thanks to citizen activism, wild animals in Utah are getting a new overpass to help them safely cross I-80 at Parley’s Summit. It’s good for the animals, but people will benefit, too. Insurance data shows that each year about 1 in 150 Utah motorists hi …

The Utah State and Institutional Trust Lands Administration (SITLA) website boasts that “trust lands are open to the general public for hunting,” but if you read down the page you’ll see that the State of Utah pays an annual fee for public access right …

In April, snowpack in Utah was 126% of normal, compared to 97% last year, and overall reservoir storage was at 62% of capacity—up 5% from the same time last year according to data from the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service. Yay, water! Don’t …

A rain dance performed by Wasatch Eagle Dancers celebrated the late May grand opening of a new Water Conservation Garden at Red Butte Garden. The intent is to show a low-water landscape so beautiful you will want one in your own yard, and Red Butte Gar …

I consider myself more of a trend observer than a trendsetter. Trending lately seems to be chorizo, which is available at Maverick and as a new Spam (the meat-ish product, not the internet) flavor so you know it must be good. Also trending is chipotle- …

  JUNE 1  June is LGBT Pride Month. Gay marriage is now legal in all 50 U.S. states and in 22 countries. JUNE 2 Moonstone, June’s birthstone (along with pearl and alexandrite), was named by Roman author and naturalist Pliny the Elder, who believed …

A community permaculture food forest in the making The Krishna Food Forest is an urban story of reclaiming the land for the benefit of the a whole community. Six years ago the property, located behind Salt Lake City’s Krishna Temple, was an abandoned o …

Photo Credit: Stephen Trimble (stephentrimble.net)     Will Bears Ears disappear into the clouds — a national monument only briefly, now to be diminished or denied by short-sighted political leaders? —Stephen Trimble In a colonial enterprise, …

Got a beehive? Join the club Here are some good reasons to register your beehive with the state. No apiary is too big or too small to be registered. You’ll get up-to-date info on diseases, advice and knowledge. Learn to be safer with your hives. Often …

Claudia Draper, the personal organizer and feng shui practitioner, is known to her clients as a “compassionate” clutter clearer. “The bond between person and their possessions is sacred,” she says. “If decisions are hard, it may be that you don’t have …

Choose to refuse single use plastic during July–an international challenge The Plastic Free July Challenge began in 2011 as a local comunity initiative in Perth, Australia to raise awareness about the amount of single-use plastic we use and toss. By 20 …

Let’s face it, sometimes it’s nice to have food plants just grow. No buying, no planting, no coddling, those are some of the wonders of growing perennial onions. Oh yes, they also taste delightful! I first read about Welsh onions and Egyptian walking o …

June, you are a serious garden season sweet spot. Veteran spring crops are side by side with freshly planted warm weather selections, both eagerly lapping up the ever more present sun. Hopefully you were among the visionary vegetable veterans who were …

Intuitive patterns for the month. Osho Zen Tarot: The Miser, Change, Inner Voice Medicine Cards: Turtle, Horse Mayan Oracle: Manik, Center, Polarity Ancient Egyptian Tarot: Queen of Swords, Princess of Wands, The Magician Aleister Crowley Deck: Princes …

What’s new around town. The Krishna Garden A community permaculture food forest in the making The Krishna Food Forest is an urban story of reclaiming the land for the benefit of the a whole community. Six years ago the property, located behind Salt Lak …

Adeep sense of humility will help you learn yoga. It is important to remember that no one path or school has a monopoly on the truth. There are excellent and poor practitioners in all schools of yoga,” writes Geeta S. Iyendar. “Gaining maturity in yoga …