Monday, November 30, 2009

Funny New Ray Troll Art Premiers: Washington State Fossils Map



I call it ROCK STARS OF THE PLEISTO SCENE -- just having the art work makes me laugh.

And now you can order it online @ Good Nature Publishing


Call for wholesale. Washington State Fossils Map premiers December 1st. Make sure you check out the great show coming up @ the Burke Natural History Museum coming December 19th

Saturday, September 12, 2009

Dan Pink on Getting motivation at work right-- surprising

Check out the little TED talk by Dan Pink-- found through Metafilter. Interesting, thought provoking, fun to watch. Good speaker, and former speech writer for Al Gore.

Friday, July 24, 2009

Salmon Mermaid poster preview art by Chris Witkowski



Check it out!

Beautiful, sexy icon of the sea with my favorite fish in her hands.

Bellevue Art Festival this weekend

Seattle metro area-- a juried art show that several friends, including fine artist Shane Miller are going to be at this weekend. Times are 9:30 AM -9:30 PM

Check out Bellevue Arts Fest for a great range of artists.

Some artists wait five years to get in to this show.

Best fishes,

Timothy

Wednesday, July 08, 2009

New Love Your River poster for streamteams, Project WET




Great new Love Your River poster by Children's illustrator Sherry Neidigh http://www.sherryneidigh.com

Pictures are powerful ways for kids (of all ages) to get excited and learn about the new permeable green cities we are building in the world.

And this poster's focus is Low Impact Development practices kids can take home from school and do at home.

Art in service to a cleaner greener and more just world.

Tim Colman

Low Impact Development poster -- new oil painting by Teresa Fasolino





Call Tim @ 800 -631 3086 for more info and ordering.

See art at Good Nature

Friday, March 27, 2009

Friday, March 06, 2009

King County wants to hear ideas of farming’s future

King County wants to hear ideas of farming’s future

Here is a great opportunity to influence the future of agriculture in King County.

Your presence is requested to make a difference in the future of farming. I want to see King County fund purchase of conservation easements across rural Snoqualmie Valley to preserve this land in perpetuity for farming.

How about you?

Hope you can make one of these events. And if you cannot-- please join me in writing your King County Council a note to ask them to prioritize protecting remaining farmland -- robust program -- not the anemic nibbles we have today.

There is a survey you can take at the bottom of the press release.

Thanks.

Timothy

Tuesday, March 03, 2009

Obama Suspends Bush Rule on Endangered Species - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com

Obama Suspends Bush Rule on Endangered Species - Green Inc. Blog - NYTimes.com Very good news.

You say elections don't matter. Here is a full two months of elections matter a lot!

Right on President Obama.

Basta

Timothy

Monday, February 23, 2009

Daily Kos: Climate change will be much worse than you think

Daily Kos: Climate change will be much worse than you think Interesting look at best case scenario from the latest UN panel on climate crisis.

Read on ...

Sunday, February 22, 2009

Saturday, February 21, 2009

Friday, February 20, 2009

Low Impact Development Video | Polluted Runoff (Nonpoint Source Pollution) | US EPA

Low Impact Development Video | Polluted Runoff (Nonpoint Source Pollution) | US EPA Good overview from EPA on green practices to keep water clean.

WaterBlogged.org Green Roofs - EPA Webcast Feb 18, 2009

WaterBlogged.org Green Roofs - EPA Webcast Feb 18, 2009 Good site on ecosystem services -- low impact practices we can start today to stop storm water, restore groundwater and change the way we think about urban/suburban living.

best fishes,

Timothy

Friday, February 13, 2009

Observatory - Detecting Brain Injuries in Salmon From Hydroelectric Dams - NYTimes.com

Observatory - Detecting Brain Injuries in Salmon From Hydroelectric Dams - NYTimes.com Next time you bang your head on a wall, consider life of a salmon swimming past those dams-- head injuries! Who would have thought?

Well -- it turns out the salmon that are have brain injuries give of a little protein. This has led to discoveries of similar proteins found in soldiers who get head trauma in war.

Read on...

