My short essay about contending with my fears at a wild river crossing is now available in print. Issue 4 of Deep Wild can be purchased at local bookstores, and also online. I just love this beautiful journal, perfectly sized for an overstuffed backpack, and brimming with prose and poetry that will transport you to deep, wild places even if you’re sitting at home on your couch!

The morning after they stole my reproductive rights, I needed to get away. My husband and I loaded our day packs and two happy dogs into the car and headed to Olympic National Forest—about 90 minutes from home. We drove past strip malls and gas stations and American flags that had been hung for freedom.

When I first approached Stefan Frei at our photo shoot for Tideland magazine, I tossed him my husband’s soccer ball and quipped, “just testing your reflexes.” He deftly caught the ball, of course, before tossing back a quick-witted response: “Hey, I didn’t think I was going to have to work today!” Frei’s playful smile belied the competitive intensity that he brings to the pitch for the Seattle Sounders—and that fuels his success as one of the best goalkeepers in Major League Soccer today.

Deep Wild journal recently blogged an excerpt from my flash nonfiction essay, “Lessons in Survival,” to be published in print in June. I’m excited to be included in issue 4 of Deep Wild, whose “Writings from the Backcountry” are bound in a compact, lightweight package so that you can bring the journal with you to read on your own backcountry adventures.

A Bainbridge Island podcast, B.I.Stander, recently invited my colleague and husband, Robert Long, to engage in a free-flowing conversation about all things coyote (and then some). The resulting episode runs just over an hour, and makes the perfect companion for cooking dinner or sipping tea while you’re staring out the window. By the end of it, you’ll know one of your neighbors just a little bit better, and maybe you’ll be inspired to share what you know.

Here on Bainbridge Island, gardening season is upon us—and I couldn’t be happier to usher it in. Daffodils bloom like sunshine outside my window, and tomorrow is the big day when I start cucumbers, peppers, and tomatoes (and, with much less enthusiasm, my tax returns). So it was particularly exciting to open my mailbox yesterday and find the premier issue of Tideland magazine inside, featuring my gardening essay, “Beyond the Bounty.”

A new article published in Global Ecology and Conservation presents the first global analysis of wolverine ecology and conservation research. Led by University of Victoria’s Jason T. Fisher and co-authored by more than a dozen other wolverine researchers (including me), the article reviews 156 scientific papers and summarizes their findings. The study also highlights what wolverines will need to survive in our changing world.

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.