My personal mission statement (clarified during a workshop with the inimitable Kathleen Dean Moore): I will humbly but persistently infuse joy and gratitude for the heart-lifting beauty of the world, as I continually bear witness to its unraveling — and support others in doing the same.
My work is always rooted in natural history, ecology, and conservation biology, but plies the terrain at the margins of disciplines. I’m most interested in the connections between sciences, humanities, and public policy, and between analytical and creative modes of thought. I'm fascinated by the confluence of nature & culture, biology & adaptation, when considering humans as an ecological species.
Two years ago, I stepped down as the founding Executive Director of the independent, nonprofit Natural History Institute, which seeks to integrate art, science, and humanities in the work of connecting humans and nature, and am now the Institute’s Senior Advisor & Director Emeritus. I'm Faculty Emeritus at Prescott College, where I taught in the interdisciplinary Environmental Studies Program for 29 years. In addition to helping coordinate the Conservation Biology and Natural History and Ecology emphasis areas, I created courses that linked with many other curricular areas, including creative writing, environmental politics, and ecopsychology (see Teaching).
Much of my work over the past few years has focused on revitalizing the practice of natural history (see Natural History Projects). Recently, I had the honor of addressing the United Nations Science Summit on the importance of natural history. My writings on this topic are available here (at bottom of page). I have edited two anthologies on the importance of natural history. Nature, Love, Medicine: Essays on Wildness and Wellness, was released by Torrey House Press in late 2017. The book gathers narrative essays that address three interrelated questions: "How can nature heal us, as individuals and communities?," "How does practicing natural history lead to healthier lives?," and "Why does deep engagement with nature help us love the world?" The book received very positive critical feedback, and was named a Finalist in the ForeWord INDIES Book of the Year Awards (in the Nature category); the Booklist review is here. The Way of Natural History (2011) received attention from reviewers as diverse as the Wall Street Journal, which included Way on its end of year "Best of Science" list, and the Shambhala Sun. It received an Honorable Mention in the ForeWord Book of the Year Awards.
I wrote two earlier books—Singing Stone: A Natural History of the Escalante Canyons (1999) and Desert Wetlands (a collaboration with photographer Lucian Niemeyer, 2005). I've also written numerous journal articles and book chapters (see Publications).
In the past few years, I’ve been working with several colleagues to bring attention to the uniqueness and importance of a continental-scale transition zone across northern Arizona and New Mexico that we have named the Mogollon Highlands Ecoregion. We wrote a preliminary description in 2017, and more recently this work has culminated in two recent research papers, one on this region as a “neglected center of ecological diversity” and the other, an ecoregional conservation assessment of it. This region, we declare, has exceptionally high biodiversity and conservation importance.
In 2020, I finished a term as Chair of the Natural History Section of the Ecological Society of America, and also, with my friend and colleague Laura Sewall, co-edited a special issue of the Ecopsychology journal on “Reciprocal Healing: Nature, Health, and Wild Vitality” that grew out of the national confluence convened by the Natural History Institute on this topic. I was honored recently to be elected as a Fellow of the Linnean Society of London.
I was interviewed on two podcasts in recent years: Natural History: A Verb or a Noun?, and The Natural History of Oneness and Wellness.
I was delighted and honored to lead a National Science Foundation project, “The Decline in Field Studies: Proactive Strategies for Essential Training for the Next Generation of Biological Researchers,” to address the growing crisis in American (and, indeed, global) ecological sciences training--that fewer and fewer students have the opportunity to study and learn in the field, directly from nature. We convened a working group of faculty, administrators, and practitioners from across the spectrum of field education to identify the specific obstacles that have made field study increasingly difficult in some institutions--and defined and communicated specific strategies to remove these obstacles. An article we wrote on this topic, "Teaching Biology in the Field: Importance, Challenges, and Solutions," was published by the professional journal, BioScience. We also produced a short video, "Why We Teach in the Field," and a number of products, all available here.
Field research projects include an ongoing study of migratory and wintering shorebirds at Estero Santa Cruz in the Gulf of California, Mexico. For many years I've been involved in studying the ecological effects of livestock grazing in western North America. I chaired the committee that wrote a position statement on this topic for the Society for Conservation Biology. Colleagues and I conducted a study of the ecological effects of historic livestock grazing on plant communities in Chaco Canyon, New Mexico (as well as a follow-up study). I wrote earlier and more recent synthesis papers on livestock grazing and wildilfe conservation in the American West. Recently, I was a co-author on a paper linking livestock and native ungulates to climate change concerns; this paper received a great deal of response, both positive and negative. We wrote a follow-up paper that responds to one of the latter.
Earlier field research concerned marine mammals and marine birds. I continue to be fascinated with these animals; they remain strong passions, and subjects in my teaching (including in a recent field program on island biogeography in the Gulf of California, one of my favorite places in the world).
I co-founded the North Cascades Institute in Washington State, and have served on the Board of Governors of the Society for Conservation Biology, the Science Advisory Council of the Grand Canyon Trust, and many other local and regional organizations. I was a long-term member of the Education Committee of the Society for Conservation Biology, and served as President of the society’s Colorado Plateau Chapter.
Education:
Ph.D., Environmental Studies, The Union Institute, 1998.
M.S., Biology, Western Washington University, 1983.
B.S., Field Biology, The Evergreen State College, 1977.
