Author: Steve
For the Love of Ducks
With the north wind blowing off snow-covered Mount Shasta, it was brutally cold that December afternoon in 1960. Sitting in the back seat of our…
Splashing Salmon and Giant Sycamores
I’m sometimes asked if I had any favorite places to work during my twenty-one years supervising the warden force in western Shasta County. Lower Battle…
Tall Trees and Emerald Waters
Kathy and I recently attended the Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) fall conference on the aptly-named Wild Rivers Coast. Stretching from Port Orford, Oregon…
Above the Canopy
Having had the pleasure and privilege of diving in California’s kelp forests from San Diego to Monterey, I would describe it as a surreal, almost…
My Interview on NPR’s “Journeys of Discovery”
What an honor it was to be interviewed in Morro Bay by Tom Wilmer, the illustrious host of National Public Radio’s hit program, “Journeys of…
Those Amazing Elephant Seals
My first opportunity to see a northern elephant seal was in October of 1959, as an excited eleven-year-old passenger aboard the Fish and Game Patrol…
Fish Tales and Fond Memories
In 1966, as a high school graduate about to enter college, I was fortunate to find a summer job at the Mount Shasta Fish Hatchery—the…
America Needs Parks Now More Than Ever
Recently, my wife, Kathy, and I arrived in Sonora for our first Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC) conference. We were a little apprehensive, being…
“Best Outdoor Magazine Column” Award
What a thrill to receive the “Best Outdoor Magazine Column” award from the Outdoor Writers Association of California (OWAC). Presented at the OWAC Spring Conference,…
Saving Yelloweyes
Imagine you’re fishing somewhere off the California coast and you hook into a big one. You finally hoist the monster to the deck and discover…