Conjuring Steel
Fly-fishing for steelhead in the Cuyahoga—with a touch of tarot.
The Great Lakes are sicker than we think
By Matt Stansberry In The Death and Life of the Great Lakes, journalist Dan Egan makes the case that the [...]
Overwhelmed by the Swarm: Brood V Periodical Cicadas
The cicadas have been winding down. Chitinous, black bodies crunch underfoot on my driveway every time I step out the front door.
Hail to the King
I was born in Akron. My deathbed request for a final meal would be a Swenson’s Galley Boy, and I’d wash it down with a California. My grandfather retired from the Firestone Tire Factory and as a kid I worked for Goodyear ...
A Maddening Quest For Calm And Spring Wildflowers
I became obsessed with wildflowers last spring. One April morning I had been slumped on my couch with my laptop, and suddenly panicked as if I was on a plane falling out of the sky.
Spring Salamander Gauntlet: Avoiding Raccoons, Sexual Parasitism, and Suburban Sprawl
It was the kind of morning I would never spend outside: 46-degrees Fahrenheit, rain running down the bare trees and pooling up on the muddy ground. Nothing looked alive.
Out All Night With Lake Erie’s Burbot Whisperer
In an undisclosed parking lot somewhere on the southern shore of Lake Erie, the weak December sun fizzled out like a match dropped in the snow.
Confessions Of A Reluctant Deer Hunter
Off in the far northwestern corner of Ohio near the town of Hicksville, I sat on an aluminum ladder lashed to a tree in the predawn gloom freezing my ass off.
Who Gives A Hoot? Searching For Owls By Moonlight On The Lake Erie Islands
Our pilgrimage began on a freakishly warm day in early November. A south wind calmed the lake as David Wilson and I crossed the four-mile stretch from the Marblehead Peninsula to Kelleys Island.
From River Bottom to Topsoil: Recycling Cuyahoga River Sediment in Slavic Village
Each year, tributaries flowing into Lake Erie carry millions of cubic yards of sediment to the river mouths. On the Maumee, Cuyahoga, and Grand rivers and others, sand and clay particles travel downstream ...
Fireflies: Glowing, Snail-sucking, Poisonous Hedonists
Thunderheads had been building, scudding across the northern plains for weeks, dumping rain into basements, swelling the rivers. Over eight and a half inches of rain fell in the month of June, the third wettest in Cleveland’s history.
Flipping Tin: Searching for Ohio’s Eastern Massasauga Rattlesnakes
On a hot, wet morning in May, I jumped into a pickup truck with Brett Rodstrom, VP of Eastern Field Operations for the Western Reserve Land Conservancy, and headed out to look for Eastern Massasauga rattlesnakes.