Anyone who reads “The Dying Fish” blog probably realizes that I value free and wild places. And I spent time in one just yesterday, a tract of state forest that few people know about situated on the Pennsylvania/West Virginia border. And, by the way, anyone new to my blog may wonder why it’s called “The […]
Read more "A Free and Wild Place"One of the first things you’d learn about, if you ever yearned to become a fish ecologist, is the danger posed by non-native species. And the most simple formulation of the prevailing theory on this runs something like this: Don’t introduce a new fish (we’ll stick with fish here for simplicity) to an ecosystem in […]
Read more "About Exotics"I’ve often preached here and elsewhere that those of us who appreciate natural things should all be sure to get out and explore our immediate surrounding thoroughly before rushing off to the Outer Banks, the Rocky Mountains, or Europe. We should learn to value all the habitat that surrounds us and not just dream of […]
Read more "A Return to the Simple Things"All the world, it seems, is abuzz with political ideas and energy this winter, most of this stemming from a recent presidential inauguration. I’d like to keep my website out of the cheap day-to-day political fights that rage across the media, social and otherwise, but it’s probably the right time to make some kind of […]
Read more "Trump: Friend or Foe to Libertarians?"It took 6 days for the Minnesota winter to crush me. People had warned me that it was likely to be cold but I’d insisted on rushing headlong into the worst of it, feeling only confidence at the outset. The temperature as I left Fergus Falls, Minnesota hovered at -11 (also the daily high) and […]
Read more "Dealing with Defeat"I’ve written 50 spur-of-the moment little essays over the last year on topics as diverse as running, nature appreciation and ice-fishing, if I can really count all these blog posts as “essays”. Nature has been a recurring theme; appreciation for it, overcoming its challenges and then its implications for the human world. Now it’s time […]
Read more "Into the Winter"It’s a land of 10,000 lakes, a place of resurgent wildlife and a place of grand summer vacations. Almost no-one goes there who doesn’t have to between November and April. I’m leaving for Minnesota in a little less than two weeks. I feel compelled to test the limits once again and attempt a long-distance solo […]
Read more "Minnesota"It’s been a good year for me and my book. I made some sales (though I make only a pittance per sale) and was able to introduce my work to a wide range of interesting people mostly around the northeast though the book has made it to Europe and the west coast also. Last February […]
Read more "2016"In 2009, I hiked across Pennsylvania as a part of the Eastern Brook Trout Solo Adventure, a tale that became “The Dying Fish,” my book on the resurgent eastern forest and all the fish who swim there. My findings in Pennsylvania, as with almost everywhere else, were findings of organic renewal on a grand scale; […]
Read more "The Breadth of the Wild Woods"When I first came to Pennsylvania, I set out to explore it. My wanderings largely followed water routes, much like the early forays of the pioneers of Penn’s Woods. And one day I found a muddy, rutted, disused parking space next to Buffalo Creek and a sort of trail originating across a mound of rock […]
Read more "When Rails Become Trails"
the dying fish 