One of the issues that most reliably gets people excited and engaged is our campaign to defend our public lands, especially the Tongass National Forest. But why are people from California to Texas to Maine so passionate about a forest in remote southern Alaska? Much of that passion owes to the fact that some places stir the imagination and therefore, the soul. People also understand intuitively that the campaign to save the Tongass is about something larger than even that vast forest: It’s about what we value as a society.

Planting seeds and confronting some unwanted visitors. This is part four of a series where I (Lauren Zaren) am working with my grandpa to revitalize our garden using pollinator-friendly plants. You can find my first blog here, my second post here and my third post here.

Every year, in late spring and early summer, the Porcupine caribou arrive on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Numbering between 120,000 and 200,000 animals, the Porcupine herd – so named for their birthing grounds along the Porcupine River – is the largest in North America.