or or  As the planet heats up many animal species are either headed north or going extinct. This makes the work of the poet as witness that much more important. Who is here now? And as the culture becomes more and more reductionistic, a product of a human centric delusion, there are poets and naturalists who are watching what is happening in the natural world, and in their neighborhood, and doing something about it. Linda Russo is a poet, scholar, essay writer, willing  co-creator, collaborator and student of ecospheric care. Through the lens of ecofeminism, or geopoetics, or inspired by indigenous practices of interspecies kinship, her works explore relationality, with a more than human world alongside the complexities presented by fragmentation of land and human attention to place. Their most recent book, the verdant, was awarded the Halcyon Award for Poetry from Middle Creek Publishing. She teaches at Washington State University, and enjoys engaging with students and community through Eco-Arts on the Palouse. See:

https://www.ecoartsonthepalouse.com/

https://www.inhabitorypoetics.com/ 

For more poets talking about their work like Linda Russo on the verdant, check out more of what the CPL does at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/, and listen to more current and archival podcasts at https://cascadiapoeticslab.org/cascadian-prophets-podcast-2/.