Did I mention me? I'm a contributing editor at Outside magazine and the author of The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw: One woman's fight to save the world's most beautiful bird, published this month by Random House.
I'm a former Ted Scripps Fellow in environmental journalism at the University of Colorado in Boulder, and this year I'm teaching feature writing at CU's School of Journalism and Mass Communication while living in a fabulous hideout high in the snowy reaches of the Rocky Mountains. (The picture at left is the view from my office.) My environmental writing continues to appear in Outside, the New York Times Magazine, and other national publications.
Deep background: I've been writing on the outdoors and environmental issues for the past fifteen years. My previous book, The Measure of a Mountain: Beauty and Terror on Mount Rainier, a biography of the Pacific Northwest’s premiere geographic icon, won the Washington State Governor’s Writers Award, and was recently reprinted in a 10th anniversary edition. My feature articles have appeared in Outside, the New York Times Magazine, Harper’s, Slate, Mother Jones, Sports Illustrated, Backpacker, Life, and Legal Affairs. A few years ago my New York Times Magazine article on the Bush Administration's campaign to gut the Clean Air Act won the Society of Environmental Journalists' top award for explanatory reporting. (There's a link at left.) My book reviews appear about three times a year in the New York Times Book Review, and once in a while you can hear my commentaries on books and media on the nationally syndicated public radio show Living On Earth. I was born in Everett, Washington, and was raised in Alaska, California, and Washington State. After graduating from the University of Washington, I worked for the Seattle Weekly for ten years as a writer and editor. At home, I play Dunne to my wife's Didion. She's Claire Dederer, and her book reviews and essays appear in the New York Times, Real Simple, Vogue, and other publications. The view from her office is even better. We have two kids and have become masters at the art of intramural deadline negotiation.
Red List of endangered species, but that designation hides the bird's threatened status in Central America, where its habitat is quickly dwindling--and with it, the last flocks of the area's wild macaws. I'm continuing to track the region's macaw populations, and am building some pages that contain general information and deeper source material, which you can find here. 
