Terra Firma

Feed Swap: Introducing Howl, from Boise State Public Radio and The Idaho Capital Sun

Terra Firma listeners, we have something special to share with you. As part of the American Storytelling collection from NPR, we're sharing a show we think you're really

From the NPR Network: The American Storytelling collection explores the great outdoors

Out in the open, beyond the noise of everyday life, the land has a way of revealing us.  ‘American Storytelling’ is a collection of podcasts from across the NPR Network,

This Bend in the River (Gunnison River, Colorado)

Come with CMarie to a bend in the river. Nearby, a couple spread out a blanket. A dog chases after a ball. The river brings things, and the river carries things away. Th

Carhartt Creek (Payette National Forest, Idaho)

CMarie and her 17-year-old dog, Carhartt, camp together for the last time. Next to the stream, CMarie remembers all the other times she and Carhartt have camped together,

Autumn Road (A forgotten Forest Service road in Idaho)

Hiking up a forgotten Forest Service road in autumn with her dogs, CMarie notices the golden larch needles drifting around her. Then, she stumbles upon a strange discover

The Sandhills (Bear Valley, Idaho)

Sandhill cranes swirl and kettle in a high mountain meadow. As she watches them and listens, CMarie wonders what the cranes would make of her, if they wrote poetry. She w

The Dark (Masonville, Colorado)

CMarie lies on the lawn of the house she grew up in, and considers the stars. How little the night needs from us -- we do not need to know the constellations, or which cr

Sounds of Mountain Water (Powderhorn Wilderness, Colorado)

High in a mountain meadow, CMarie notices that a small mountain stream makes much more noise than an enormous flood. As she reflects on a waterfall, and what fish may hea

Beauty in the Burn (Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado)

A wildfire has recently blazed through. CMarie's friend is dismayed: her beautiful wilderness, destroyed. But CMarie quietly finds this recent ruin beautiful. And she won

The Human Element (Near Payette Lake, Idaho)

On a bright morning at her mountain cabin, CMarie fills the birdfeeder. Trees, birds, flowers, and a spider all greet the brand-new sun. And CMarie greets each of them, a

The Damning Silence (Mount Zirkel Wilderness, Colorado)

All night, camped near a mountain stream, CMarie lies awake listening. She's hoping to hear a sound she hasn't heard in a long time: a wolf howl. And as she waits, she co

Welcome Back to Terra Firma

The sounds of nature are restorative. They help us connect with the planet, with each other, and with who we really are. That’s what Terra Firma is all about -- and that

Greeting a New Decade (Comb Ridge, Utah)

At sunset on the eve of her 50th birthday, CMarie hikes up a slickrock ridge with her dog Carhartt. She passes petroglyphs, and cottonwoods, and at the top of the ridge,

The Eyes of Ancestors (Payette National Forest, Idaho)

Leaning against a ponderosa on a ridgeline, CMarie watches a storm roll in. CMarie knows this storm, this nature, has something to teach her. The flowers on the mountains

Snowy Starry Horse Ride (Collegiate Peaks, Colorado)

Late at night, after a long day of emails and meetings, CMarie climbs on top of a horse. She rides without saddle or bit into a frozen meadow under snowcapped peaks. Ther

A Silvery Cold (Rawah Wilderness, Colorado)

In the tundra's quiet, unburdened by the chaos of technology, CMarie listens to the wind over the lichens and reflects on the word "rawah," which her ancestors, the Ute,

Miracles Everywhere (Payette River, Idaho)

Returning to the river to witness the annual kokanee salmon migration, CMarie starts to see the seasonal red of the fish everywhere. The kokanee mating, the flowers on th

Robin's Home Song (Big Thompson Canyon, Colorado)

In the birthplace of the Colorado River in Rocky Mountain National Park, CMarie remembers an early-morning robin song from her childhood. It's a song that stirs an ancien

Healing a Wounded Wilderness (Payette National Forest, Idaho)

On a trail thousands of years old, CMarie sits among the wildflowers near the South Fork Salmon River and watches a tractor cover a fifty-year-old logging road. Maybe som

Elk Song (Rocky Mountain National Park, Colorado)

On a late afternoon in autumn, when the sun bends the shadows and gives a gold tip to the crowns of Doug fir and lodgepole, CMarie Fuhrman walks into the forest with her