Pete is fascinated by the diversity of life and natural systems, from harsh Arctic and desert landscapes where the persistence of life seems a daily miracle, to verdant tropical forests where the sheer magnitude of natural wonders is awe-inspiring.
Pete studied zoology as an undergraduate and completed his master’s of science degree in wildlife biology at Humboldt State University in California. He investigated waterfowl feeding ecology for the U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service as a graduate student. Although fascinated by many aspects of nature, Pete especially loves to interpret marine mammals, birds, and geology. He is guided by a love of nature and by the joy he gets from sharing it with others.
Pete worked for the National Park Service in Yosemite, Rocky Mountain, Everglades, and Denali National Parks. Of 11 summers in interior Alaska, eight were as a naturalist for Camp Denali, a wilderness resort. He has traveled extensively with Lindblad Expeditions-National Geographic since 1990 to destinations around the world.
His home is in Bend, Oregon, on the eastern foothills of the Cascade Mountains, where he spends much of the year skiing, hiking, volunteering to teach natural history classes, and managing a small, rental-home business with his wife Gretchen. He lives in a house they both designed and built themselves on 10 acres that they continue to enhance as wildlife habitat.