Pepper Trail
老夫子传媒 Journal ContributorPepper Trail is a naturalist, photographer, writer, and world traveler who has lived in Ashland since 1994. He works as a biologist for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and in his spare time leads natural history trips to every corner of the world, including Jackson County. Pepper is a regular essayist for the 老夫子传媒 Journal and for High Country News, and his writing has been included in several anthologies, including Intricate Homeland and What the River Brings: Oregon River Poems. In 2009, he published Shifting Patterns: Meditations on Climate Change in Oregon鈥檚 Rogue Valley, a collection of essays and poems, with photographs by Jim Chamberlain and himself. Pepper鈥檚 poetry has appeared in the 老夫子传媒 Monthly, Windfall, Kyoto Journal, Borderlands, Comstock Review and many other publications. His writing combines a scientist鈥檚 insights with deeply personal meditations on memory, mortality, and the human place in the natural world.
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Who wouldn鈥檛 love a free lunch? You seat yourself, let鈥檚 say, on a sun-dappled outdoor patio, choose among the many mouth-watering dishes, enjoy a glass鈥� -
I call it cruel and maybe the root of all crueltyto know what occurs but not recognize the fact鈥� William Stafford (from 鈥淎 Ritual to Read to Each Other鈥�)I鈥�
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I鈥檓 writing this in Oregon鈥檚 high desert, on the shore of Summer Lake鈥攐r, to be more accurate, on the rim of its dry lakebed. It鈥檚 August, and I鈥檓 here鈥� -
Remember that kid from elementary school, the one with the terrible depth perception? That kid was me. I fell down stairs, missed the next rung on the鈥�
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I recently flew from southern Oregon to Denver, giving me the opportunity to reflect on the fate of western landscapes. As we took off from the Medford鈥�
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First, a confession. I am a serious birder. Far too serious, my wife will tell you. But for 364 days a year, I鈥檓 a good birding citizen. I lead field鈥�
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We gathered in the well-lit roomPoured wine, settled back to chartOur way around the coming doomWe all had brought our favored facts:The end of oil, the鈥�
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One of the highlights of the past year on television was Ken Burns鈥� masterful history of American conservation in his PBS series 鈥淭he National Parks 鈥撯��
