Why I write...
... to link nature with adventure, to inspire the explorer in all of us.
I love telling stories. As a mountaineer and an ecologist, I've been to wild mountains and forests in the Americas, Europe and Asia. I've climbed soaring granite faces and tip-toed precariously on knife-edge ridges. I've kept rainforest birds dry under my shirt (ouch, maybe a mistake). I've been charged by a mountain lion. Piranhas have nibbled my toes. I've climbed many, many trees, including a coast redwood tree 300 feet tall. I've sat up all night with pines, listening to them breathe.
I've been a researcher for thirty years... at Princeton, the University of California, and many academic places imbetween. My list of research publications is, honestly, pretty dry reading. The rest of these pages here at your fingertips is where all the fun gets to happen.
My blog, Mountains and Musings...
My young adventurer book series project, Gone Wild...
My unifying principle, Kids need Nature and Nature needs kids...
... to link nature with adventure, to inspire the explorer in all of us.
I love telling stories. As a mountaineer and an ecologist, I've been to wild mountains and forests in the Americas, Europe and Asia. I've climbed soaring granite faces and tip-toed precariously on knife-edge ridges. I've kept rainforest birds dry under my shirt (ouch, maybe a mistake). I've been charged by a mountain lion. Piranhas have nibbled my toes. I've climbed many, many trees, including a coast redwood tree 300 feet tall. I've sat up all night with pines, listening to them breathe.
I've been a researcher for thirty years... at Princeton, the University of California, and many academic places imbetween. My list of research publications is, honestly, pretty dry reading. The rest of these pages here at your fingertips is where all the fun gets to happen.
My blog, Mountains and Musings...
My young adventurer book series project, Gone Wild...
My unifying principle, Kids need Nature and Nature needs kids...
Some fun published pieces...
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Search and Rescue Kids
It was Day 9 of the search and the hiker still hadn’t been found. One of the largest wildfires in California’s history was raging near the place she’d last been seen in the remote mountain wilderness. Huge plumes of smoke blocked searching from the air. A Chinook helicopter struggled through the haze to land Search-and-Rescue (SAR) teams on the ground, the lost hiker’s best hope for rescue. Turns out they were lucky one searcher was a kid. Muse Magazine May/June 2019. |
The Crease
Yosemite rock climber Tara and Ice-Age Atzl seem to have a mysterious connection across time, a connection that may save more than one life.
The Crease connects the Yosemite Valley of today with the valley of 13,000 years ago near the end of the ice age.
Teacher Resources to accompany The Crease.
Issues in Earth Science 12 (Nov 2019) - A Resource for Writers and Teachers (Ewww, there's some geology in my fiction!)
Yosemite rock climber Tara and Ice-Age Atzl seem to have a mysterious connection across time, a connection that may save more than one life.
The Crease connects the Yosemite Valley of today with the valley of 13,000 years ago near the end of the ice age.
Teacher Resources to accompany The Crease.
Issues in Earth Science 12 (Nov 2019) - A Resource for Writers and Teachers (Ewww, there's some geology in my fiction!)
Urban Kids in the Botanic Garden - California Native People and Plants
Not everyone has equal access to Nature.
We developed the California Native People and Plants program to bring under-served urban fourth grade classrooms to the Regional Parks Botanic Garden to enjoy the popular hands-on Indian Uses of Native Plants tour. Human needs were met by native plants for thousands of years in California., before Target and Costco. Desert people, coast people, valley and mountain people... how did they have shoes? Snacks? A place to sleep?
Manzanita 23(4), Fall 2019.
Not everyone has equal access to Nature.
We developed the California Native People and Plants program to bring under-served urban fourth grade classrooms to the Regional Parks Botanic Garden to enjoy the popular hands-on Indian Uses of Native Plants tour. Human needs were met by native plants for thousands of years in California., before Target and Costco. Desert people, coast people, valley and mountain people... how did they have shoes? Snacks? A place to sleep?
Manzanita 23(4), Fall 2019.
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A Late Night on a High Wall
A thousand feet off the ground, on the vertical face of Half Dome and still hours away from the ledge where we could rest, my climbing buddy and I watched as the sun set and Yosemite Valley went pitch black. I had to lead us to that ledge, somewhere above us in the darkness. Alone on the wall, in the narrow beam of my headlamp, now it was just a struggle between me and my inner demon. Leading Out. Mountaineering Stories of Adventurous Women. Edited by Rachel DaSilva. |
Click to read
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Conifer Exploits in California: A Perspective from 30 Stories Up
Who is the T-rex of trees? Who are the Olympic tree-athletes of the forest? The superlative world of conifers in California: their history, their relationship with humans, and the secret to the survival of giants. Told from the perspective of a researcher (me!) climbing a giant coastal redwood. Manzanita 16(4), Winter 2013. |
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Acid snow: winter's white is killing us softly
Storms above urban and industrial landscapes collect pollutants that get carried downwind in acid rain, drenching forests and mountains all summer long with a soup of man-made chemicals. Less considered are the wintertime equivalents - storms that drop laden snow. The chemicals lay frozen beneath our feet even as we ski over them, until the snows melt in the spring and release their payload in a sudden pulse that shocks organisms at their most vulnerable. Cross-country skier magazine. November 1988. |