Clear Lake, California’s oldest and largest lake, is experiencing recurrent toxic algal blooms: blooms composed of photosynthesizing algae, including blue-green cyanobacteria. Certain species of harmful cyanobacteria produce toxins known as microcystins that are lethal to humans, pets, livestock, and wildlife. The environmental protection offices of the Big Valley Band of Pomo Indians and the Elem […]

With climate change threatening everyone’s future in uncountable ways, and continued government inaction, what’s a conscientious citizen to do? How can we effect change, how can we be the change, one life at a time? Ever since I began a professional focus in the environmental sciences, every year I push myself to change one more […]

  The art of truth telling has never been more important. True-to-life stories (otherwise known as nonfiction) involve disclosure and risk, pathos and pleasure. These stories are more gripping than any reality television show; more daring, more authentic. One of the nation’s foremost creative nonfiction literary magazines, Hippocampus, has pulled together their finest essays from […]

During my years in Eastern Indonesia, I experienced a wide range of flora and fauna, from the microscopic (tropical parasites) to the macro (Komodo dragons). A few species were so memorable they merited a written tribute. “Bite Me” my most recent essay published in Lowestoft Chronicles (a free, humorous online lit zine), tells the story […]

“This is an animal story of the old days. They lived there at Forest Depths. Many animals of different kinds lived there. They played games…” When my Fall semester students – Courtney Bautista, Chelsea Carner, Danny Perdomo and Sarah Presno – in the Nature & World Cultures course I teach at San José State University presented […]