Best fishes,

Timothy

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

Salmon Safe Wine Tasting at The Local Vine!


Salmon Safe Wine Tasting at The Local Vine!: "logoF.jpg"

Cornell Chronicle: Gandhi portrait made of grass


Cornell Chronicle: Gandhi portrait made of grass Wild art project: Ghandi's picture in a grass wall hanging. Whoa!

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Coming Home by Mary Oliver

Coming Home

by Mary Oliver

When we're driving, in the dark,
on the long road
to Provincetown, which lies empty
for miles, when we're weary,
when the buildings
and the scrub pines lose
their familiar look,
I imagine us rising
from the speeding car,
I imagine us seeing
everything from another place — the top
of one of the pale dunes
or the deep and nameless
fields of the sea —
and what we see is the world
that cannot cherish us
but which we cherish,
and what we see is our life
moving like that,
along the dark edges
of everything — the headlights
like lanterns
sweeping the blackness —
believing in a thousand
fragile and unprovable things,
looking out for sorrow,
slowing down for happiness,
making all the right turns
right down to the thumping
barriers to the sea,
the swirling waves,
the narrow streets, the houses,
the past, the future,
the doorway that belongs
to you and me.

"Coming Home" by Mary Oliver, from Dream Work. © The Atlantic Monthly Press, 1986. Reprinted with permission.

Tuesday, February 10, 2009

Iskra Design - Portfolio: Publishing and Film


Iskra Design - Portfolio: Publishing and Film Cool artist who designed the calligraphy for Good Nature's Hummingbird Garden

Economic Quote of the Day: From NYT

February 10, 2009 7:14 am

Link
Geithner's efforts are all well and good but one has to keep perspective on the possible best case scenario. What does an "unfrozen" credit market even look like now? The reason for this catastrophe was that banks made irresponsible loans to both irresponsible and simply ill-equipped borrowers. These "toxic" assets didn't just appear. They are the result of our entire economy living on bad credit from billion dollar investment banks to individuals. We have no idea what the American economy would look like with responsible credit practices.

Surely it's an improvement over no credit but the credit markets alone don't explain what was fundamentally wrong with the economy in the first place. While Bill Clinton offered some push-back, there has essentially been a systematic dismantling of the public sector since Reagan took office with the direct effect of eviscerating the middle class and creating a canyon between the wealthy and everyone else in our society. Public college now costs the same as private college did just 15 years ago. These are the core issues that Republicans claim as wasteful spending in the stimulus that actually provide the only real hope of redemption. Obama’s true charge is to rebuild both the middle class and the public sector all over this country. Frankly, Obama may not be a Messiah but it's starting to look like "Messiah" might be the easier job.

Republicans are right to quibble with the semantics of "stimulus". This is not a stimulus. It is a massive re-prioritization. This is turning an air craft carrier away from a tsunami. It's time for Obama and the Senate to play hardball and find the one or two Republicans needed to pass the kind of bill that will actually save us. Build a naval base in Wyoming if we have to. Just get it done.

— Pier Giacalone, Doylestown, PA

Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration


Picturing Words: The Power of Book Illustration Cool site to check out

Bankers Debt Leads to Socialism: Predicted in 2009? 1967? 1867? By who?

Owners of capital will stimulate the working classe to buy more and more expensive goods and techonology , pushing them to take more and more expnsive credits until their debt becomes unbearable the unpaid debt will lead to bankruptcy of banks which will have to be nationalized- the first step to socialism.

Karl Marx.Das Kapital, 1867

William K. Black: The Audacity of Dopes

William K. Black: The Audacity of Dopes Read and weep-- a former S&L regulator's take on Bush Obama (read US) being played for fools by the banks.

Basta!

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Very cool Seattle Artists Show Opens in Austin Texas Art Gallery Feb 21st


Yard Dog Gallery features two of Seattle's best artists Julie Paschkis, Joe "Big Dog" Emminger.

If you are unable to go to Austin to see their fine art, check out Grover Thurston Gallery in Seattle -- their home base here in the Northwest. Click on "Artists" to find their work at Grover THurston.

Go now.

Basta.

