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Since 9/11 (three years ago tomorrow), national security has necessarily jumped to the top of all political agendas. Borders have tightened, government installations have gone on alert, and heaven help you if you leave your fingernail scissors in your carry-on bag! But in the midst of the furor over keeping terrorists from crossing North American borders, another set of invaders crosses them daily. They go by names many cannot pronounce,...

Biological pollution – the spread of invasive species of plants and animals – is one of the hardest problems to prevent, as this article illustrates. Zebra mussels may rank among the most important threats to Cascadia’s hydroelectric and freshwater ecological systems. These fast-breeding bivalves can spread with astonishing rapidity, encrusting pipes, gates, and other underwater hardware of the hydropower infrastructure. So far, the Northwest has avoided an introduction of the...

An important but hardly discussed trend in many of Cascadia’s natural ecosystems is the shrinking of not only populations but also individuals of many species. From our trees to our bears to our salmon, the biggest individuals are far smaller than they used to be. A Christian Science Monitorarticle adds a worrisome twist to this phenomenon of ecological downsizing. It’s not just that humans have eliminated the largest individuals—the trophies—in...