Harts Pass no. 804

Melanie loves scrolling through the MSN "news" feed on a discarded iPhone as much as the next mustelid, but it IS a little alarming when a headline proclaims your imminent demise! That being said, since the main threat to the wolverine as an endangered species is probably the loss of late-season snowpack related to climate change...we were probably hardly going to move the needle on that one much regardless. Now the endangered sage grouse or spotted owls on the other hand...they probably ARE at greater risk since land development and tree cutting are much more immediate and likely to change quickly. Nothing really positive in that, but you see what I mean. GRRR!

Harts Pass no. 803

I won't say this week's comics was totally prescient, but the temperatures were definitely headed up and yes indeed the lightning from last week had started a few small fires in the more unreachable parts of the wilderness. Yesterday was nice enough (although 100+ degrees), but the smoke plummed up in the late afternoon...and dropped like a ton of bricks into the lower lying valleys (like ours) overnight. The mid-summer smoke season has now arrived. Definitely NOT my favorite time of year!!!!

Harts Pass no. 802

 

At least from the standpoint of the wolverines that populate this comic strip, a new standard for greed and profiteering -- an the expense of any remaining "greatness" that this country holds -- has been reached by this administration. A bit of a sticky wicket too, because the pushback in the courts could potentially do more harm than good. In 1995 the court upheld the definition of "harm" as it currently stands, but today's more conservative court might see fit to go against precedent and make an eventually unraveling of this purely "presidential" rule change harder to undo. Onward and...

Harts Pass no. 799, 800, and 801

Immediately following an AMAZING week in Denali National Park (see previous post), I took a road trip from Seattle to Los Angeles in order to fully immerse in the second phase of summer - my MFA residency session with Vermont College of Fine Art (at CalArts.) Thanks in large part to the WIFI that is available at State Park campgrounds in OR and CA, the comics didn't skip a beat...

and Thor got his chance to express his thoughts in this little series of "Summer Soapbox" comics.