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naked capitalism: Financial Times' Martin Wolf: Team Obama "Too Politically Frightened" to Admit US Banks Insolvent

naked capitalism: Financial Times' Martin Wolf: Team Obama "Too Politically Frightened" to Admit US Banks Insolvent

As my friend said: Break Up the Banks!

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Monday, February 09, 2009

EarthPortal Archive EIF Week 93 - Eutrophication


EarthPortalArchive EIF Week 93 - Eutrophication

Good story on ecosystem responses to too much nitrogen and phosphorus. These two elements are a big problem for water ways and Puget Sound in particular.

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Op-Ed Columnist - The Destructive Center - NYTimes.com

Op-Ed Columnist - The Destructive Center - NYTimes.com What is Obama thinking? You can't win negotiating with yourself.

It isn't post partisan to cave in when you don't need to. It is bad politics.

Next up a Bush lite give away to the banks -- more dissembling instead of disrupting the status quo.

We need smaller banks that are much higher regulated. Taxpayers shouldn't be stuck with the bill. Do what Sweden did and take over the banks. We have in effect anyway.

Then sell off the good ones and figure out how to unload the bad debts.

And if I don't see some justice getting these bad actors in the banks court and then jail time, then the game is over and Obama isn't even in February.

Wake up Barack!

What do you think? Frustrated? Happy?

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Best fishes,

Timothy

Tuesday, February 03, 2009

Sustainable Landscapes - University of Delaware Botanic Gardens - College of Agriculture & Natural Resources

Sustainable Landscapes - University of Delaware Botanic Gardens - College of Agriculture & Natural Resources Cool new botanical site from University of Delaware. Sustainable landscaping, storm water, biodiversity make us happy urbanistas.

Check it out.

Best fishes

Timothy

Dry Ideas

Dry Ideas Cool blog from Colorado focused on sustainable landscaping.

Check it out!

best fishes,

Timothy

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Bloomberg.com: News


Bloomberg.com: News

Good story on study about climate crisis impact on invasive plants across Western US.

"The Princeton researchers used models of atmosphere and ocean circulation to predict the ways climates in the western U.S. will be changing by 2100. The results point to the need for governments to plan for climate changes including warming expected in the coming decades, the study said.

Losses to the global economy from intrusive plants, such as kudzu, a vine particularly prevalent in the southern U.S., may total about $1.4 trillion annually, according to a report by the International Union for Conservation of Nature and the Global Invasive Species Program.

About three-quarters of the genetic diversity of crops have been lost over the last century and hundreds of the 7,000 registered animal breeds are threatened with extinction, according to the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization."

Good background for upcoming Climate Impacts on NW Forests poster we're designing at Good Nature.



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Sunday, January 25, 2009

Clearing the Air: Obama’s Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards - NYTimes.com


Obama’s Order Is Likely to Tighten Auto Standards - NYTimes.com Yeah!

Obama lets states clear the air. Automobile companies will now have to race each other to clean up their acts.

And my bet is that a lot of disease goes away with cleaner and cleaner air. We'll get ot the point where smog's ability to reflect heat back into space is missing, and have to double down on the ways we stop dump carbon into our atmosphere.

More soon.

Timothy

Thursday, January 22, 2009

The Girl Effect: Cool thought making post you will like

Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths - NYTimes.com


Environment Blamed in Western Tree Deaths - NYTimes.com Nate Stephenson with USGS Western Ecological Research and Jerry Franklin are scientists with USFS PNW Research Station.

I met Nate working on Good Nature's Giant Sequoia poster.

Great to see Nate and Jerry get some press in the NYT.

Best fishes,

Timothy

Wednesday, January 21, 2009

Achieving Sustainable Site Design through Low Impact Development Practices | Whole Building Design Guide


Achieving Sustainable Site Design through Low Impact Development Practices | Whole Building Design Guide Low Impact Living will require big shifts away from car centric development. Smaller roads, more sidewalks, more plants and trees, welcome back of ditches in the guise of bioswales.

And it will be interesting to see how we transform our shingle rooftops from the botanical desert to gardens of Eden.

