Draft:David Petersen (American author)

• Comment: Secondary, reliable sources are unlikely to report on the things that the subject is "most proud of", which the sentence this is contained in ("Among the things Petersen is most proud of is...") does not contain any references. Currently not enough reliable secondary sources for the subject, and notability has not yet been established. WP:NAUTHOR.
  The first sentence says "He is a author who loves writing". I'd presume that all authors love writing; this is not important to include. Utopes _{(talk / cont)} 23:35, 14 August 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: content of 9 July copied from this diff - see history there for attribution. Nthep (talk) 14:22, 9 July 2024 (UTC)

• Comment: Your sources, besides two of them, are just listing the names of organizations. We need specifics on Wikipedia. Additionally, this is written like a very long advertisement for this person. Sincerely, Guessitsavis (she/they) (Talk) 18:23, 15 March 2024 (UTC)

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David Petersen was born May 18, 1946 in Oklahoma City, OK. He is a critically acclaimed American author—a naturalist-storyteller—who loves writing, especially about nature and humanity’s relationship to nature. His books and other writings explore and celebrate wildlife and wild places. Since 1980, David has lived a simple lifestyle in a small self-built cabin in the San Juan Mountains, near Durango, CO. His wife of 36 years, Carolyn, died in 2014. David and Carolyn were the subjects of the documentary film On the Wild Edge: Hunting for a Natural Life, by Belgian film-maker Christopher Daley.

One of the many things Petersen has devoted himself to ameliorating is the proliferation and misuse of all-terrain vehicles across much of the West’s important habitats. Consistent with this advocacy, Petersen founded the Colorado chapter of the national sportsman’s conservation group Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, was Colorado Public Lands Conservation Field Director for Trout Unlimited, and served on the Colorado Governor’s Roadless Areas Review Task Force in support of protecting key wildlife habitat.

Petersen is also a traditional bowhunter whose books related to hunting and conservation have formed the ethical foundation of not only organizations such as Backcountry Hunters and Anglers, but also of hunters who strive to hunt in a reverent manner that connects them to their prey, to Nature, and to their own deepest selves. An iconoclast to many if not most hunters, he is considered by many to be an “anti-hunter” even though he has quite literally lived to hunt and has hunted to live. According to Carol Peace Robins, Petersen “disdains [most] hunters and ranchers and decries sheep for ‘tempting hungry predators with their insipid nonstop bleating.’”

David Petersen’s works have delved deeply into the ethics of hunting and how humans evolved as hunter-gatherers, and the implications of that fact for who we are today and how we should relate to Nature. A theme that reverberates throughout his books is that “not all hunting is the same, and not all hunters are the same…. Ethical hunting is predicated on dignity and respect: Dignity in our private thoughts and public words as well as in our actions afield when, as hunter Aldo Leopold pointed out, nobody is watching us.”

Among the things Petersen is most proud of is having worked with two of his literary heroes, Edward Abbey and A. B. Guthrie, Jr. After Abbey died, the task of editing his journals, correspondence, and poems went to Petersen Petersen’s collection of 23 of Guthrie’s environmental essays, done in collaboration with Guthrie, is titled Big Sky, Fair Land, and in it, Petersen not only introduces the essays, but delineates the events and dynamics that influenced Guthrie’s staunch and thoughtful conservation ethic, which he hoped would become a mature and far-sighted national conservation conscience.

Books

Authored

• Among the Elk: Wilderness Images, photographs by Alan Carey, Northland Publishing (Flagstaff, AZ), 1988.
• Wind, Water, and Sand: The Natural Bridges Story, Canyonlands Natural History Association (Moab, UT), 1990.
• Among the Aspen: Life in an Aspen Grove, photographs by Branson Reynolds, Northland Publishing (Flagstaff, AZ), 1991.
• Racks: The Natural History of Antlers and the Animals That Wear Them, Capra Press (Santa Barbara, CA), 1991.
• Ghost Grizzlies: Does the Great Bear Still Haunt Colorado? Holt (New York, NY), 1995.
• The Nearby Faraway: A Personal Journey through the Heart of the West, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 1997.
• Elkheart: A Personal Tribute to Wapiti and Their World, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 1998.
• Heartsblood: Hunting, Spirituality, and Wildness in America, Island Press (Washington, DC), 2000.
• Writing Naturally: A Down to Earth Guide to Nature Writing, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 2001.
• Cedar Mesa: A Place Where Spirits Dwell, University of Arizona Press (Tucson, AZ), 2002.
• On the Wild Edge: In Search of a Natural Life, Henry Holt & Company (New York, NY), 2005.

Edited

• Big Sky, Fair Land: The Environmental Essays of A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Northland Publishing (Flagstaff, AZ), 1988.
• Earth Apples: The Poetry of Edward Abbey, St. Martin's Press (New York, NY), 1994.
• A Hunter's Heart: Honest Essays on Blood Sport, Holt (New York, NY), 1996.
• Confessions of a Barbarian: Selections from the Journals of Edward Abbey, Little, Brown (Boston, MA), 1994, revised edition, Johnson Books (Boulder, CO), 2003.
• Postcards from Ed: Dispatches and Salvos from an American Iconoclast, Mildweed Editions (Minneapolis, MN), 2006.

Honors and Awards

• 2011 Colorado Wildlife Federation: Sportsman Conservationist of the Year.
• 2012 Colorado Wildlife Council: Lifetime Achievement Award.
• 2013 Backcountry Hunters and Anglers: Chairman Mike Beagle Award for Outstanding Service “above and beyond in promoting BHA and its core values.”

Further Reading

• https://www.encyclopedia.com/arts/educational-magazines/petersen-david-1946