This month, Mary had the chance to talk with Paula McKay, a writer and conservation researcher. Paula has studied wild carnivores for the past two decades, and is currently affiliated with the Living Northwest program at Seattle's Woodland Park Zoo.

In 2015, she earned an MFA in creative writing from Pacific Lutheran University, and earlier served as managing editor for Noninvasive Survey Methods for Carnivores (Island Press). Her work has been published in Deep Wild, Wild Hope, Earth Island Journal, and elsewhere. 

A central part of Paula's research is the practice of non-capture-based survey methods, opting to use cameras and other noninvasive techniques in the wild rather than more invasive practices like trapping. At the heart of her vision and mission is rewilding - that now-global effort to restore natural processes and species, to allowing nature to express its full genius.

Paula lives on an island near Seattle with her husband and more-than human dog in the company of elder trees. Today we talked about why and how of being in deep relation with the wilderness - within and around us.

You can learn more about Paula by visiting her website . Spend some time with her published essays and with her blog, Wild Prose. Check out her essays on rewilding, wolverines, grizzlies and urban mammals, among many more.

~MUSIC

This episode includes music by Gary Ferguson and these fine artists.

Sedative - Music by Oleksii Kaplunskyi from Pixabay

Coniferous Forest - Music by orangery from Pixabay

Far from the City - Music by Zakhar Valaha from Pixabay