On a tour I led recently in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem, it alternately snowed and rained for five consecutive days. Despite the inclement weather, Yellowstone and Grand Teton parks were busy, hotels and restaurants were full, and the gateway city of Jackson, Wyoming had traffic jams. Busloads of tourists from the […]
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Why does the current Administration want to reduce public lands at a time when Americans are flocking to them in record numbers? The love of public lands is particularly strong in the west where 93 percent of Western voters have visited national parks, national forests, or other public lands within […]
Washington Park Arboretum in Seattle recently published this enhanced version of my essay about Anna’s Hummingbirds entitled Anna’s World : https://conservationcatalyst.org/blog/
It is astounding that I even had to write the piece below to defend our public lands, but such are the times we find ourselves in today. The current U.S. political administration wants to rescind more than two dozen national monuments. These are places that had already been “saved” for present and […]
Feeling glum, listless, low on energy and/or ideas? You might be suffering from “nature-deficit-disorder” as Richard Louv called it, or from an “epidemic dislocation from the outdoors” as Florence Williams refers to it in her new book. Here’s a simple remedy: Take one 15-20 minute dose of walking through a park, natural […]
Recently, a wonderful surprise appeared in the mail: A poem and painting from Patricia Freres Stinger who said in her letter “I thought you might enjoy this poem (and painting) I wrote last fall. It was inspired in part by the discussion, Woody, in your book, “Look Up,” about snagscaping” […]
Note: Beth Weir is hosting a birding class I am teaching at Dunn Gardens on April 11, 2017. This blog is about her remarkable family connection to the name of one of the birds that inhabits Dunn Gardens during Spring and Summer. I unexpectedly found the name of someone I am related to […]
I never saw a Bald Eagle during my childhood in Illinois in the 1950s – 1960s. Not because I was not observant, I was. It was because they had been extirpated in Illinois by 1918, meaning eliminated from this part of their range. Illinois was not the only state where this […]
Fishing, hunting, hiking, camping, mountain biking, mountain climbing, snowmobiling, rafting, kayaking, bird and wildlife-watching, taking scenic drives, vacations and just taking in the peace and beauty of these remarkable places…this is an incomplete list of the many ways that people benefit from our public lands. When short-sighted politicians say that they […]
Last month I mowed the front yard for the last time because we just went native in our front yard. That is, we replaced our grass lawn with a diverse landscape comprised of 70 native plants. As it grows in, it will be increasingly attractive to the eye as well as […]