Sarah Aronson is the talented host of Grounding, a podcast on climate change and mental health. I met Sarah eight years ago when she was the anchor of The Write Question, a Montana Public Radio show on books. We had a wonderful conversation about a work on nature and technology I had just published, The …
Holmes Rolston, III (1932-2025): A Giant in Environmental Ethics
Holmes Rolston, III, was my mentor for over thirty years. I met him when I moved from England to Colorado for a master’s degree in 1990. A renowned environmental philosopher, Rolston died in early 2025. I made the four-thousand-mile journey for two reasons. First, there was Rolston, the so-called “father of environmental ethics.” He put …
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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 …
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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Changing Perceptions of the Wolf
The wolf is a lightning rod in discussions about wildlife recovery. Theodore Roosevelt called them "beasts of waste and desolation." If you can have a conversation about the wolf and not raise any tempers, you are doing well. When I had to pick the animal that would open my new book, Tenacious Beasts, I swallowed …
Christopher J. Preston 