My Substack Recommendations for 2025

Who to read this year

Owl artwork courtesy Fearless Green, my top recommended Substack

To finish out 2024, here are Substacks that I recommend you follow in 2025. They are mostly about plants, Nature, climate & the environment, but also collapse, community & preparedness. I don’t agree with everything all these authors say or believe (so no need to call out particular posts with “but what about…”), but I value them enough to read them regularly and to suggest them to you. I’ve arranged them in categories here (alphabetically within), though of course they don’t all fall into these categories neatly. Please check these folks out and consider supporting them financially if you’re able.

My top recommendation

• Fearless Green by

  Rebecca Wisent
  
  Rebecca’s choice of topics and overall perspective greatly appeals to me. Factually, she is informed and nuanced, and ethically, we’re on the same wavelength. She’s a resident of the Pacific Northwest, where I lived and worked for over two decades, so she loves many of the same places I do. Rebecca set up an amazing directory of Nature-themed Substacks called HOME which you absolutely must peruse.
  Rebecca’s “Owl in America” series is a must-read for anyone who wants to keep up with the environmental state-of-the-US, especially as we go into another Trump term. She describes it like this:

  “Owl in America” is a series of letters chronicling the next four years from the perspective of an environmental lawyer. Practicing conservation and public-lands law during the first Trump administration was an exercise in hope and dogged persistence amidst the ever more effective demolition issuing forth from Washington, D.C. Much ground was lost, only some of which was regained during Biden’s four-year term. This time around, I’m taking notes.

  I’m hoping that many people will be following your notes, Rebecca!

Nature Awareness, and Agriculture

• Anne of Green Places by

  Anne Thomas
  
  Photos and essays from a scientifically trained person with an eye for beauty. Her Detail Diary series is lyrical and gorgeous.

• Chasing Nature by

  Bryan Pfeiffer

  Observations of and meditations on animals, plants and nature.

• Gardens of Sol by

  Brittney Portes
  
  Brittney describes herself as “A traveling farmer turned garden gal. Sharing my experiences growing food, managing a community garden, connecting with nature and living intentionally.” Her upbeat attitude and enthusiasm are infectious, or at least, I hope so! A new generation of growers like Brittney could go a long way towards making our agricultural system more sustainable. And fun!

• Ground Shots Ecologies by

  Kelly Moody
  
  Kelly is a friend and comrade whose knowledge of plants continually impresses me and shows me how much more I need to learn! She brings a personal touch to her nature observations, bringing in important threads about emotion and trauma. Her interview podcast is high quality and her guests always interesting. Her focus on wildtending and traditional First Foods is valuable and rare. A big thanks to Kelly, too, for suggesting I start my own Substack. She’s why I’m here at all!

• The Nettle Witch, MD by

  Amy Walsh
  
  Amy is an MD who understands the limits of Western medicine and has a deep appreciation for other modalities, including medicinal plants. The tagline for her Substack is “The science and magic of returning to wholeness.” Nice. In case you missed it, in November she interviewed me on the topic of “invasive” plants.

• Protozoa Princess by

  Kate Solbakk

  Kate brings together scientific training and artistic ability in wonderful illustrations.

• Rock & Hawk by

  James Freitas
  
  Birds! Photos and profiles.

• Words in the Woods by

  Cody DeYoung
  
  Cody is “a lifelong naturalist, passionate entomologist and educator with a background in both biology and English literature” and his writings “range from accounts of odd and out of the way places and creatures, to musings on the relationship between science, nature and spirituality.” His posts, always intriguing and sometimes sublime, deserve a greater readership.

Beyond a carbon-exclusive climate focus

As I’ve stressed in my own writing, the mainstream climate discourse is overly carbon-centric. This is problematic for two reasons: 1) it ignores Land Use, which sorely needs to be addressed, especially the effects of agriculture, and 2) carbon-centric “solutions” tend to ignore or under-emphasize the environmental issues of “green energy” which are themselves significant, and in many cases exacerbate Land Use problems such as habitat destruction. Together, these Substacks present a broader and more accurate picture than the mainstream discourse.

