Columbia Falls, Glacier National Park and other treasures of the north
About 5300 inhabitants and 40 miles as the crow flies to the border with Canada and half an hour’s drive to Glacier National Park: that’s Columbia Falls. A tranquil small town on the Flathead River, with appealing stores, music concerts at the Gunsight Saloon and (still) not too much tourism. Still, I’m glad I live five miles outside, practically in the middle of the woods.
Animal welfare amendment facilitates the killing of Spanish greyhounds.
As of September 29, 2023, a new legal regulation has come into force in Spain that exempts the galgo, the native greyhound, from animal protection. This will make the cruel killing of these dogs at the end of the hunting season even easier. This in a member state of the European Union, which supposedly upholds “Western values”.
Starting today every Saturday: my news selection on Substack.
My news selection of the week on Substack: topics I find important that didn’t necessarily make big headlines.
With news 
from the USA in German 
from Germany in English.
A slain mountain lioness and the cries of young goshawks.
My last evening at Casino Creek ends on an exciting note: I visit Lee, who lives just a few minutes away. She tells me an almost mystical story: In the log cabin Lee purchased with her property, she found, pegged to the wall, the skinned hide of a mountain lioness. Hunting trophy of the previous owner. Lee wants to give the lioness a dignified resting place. To be continued.
In the woods we also hear the cries of young rare goshawks. Lee attracts them with archived cries from an app.
Possible damage must be considered.
Should we mine mineral resources in the deep sea even though we could damage unique ecosystems and wipe out entire species? This is the question that the International Seabed Authority has been negotiating. More than 750 scientists are warning of the negative consequences.
Bozeman: City gem in the “Valley of Flowers.
“Bozeman has become so expensive,” everyone I meet here tells me. That’s why Nancy moved to nearby Livingston. Bozeman is hip. The summers here are less dry and the winters less cold than in other places in Montana.
I start in Seattle and want to stay in the Northwest, maybe cross the border to British Columbia.
“You bring the sun with you,” Sue greets me in Seattle. The weeks before had been rather cool. “It has rained a lot this year,” I also hear in Montana. That’s why everything is green now – instead of brown and yellow, as is usually the case at this time of year. It is the beginning of July. At least here, in the northwest of the USA: no sign of apocalyptic climatic drought.
Co-founder and icon of the Germen Greens: 30 years after her murder
In early October 1992, Petra Kelly was shot dead by her partner, former NATO general Gerd Bastian. On November 29, 2022, the women’s, peace and environmental activist would have turned 75. So the “Rachel Carson Center for Environment and Society” in Munich invites to a conference. Eva Quistorp, co-founder of the German Greens, is one of the people who knew Petra Kelly best.
Natural and cultural history on the Mexican-American Border – and the extraordinary commitment of a woman and a university dean
Using an ancient technique called gabions, Valer Clark has spent the last forty years reclaiming the earth and creating a natural corridor along the Sonoma-Arizona border. Just a stone’s throw away is the Douglas-Bisbee Jewish Cemetery. The university’s Protestand dean, Abe Villareal, was instrumental in its restoration. Along with local Jewish donors.
Valer Clark has created a wildlife corridor in the U.S.-Mexico border area.
When she arrived in the Mexican border area forty years ago, the earth was depleted and no longer stored water. Using an ancient technique, gabions, Valer Clark has made the earth fertile again.