Rose Houk

Earth Notes: New Mexico's Bisti Badlands

Rose Houk — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 17:16:32 +0000

In the northwest corner of New Mexico, not far from Chaco Canyon, there's a geologic wonderland that's weird even by the amped-up standards of the Colorado Plateau...

Earth Notes: Del Rio Spring's Green Oasis

Rose Houk — Wed, 27 Feb 2013 16:45:34 +0000

In many parts of the country Del Rio Springs wouldn't get much attention. But because it's a reliable spring in an arid quarter, this little oasis has been attracting people for a long time.

From Harvard Undergrad to Pioneering Archaeologist

Rose Houk — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 22:46:44 +0000

More than a century ago, a Harvard undergraduate named Alfred Vincent Kidder came out west. He came to volunteer at some archaeological sites that had just been excavated - places like Mesa Verde and other ancient ruins.

Nicknamed Ted, he had little more than a tape measure, a cheap compass and a Kodak camera. But the experience changed his life - and the course of southwestern archaeology.

Earth Notes: Safeguarding Southwestern Bats

Rose Houk — Wed, 28 Nov 2012 12:00:00 +0000

As winter approaches, some species of bats settle in to hibernate in caves. Lack of food and dropping temperatures drive them inside, where “carpets” of bats congregate on cave ceilings.

4FRI Part 1: The Problem with Our Ponderosa Forests

Michael Collier and Rose Houk — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 18:43:58 +0000

The world’s largest ponderosa pine forest stretches across higher elevations from the San Francisco Peaks to the Arizona/New Mexico border. But in the last century, human intervention has threatened its health.

Earth Notes: Arizona’s Elk

Rose Houk — Wed, 03 Oct 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Early on fall mornings, a piercing screech echoes across meadows in northern Arizona. It’s the frenzied bugle of a big bull elk in rut, trying to lure a harem of cows to breed and continue his line.

Earth Notes: Milkweeds for Monarchs

Rose Houk — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 18:19:59 +0000

If you’re out searching for one of North America’s most famed butterflies, the beautiful orange and black monarch butterfly, try looking in a patch of milkweed.

Land Lines: Toroweap

Michael Collier and Rose Houk — Thu, 16 Aug 2012 11:00:00 +0000

If you stand at the brink of Toroweap Overlook and toss a penny into the Grand Canyon, the falling coin would hit the Colorado River two minutes later.

Earth Notes: Textile Recycling

Rose Houk — Wed, 01 Aug 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Reusing old clothes isn’t a new habit. Americans have long donated out-of-fashion or too-small clothing to charities or resale boutiques. Creative quilters, weavers, and seamstresses cut up old dresses and restitch them into something new. Some creative, eco-conscious artists even remodel threadbare garb into couture garments and bags.

But it’s estimated that much of the nearly twelve million tons of clothing, shoes, and textiles that Americans discard each year does end up in landfills.

Land Lines: Mt Elden

Rose Houk and Michael Collier — Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:00:00 +0000

Look at this–a crinoid stem. How can this be? A sea-floor fossil perched at 9000 feet in a volcanic field that stretches for miles in every direction?

Just north of Flagstaff, Mount Humphreys stands 12,633 feet above sea level, the highest summit in Arizona. Humphreys and the rest of the San Francisco Peaks are old volcanoes. Surrounding them is a necklace of dome-shaped mountains—Sugarloaf, O’Leary, Kendrick, the Dry Lake Hills, and Elden Mountain. They’re volcanic too, but they formed in a different way.