Check out the link above -- and a related story on aesthetics for a denser world that promotes ecosystem services.

How will I know when I have reached Low Impact enlightenment?



best fishes,

Timothy

Sunday, January 18, 2009

Editorial - The Rural Life - Neighborhood of Zero - NYTimes.com

Editorial - The Rural Life - Neighborhood of Zero - NYTimes.com One of my favorite writers has a post in the NYT Opinion page today -- about how fricking cold it is in the Northeast.

Read with pleasure. Ewe will like it.

TS

Thursday, January 15, 2009

Torture's Blowback--

Torture’s Blowback - Room for Debate Blog - NYTimes.com Read and weep.

Then seek justice for the criminals who ordered our American troops to disgrace the flag, to break the law, and to gut the Constitution of the United States of America.

Dick Cheney, George W. Bush: Time's up!

We will speak truth to power, and you will pay the price for this crucifixion of American values.

"A time will come when a politician who has wilfully made war and promoted international dissension will be as sure of the dock and much surer of the noose than a private homicide. It is not reasonable that those who gamble with men's lives should not stake their own." -H.G. Wells, writer (1866-1946)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

TUALATIN RIVER KEEPERS: Stormwater Movie Contest for Portland OR High Schools


TUALATIN RIVER KEEPERS Sponsors Fun Contest-- Make a Run off movie Great contest to get students filming where there stormwater from school goes to. Goal is for local high school students to create a 24 second television PSA to build awareness of street to stream runoff.

This contest is sponsored by Clean Water Services & Tualatin Riverkeepers --but I say-- copy the idea. These movies will be a great educational tool, and fun, creative response to teaching ecosystem services to teenagers and their parents.

best fishes,

Timothy

Monday, January 12, 2009

Contact | Sol Journeys: Journeys that Awaken Your Inner Adventurer


Contact | Sol Journeys: Journeys that Awaken Your Inner Adventurer My friend Jill owns and runs this awesome Sol Journeys -- trips for women outside. Great opportunity to explore nature, spirit, food and exercise.

Check her site out. Go outside!

Timothy

Top Five Ways to Stop 100 Year Floods Every Year in Seattlopolis

Dan Siemann from National Wildlife Federation writes this opinion piece on the need for low impact development. From Seattle Times (Check out cool photos and movies on Seatimes website.)

What do you want to do different immediately? We have to start changing the way we live -- and speed up low impact development projects across Puget Sound.

I think we have to stop putting Walmarts next to the Chehalis. We need to rip up pavement in Seattle and make it porous. We need to refurbish our desert like rooftops and green them with plants that soak up and slow rain water that hits our rooftops.

You?

Of course, I think art helps make change more understandable-- Good Nature has made a beautiful Rain Garden poster field guide for western Washington and Oregon. Complete with 24 native plants that are keyed from dry to wet places in your garden.

We're designing a new "Green Roof" and another one titled "Low Impact Development" poster featuring 10 of he top low impact development techniques that help encourage gardeners to control storm water and stop run off and pollution washing down the streets to the ocean.

Let me know if you want more info on these neat new poster field guides. I plan to make a similar series for different regions of America.

best fishes,

Timothy

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Daily Kos: Naomi Klein: Boycott and Divest from Israel UPDATED w/ POLL


Daily Kos: Naomi Klein: Boycott and Divest from Israel UPDATED w/ POLL I am all for this-- any way to stop this madness and Israeli aggression.

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gardenhistorygirl


gardenhistorygirl This is a great blog written by a kindred spirit who has a sense of humor and interest in life. In this case life of gardens and their history. Before you go to sleep, pause for a Monet and check it out.

The Median Isn't the Message by Stephen Jay Gould

Edward Tufte: New ET Writings, Artworks & News

Here is a fine piece of writing by Stephen Jay Gould on his coming to terms with the discovery he had cancer.

Link from Edward Tufte, a graphic designer who has helped people imagine aesthetically pleasing information. That is information that is attractive, that interests one, humanely and beautifully rendered. I recommend browsing. Tufte always makes me feel smarter after reading.

