Earlier this year, colleagues shared an unusual surveillance video that was making the rounds. Murky camera footage showed a cougar-like creature wandering a neighborhood in West Seattle, slinking past cars in the sooty night. Soon reports trickled in from locals, too, as news of the cougar spread like Omicron. But unlike the pandemic, the cougar wasn’t a threat.

This is my third writing retreat at the Whiteley Center, a refuge for established scholars and artists to study, write, create, and interact in a peaceful and quiet environment. The center is associated with University of Washington’s Friday Harbor Laboratories, located on the eastern shores of San Juan Island in the Salish Sea.

“Right of Way,” my feature article in the current issue of Wild Hope, celebrates the early success of wildlife crossing structures at I-90 Snoqualmie Pass—the inspiring project that brought Robert and me to Washington more than a decade ago. New structures and fencing allow deer and elk, coyotes, and other wild animals to safely traverse the highway, thereby reconnecting habitats to the north and south.

The Black Tones was founded by Eva and her twin brother, Cedric, whose drums are the heartbeat to his sister’s vocals and guitar. In my pre-interview research, I discovered that this dynamic duo (Cedric has called himself Robin to Eva’s Batman) has developed an impassioned fan base in Seattle and well beyond. Now I know why.

On October 28th at 6:30pm, social-cultural psychologist Mary Clare and science writer Gary Ferguson will offer a free public presentation about tackling climate change at the Bainbridge Island Museum of Art. Mary and Gary advocate grounding ourselves in “full ecology”—also the title of their new book (see my review)—to confront climate change without burning out our inner sun.

One reason I write is to try to evoke my experiences in nature as a source of inspiration. The experiences come readily—I need only walk in the woods, or in the mountains, or on a sweep of sand by the sea—but the writing does not. I toil to find the right words to describe a wild place, a wild moment, a wild animal, without resorting to cliché. 

I knew it wasn’t going to be easy. Last year, our friend, Roger, had checked this particular wolverine camera for us so we wouldn’t have to cross the gnarly Middle Fork Nooksack to access our site. Robert and I had been defeated by another raging stream earlier in the summer, while trying to hike the PCT from the North Cascades Highway to Stehekin—a 20-mile backpack through tough terrain.

A while back, I wrote an article about three species of mustelids (members of the weasel family) in Washington whose populations were decimated by trapping and poisoning a century ago. “A Tale of Three Weasels” describes scientific efforts to better understand the needs of wolverines, fishers, and the martens of the Olympic Peninsula as these animals strive to recover from a rocky past.

In this follow-up to my first interview with Wilderness and Wildlife, produced by KGVM 95.9 out of Bozeman, Montana, I talk with host Jay Shellenberger about writing and wildlife, and how my own relationship with writing has evolved over the years.

As we prepare to make the latest model of our scent dispenser more widely available to other field biologists through Woodland Park Zoo, we want to be sure the device can hold up to bears who might venture into camera stations.

For the July/August issue of The Wildlife Professional, Robert and I co-authored an article about our wolverine research in Washington, emphasizing the need for creative collaborations and innovative survey methods given possible threats to the wolverine population in the future.

Please join me and several other writers who contributed to the new anthology, Keep a Green Bough: Voices from the Heart of Cascadia, for an outdoor reading on July 25 at 4pm. The reading will take place at the Dungeness River Audubon Center in Sequim, Washington.

Dear Friends, I’ve been thinking about connections a lot lately. How much we need them. How we maintain them. How to restore them, one link at a time. For me, the pandemic has been a paradox. I’ve appreciated the respite at times—less traffic, fewer places to go, our complicated emotions hidden behind masks.

Last week, as part of my research for a magazine article about I-90 SPE, Robert and I had the opportunity to tour several of the 13 crossing structures that have been installed specifically for wildlife. We’ve slowly watched these structures come to fruition during our occasional travels on the highway…

In the North Cascades, it’s unusual for us to visit a remote camera station that HASN’T been visited by Pacific martens—smaller cousin to wolverines and every bit as charismatic. But not so in the Olympic Range, where martens are rarely sighted and may even be at risk of local extinction. Last week, Robert and I initiated our seasonal camera deployments for the Olympics’ missing martens, as part of Woodland Park Zoo’s ongoing collaboration with Olympic National Forest and Olympic National Park.

Robert and I were recently interviewed by Wilderness and Wildlife, a radio show broadcasted by KGVM 95.9 out of Bozeman, Montana. We spoke with host Jay Shellenberger about noninvasive carnivore research, our ongoing wolverine surveys in the North Cascades, and my own path merging wildlife conservation and creative writing.