Welcome to Watershed Notes
I have been a writer for as long as I can remember, writing “stories” as a child and banging out my “newspaper” on my dad’s typewriter. I tried my hand at poetry and allegorical short pieces before getting into more science and environment writing.
I am trained as a scientist and held a tenured position in Physical Geography before leaving academia for health reasons. My scientific background informs a lot of my writing, especially interviews with women scientists and pieces about water, Arctic and mountain regions, and academic science.
These days I write reviews of environment and nature-related books, do author Q&As with writers like Barbara Kingsolver and Ann Patchett, and write essays about women in science and in society in general, and nature and the environment.
Watershed Notes
Notes from the ‘Shed
A watershed is defined as “any surface area from which runoff resulting from rainfall is collected and drained through a single, common point. It may be only a few hectares that feed a small pond, or can be hundreds of hectares that feed large rivers.”
On my blog, I explore the interconnectedness of watershed functions, including environmental processes such as water, wildfire, and snow; cultural issues such as local history; and the impacts of resource development (forestry, oil and gas).
I also like the idea of a watershed being a moment in time, when your perspective shifts significantly or a major life event occurs. These are the moments that change us and drive us to become different people, with new ideas and motivations. For example, one of my ‘watershed moments’ was leaving my job in academia. I had to rethink everything about my life which had until then centred around being a researcher and professor of watershed science.
Being a field scientist, over the years I have filled many a notebook with field notes. Although I have been forced into an early ‘retirement’, I am still thinking and writing about the environment, except that I now write out of a converted garden shed…hence my tagline notes from the ‘shed.
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