The way a poster we design at Good Nature connects art and science together is all about the struggle to balance information in a way that doesn't overwhelm a page.

Your thoughts?

Timoteo

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Five Habits of Highly Effective Unemployed People: Laugh, laugh, laugh, laugh...

How To Be Unemployed JohnShore.com
What wit!

Seattle flooding movie-- shot from helicopter over mighty Sno Valley



See the tree line in the Snoqualmie River Valley you see in this movie with all the water around it? That's the path of the river when it isn't flooded.

This movie shows the power of "the mighty Sno" -- and how big her flood plain really is. You'd never know thousands of people farm and live out there.

How much longer can we afford that I wonder?

Just think of all the toxic waste floating into the sea now that all this water has washed through every home and business, car lot and gas station in the Snoqualmie River.

Story about folks helping here

Given the certainty of climate crisis bringing us more big storms, do we really need to be building cities like Carnation and Duvall out there in the flood plain?

I love to go visit my friends who farm there. But it is crazy to develop more land that is really best used as a green sponge to slow and let water seep over.

We need to rip up the pavement here in Seattle, too. The days of cars hegemony in our lives is over. We simply can't afford all the costs -- pollution , climate impacts, and the killing of so many people every year in "accidents".

basta.

Timothy

Comfort comes to the garden -- baltimoresun.com

Comfort comes to the garden -- baltimoresun.com

Former Israeli Army Captain: Three Reason to Stop the War On Gaza



Basta! Stop the Israeli war on Gaza. This is not a coincidence. The Israeli right knows there days of bombing with impunity are numbered because Obama will not be like Bush supporting this agression.

Sure the crazy people in Hamas lobbed bombs into Israel. But how is bombing everyone -- UN hospitals, mosques, schools with kids inside any solution, my brothers and sisters in Israel?

You are simply poking eyes out. More blind people running for their guns.

All people have a right to work, to eat, to clean water, and health care. And there must be recognition at some point that bombing and killing, walling people off is not a solution.

Join thousands of Israelis and Palestinians, and concerned people around the world to protest this war on Gaza. International day of protest January 10th. See links here as starting place for protests.

Americans have a special responsibility -- Israel is our 51st state -- and we fund them big time-- billions of dollars directly, and billions from business and money sent privately. All the bombing going on are part of the war machine we subsidize. Speak up with former soldiers like the Israeli above who are living proff there is another way.

Interested in learning more- check here

Peace out.

Timothy

Thursday, January 08, 2009

Unfortunate Location -- a poem about big conifers by Louis Jenkins from The Writer's Almanac

Unfortunate Location

by Louis Jenkins

In the front yard there are three big white pines, older
than anything in the neighborhood except the stones.
Magnificent trees that toss their heads in the wind
like the spirited black horses of a troika. It's hard to
know what to do, tall dark trees on the south side of
the house, an unfortunate location, blocking the
winter sun. Dark and damp. Moss grows on the roof,
the porch timbers rot and surely the roots have
reached the old bluestone foundation. At night, in
the wind, a tree could stumble and fall killing us in
our beds. The needles fall year after year making an
acid soil where no grass grows. We rake the fallen
debris, nothing to be done, we stand around with
sticks in our hands. Wonderful trees.

Rain Garden Classes in Bellevue, Seattle, Renton, Carnation, Wallingford January-April 2009

( Art by John C. Pitcher Good Nature Publishing 2008 Rain Garden poster field guide )

January 8, 2009
Stewardship Partners Press Release

Rain Gardens

Help Protect Our Streams – Classroom and Installation Workshops


As our area grows, increasing
amounts of native forest and
prairie lands are replaced by
roads, roofs, driveways, and other
hard or impervious surfaces.

Rainfall that formerly was intercepted by
the forest canopy or soaked into
the soils now becomes stormwater
runoff flowing across the landscape.
This creates two problems. Localized
flooding can occur as too much water
floods yards, streets, and parking lots.
In addition, stormwater can wash a
variety of pollutants into local creeks
and rivers, and ultimately Puget Sound.

