Pinch of Dirt

Pinch of Dirt is a complimentary newsletter that focuses on nature, outdoor exploration, and environmental topics. It is published mostly on a weekly basis, although there may be occasional irregular releases.

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Articles

So apocalyptic it’s unreal

Jan 12, 2025 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

Earlier this week I texted a friend who moved to Los Angeles at the end of last year to make sure she was out of harm’s way from the wildfire burning to the west of her new apartment. She reported that she was currently in the clear and people were going about their business as usual, although the winds were monstrous. A day or two later, with new fires burning to the north and to the east, she had a go-bag packed, just in case her neighborhood was ordered to evacuate.
A time for rest and recuperation and hibernation

Jan 4, 2025 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

I don’t know about you, but I’ve been feeling rather burned out recently. I made it to the end of the year, but only just, scraping by on minimal self-care and productivity. Traveling to Maine for the holiday, having the days between Christmas and New Year’s off from work—that helped. We went jogging on the beach, and hiked to a waterfall; I painted some watercolors of the marsh, and we ate delicious food. But it wasn’t enough. Even now, I feel overwhelmingly meh.
The Cemetery Belt

Dec 14, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

There’s one question that’s bound to bubble up if you spend much time exploring around the Brooklyn-Queens border, and that is: Why are there so many dead people here? Everywhere I explore on foot, it seems, there are cemeteries. The big mass of green on the map to the west of our new apartment? Mostly cemeteries! The park we’ve been jogging around in Ridgewood? Some park, but mostly cemetery! Two, in fact. Thankfully, in 2017, the New York Times covered this very question.
Spiritual sister of the English moorlands

Dec 7, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

While I was back home in Kansas last week for Thanksgiving, I was struck anew by how much I love the landscape where I grew up. We went for a run late Wednesday in a cold almost-drizzle, and in the diffuse, gray late-afternoon light, the colors in the fields were at their most striking: many shades of gold and brown, obviously, and some green remained, but also deep reds, and blackish purples.
'Where even the downhills are uphill'

Nov 24, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

I’ve started working on a project I’ve been thinking about for a while now: a trail journal about my solo end-to-end hike of the Long Trail in 2016. I don’t know why I finally managed to start writing it, after years of procrastination. (Except, perhaps, that I really miss and crave hiking right now and revisiting this trip is the next best thing.) But I’ve found immense enjoyment revisiting my younger and more inexperienced self.
New York is burning

Nov 16, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

Last Friday, after I had already scheduled the newsletter, we were walking back from Williamsburg after a concert when I saw I had missed a text from a friend: “Prospect Park is on fire!” Now she mentioned it, I could smell campfire in the air. Perhaps this could explain why my eyes tickled and my throat scratched. “Forest fires in New York City are nearly unprecedented.” Two acres burned before the fire was extinguished.
It was Election Day in America

Nov 9, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

God it’s been a week hasn’t it. I put my initial feelings about Election Day into this short piece I wrote for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. I’m the climate editor, so it’s about climate change. But obviously my fears about the next four years don’t begin and end with the climate crisis. My editor has once again challenged the ideas expressed here, and asked if I’m really that nihilistic. I certainly feel so right now. In any case, I’ve indulged some of my bleakest thoughts in this post.
Inherently cringe

Nov 2, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

There’s something inherently a little bit cringe about trail journals. Nobody is immune—not Bill Bryson, not Cheryl Strayed, not Rusty Foster, and certainly not me.
A little less uprooted

Oct 15, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

Greetings from Bushwick! Two weeks after the big move—which E and I did ourselves, with help from my brother who flew in from Kansas to do some of the heavy lifting—and we are still unpacking boxes and feeling out our new neighborhood. The apartment is starting to feel a bit more homey and less like warehouse storage.
The last 10 miles

Oct 5, 2024 | pinchofdirt.substack.com | Jessica McKenzie

Two weeks ago, instead of staying home on a Saturday to pack for our upcoming move, I woke at what felt like the crack of dawn (it was after 7am) to go to Staten Island, of all places. I had heard through the friend grapevine that Matt Green, the man walking every street and pedestrian path in New York City, was about to cross the finish line. I reached out and asked to join his entourage for the last 10 miles.