Island Press Field Notes

I was privileged to meet one of the leading experts in mangrove restoration in his home state of Florida. Robin Lewis has spent his working life fine-tuning methods for restoration former mangrove wetlands to full ecological functionality. As he explained and showed me, mangrove restoration is a lot more than just planting seedlings in the mud. . . Read more »

Feeling overwhelmed by civilization? Dreaming of getting away from it all? Before embarking on your great escape, you should know that these days we intensively manage all our "wilderness" areas, the wildlife you encounter out there will undoubtedly include exotic species that are wreaking ecological havoc, and that some natural resource managers now believe there is nothing we can or should do about these increasingly human-dominated "novel ecosystems." Welcome to the Brave New Eco-World.

For over 30 years, I’ve worked in rainforest ecosystems. My senses are finely tuned to the sweet smell of cedar and pine, sap runs through my veins, and I have learned how to read the forest like the pages of a good mystery novel. But each year, I do an annual trek to the desert where rainforests give way to spiny, prickly things with names like pincushion and rainbow cactus, prickly pear cactus, and ocotillo. This year, I arrived in the Sonoran desert just outside Phoenix, Arizona during an early spring bloom where I was greeted by a kaleidoscope of colors and unfamiliar scents.

In my travels through the mangroves of the Americas I was keen to learn how mangroves had influenced or been incorporated into local cultures. In Caravelas, in the Brazilian state of Bahia, I met three remarkable brothers who promote the indigenous culture of Bahia—a culture that is infused with images and myths relating to mangroves. Here is a blog post I wrote from Caravelas ... Read more »