While modern developments include
highly engineered solutions for storm -
water management, rain gardens offer
a low impact development approach
that enables individual homeowners to
help protect streams and wetlands.

Rain gardens work like a native forest
by capturing and infiltrating storm -
water. Rain gardens reduce flooding
by absorbing water from impervious
surfaces; filter oil, grease, fecal bacteria
from pet waste, and toxic materi -
als before they can pollute streams,
lakes, and bays; help to recharge the
aquifer by increasing the quantity of
water that soaks into the ground; and
provide beneficial wildlife habitat.
In a nutshell, rain gardens are modest
depressions in the landscape of people’s
yards where water is directed.

Rain gardens are typically excavated to a
depth of about two feet, and then a
mix of highly amended, compost-rich
soil is placed in the depression filling it
to a level about 6-12 inches below the
surrounding landscape to enable ponding
to occur during periods of heavy
rain. This soil and compost mix soaks
up water which is rapidly retained.

Rain gardens are finished off with a
variety of plants that do well in both
wet winter and dry summer conditions.
While many of these plants are native
to the Northwest, a number of nonnative
ornamentals may also be used to
create a colorful, attractive landscape.
Rain gardens are easy to create but
they must be built carefully. They have
to be designed to accommodate the
correct amount of rainfall. Soil condi -
tions must also be carefully assessed
during the design to determine the
depth of the soil and compost mix.

To learn more about how you can
incorporate a rain garden into your
yard’s landscape, as well as other lowimpact
development practices, join us
for a hands-on classroom workshop on
rain garden design and construction.

The King Conservation District, Stewardship
Partners, Native Plant Salvage Project,
Seattle Tilth, Seattle Aquarium, Seattle
Public Utilities, NW Environmental
Education Council and King County
Department of Natural Resources and Parks
are offering Rain Gardens:

The Key to Managing
Rain Water and Protecting Puget Sound
classroom workshops beginning in
January. Workshop participants and
volunteers are also invited to learn
more by participating in an actual
rain garden installation workshop to
be scheduled later in the spring.
The complete rain garden
classroom schedule:

• Thursday, January 22, Bellevue
• Thursday, February 12, Carnation
• Tuesday, March 3, Renton
• Tuesday, March 17, Downtown Seattle
• Thursday, March 26, Wallingford
• Thursday, April 23, South Seattle

All workshops will be scheduled in
the evening hours and registration
is required. Participants will be
sent site-assessment instructions
in advance to help maximize their
learning at the workshops. Contact
Stewardship Partners to register and
for details: (206) 292-9875 or email
ba@stewardshippartners.org.
Visit www.stewardshippartners.org

Tuesday, January 06, 2009

How trees changed the world - life - 24 November 2007 - New Scientist



How trees changed the world - life - 24 November 2007 - New Scientist
Great magazine and story about the importance of trees to life on Earth.

NW Native Conifers art featuring Mike Lee's color pencil here.

Saturday, January 03, 2009

Move to Increase Logging on Oregon Land - NYTimes.com


Move to Increase Logging on Oregon Land - NYTimes.com Last Call at the Bush Clear Cut Office. There is a whiff of desperation announcing this plan with a new administration coming in to office in less two weeks. (See map and more @ Sightline Institute )

Instead of waiting to see what Obama wants-- Earthjustice and other green groups are going to federal court to stop the sales of thousands of acres of our forests to clearcutters.

No matter that Oregon's Governor and two clean water agencies are against the sales. Here is a perfect example of an agency like BLM -- working in the same Dept of Interior as FWS -- making it possible to double the rate of logging and ruin salmon and other wildlife habitat.

Had enough?

Basta.

Timothy

Our Bay: Resolving to achieve a cleaner bay - Environment

Our Bay: Resolving to achieve a cleaner bay - Environment - (HometownAnnapolis.com) 50 ways to clean up Chesapeake Bay-- good starter kit for a new poster I am designing for Puget Sound and some rivers in the NW.

best fishes,

Timothy

Thursday, January 01, 2009

On the origin of speciation


On the origin of speciation

Well done story on Darwin's importance -- and interesting photo poster