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Josh Donlan Joins Shifting Baselines!

By jjacquet on March 1, 2008.

You might have noticed the new face here at Shifting Baselines along with the new banner (more on that soon) and, in just a little while, lots of new content. Just one month shy of Shifting Baselines' one year anniversary at SEED's ScienceBlogs, we're branching out--expanding our blogging team and the application of the shifting baselines syndrome.

Dr. Josh Donlan joins the blog with an expertise in altered terrestrial ecosystems and a penchant for all things Pleistocene. Don't worry, ocean lovers, Josh also knows a thing or two about the marine environment. In fact, I first met Josh when we were both at Cornell University and I was interested in learning more about sonar's effects on whales. At the University of California, Josh studied island ecosystems in Mexico and occasionally got his feet wet working with seabirds and marine mammals. And before he washed up on islands, he studied marine ecology at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute in Panama. From islands to fisheries bycatch, Josh gets around--and with his ideas to rewild America Pleistocene style, he also has a very compelling baseline.

Josh is also a prolific writer (check out his pieces in Slate and Grist on lions and elephants in America--oh my!), a rising academic star, an invasive species eradicator, and an outdoor enthusiast. What more could you want in a co-blogger? Watch for his first posts coming soon!

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Call it synchronicity. I had just written an email to Josh Donlan after finding his e-address regarding his perspectives on re-wilding and the Pleistocene. It became too murky and after trying to make it concise, I x'ed it and went looking for a blog. Glad I found this. It's just what I was looking for in so many ways.
No indication of when we'll see Josh's thoughts on the subject here but I hope it's soon.
I'm particularly interested in his(and others's) perspectives on Charles C. Mann's book "1491; revelations on America before Columbus" and how the recent announcement regarding the evidence for an impact event over the Laurentide Glacier 12.9KYA and the extinction event. It seems to me that the landscape is still in the process of changing in more ways than one and a straight ahead look is needed if convictions are to be kept vital.
Cheers. doug