Latest WDRT Podcasts

Natural Wonders

August 18th, 2026

Play Episode Pause Episode

1x

00:00 / 00:25:48

RSS Feed

Share

Link

Embed

<blockquote class="wp-embedded-content" data-secret="CweMFNErby"><a href="https://www.wdrt.org/2026/08/18/august-18th-2026/">August 18th, 2026</a></blockquote><iframe sandbox="allow-scripts" security="restricted" src="https://www.wdrt.org/2026/08/18/august-18th-2026/embed/#?secret=CweMFNErby" width="500" height="350" title="&#8220;August 18th, 2026&#8221; &#8212; WDRT" data-secret="CweMFNErby" frameborder="0" marginwidth="0" marginheight="0" scrolling="no" class="wp-embedded-content"></iframe><script> /*! This file is auto-generated */ !function(d,l){"use strict";l.querySelector&&d.addEventListener&&"undefined"!=typeof URL&&(d.wp=d.wp||{},d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage||(d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage=function(e){var t=e.data;if((t||t.secret||t.message||t.value)&&!/[^a-zA-Z0-9]/.test(t.secret)){for(var s,r,n,a=l.querySelectorAll('iframe[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),o=l.querySelectorAll('blockquote[data-secret="'+t.secret+'"]'),c=new RegExp("^https?:$","i"),i=0;i<o.length;i++)o[i].style.display="none";for(i=0;i<a.length;i++)s=a[i],e.source===s.contentWindow&&(s.removeAttribute("style"),"height"===t.message?(1e3<(r=parseInt(t.value,10))?r=1e3:~~r<200&&(r=200),s.height=r):"link"===t.message&&(r=new URL(s.getAttribute("src")),n=new URL(t.value),c.test(n.protocol))&&n.host===r.host&&l.activeElement===s&&(d.top.location.href=t.value))}},d.addEventListener("message",d.wp.receiveEmbedMessage,!1),l.addEventListener("DOMContentLoaded",function(){for(var e,t,s=l.querySelectorAll("iframe.wp-embedded-content"),r=0;r<s.length;r++)(t=(e=s[r]).getAttribute("data-secret"))||(t=Math.random().toString(36).substring(2,12),e.src+="#?secret="+t,e.setAttribute("data-secret",t)),e.contentWindow.postMessage({message:"ready",secret:t},"*")},!1)))}(window,document); //# sourceURL=https://www.wdrt.org/wp-includes/js/wp-embed.min.js </script>

Carl Safina’s great book The View From Lazy Point takes us not only to an ocean sprayed tip of Long Island, 110 miles east of Manhattan, but he travels to Alaska, and using salmon as his illustration, muses about its decline, fall and resurgence; resilience.

I see parallels to our Driftless Area, a place seemingly destined to being overwhelmed with well meaning, but all too human, homo-sapiens. Will our wildlife and wild places survive the next decades?

from the chapter; Travels Polar – Bear Witness – Southeast Alaska,

 “I’m here to see a tinkered-with place that has saved all its parts and to try to understand why it’s still working. What will surprise me is that it’s not so much virgin and pristine – thought there’s a lot of that, too- as recovered and recovering. It’s a place where people have had the luxury of learning from their mistakes. And there’s a reason for that too.”