WILD

Tracks of Giants: Getting Ready

After meetings in Washington DC in late April, everything was focused on gathering exit speed in the US to head to NW Namibia to join the team members assembling from all points of the compass to launch the Tracks of Giants expedition.  As I departed the US on 25 April, my watch broke. As we approached Johannesburg after the 17 hour flight and lots of work, I powered down my laptop…only to have it fail to re-start during my 8 hour transit.  When I landed in Windhoek my local cell phone quit…things were going great (!), clearly telling me that ... Read More

Return of the Lynx

In my undergrad ecology class at SUNY at Buffalo we studied predator/prey cycles and a well-studied phenomena of ecology is the predator prey cycle of the Canada lynx and Snowshoe hare.  I worked in a struggling record store while in college that also had used books for sale.  I would flip through the dusty, dank books to find any gems and came across a wildlife book.  When I flipped through it and landed on this photo, my heart stopped and I was mesmerized by the intensity of survival of this moment: Read More

Florida Wildlife Corridor featured on NPR

On Earth Day 2012, the Florida Wildlife Corridor team --a partner project of The WILD Foundation-- closed their 100 day, 1,000 mile expedition at the Stephen C. Foster State Park in Georgia. The FWC explorers -- photographer Carlton Ward Jr, bear biologist Joe Guthrie, conservationist Mallory Lykes Dimmitt and filmmaker Elam Stoltzfus -- successfully traveled from the Florida Everglades to the Okefenokee Swamp in Southern Georgia. Read More

Veterans Expeditions to Wilderness

Yesterday afternoon, our friend and colleague Stacy Bare paid us a nice visit at the WILD office. Stacy recently wrote an article for our International Journal of Wilderness about his experience with the war in Iraq, where he served as a U.S. Army Captain from 2006-2007 and received the Bronze Star for Meritorious Service. When Stacy returned home from service, he had difficulty readjusting to the non-war, soft lifestyle of everyday American life.  He was not alone in feeling uninspired and bored with chain restaurants, the daily routine, and pop culture...his fellow soldiers felt this too.  In his article, Stacy refers ... Read More

Sleepwalking in the Wilderness, Part II

“Wilderness, it is here I came to know myself, but it was only just the beginning, because I found the more you know your true self, the more you know about those around you,” J. Shaw, participant on trail with the Wilderness Leadership School, South Africa. I chose to quest in Death Valley, over the holidays to process a life transition.  I had been going through a personal transformation over the last two years and felt I was finally coming down off of the arc of change.  I needed to sit in solitude in a wild and remote place to reflect ... Read More

Sleepwalking in the Wilderness

Orion’s belt is now in the center of my sky.  The moon is half, waxing to full.  The air is cold, crisp and there is a heavy stillness, deathly quiet.  It is January 1, 2012, I think.  Something made me stir from my dreamtime and I slowly lift my eyelids to gather where I am and I feel the comfort of the stars and orion.  I am in my -25 degree sleeping bag on a mound of metamorphic rocks, in the middle of a pink canyon in the back-country mountains of Death Valley, California or who-knows-where…utterly alone, fasting, praying, vision ... Read More

Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands, Vol. II now available!

Volume II of Protecting Wild Nature on Native Lands: Case Studies by Native Peoples from around the World is now available as a free download, or for purchase as a hard copy. This volume of case studies is the second in an ongoing series produced through the Native Lands and Wilderness Council (NLWC), a platform for indigenous knowledge exchange and capacity building that ensures that the knowledge and wisdom of indigenous peoples influences the policies, practices and approaches of the global wilderness conservation movement. These case studies highlight indigenous peoples' strategies for coexisting with and managing their wild lands and ... Read More

Help us save the Fishing Cat!

Morgan and Joanna of our CAT in WATER team sent us the latest update on their field expedition in Thailand. The girls are making great progress on tracking the fishing cat and even captured their first glimpse on the camera trap! Read what the team has to say about their obstacles and possible solutions...will you help us save the fishing cat? Read More

CAT in WATER

“CAT in WATER” – our multimedia initiative focused on the shy and threatened fishing cat -- is literally coping with too much water!  The CAT team, Morgan and Joanna,  arrived in Thailand last week in the midst of the worst flooding in a century.  A simple two day journey to the field site in Khao Sam Roi Yot National Park --  where they will join field biologist Namfon Cutter and her Fishing Cat Research and Conservation Project – turned into a week of detours around flooded areas, plus a trip to the hospital for Morgan.  Her GI tract is back ... Read More

A Bison Blog—From Yellowstone to Haarlem

In a recent, three-day period I had wild encounters of a similar sort on two continents. Both encounters tell a story of past and current “re-wilding,” enabled through the vision and dedication of people and organizations that understand the essential role of wildness in a healthy and sane planet earth.  We need these positive stories as much as we need the return of wildness that they chronicle. Read More