Book Review

#BlackLivesMatter, Book Review, Books, Diversity, Green Economics, Sustainable Living, The Joy Trip Project Reading Circle, Urban Parks, Urban Revitalization / 27.10.2022

Through of the much of the last century, urban neighborhoods populated by Black and brown people, have been defined as places where not to live. Our long history of redlining, deliberate housing discrimination, crime, environmental pollution and benign neglect has systematically made residing in these communities of color undesirable. Success for the brightest and most talented individuals born in these areas is most often expressed by how far their education, talent and hard work can allow them to escape from the sidewalks, streets, shops and storefronts that their...

#BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter, Book Review, Books, Diversity, The Joy Trip Project Reading Circle / 24.05.2021

[vc_row css_animation="" row_type="row" use_row_as_full_screen_section="no" type="full_width" angled_section="no" text_align="left" background_image_as_pattern="without_pattern"][vc_column][vc_column_text] Tomorrow May 25, 2021 marks the one-year anniversary of the day that George Floyd was killed by police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Already in the midst of the global Covid-19 Pandemic and an incredibly divisive presidential campaign year, this event ignited a firestorm of moral outrage that spanned the world with public demonstrations and protests. In the spirit of the Black Lives Matter Movement,  many of us took the time to educate ourselves on issues of social justice by reading books written...

#BlackLivesMatter, Black In National Parks Week, Black Lives Matter, Book Review, Books, Diversity, Interview, National Parks, PBS, Podcast, The Adventure Gap, Yosemite / 05.03.2021

Even though we might be seeing the back end of the global Covid-19 Pandemic many of us are still stuck at home wading through endless meetings over Zoom and other teleconferencing platforms. With the hopes of creating a little community spirit and to encourage folks out there to step away from their screens and maybe crack open a book instead, I started a little group called the Joy Trip Reading Project. Each month we’re taking a deep dive into stories of primarily Black authors whose work centers around...

#BlackLivesMatter, Black Lives Matter, Book Review, Books, Diversity, National Parks, Nelson Institute, The Joy Trip Reading Project, Yosemite / 22.02.2021

Like much of the viewing public it was through the documentary film, The National Parks: America’s Best Idea, that I was first introduced to Yosemite National Park Ranger Shelton Johnson. As a principal character in the film he shares much of his own love and passion for the outdoors as well as the history of these wild places. It is these compelling narratives that help to ground modern people in the present to the land that they love. This connection to the past through the power of storytelling...

Book Review, Books, Camping / 18.07.2018

In 2016 the National Park Service celebrated its 100th anniversary. This ingenious notion of preserving wild and scenic places was described in 1983 by the novelist Wallace Stegner. “The National Parks are the best idea we ever had,” he wrote.” Absolutely American, absolutely democratic, they reflect us at our best rather than our worst.”  Advocated by the great environmentalist John Muir our system of national parks and monuments designated space for the long-term protection of nature as well as our national heritage. For a century now through the interpretation...

Adventure Media Review, Book Review, Environmental Journalism, Film Festival, Film Review, Podcast / 07.04.2016

Journalist and author John Vaillant began his career with a profound interest in connecting stories of adventure with complex social issues. And it was on a reporting assignment to the remote regions North Western Canada that put him on the path of a remarkable narrative steeped in both ancient mythology and a modern controversy at the heart of the environmental movement. "It was thanks to Outside Magazine that I got up there. I was doing a paddling story for them in Haida Gwaii, which is this remote archipelago off...