Peter Alden Wild Life

My final summary report on the groupings of organisms and the people who found them during Walden Biodiversity Days in 2009 and 1998 is finished and can be downloaded here (5.7 MB).
These events wouldn’t have been possible without hundreds of experts and helpers of all sorts deserve our gratitude for their time in the field [...]

In the run-up to Thanksgiving this week Shannon Mullen of National Public Radio interviewed me and Martha Stewart about Oriental Bittersweet, one of the most aggressively destructive invasive plants in the North East US and a staple of holiday decorations. Not surprisingly we come to different conclusions about it’s place at the table.

On July 3rd and 4th I’ll be leading the second Walden Biodiversity Day, a gathering of top naturalists and field biologists — many of whom participated in the first Biodiversity Day in 1998 — who will fan out to find, identify and photograph over a thousand species of mushrooms, plants and animals in a day. [...]

I’m returning to my roots in January 2009 with a series of tours out of Mazatlan, Mexico before, during and after the new Mazatlan Bird Festival.

There are now hundreds of annual birds festivals, big and small, across North America and the Mazatlan Bird Festival promises to become the most important event of its kind in [...]

Here it is: I’ve written my first holiday letter since the Sox and Patriots started winning series and super bowls!
Among many highlights of the year, Manny Ramirez signed my “We Love NY but in the 21st its Boston 2, Yankees/Mets 0” sign along the duck boat victory parade. And after six years as chair of [...]

Americans seem to know less and care less than ever about the natural world in their environs. As evidenced by the popularity of “action-oriented” nature shows and films about far away places, they are more interested in the cats of the African plains, the penguins of Antarctica, or the crocs and reefs of the tropics [...]

A rash of new trees, shrubs, vines, creepers, wild flowers, grasses and fresh water aquatic plants are in the process of taking over vast areas of our remaining wild lands.
These “new” plants evolved thousands of miles away across oceans and continents, but in a corner of its continent with a climate similar to ours. The [...]