Peter Friederici

California prepares for the next burn

Peter — Thu, 21 Jul 2011 19:43:07 +0000

It’s on its way again . . . always. In a fire-prone region, can better mapping tools help municipal officials and firefighters better plan how to avoid or fight wildfires? Probably—but some homeowners aren’t happy to be told they live in harm’s way. My research for this High Country News story was supported by a Western Enterprise Reporting Fellowship from the Bill Lane Center for the Study of the North American West at Stanford University. Read the full story here.

Listen to Earth Notes

Peter — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 02:37:09 +0000

Western Diamondback, featured on Earth Notes

Since 2001, Earth Notes has presented stories of people and place each week to public radio listeners in northern Arizona and New Mexico. Each week’s show is less than two minutes long, but it’s a capsule view of something that makes the Colorado Plateau region such a great place to live.

You can listen to recent shows here.

Listen to “Transmutations,” an essay from Orion

Peter — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 21:58:58 +0000

Photo by Jason Houston, www.jasonhouston.com

IT BEGINS WITH a plaintive, minor-key whistle in the distance as a freight works its way up the side of the mesa toward our house. It becomes a solid rumble, an onrushing vibration, then culminates in the deep thrumming of the big diesels that pass only a block away, three or four or five locomotives hauling a hundred cars. Burlington Northern Santa Fe: we get used to the noise, even miss it when we travel elsewhere.

Continue reading or hear Peter read it to you at Orion Magazine.

Flight Plan

Peter — Fri, 06 Mar 2009 20:02:04 +0000

Starlings over Rome, by Richard Barnes

A new article in Audubon shows how scientists are trying to understand one of nature’s most amazing spectacles: how birds flock. With photography by Richard Barnes. Read the story here.

Nature’s Restoration

Peter — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 23:22:56 +0000

On a deserted Bermudan island, a man spends forty years single-handedly restoring the nesting habitat of a rare seabird. In Chicago and its suburbs, legions of volunteers replant prairies in the shadow of freeways. In America’s Southwest, entrepreneurs work to make pine forest restoration pay for itself; in Virginia, a farmer tries to bring back the mighty American chestnut.

From the Hawaiian islands to Appalachia’s forests, Nature’s Restoration relates the passion of ordinary citizens who are changing the way we think about nature. Through detailed reporting and numerous interviews, this lyrical book puts readers on the front lines of restoration to learn how this growing movement shapes places and inspires people.

“Friederici seamlessly weaves discussions of restoration research, history, and philosophy into five conservation stories. . . . What emerges from each example is a portrait of difficult and rewarding work that is deeply optimistic.”
—Conservation in Practice

“Colorful, breathtaking writing . . . you can’t help but go away from this book inspired.”
—Gary Paul Nabhan

“Quite as gripping as any 19th century accounts of wilderness explorations. . . . accurate and artful.”
—Stephanie Mills

“David Brower, perhaps the greatest environmentalist of the 20th century, said that the 21st would be devoted to ‘recovery, restoration, and repair.’ Here are just the kind of people he had in mind, captured in the intriguing act of doing great good and having great fun.”
—Bill McKibben

Order Nature’s Restoration here: www.islandpress.com/bookstore/.

The Suburban Wild

Peter — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 22:16:19 +0000

Set in the North Shore suburbs of Chicago, amid traffic, pollution, and ever-spreading neighborhoods, these meditative personal essays explore the importance of our connection with the natural world, history, and memory. From the humming of cicadas on summer evenings and the seasonal migrations of ducks to the myriad hues in a green heron’s feathers, The Suburban Wild reveals a complex place in which wild geese and morning commuters share the same habitat. It explores how history—whether natural or cultural, collective or personal—shapes a landscape, and how human memory shapes that history. At heart, it seeks to forge a link between the world outside our windows and that inside.

“Thoughtful, well-written homage to the wilderness that survives in the suburbs north of Chicago. With Thoreauvian attentiveness. . . . Friederici practices natural history in a challenging setting and reaps unusual rewards.”
—Audubon

“Friederici’s approach is fresh and arresting. . . . close to poetry in its lyrical compression and imagery.”
—Chicago Tribune

Buy The Suburban Wild here.

Earth Notes: Exploring the Southwest’s Canyon Country from the Airwaves

Peter — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 21:02:37 +0000

Edited by Peter Friederici

A collection, published by the Grand Canyon Association, of greatest hits from KNAU’s Earth Notes show. Beautifully illustrated by Diane Iverson, and with contributions by eleven different writers. This slim volume is perfectly designed to fit into a daypack!

Order it here.

A New Plateau

Peter — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 20:05:35 +0000

Edited by Peter Friederici and Rose Houk

A collaboration between Renewing the Countryside and Northern Arizona University’s Center for Sustainable Environments, this beautifully illustrated book showcases the work dozens of sustainability pioneers are doing on the Colorado Plateau. They’re growing heirloom vegetables, building energy-efficient homes, working in the woods—pointing the way toward a future that makes sense, in other words.

Buy the book here.

Ecological Restoration of Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests

Peter — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 19:09:09 +0000

Edited by Peter Friederici

“The big green book,” as it’s become known to foresters, is a compendium of what’s known on one of the frontiers of ecological restoration. Not light reading, but necessary for those who seek to restore to health some of the millions of acres of ponderosa pine forests that cloak the southwestern uplands.

“A comprehensive synthesis of the state of these forests. . . . well crafted. . . . Simultaneously valuable as a research tool, an educational tool, and a handbook.”
—Ecology

Order it here.

National Audubon Society Field Guide to the Southwestern States

Peter — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 18:55:35 +0000

By Peter Alden and Peter Friederici

Perfectly sized to fit into a daypack or jacket pocket, this lavishly illustrated guide to southwestern animals, plants, places, and more is perfect for residents and visitors alike. It’s the perfect generalist’s guide to my favorite region.