About this site

Lives in Nature tells the stories of people whose lives were deeply connected to the natural world.

They may have been scientists, conservationists, wildlife rescuers, field biologists, park managers, Indigenous leaders, journalists, or others whose work helped protect species, ecosystems, and the communities that depend on them. Some were widely known. Many were not.

The project grew from a simple idea: lives spent understanding and caring for nature deserve to be remembered.

Each piece is an obituary-style tribute, but the aim is broader than memorial. These stories document a person's work, character, discoveries, struggles, and influence. They preserve knowledge that can otherwise disappear with a generation and show how conservation often advances through years of patient, highly specific work: studying a species, restoring a landscape, rescuing injured wildlife, training younger colleagues, building an institution, or persuading a community that something is worth protecting.

Lives in Nature also looks for the details that make a life distinct. The field station someone returned to for decades. The species that first captured a scientist's attention. The injured animal that changed the course of a career. The students, colleagues, or communities who continued the work afterward.

That continuity matters. Remembering someone is partly about looking back, but it can also point forward. A life spent studying forests, protecting sea turtles, restoring wetlands, or caring for orphaned wildlife can leave behind methods, institutions, knowledge, and people prepared to continue the work.

By telling these stories, Lives in Nature hopes to preserve some of that inheritance—and perhaps encourage others to take it up.