On Authority

Who I am, and What this Newsletter Is.

I don’t consider myself an authority on many things, for many complicated reasons. This is a strength of mine, although having worked in male-dominated professions I have learned that some conviction in one’s ideas is necessary to be heard. I have found that I learn more when I am open to listening to what others have to say.

When it comes to discourse surrounding fire, public lands, climate change, ecology, and the conceptions of wilderness, I am always learning and evolving. I’ll get things wrong sometimes, and when I do get things wrong I’m always happy to admit it because being wrong is an opportunity for growth and learning. Unfortunately we live in a culture and a news cycle that punishes people for being wrong (though there is more openness to the admission of wrongness and redemption than most realize).

This newsletter exists as a contribution to an ongoing conversation rather than a tome of definitive conclusions. The basis of science and learning is evolution. I don’t expect …