In August this year, I was lucky enough to spend three days with American Prairie in Eastern Montana. The temperature climbed to 102 degrees while I was there. Plagues of grasshoppers splattered themselves on the car grille. I went to the prairie to look at the effect of bison on creeks in the mid-summer heat. …
Ethics and Wildlife
Five years ago, I did a podcast with the Prindle Institute about a world taken over by technology. It was thrilling to do another recently on a world fizzing with recovering wildlife. Christian Wisehart asked the right questions about genetic purity, killing one species to save another, and improving one's relationship with wild animals. Enjoy …
Eight Quirks of Recovering Wildlife
I was thrilled to have a short essay published in Orion Magazine this week. Enjoy contemplating the strange accommodations we make when wildlife returns. Read more at "Prune a Tree, Save a Bear." Credit: Andrzejuk Bartosz
A Fish, A People, and A Tale of Resilience
“So, what's your dream, Robert? How do you imagine things five, ten, or twenty years from now?” I was standing on a beach moistened by the steel grey waters of Washington's Puget Sound. Next to me was Robert Elofson of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe. Elofson is a long-time employee of the Tribe’s Natural Resource …
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How Much Should We Interfere in the Lives of Wild Animals?
The wildlife recoveries I tracked in Tenacious Beasts offer lessons from conservation success stories. Some species need only one thing from us: STOP KILLING THEM! This is true of whales, beavers, wolves, and many others. Once we stop killing them, the species returns rapidly. Other species require considerable intervention to help them return. California condors, …
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Remembering Tokitae: What Killer Whales Can Teach
Penn Cove is a tranquil scoop of ocean situated on the eastern flank of Washington’s Whidbey Island. Douglas fir and Sitka spruce ring the cove giving its shores the signature, emerald hue of the Pacific Northwest. The town of Coupeville presides over the southern edge of the three-mile bight. The restaurants and shops on one …
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Christopher J. Preston 