We thank you for watching our Forces of Nature video series. Our Forces of Nature all share a very deep love of the land and its people. Three of the next four recently posted elders are known to be published writers and two are well known activists. All are currently from California. A commonality among these individuals is that each seized a moment in their life that changed the trajectory of their existence and these ripples affected the environmental movement. In doing so, they created a rich life for themselves and made a tremendous difference to others.

Richard Wilson found his inner activist when his family ranch and other Native American ancestral lands were threatened to be flooded under a massive dam proposed on the Middle Fork of the Eel River in Northern California. Richard was not about to let this happen and fought tenaciously to stop the Dos Rios dam. He went on to contribute many things to the environmental movement through his work as the California Director of Forestry and Fire Protection and as a whistle-blower exposing Pacific Lumber’s dirty tactics regarding their sustainable yield actions.

Paul Lee is a scholar, teacher, philosopher, writer, and founder

Lloyd Carter was a young man enjoying a journalism career when one day a discovery upended his world.

He came upon a contaminated wildlife refuge where he saw dead and deformed birds littering the refuge and adjacent residential properties. He began an investigation into this tragedy, creating a thread that continues to runs throughout his journalism and blog today. Hear Lloyd’s story about the infamous Kesterson National Wildlife Refuge in San Joaquin County California and how this changed the path of his journalism.

Malcolm Margolin, a young graduate from Harvard was compelled to write a “quick book” about Native American peoples of California. This “quick” six- month book took Malcolm three years and along the way he found a special kinship with Native peoples. Malcolm continued to write several more books about Native American culture; while doing so, he founded Heyday Books, a publishing company notable for publishing magnificent books about nature and environment, anthropology, poetry, writing and much more.

We hope that these stories inspire you to watch and share our videos with others. When unexpected opportunities arise, how might they be important to your life and the planet?