Works of fiction can be the starting point for much-needed conversations about sustainable solutions to complex issues
February 10, 2021
While working in sustainable tourism in Western Canada, I deal with issues such as climate change, species-at-risk, and land use conflicts. Every day, species such as mountain caribou (or sage grouse, wolves or grizzly bears) sit at the epicenter of debates pitting the environment against the economy. Given that background, I hear you asking what motivated me a professional forester, professional biologist, and former national park warden to write mystery novels? Good question!
After many years of undertaking field work, writing technical reports and attending public meetings, and after decades of observing people attempting to paint complex conservation issues as black or white, win or lose, right or wrong, I recognized in a flash of the blindingly obvious that these often-emotional situations were gold mines for story plots.