Writer

Pepper Trail

Pepper Trail is a biologist and writer who roams the Klamath-Siskiyou Bioregion from his home in Ashland, Oregon. His environmental essays have appeared in High Country News and on southern Oregon’s Jefferson Public Radio, and have been included in several anthologies, including A Road Runs Through It: Reviving Wild Places, edited by Annie Proulx and Thomas Peterson. His poetry collection, Cascade-Siskiyou: Poems was a finalist for the 2016 Oregon Book Award.


Articles

a warning from the snowbirds

By Pepper Trail

No, this isn’t about those folks who spend their winters in Arizona or Florida. The snowbird behind this warning is…

Cristina Glebova; courtesy Unsplash

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Requiem for the Joshua tree

By Pepper Trail

Disheveled, gangly, the Joshua tree is surely one of the West’s strangest — and most recognizable — plants.  Named by…

Conglomerate Mesa, Photo by Louis Medina, Friends of the Inyo

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No one wants to collide with a deer

By Pepper Trail

A deer stands paralyzed in the middle of a mountain highway, stunned by the lights and deafening roar of an…

Moose crossing on highway animal wildlife overpass. On the Trans-Canada Highway in Banff National Park.

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The fading miracle of migration

By Pepper Trail

For the past few weeks, dozens of turkey vultures have been circling on thermals over my house in Oregon, preparing…

Snow Geese take flight in Oregon, photo by Pepper Trail

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Coming soon, the Apocalypse, maybe

By Pepper Trail

Just about every video game, young adult novel and buzz-worthy streaming series agree that we need to prepare for a…

Photo by Intricate Explorer, Via Unsplash

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Spring is coming too soon

By Pepper Trail

Photo by redcharlie via Unsplash

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A new predator stalks the West

By Pepper Trail

The grizzly bear. The wolf. The cougar. These magnificent creatures, apex predators, how can we not admire them? People cross…

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When immortals die

By Pepper Trail
Photo by Joshua Earl on Unsplash

Giant sequoias come as close to immortality as living organisms can. Many live over a thousand years despite nature’s challenges. So…

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We blame the trees, but whose fault is it?

By Pepper Trail

“But it’s questionable that any amount of “thinning” could protect Ashland from a wind-driven firestorm coming out of the watershed.”

Photograph by Romain Le Teuff, courtesy of Unsplash

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When Water Dries Up, It Can Be Deadly

By Pepper Trail

“The dams that choke the Klamath River may be finally nearing removal”

Photograph by Markus Spiske, Courtesy of Unsplash

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Fanning the Flames of Hate in Oregon

By Pepper Trail

“The present we are now enduring is the climate-change future that we have been warned about for decades.”

Photograph by Alex Radelich, Courtesy of Unsplash

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THE WORLD IS ALIVE

By Pepper Trail

Climate change and the conversion of wild ecosystems, if unchecked, threaten to collapse the global bounty of “nature’s services.”

Photograph courtesy of Unsplash

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