After visiting Uganda in 2019, I became aware of the plight of the Batwa pygmies, who were forcibly evicted without compensation at the creation of Bwindi Impenetrable National Park. These hunter-gatherers were left without land or livelihood, and they have suffered horribly as a result. Occasionally, in desperation, they have gone back into the Bwindi park to obtain food, where they are treated as “poachers” if they do so. The protection of half the world’s population of Mountain Gorillas depends a great deal on getting local buy-in through community-based conservation. That’s why I...
The Granite Dells of Prescott is the iconic landscape for this central Arizona city, but it is under threat of development from all sides. I am co-founder of the Granite Dells Preservation Foundation (https://www.granitedells.org/) and Save the Dells political action committee (https://www.savethedells.org/), complementary organizations working to protect land and create a greater Granite Dells Park & Preserve. I use hundreds of my photographs and my artwork to help this cause, and I speak out at every opportunity.
I am also a founding member of the board of directors (the original chair) of Biocultural Conservation Institute (BCI), and I use my writing, social media, photography, and paintings to raise money for two projects in Uganda and one in Kenya.