Beyond a byline.
My writing is an extension of myself, my voice, my heart. Whether in print or online, my words represent an enthusiasm for life beyond a byline.
zis a ba: A Big Song for Restoration
As conservation evolves, the multi-billion dollar industry must come to terms with the way it has, at best, excluded Indigenous peoples from leading ecological and scientific conversations. At its worst, conservation has demonized Indigenous cultural practices only to appropriate them on stolen land. In some cases, conservation has altogether disenfranchised Native peoples from their homelands, a direct threat to cultural preservation.
As white-led conservation organizations evolve, I predict we will see more land returned to Tribal Nations. In the case of zis a ba, it was crucial for The Nature Conservancy in Washington to advocate for returning this estuary to the Stillaguamish Tribe of Indians. TNC did this by raising and contributing funds for the Stillaguamish to purchase their ancestral lands.
This piece is my honest attempt to celebrate the restoration of Stillaguamish homelands.
Selected Prose:
Misinterpretations of the 1855 treaty significantly damaged the Stillaguamish people’s ability to hunt, fish and gather traditional foods and materials. In 1974, Judge Boldt reaffirmed the Tribes’ treaty rights in the landmark case known as U.S. v. Washington. Five generations after the Treaty, the Stillaguamish Tribe finally gained an invitation to fish in the estuary once again. However, the land was not as they managed it 129 years before.
Water Connects Us All: Lessons from the Marshy Middle
This feature of Emily Howe, Ecologist of Aquatic Environments, is one of my favorite published pieces to date. I was challenged with translating complex science in a way that resonates with general audiences. Initially, I felt daunted by describing watersheds, from mountain peak to estuary. Having grown up in Oklahoma, a land-lock state, I was not familiar the way of water. But, my conversations with Emily, and a visit to Port Susan Bay, surfaced universal themes I could rely on: Scientists in the estuary were like mothers, tending to the habitat so baby chinook can grow. The unique mix of salt and fresh water in the estuary were great teachers of balance and shift. The birds-eye view of a watershed mirrored veins and capillaries in the human body, all connected to deliver valuable nutrients to other places.
To work through the challenging science, I wrote a poem on a train to the airport. I had no intentions of publishing it, but in my mind, the poem became inseparable from the essay. Eventually and somewhat reluctantly, I integrated the two by trusting the poem to divide the sections in the essay. Finally, I recorded the poem and published it with the essay copy.
Naturally, the poem served as useful source material for the brilliant accompanying illustrations by my colleague Erica.
Illustration: Erica Sloniker, The Nature Conservancy
Poetry:
“Lessons from the Marshy Middle”
By Leah Palmer/TNC
The way of connection is revealed by water—snowy summits melting, forging rivers, winding streams and cutting wetlands to spill over a salty edge.
The shape of kinship is mapped in our bodies, veins and arteries transporting blood, nutrients, and oxygen.
The sound of restoration is a mother’s whisper—Constant. Remembering, tending, protecting, growing. She provides, “I am with you.”
The pattern of healing is a symphony of breath— a song of right relations, each anticipating the next measure.
Play as Antidote: New Director of DEI Approaches Systemic Change with Play and Intuition
When a BIPOC cohort was formed among The Nature Conservancy in Washington’s employees, they advocated for the chapter to formalize it’s commitments to equity by hiring a full time employee to oversee the efforts. Late 2023, TNC Washington welcomed its first Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Director, Marie Angeles. She brought a fresh approach to notoriously demanding work—institutional change. I was thrilled to meet Marie and formally introduce her strategic approach through this blog.
Illustration: Erica Sloniker, The Nature Conservancy
Selected prose:
“Play mitigates an impulse to freeze when asked to examine the impacts of white supremacy, colonization, patriarchy, homophobia, ableism, tokenization and exploitation in our modern world and daily lives. Play eases awkwardness among coworkers, with whom we usually maintain a level of privacy and from whom we shield our vulnerabilities. Play can ease our fight-or-flight responses, fragility, defensiveness and denial. And appropriate play can support historically underrepresented community members, who may fear an unfair burden to represent their identity groups and expose collective pain.
Marie’s work is like the improvisation of a skilled jazz musician, trusting themselves and their band, learning new ways around an old melody, innovating on the spot. There is mastery in the simplicity.”
A Day in the Life: Scientists & Collaborators Shaping a Sustainable Tomorrow
Summer of 2023, I had the honor of writing a script and producing a video that introduces audiences to a science team that provides crucial data and insight for The Nature Conservancy in Washington. Their leadership guides conservation and climate resilience work within Washington and beyond.
I handled their story with an emphasis on humanity. This pushed the envelope for messaging around science, which in a Western/post-colonial context, values data over experiential ways of knowing. I was grateful to have collaborators who trusted my vision and allowed my leadership.
In the end, the script features the scientists’ early mornings, field-based research, commutes to work, community collaborations and nods to their external roles within kinship and societal structures. Ultimately, the video captures this team’s unwavering dedication to ensuring future generations thrive on a healthy planet.
