Writing Samples

On 25 January 2024, the Belgian Parliament voted to prohibit the importation of legally obtained hunting trophies from threatened and endangered species, claiming some of them could be further imperiled unless trade is limited.

Recently, in a conversation with a friend, I expressed my sincere disappointment in not feeling like writing anymore, hoping to find some magical inspiration. Her response was – why not write about why you haven’t been writing? An excellent suggestion!

January 2020. My pickup truck headlights illuminated a mostly solid blanket of fresh snow, highway lines only partially visible in the wind-scoured areas between the drifts. At 2:30AM, most North Dakotans were sleeping. Yet there I was, four wheel drive mandatorily engaged, post blizzard, enroute to the airport to my first ever Dallas Safari Club (DSC) Convention.

Africa faces many conservation challenges, all requiring honesty and pragmatism to solve. A completely unjustified, shamefully damaging, and wastefully distracting challenge, however, is disinformation campaigns, like the one some members of the UK Parliament are currently engaging in via the proposed Private Members’ Hunting Trophies (Import Prohibition) Bill.

As a writer, I recognize the utility of analogies. As a photographer, I am very aware of the importance of focus. But as a conservationist, I am dismayed when people use the former incorrectly in manipulative manners, and the latter at focal lengths fixed no further than their own interests, in misguided attempts to blur, distort and misrepresent reality.

World Rhino Day, on September 22, was created to increase awareness about these unique and beleaguered creatures, whose futures are uncertain.

In April 2022, a photo of a legally hunted elephant that was posted on a private Instagram account was leaked into the public domain, quickly went viral, and caused a global stir.

There is, unfortunately, a confusing array of definitions of the word conservation. At its most basic level, it can be described as a wise and careful utilization of any resource.

An ugly part of Connecticut's past occurred in the mid-1600's, when the infamous Connecticut Witch Trials took place. People were wrongfully convicted by prosecutorial tribunals who were certain that misguided, manufactured hysteria, conjured up accusations, and hateful, persecutory public pressure was true.