I spent three hours last Tuesday crouched in a muddy bank near the River Dee, shivering in a damp wind, only to watch a group …
Otter Signs Are Easier to Find Than Otters
Wildlife
Why You Shouldn’t Mistake Silence for Safety: a Guide to Understanding Nocturnal Animal Behavior in Forests.
I remember a night in the Cairngorms, about twelve years ago, sitting in a damp bivvy bag while a heavy mist rolled in through the …
Stop Planting for Aesthetics and Start Planting for Survival: Real Ways to Build Backyard Habitats for Pollinators.
I spent most of my career watching people try to “save the planet” by buying expensive, pre-packaged “pollinator kits” from big-box garden centers, only to …
The Ocean Is Incredibly Forgiving Until It Isn’t: the Unglamorous, Essential Truth About Protecting Endangered Coral Reef Ecosystems.
I spent twenty-two years watching how ecosystems fail when people treat them like something you can just “fix” with a single, expensive gesture. There is …
The Unseen Margin of Error: Why Understanding the Role of Wolves in Ecosystem Balance Is the Difference Between a Thriving Wild and a Total Collapse
I remember standing on a ridge in the Cairngorms back in 2012, watching a landscape that felt fundamentally wrong. The vegetation was thin, the riverbanks …
The Invisible Map: How Migratory Birds Navigate Across Continents Without a Forecast or a Way Back.
I was standing on a ridge in the Cairngorms last November, soaked to the bone and nursing a lukewarm thermos, watching a small knot of …
Species Arriving Earlier and Moving North
I was standing on a scree slope in the Cairngorms last Tuesday, nursing a thermos and checking my raptor log, when I realized the silence …
Cleaning Your Boots Between Catchments
I remember standing on a peat bog in the Lake District three years ago, waist-deep in a soak that felt like it would never end, …
What a Designation Actually Protects
I remember standing on a ridge in the Cairngorms three years ago, watching a group of hikers scramble over a delicate patch of lichen-covered granite …
Rewilding: the Practical Version, Not the Argument
I spent three years as a ranger watching people stare at a patch of scrubland and call it a “success” just because a few brambles …