• Biocentric with Max Wilbert by

  Max Wilbert
  
  A comrade and a friend who is serious about defending the earth.

• Biotic Regulation and the Biotic Pump by

  Anastassia Makarieva
  
  Hard science from a long-time researcher.
  Rob Lewis
  writes of her: “Makarieva formulated the biotic pump theory, which shows how forest ecosystems are able to draw water inland and maintain water cycles thousands of miles from the ocean.”

• The Climate According to Life by

  Rob Lewis
  
  Rob focuses on how Land Use is the ignored factor in Climate Change. You’ll find information here that’s hard to find anywhere else.

• Climate Water Project by

  Alpha Lo
  
  ”How to restore the water cycle, and how that helps with hydrating the earth and soil, replenishing groundwater, restore rains in drought areas, lessen flooding, and slow down climate change.”

• Katie Singer’s Substack by

  Katie Singer

  "Katie Singer writes about the energy, extractions, toxic waste and greenhouse gases involved in manufacturing computers, telecom infrastructure, electric vehicles and other electronic technologies.”

• REDD-Monitor by

  Chris Lang
  
  Tagline: “REDD-Monitor is your daily reminder that carbon offsets are a scam.” What is REDD? “Reducing Emissions from Deforestation and forest Degradation in developing countries.” So Chris is writing about “why trading the carbon stored in forests against fossil fuel emissions is a bad idea.” With laser-like focus, he has been taking on this issue for years, apparently since 2008 at his previous website redd-monitor.org, which he has been relocating to Substack. I am hoping to interview Chris for my podcast in the upcoming year.

• Roots of the Sky by

  Scott Dierks
  
  Scott writes about “how plant communities make the living world possible, managing energy, carbon and water in the thin space around the rock we call home.” Often technical but always accessible. Scott really knows his stuff.

Collapse, preparedness & Community

• Birds Before the Storm by

  Margaret Killjoy
  
  An old friend from Portland who I really respect. She writes about prepping, history and anarchism, often with wit. See my 2021 interview with her on my old podcast, which was a lot of fun.

• Collapse Curriculum by

  Justin McAffee
  
  Practical guides and advice from an outdoor educator. Justin is “working on a curriculum of vital resilience skills in an uncertain world. Recognizing the modern world is teetering on unsustainable foundations, and that there may not be any politically feasible answers, I've dedicated my life to crafting a "collapse curriculum" — a robust guide for those who seek to not only revel in the splendor of the outdoors but also to be adeptly prepared for our unsteady future.”

• Hiraeth: Post-Activism in the Anthropocene by

  Gregory Pettys
  
  I met Greg and his lovely family in Colorado in 2023. He presents an eclectic assortment of posts that I’ll let him describe: “EcoVillage Life. Bardo Travel. Parenting in Times of Uncertainty. Unschooling. ReWilding. Dharma, Animism, & Embodied Myth. SeedSaving. Grief. Praise. ReMatriation. Forgiveness. Ancient Futures. PostActivism. Memory, Culture and the Search for Home.”

• Hopecology by

  Andrea Joy Adams
  
  ”The ongoing environmental catastrophe leads many to despair, but hopelessness precludes the attitudes that can lead to meaningful, changemaking action. Hopecology is a study in looking unflinchingly at the stark realities of the present, while also returning focus to the natural world that will literally save us, if we are to have any hope at all.”

• Radically Local by

  Margi Prideaux
  
  Margi, an Australian, has a PhD in wildlife policy and law and has 35 years of experience as an international negotiator and independent academic who informed policy audiences. But since losing her home, farm, and wildlife sanctuary to wildfires in 2019-2020, she has shifted her focus to "loudly advocating for communities (human and non-human) impacted and often devastated by unfolding climate chaos."

• Sacred Healing Remedy
  Reflections on Nature, Trauma and Healing.