Rock Plodder
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mtmagog.bsky.social
Rock Plodder
@mtmagog.bsky.social
Everyday permit science - NPDES & other water quality, streams, wetlands, marine (long ago) - and dealing w contaminated crap people leave behind. Outside is good, wild places better.
Reposted by Rock Plodder
An annual art festival in Utah drew more visitors than usual amid the shutdown.
Art led to the creation of this national park. Now it's helping to save it.
An annual art festival in Utah drew more visitors than usual amid the shutdown.
bit.ly
November 14, 2025 at 6:30 PM
“The State of Water: Understanding California’s Most Precious Resource” would make a good Christmas gift.

Bay Area nature writer says his book is being banned from Yosemite share.google/FEOgVUMGV1Uf...
Trump admin to ban book from Yosemite National Park, says author
The Trump administration's censorship directive has reportedly targeted Obi Kaufmann.
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November 14, 2025 at 3:57 AM
Reposted by Rock Plodder
ZOMG LET ME TELL YOU ABOUT THE SHALE

Okay, so the Burgess Shale is a fossil bed in British Columbia that contains a whole bunch of fossils of weirdass creatures from the Cambrian era, over 500 million years ago. But the great thing about the shale is that it has fossilized SOFT PARTS!
November 14, 2025 at 1:12 AM
Reposted by Rock Plodder
The map submitted by Republicans “does not comply with Utah law,” Judge Dianna Gibson wrote.
https://www.sltrib.com/news/politics/2025/11/11/gerrymander-utah-judge-rejects-gop 
November 11, 2025 at 1:59 PM
Reposted by Rock Plodder
For all you fans of the new @netflix.com series “Death by Lightning,” here’s the table of contents for my book “The Last Lincoln Republican: The Presidential Election of 1880.” It covers much of the ground the series explores.

It’s published by the University Press of Kansas.
November 10, 2025 at 10:38 PM
Got to watch a barred owl in our yard today. We occasionally hear them at night, but I've never seen one during the daytime. Crows were screaming at it, but the owl just took a nap.
November 10, 2025 at 4:19 AM
Future of the NPS:
(great job if your financially self sufficient but like working full time):
#parkchat
Yosemite Opens Full-Time Unpaid Ranger Position, Gets Backlash - Backpacker share.google/hceKjHsvZEX6...
Visitors, Former Rangers Speak Out After Yosemite Opens Full-Time Unpaid Position
A new job posting calls for volunteers and asks for 40 hours of work per week.
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October 31, 2025 at 6:33 PM
Rainy fall day in the PNW on a trail along the Pilchuck River.
October 27, 2025 at 4:18 AM
Reposted by Rock Plodder
October 22, 2025 at 11:30 PM
Reposted by Rock Plodder
Court documents filed today reveal that the Trump administration intends to fire dozens of Fish and Wildlife Service staff. The firings are part of a larger move to cut more than 2,000 jobs at the Interior Department.

Get the rest ➡️ bit.ly/3WgcdTO
October 20, 2025 at 10:24 PM
View from the Big 4 area, Mt Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest on a clear October afternoon.
October 14, 2025 at 6:02 PM
And, if you like birds but haven't seen this, you really should watch:

youtu.be/zl-wAqplQAo?...
LISTERS: A Glimpse Into Extreme Birdwatching
YouTube video by owen reiser
youtu.be
October 13, 2025 at 4:09 PM
Putting on the To Watch list:

Quannah ChasingHorse Says The Colorado River’s Survival Is About More Than Water
www.huffpost.com/entry/americ...
New Documentary Shows The Colorado River’s Beauty — And Its Potential Peril
The new nature documentary "The American Southwest" spotlights what stands to be lost if we can’t learn how to live with nature instead of trying to tame it.
www.huffpost.com
October 13, 2025 at 3:14 PM
Pink Salmon cruising around riffles in the Snohomish River, Wa doing pink Salmon stuff.
October 11, 2025 at 4:07 PM
Just seemed like the kind of news story we need: make time to get outside, shut off the modern world. It will catch up with you later .

Nobel Prize winner was hiking in Yellowstone with phone set to airplane mode. He'll keep doing it for work-life balance | Fortune share.google/0Yn1wznyXo4l...
Nobel Prize winner was hiking in Yellowstone with phone set to airplane mode. He'll keep doing it for work-life balance | Fortune
Fred Ramsdell had to drive to a Montana hotel to connect to Wi-Fi. He didn't speak with the Nobel committee to get their congratulations until midnight.
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October 9, 2025 at 1:11 PM
Quote post a pic of a National Park.

Sunset over the Grand Canyon, looking west from Fire Point, Grand Canyon National Park, North Rim - about 20 miles west of where the North Rim Lodge once stood.
#FindYourPark #ParkChat #allpubliclandsmatter
October 5, 2025 at 10:08 PM
#parkchat
A Washington hiker’s guide to the 2025 federal shutdown — Washington Trails Association share.google/XJWG31i8ka5E...
A Washington hiker’s guide to the 2025 federal shutdown
As national parks, national forests and wildlife refuge operations shutdown and federal employees are furloughed, here's how hikers can still recreate responsibly across the state.
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October 2, 2025 at 4:45 PM
September 30, 2025 at 8:22 PM
"Journal of Public Economics found that when an existing park was upgraded to National Park status, both employment (4%) and income (6%) increase in the surrounding area" #parkchat

Big Idea: Western Pennsylvania should have a National Park | Pittsburgh Post-Gazette share.google/NklxP8XZBB6L...
Big Idea: Western Pennsylvania should have a National Park
This editorial is part of an ongoing series entitled Big Ideas for a Better Pittsburgh, in which the Editorial Board collects and proposes new ways for...
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September 25, 2025 at 3:12 PM
Link to Public Comments Due Sept 30th:

USDA Opens Public Comment Period on Department Reorganization Plan | USDA share.google/VI6TOj6frZXs...

The dismantling of the Forest Service - High Country News share.google/3Oo5FqQHyL7r...
The dismantling of the Forest Service - High Country News
The Trump administration’s plans would remake the agency and public lands. The deadline to comment is Sept. 30.
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September 23, 2025 at 10:28 PM
Decades of public-lands planning, overturned in a day - High Country News share.google/IKTztC8JUsFJ...
Decades of public-lands planning, overturned in a day - High Country News
The House voted to nullify three Bureau of Land Management plans, and critics fear many more could follow.
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September 17, 2025 at 4:04 PM
"Most on both sides of the debate agree that without Redford's efforts, particularly in the mid-1970s, there probably would be no Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument today." #parkchat

REDFORD FIGHTS ON TO PRESERVE UTAH – Deseret News share.google/6w2vpPihDwYg...
REDFORD FIGHTS ON TO PRESERVE UTAH
What is it about these times that elicits such a chest-beating affront to anything pure, wild and free? What is it about these times that manifests itself in such disregard for things greater than the...
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September 16, 2025 at 3:04 PM