by Katherine Pioli

Water and public health at the heart of Becker's Parley's plan.

Looking out on Salt Lake Valley, across the gray concrete of highways and the green of human-planted trees, it is easy to forget that Salt Lake is, underneath it all, a desert. But for our city and county officials charged with keeping Salt Lake a safe and desirable place to live now and into the future, this single fact is of utmost importance. In this desert, water and water quality is perhaps the most impor­­tant issue for our local government. Decisions and sacrifices will be made to assure a constant supply of safe water to our growing population, even at the risk of losing popular public opinion. Such is the case with Salt Lake City Mayor Ralph Becker’s recent changes to Parley’s Historic Nature Park.

by Katherine Pioli

Life skills and metaphors.

Gardening is commonly considered a reflective and calming passtime. It is not a huge stretch, therefore, to turn to gardening as therapy. Horticultural therapy is one of the healing tools used at the Volunteers of America (VOA) Center for Women and Children in Salt Lake City. And it takes gardening to a whole new level. The women enter the center with addictions to alcohol, methamphetamines, cocaine, prescription drugs or other substances. They go through a period of detoxification. They learn ways to cope with emotional stress. They put their full energy toward their rehabilitation—a process that often leads them to the garden. In 2003, the organization received a generous donation under the condition that they build a greenhouse. Leigh Ann Morse had previously developed a youth gardening program for the Wasatch Community Gardens. She had a degree in horticultural therapy. In 2005, she went to work at the VOA, adapting her youth gardening program to suit the needs of women at the center.

by Katherine Pioli

Meet the Salt City Derby Girls

Playing a full contact sport is almost unheard of for women. Sure, there are a few women’s rugby teams (BYU of all places has a very talented club team) and the occasional ice hockey team, but women rarely engage each other on that level. Female lacrosse players, for example, are explicitly forbidden by game rules to “check” their opponents using their body or their stick. (Checking is blocking an opponent by bumping with the body from the front or side.) In men’s lacrosse, on the other hand, checking is considered an essential element of the game and encouraged as good technique. One sport, however, defies traditional gender roles, although it is played almost exclusively by women. Roller derby is highly aggressive and decidedly full contact. Body checking, in the appropriate and rules sanctioned areas, is instrumental. Players often walk away from the bouts with minor injuries, bruised ribs and sore wrists. Sometimes players leave the rink with major concussions. It is, many would say, a masculine game for these reasons, yet this game is decidedly feminine and, dare we say, sexy!

by Katherine Pioli

All charges dropped, but nude soaking in nature, even in darkness and far from a road, remains a crime in Utah County.

Combine nude bathing in remote hot springs with lewdness charges and you have a political bomb, both in Utah and around the country. The December issue of CATALYST published the story "Warning to Nude Bathers," about a group of firefighters caught in just such a predicament at Diamond Fork (Fifth Water) hot springs in Utah County.

by Katherine Pioli

The urban homestead of Jonathan and Julie Krausert.

Jonathan and Julie Krausert's house is hard to miss. Nestled deep inside Rose Park, surrounded by simple modern red brick homes with standard-issue lawns, the Krausert house is a gardener's masterpiece. The front yard is a puzzle of garden plots fitted together with flagstone paths. Life vibrates from the ground up, even in these final days of winter when we visit. Seven medium-sized fruit trees call this yard their home, surrounded by a spread of tiny green leaves—three kinds of oregano, basil, mint and thyme. Onion greens join the push upward through the leaf litter mulch. Rosemary, currants and strawberries also make the list of edibles; and this is just the front yard.

by Katherine Pioli

Do you love Utah's natural gifts? Here's a list of her champions. Lend them a hand.

Utah, the “reddest state in the nation,” has a surprising number of environmentally minded nonprofit organizations, each working enthusiastically every day to preserve the air, land and water of what is undeniably one of the most beautiful states in the nation. Whether you’re interested in brushing up on what’s going down, or hoping to get involved yourself, our directory of Utah’s enviro orgs is a great first step!

by Katherine Pioli

Terri Martin tells her story of a shift from fierce environmental defender to advocate for conversations on wilderness.

When I met Terri Martin at her downtown office, she opened our conversation by asserting that she would not speak for the environmental movement in Utah. Martin is a long-time Utah environmental activist, and although I had been assigned to write a story of Utah environmentalism "then and now," I felt no desire to argue with this wiry, steely-eyed woman standing before me. There would be no guesstimate, she told me, as to how the number of groups had expanded since her early work in the '80s. She would not divine how the hot environmental issues would shift in years to come. "I can only speak to my personal story," she added, with finality.

by Katherine Pioli

Enjoying nighttime au naturale can land you a "lewdness" charge in Utah County.

My weekend began as innocently as it should have ended: Eight young friends, six of whom were fire fighters for the US Forest Service celebrating the end of another fire season, spending a weekend camping in Utah. Our destination was Diamond Fork hot springs, just east of Spanish Fork, Utah, toward Price. Diamond Fork is a popular destination for people from all over the state, and even the country. The pools, although usually "family friendly," are well-known for attracting more than the occasional group of nude bathers.

by Katherine Pioli

Is greywater (the water that comes from bathtubs, showers, wash basins and clothes washers) use a boon or an environmental disaster? Facts fall on both sides. Bottom line: Look to conservation first.

There is a story about the famous author and monkey-wrencher Edward Abbey doing his duty as an agitator at a public event in Tucson, Arizona where he spent the last years of his life. The city had just published a book on water conservation. City officials had gathered for the book’s official public release—a volume promised to make continued life, even expansion, in the desert city possible. After all of the self-congratulatory speeches had been made, the microphone somehow found its way into Abbey’s hands.

by Katherine Pioli

Jobs, royalties and tax revenue vs. maintaining the integrity of one of the planet's top avian habitats—or is there a third way? That's the question state scientists must answer as Great Salt Lake Minerals plans an expansion of lake acreage that would equal the size of Salt Lake City.

It's not easy for mineral extraction companies to earn positive attention, let alone support, of the environmentally-minded. But Great Salt Lake Minerals (GSL Minerals) knows exactly how to stay in good favor.