Debaran Kelso takes a deep dive into the world of whale sound with humpback whale expert Dr. Fred Sharpe, whose recent research has focused on aerial whale signals - the "blows", "wheezes", and "thrums" of everyday life. (KPTZ airdate: November 12, 2025)

Mystery sound recording: Fred Sharpe
Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

It's getting cold and rainy outside. We've gotten out our winter clothes and rain boots, checked that our home's furnace is working well, stocked up on comfort foods, and perhaps, planned a winter vacation to a warmer and sunnier place. As the seasons change, some birds migrate to warmer places. But, how do the birds that stay the winter survive? Listen as Nan Evans talks with Christie Lassen of Wild Birds Unlimited in Gardiner, WA, about the behavioral, physical, and physiological strategies used by our regional birds. (KPTZ airdate: November 5, 2025)

Learn more:
Wild Birds Unlimited in Gardiner, WA
How Do Birds Survive the Winter?
What It's Like to Be a Bird by David Allen Sibley
Mystery sound recording: Barry Langdon-Lassagne, ML190078591, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library
Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

What was that "pffit, pffit" sound? That small, triangular fin? A dolphin? But it doesn’t want to play in our boat's bow wake. Ah, it is a Harbor Porpoise, the smallest cetacean found in the Salish Sea. What do we know about them? Not very much it seems. Scientists are just learning more through direct, non-invasive observations of individuals. Join Nan Evans as she talks with Dr. Cindy Elliser of Pacific Mammal Research (PacMam) and explore what they have been recently discovering and just how much more there is to learn about these secretive mammals. (KPTZ airdate: October 15, 2025)

Learn more:
Pacific Mammal Research
Harbor porpoise in the Salish Sea
Mystery sound recording courtesy of National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Fisheries
Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

Nature Now explores the world of science books for kids! Debaran Kelso speaks with celebrated author Melissa Stewart about her book From Bam! to Burp! A Carbon Atom's Never-Ending Journey Through Space and Time and YOU. (KPTZ airdate: October 1, 2025)

Learn more:
Melissa Stewart
From BAM! to BURP! A Carbon Atom's Never-Ending Journey through Space and Time and YOU

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

We are all familiar with bees. Did you know that honey bee colonies are highly organized, complex, with a rigid caste system, and whose individuals depend on their societal organization to survive? Join Jackie Canterbury as she talks with Colleen Ebken, a beekeeper on Marrowstone Island (WA), about her bee colonies and the wonderful world of bees in general (part 1 of a two-part program). (KPTZ airdate: September 24, 2025)

Learn more:
East Jefferson Bee Club
Cornell Cooperative Extension Pollinator Support
Why bees are essential to people and planet
Meet Our Native Bees
Washington Bee Atlas
Washington Native Bee Society
Washington Native Bee Society Journal
Mystery sound recording: Frederick Dunn
Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

Nan Evans talks with Port Townsend mushroom enthusiasts, Helen Kolff and Jessica Latourelle. They explore attitudes, myths, truths, and edibility of mushrooms. Did you know what we see are only the fruiting bodies of extensive mycelial networks? Or, that they are not plants and they perform critical ecosystem functions. And, why are some people fascinated with fungi? (KPTZ airdate: September 17, 2025)

Mushroom resources:
Fruits of the Forest: A Field Guide to Pacific Northwest Edible Mushrooms by Daniel Winkler
Mushrooms of Cascadia: A Comprehensive Guide to Fungi of the Pacific Northwest by Noah Siegel and Christian Schwarz
Chanterelle Dreams, Amanita Nightmares: The Love, Lore, and Mystique of Mushooms by Greg Marley
All That the Rain Promises and More by David Arora
Mushrooms Demystified by David Arora
Outside/In Podcast: Taxonomy’s 200-Year Mistake
Daniel Winkler's MushRoaming

Jefferson Land Trust Natural History Society Book Club

Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

Nan Evans talks with Lynda Mapes, longtime environmental reporter for The Seattle Times, about how culture, economics, and science have fundamentally changed how we use timber resources and perceive our relationship with forests. Much of the conversation is driven by Mapes’ most recent book, The Trees are Speaking: Dispaches from the Salmon Forest (part 2 of a two-part program). (KPTZ airdate: September 10, 2025)

Learn more:
Lynda Mapes
The Trees are Speaking: Dispaches from the Salmon Forest
Northern Spotted Owl vs. Barred Owl: The Ethical Conundrum of Compassionate Conservation
Grim Dilemma: Should We Kill One Owl Species to Save Another?
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest Grand Opening Celebration

Bird sound recording: Thomas G. Sander, ML125364, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library
Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

Nan Evans talks with Lynda Mapes, longtime environmental reporter for The Seattle Times, about how culture, economics, and science have fundamentally changed how we use timber resources and perceive our relationship with forests. Much of the conversation is driven by Mapes’ most recent book, The Trees are Speaking: Dispaches from the Salmon Forest (part 1 of a two-part program). (KPTZ airdate: September 3, 2025)

Learn more:
Lynda Mapes
The Trees are Speaking: Dispaches from the Salmon Forest
Cedar Flats Research Natural Area
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest
Chimacum Ridge Community Forest Grand Opening Celebration

Books mentioned:
Orca: Shared Waters, Shared Home by Lynda Mapes
The Olympic Rainforest: A Ecological Web by Ruth Kirk and Jerry Franklin
Ecological Forest Management by Jerry Franklin, Norman Johnson, and Debora Johnson
The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben
Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard

Bird sound recording: Thomas G. Sander, ML125369, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library
Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

Jackie Canterbury talks with Karin Ertl about the Salish Sea Guillemot Network and the Pigeon Guillemots that uniquely nest beneath the Hood Canal bridge. Pigeon Guillemot surveys began in 2004 on Whidbey Island, WA. As of 2024, surveys are taking place in 8 different regions with about 250 volunteers. (KPTZ airdate: August 13, 2025)

Learn more:
Salish Sea Guillemot Network
Pigeon Guillemot Surveys Validate Community Science
Bird sound recordings: Karin Ertl; Thomas G. Graves, XC663793, accessible at www.xeno-canto.org/663793. License CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!

Debaran Kelso and field recorder Meg Amos continue the conversation with owl expert Jamie Acker in his backyard wildlife sanctuary, about his work studying owls near his home on Bainbridge Island, WA, for the past 25 years (part 2 of a two-part program). (KPTZ airdate: August 6, 2025)

Bird sound recording courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library
Music by Rick Bauer

Nature Now is created by a dedicated team of volunteers. If you enjoy this episode and can support the work that goes into making Nature Now, we invite you to go to kptz.org/donate to make a contribution. Thank you for your support!