Nature Now

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!

Debaran Kelso and field recorder Meg Amos meet with guest Jamie Acker in his own backyard wildlife sanctuary, to speak about his work studying owls near his home on Bainbridge Island, WA, for the past 25 years (part 1 of a two-part program). (KPTZ airdate: July 16, 2025)

Bird sound recording: Bob McGuire, ML187078, courtesy of Cornell Lab of Ornithology | Macaulay Library

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!

Marine mammals, especially the cetaceans, are a popular focus for wildlife viewing throughout the world. So, which species live here in the Salish Sea, and how are they doing? Jackie Canterbury speaks with wildlife biologist Dave Rugh. Local cetaceans include harbor porpoises, Dall's porpoises, Pacific white-sided dolphins, minke whales, gray whales, humpbacks, and killer whales. Other local marine mammals include Steller sea lions, California sea lions, northern elephant seals, harbor seals, and sea otters. (KPTZ airdate: June 18, 2025)

Learn more:
The Decline of Dall’s porpoise in the Salish Sea
Meet the Matriline: T49As
Mystery sound recording courtesy of Orca Behavior Institute
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!

Debaran Kelso speaks with founder Linda Landkammer and naturalist Dr. Fred Sharpe out in the garden, celebrating the lovely Kul Kah Han Native Plant Garden in Chimacum, WA, on a gorgeous summer afternoon! (KPTZ airdate: June 11, 2025)

Learn more:
Kul Kah Han Native Plant Garden
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!

Nan Evans talks with Thor Hanson, biologist and author, to explore the wonders of biodiversity. Biodiversity is the variety of life on earth from genes and species to ecosystems. Biodiversity encompasses the interactions between all living things, animals (including humans), plants, fungi, microorganisms and the environments they inhabit and communities they create. Biodiversity has been attributed with holding the world together. (KPTZ airdate: June 4, 2025)

Learn more:
Thor Hanson
Organizations providing information on biodiversity:
EPA EnviroAtlas
World Wildlife Fund: What is biodiversity?
E.O. Wilson Biodiversity Foundation
United Nations
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 photographer Kerry Tremain about the beauty of his bird photography and the emotional connections we all have to birds once we open ourselves to honor that we humans co-evolved with birds. (KPTZ airdate: May 7, 2025)

Learn more:
Kerry Tremain Photography
Kerry Tremain's newsletter Wild Things
Bird sound recording: Jay McGowan, ML66621141, 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!

Debaran Kelso welcomes back guest Peter Harrison, this time joined by his wife Shirley Metz. Peter is a world-renowned seabird expert, artist, and conservationist, and Shirley is an avid adventurer and conservationist in her own right. This show highlights their remarkable joint conservation efforts (part 2 of a two-part program). (KPTZ airdate: April 23, 2025)

Learn more:
The Mouse-Free Marion Project
SEABIRDS: The New Identification Guide autographed by Peter Harrison
Peter Harrison
Bird sound recording by Penguins International

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!