From The Wild Side

09/02/2026

“We like to think of ourselves as wildlife managers. We like the title. It sounds scientific and responsible. But sometimes what we are really doing is cleaning up after our own stupidity.”

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by David Stalling

09/01/2026

“When despair for the world grows in me and I wake in the night at the least sound in fear of what my life and my children’s lives may be, I go and lie down where the wood drake rests in his beauty on the water, and the great heron feeds. I come into the peace of wild things who do not tax their lives with forethought of grief. I come into the presence of still water. And I feel above me the day-blind stars waiting with their light. For a time I rest in the grace of the world, and am free.” — Wendell Berry

09/01/2026

“At this point, I suppose Lake Koocanusa (a portmanteau created by blending the first letters of three entities — Kootenai, Canada and U.S.A.) should start preparing for its inevitable transformation into Lake God Bless America.
Maybe the Mississippi River can become the American Freedom River. The Yellowstone could become the Freedom River of Freedom. And somewhere in Washington, D.C., I suspect there is a committee working tirelessly to determine whether every mountain in America contains enough America in its name.”

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by David Stalling

08/30/2026

If you've been reading my work, please help me think about this. What would make this better? What would make it more useful? What would make it more compelling? What would make you want to become a paid subscriber? What would make you tell somebody else, ‘You should read this guy’?”

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by David Stalling

08/29/2026

“This is not a story about ‘problem bears.’ It is a story about hungry bears. And there is an important difference.”

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by David Stalling

08/28/2026

“For some reason, even though I already knew rose hips could be used for tea, I had never actually made any. Recently I finally decided to remedy that. I gathered some rose hips, prepared them, and made myself a cup.”

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(and How to Make Wild Rose Hip Tea)

08/26/2026

"Park managers do not take the decision to kill a bear lightly," said then Yellowstone National Park Supervisor Dan Wenk. "We need to balance the protection of Park resources and public safety.”

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by David Stalling

08/19/2026

We give the mountain a name,
the river a number,
the forest a management plan,
the animal a population count.
And somehow,
in our desire to save the wild,
we forget to leave it alone.

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by David Stalling I do not go into the wild to find myself. I go there to lose the self I’ve been carrying. The schedules, the names, the small machinery of certainty, the voice that believes everything must be measured before it can be loved. Out there, the mountain does not care what I call it. ...

08/18/2026

“The tree was not merely something we had to drive around. It was part of our lives. It was a meeting point, a landmark, a warning to slow down, and a silent witness to all the ordinary things that make up a childhood.”

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by David Stalling

08/17/2026

“The governors of Montana, Wyoming and Idaho, the director of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Secretary of Interior don’t even seem to pretend to be honest about the issue. They just spout easily refuted bu****it and arrogantly think people will believe whatever they say — because, unfortunately, a lot of people do. To paraphrase Mark Twain, they don’t let facts get in the way of what they choose to believe.”

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by David Stalling