Eric Dinerstein's Nature Essays
Dr. Eric Dinerstein lives in Cabin John, Maryland, and he has frequently visited Monticello Park. Between April, 2013, and September, 2024, Eric wrote essays about nature for the monthly Cabin John publication The Village News. Eric used his broad knowledge of the natural world to illuminate the myriad aspects of nature which can be viewed in the Washington metro area. The essays were illustrated by Trudy Nicholson, who also lives in Cabin John.
Eric serves as Chief Scientist and Senior Conservation Counsel at Conservation X Labs, and works on CXL's Sentinel technology system. Eric brings a wealth of international experience over a long career as a field biologist, conservation strategist, tech innovator, and as an architect of strategic conservation partnerships to restore wild nature. He is also one of the world's most frequently cited conservation biologists and a staunch advocate for peer-reviewed science driving best practices and policies.
Eric was the long-time Chief Scientist at the World Wildlife Fund. Beginning in 1975, he conducted pioneering studies of tigers and their prey and led conservation programs for large mammals, such as the Greater One-horned (Indian) Rhinoceros and Asian Elephant. Eric helped create the conservation plans for many iconic places - including the Galapagos, the Chihuahuan Desert, the Himalayas, the Panda Mountains of China, and the Northern Great Plains of Montana.
Eric's areas of specialty include tropical mammals, large mammal biology, biogeography, bats, rhinos, seed dispersal, and community ecology. He has led many important scientific projects, including mapping the Global 200 Ecoregions, examples of which form the basis of his book Tigerland and Other Unintended Destinations. He is also the author of The Kingdom of Rarities, The Return of the Unicorns: The Natural History and Conservation of the Greater One-Horned Rhinoceros and What Elephants Know: A Novel, among other articles and publications.
You can access all of Eric's essays published in The Village News from the list below.
2024
• A Resolution for 2024: Slowing Down to Look at Nature
• Uh-Uh, or Something to Crow About
• Invaders of the Potomac
• Rewilding the Potomac: The Return of the Shad
• Our Missing Mussels
• In the Shallows of the Potomac
• Carpe Diem
2023
• Pausing, to Appreciate the Comma
• A Cranefly in Winter
• A Churn of Earthworms
• With Respect to the Ant
• Bumblebee's SOS — A Plea for Help
• Of God and Beetles
• Summer Lightning
• A Gardener's Best Friend
• Rewilding Cabin John
2022
• Nightlife
• Hiding in Plain Sight
• Bubo the Great
• Peeps of Spring
• Nighthawks
• A Summer of Bats
• Brown Bats, Big and Small
• Bats and COVID
• Muskrateer
• Here Comes the Coyote
2021
• Homegrown Wildlife Preserves in Cabin John:
Getting in on the Ground Floor
• Building a Backyard Wilderness II: A Trio of Glorious Native Shrubs
• More Ground to Cover
• Nature Rolls Out Her Carpets
• Pride of Maryland
• The Tree with the Fringe on the Top
• Shady Characters
• Summer's End
• Order in the Garden!
• A Golden Oldie
2020
• A Year of Invasives: A Murmuration of Starlings
• The Sounds of Rivets Popping: A Farewell to Eastern Hemlocks?
• Invasion of the Buttercups
• From COVID-19 to Garlic Mustard: The Urgency of Confronting Invasives
• A Fragrant Infiltrator
• Death by Honeysuckle
• Privet-ization
• Beware the Wintercreeper
• The Perils of English Ivy and Other Stranglers
• Life Without Chestnuts
2019
• Bluebirds in Winter
• The Winterberry Army
• A Mouse with a Beak
• Spring Comes Wrapped in a Mourning Cloak...or a White Petticoat
• Think Like a Skink
• Summer Passion
• Insect Armageddon: Part 1
• Our Backyard Birds Are Made from Bugs: Insect Armageddon - Part 2
• Tick Anxiety, and a Local Preventative
• Foxes Among Us
2018
• Hawkish Behavior
• Nature in Black-and-white
• Wild Turkeys
• Saved by a Rose Tree
• From the Catbird's Seat
• Developer, Homeowner, Spare That Hickory!
• The Rights of Oaks
2017
• Kneeling Before the Ground Pine
• A Hovering Falcon
• In Memoriam: Ann Lucy and the Grand Old Trees of Cabin John
• Southern Magnolias in the Flesh
• Spring Tubas, Summer Trumpets
• Nature's Opportunists
• Summer's Dragons
• Galling
• Wash-bears
• Musclewood and Moth
2016
• Winter Holly
• Great Blue Heronosaur
• Rites of a Woodcock Spring
• A Short-Lived Wonder
• All Hail the Hackberry Emperor!
• Bears in the Backyard
• What's in a Name? The Case of the Cedar Waxwing
2015
• Feeding the Hawks
• The Advantages of Smelling Like a Skunk (or a Dead Monkey)
• Ants in Our Plants
• Bambi or Godzilla?
• The Mimics Among Us
• The Wild Fruit Diet
• Bewitched
• Autumn Anomalies
2014
• Hardy Birds
• Wild Orchids in Winter
• Redhead Alert
• Wood Ducks on A Wild River
• Hissing Geese, Hungry Snappers
• Loudmouth of the Locks
• Bogeymen of Nature
• Restoring the Monarchy to Cabin John
• Raven's Roost
• Cabin John – Rich in Woodpeckers
2013
• Spring Singers Worth Watching
• Washington and Jefferson's Favorite Fruit
• The Most Beautiful Bird in North America
• Honeysuckle and Hummingbirds
• Plant Bites Dog
• The Mysterious Night Raven of the Canal
• A Holiday Look at Nature