Art Director and Producer: Erica Sloniker, The Nature Conservancy
Script Writer and Producer: Leah Palmer, The Nature Conservancy
Director of Photography and Editor: Jenny Ting
Producer and Consulting Editor: Michele Gomes
Camera Operator and Drone Pilot: Jeremiah Kaynor
Sound Mix: Cheryl Ottenritter and Jeremy Guyre
Graphic imagery (right): Erica Sloniker, The Nature Conservancy
Favorite lines:
From script: “Cut to Emily walking up her driveway, unlocking her door. Her kids are happy to see her. She sets the backpack down on the kitchen counter, fishing out a memento for the kids. She hands them a feather from Port Susan Bay. Their eyes light up. We hear giggles and footsteps running to take the object to their collections. Overlay text: Everyday continuation.”
“Everyday curiosity. Everyday conclusion. Everyday collaboration. Everyday climate care. Everyday community. Everyday continuation.”
“Every day, Nature Conservancy scientists and collaborators provide crucial knowledge for a future where people, lands, and waters thrive in balance.”
Rematriating Buffalo in Washington State
On October 27, 2023, 68 bison were rematriated from TNC’s Niabrara Preserve in Nebraska to the Kalispel Tribe of Indians. This is part of the North American Team’s partnership with Intertribal Buffalo Council (ITBC), which for more than 30 years has worked to restore spiritual and cultural relationships between Tribal Nations and buffalo. This honors the buffalo’s conservation merit as a keystone species while also reconnecting tribal nations to a relative with spiritual and cultural significance.
The new Kalispel buffalo are the first from this partnership to be relocated to Washington state, making this transfer a historic event I had the honor to witness and write about in a blog published to washingtonnature.org.
Photo by Leah Palmer
Favorite prose:
“Derrick Bluff is the third generation of his family to herd Buffalo. The Kalispel buffalo program was founded by his grandfather. Today, the program employs roughly a dozen men to mend fences, tag and inspect Buffalo, and on this night, they were all gathered for the large task of adding the relocated herd to their fields. The good-humored group of ranchers were equipped with ATVs and courage, and they were joined by a small group of aunties, cousins, wives and friends gathered around a fire to keep warm as they witnessed. They laughed and cheered as the stubborn buffalo refused to exit the trailers without a fight.”
Dr. Tiara Moore Redefines Belonging in Science
Published in March 2023 on wanature.org, this feature piece explores one woman’s intersectionality as a Black marine scientist navigating predominantly white-led institutions. It tells of her brave journey to create safe and supportive spaces for Black Marine scientists—a small yet critical percentage of water-keepers.
Illustration by Erica Simek Sloniker, TNC Visual Content Specialist
Favorite prose:
“Perhaps most importantly, Dr. Moore is actively cultivating interest in marine science among Black students, who may not already imagine themselves in the field. In some ways, she echoes the whispers she once heard in the ocean, welcoming her to swim, to explore, to listen, to observe, to belong. For descendants of enslaved Africans in the Americas, this is a powerful calling back to water. This is a powerful undoing after centuries of experiencing water as trauma sites, compounded by recent Jim Crow, laws that once deterred Black people from public swimming pools. A 2008 NPR article reported over 50% of African Americans cannot swim. Dr. Moore believes there’s an inherent fear of water among the Black community. She reflects, “you know, I remember I was talking to my grandma about why she didn't swim. And she said, ‘Oh, yeah. White people could just throw acid into pools’ back in her day.”
Dr. Moore’s healing through trauma naturally created inroads for more Black people to return to an ocean that welcomes all of us.”
BIPCO Outdoors: Earth Day on Yellow Island
Published in May 2023, this Earth Day blog shares highlights from an adventure to The Nature Conservancy’s Yellow Island Preserve in the San Juans of Washington state. The day-trip was designed for BIPOC explorers to access lands and participate in conservation projects, as these groups have been historically and systemically disenfranchised pristine nature experiences.
Photo by Alma Williams, Outdoor Afro Coach
Selected prose:
“These Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) explorers were honored to be present—perhaps because people of color are largely underrepresented in national parks, forests, and wildlife preserves. According to The National Health Foundation, white people make up 70 percent of all visitors to public lands. Some believe this is because BIPOC do not enjoy the outdoors, which is an unfortunate stereotype. Visitor, Quaniqua Williams said, ‘I held the assumption that Black folks do not spend much time outside. That assumption was debunked. Volunteering on Yellow Island began to shift my perspective about being outside.’”
Talon Show
Published in the Sep/Oct 2022 issue of Oklahoma Today, I was assigned “Talon Show” for a section called," “Off the Map,” where readers are given clues about a tourism site in Oklahoma but are not given its identifiers. Readers gather information from the feature and send their guesses to the editors. My editor called “Talon Show” one of his favorite features to date.
Selected prose:
“Bird handlers join a long history of reciprocity with eagles, who are believed to carry prayers to heaven, making them among the only creatures to see the Creator’s face."
“When perched on a handler’s glove, the majestic eagle is possibly nature’s best arm candy...”