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1 week ago | 
blog.nwf.org | David Williams |Portia Bharath
April 7-13 was National Wildlife Week and April is Earth Month, a time to be especially aware of the ecosystem that sustains us and how we can be better stewards of the nature that surrounds us—be it in the wilderness, our cities, or our backyard. Back in my youth, I was a park ranger at Arches National Park. Walking the trails and leading campfire talks, I was struck by how interested visitors were in the flora, fauna, and rocks of the park.
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Oct 23, 2024 | 
thecontributor.org | David Williams
Features A cemetery caretaker, at home among the dead, drawn into the fraught world of the living. A husband and father who knows well the tragic allure of guns, putting his down. Ghosts in the kitchen, reminding us that food doesn’t just bring us together for meals but connects us across generations.
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Oct 14, 2024 | 
chapter16.org | David Williams
A cemetery caretaker, at home among the dead, drawn into the fraught world of the living. A husband and father who knows well the tragic allure of guns, putting his down. Ghosts in the kitchen, reminding us that food doesn’t just bring us together for meals but connects us across generations.
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Oct 13, 2024 | 
hudl.com | David Williams
Oops! It looks like AdBlock or a similar tool has prevented this page from loading. Please disable the plugin for all Hudl.com pages and refresh your browser. 1 views | 0:53 | Oct 13, 2024
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Aug 23, 2024 | 
jasonanthony.substack.com | Jason Anthony |Nicie Panetta |David Williams
Hello everyone:This week I’m bringing you a piece that’s special to me, an updated version of the Field Guide’s inaugural essay, first published on Earth Day, 2021. The essay has been edited, rewritten, given a new title, and split into two pieces for this week and next. As always, please remember to scroll past the end of the essay to read some new curated Anthropocene news. Now on to this week’s writing:“If I have a subject, it is justice.
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Jul 18, 2024 | 
streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com | David Williams
I am taking a slightly different tactic this week and next with a two-part story of geology and chicanery. I hope you enjoy it. When Clarence Dutton spoke, people listened. As one of the most famous geologists of the late 1800s, he regularly attracted large crowds to his talks. For one speech in northern Michigan, a man traveled in the dark through mud for hours to hear Dutton but ultimately was “chagrined and surprised” when the geologist didn’t show.
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Jan 29, 2024 | 
chapter16.org | David Williams
They say there are only two stories in literature: A stranger comes to town and a man goes on a journey. Suttree — my favorite book, Cormac McCarthy’s masterpiece, an American Ulysses — is both.
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Jan 18, 2024 | 
streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com | David Williams
Greetings from Seattle. Thank you for being an active reader of my Street Smart Naturalist newsletter. Knowing that you are out there keeps me motivated and makes these newsletters enjoyable for me to write!As my newsletter turns three, I thought I’d let you know who your fellow readers are.
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Jan 11, 2024 | 
streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com | David Williams
I remember the depiction in Ping, though I had forgotten the name of the book. I think that people don't use the cormorant metaphor anymore because the average person has no idea what a cormorant is or that they exist. In the 1800s people were more attuned to the world around them as it appeared, not as mediated through electronic or even printed media, or as contrived by the entertainment industry.
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Jan 11, 2024 | 
streetsmartnaturalist.substack.com | David Williams
Chaucer, Milton, and Shakespeare share several attributes. They are some of the rare authors typically referred to by their last names only. They regularly make the list of top ten writers in English. They held less than favorable opinions about cormorants. To Chaucer, the birds represented gluttony, to Shakespeare insatiable greed, and to Milton, he took them to a new low: “Satan…sits, in the shape of a Cormorant.” Dang. And, these fine writers are not alone.
