Wild Ideas
Nature adventures
About
Pam Owen & "Wild Ideas"
Author of the "Wild Ideas" column and blog
Pam Owen
A writer, photographer, editor, Virginia Master Naturalist (VMN), and lifelong conservationist, I love nature, great movies and great food, anything that makes me laugh, my dogs, and dirty martinis. Although I've studied nature through formal education and through years of observation and research on natural-history topics that intrigue, delight, or worry me, I still consider myself a student of nature, not an expert. Fortunately, I do
In 2010, I started a nature newspaper column, with the same name as this blog. The column has run in several local newspapers, especially Rappahannock News, now owned by Rappahannock Media. In the column, I explore nature, particularly in Virginia from the Blue Ridge Mountains to the Alleghenies. My main reasons for starting the column were to keep me learning about nature and to share what I learned in the hopes of inspiring others to be as passionate about protecting it as I am. In the spring of 2020, amid the rise of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic, I decided to start this blog as a way to share more of my ramblings in nature. ​​
know quite a few experts who are gracious in sharing their knowledge with me.
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For two decades, I lived in Rappahannock County, bordering Shenandoah National Park in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Active in nature conservation in there, I helped found a six-county VMN chapter and served on its board, as well as on the board of a local conservation organization before becoming its first executive director.
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In July 2022, my current dog (Mollie) and I moved from the Blue Ridge Mountains, on the border of Shenandoah National Park, to the western edge of the Shenandoah Valley, close to the border of West Virginia and the Allegheny Mountains.
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Now semi-retired, my mission will continue to be plumbing nature's mysteries and sharing what I observe. For every answer I find in nature, myriad new questions arise, leading me on journeys that sometimes land me, like Alice, down a rabbit hole.
But what a wonderful place for a nature writer to be! I hope you'll join me on my journey, day by day, season by season.
​— Pam Owen
For more Wild Ideas, read my column at Rappahannock News and follow me on Twitter (@WildIdeas).
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Adventures in Nature