I grew up in suburban Chicago, and my backyard abutted a small forest preserve, which had a little creek flowing through it. To my brothers and me, that forest preserve was as wild as Alaska, and we spent countless hours exploring the forest and creek. So began my love of all things wild.
A few years later, when I was 15, I went on a month-long NOLS backpacking trip in the Lemhi Mountain Range in Idaho. For a flatlander from Illinois, it was an amazing experience. When I traveled home after the trip, some part of me remained in the West, and I spent the next fifteen years preparing for my return. In that time, my interest in, and passion for, the natural world only deepened. I closely followed environmental issues, with those affecting the northern Rockies nearest and dearest to my heart. Many voyages to Montana, Idaho, and Wyoming also transpired.
I earned a B.A. from Middlebury College in Vermont in 2001 and a J.D. from the University of Illinois College of Law in 2005. Following law school, I clerked in federal court in Chicago for a year, spent two years in the litigation group of a large Chicago law firm, and then, following a brilliant alignment of the stars, obtained my dream job as a wildlife advocate for NRDC in Montana.
Away from the office, I can be found chasing wild trout with a fly rod, trail-running, playing pond hockey, hiking, hunting, or doing something else in the mountains. But if it were an emergency, I’d check the rivers first.
Posted December 15, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Living Sustainably
It’s no secret that National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation is the greatest holiday film ever, and that Clark Griswold (the pinnacle of Chevy Chase’s acting career) is a bad ass. What’s also true is that holiday shopping, for many...continued→
Posted December 9, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Opposition to the proposed Pebble Mine in Alaska’s famed Bristol Bay region continues to mount, with some major seafood processors now wading into the anti-Pebble waters. In late November, the Pacific Seafood Processors Association, a seafood industry trade...continued→
Posted November 21, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
I parked at the end of the logging road, donned my backpack, grabbed my old rifle, and locked the doors. I’d be back in a few days, hopefully with a heavy load of fresh elk on my back. It...continued→
Posted November 4, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
As I wrote a few months ago, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service reached an agreement this past summer with the State of Wyoming over Wyoming’s long-disputed wolf management plan. And in October, the Service officially proposed removing wolves...continued→
Posted October 20, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, The Media and the Environment
My heavy flannel shirts have been summoned from the closet. Wood smoke fills the air in the neighborhood most nights now. A trace of gun oil can be detected on my jeans, and I unnecessarily linger outside in the...continued→
Posted August 24, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Health and the Environment, Living Sustainably, Solving Global Warming, The Media and the Environment, U.S. Law and Policy
Brussels sprouts, sugar snap peas on a homemade hog panel trellis, and pole beans on a homemade bamboo trellis in my backyard. I’m halfway through the book Tomatoland by Barry Estabrook, and my appetite for tomatoes is gasping for...continued→
Posted August 16, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Sarah Skoglund crossing the Hoh River, Olympic National Park, Washington. While the Wolf Wars in the Northern Rockies garnered all sorts of attention over the past few years, a curious development was taking place just west of here:...continued→
Posted August 10, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, U.S. Law and Policy
Last week, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service and the State of Wyoming announced that they had reached an agreement over Wyoming’s long-disputed wolf management plan. Such an agreement paves the way for the Fish & Wildlife Service to remove...continued→
Posted July 18, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming, U.S. Law and Policy
Today, in response to a petition we filed in December 2008, the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service found that the whitebark pine tree should be listed as threatened or endangered under the federal Endangered Species Act. Specifically, the Service concluded...continued→
Posted July 6, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Health and the Environment, Moving Beyond Oil, Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
Less than a mile from our office, as I write this, snowmelt from the Northern Rockies screams downstream in the Yellowstone River. The Yellowstone – the longest undammed river in the lower 48 states – is an iconic, wild...continued→
Posted June 13, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places, Solving Global Warming
A brook trout in New England is a vastly different fish from a brook trout in the West. Genetically identical, same spots on its flanks, still heartbreakingly beautiful, but a brookie in the West is a fish out of water,...continued→
Posted May 27, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
As I wrote yesterday, I’ve spent a lot of time in Yellowstone National Park lately. And a couple of weeks ago, on a dark, ominous evening in the Lamar Valley, I received a very important lesson from some wolves...continued→
Posted May 26, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
I’ve been out of the office for much of the past two weeks wandering around Yellowstone National Park with some of NRDC’s wonderful supporters. We spent most of our time in the wild northeast corner of the Park. At this...continued→
Posted May 5, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
(Lake Clark National Park, Bristol Bay, Alaska) In August 2005, shortly after enduring the misery of the bar exam, I hopped on a plane to Anchorage, Alaska, to fly-fish for ten days. A friend I had met earlier in...continued→
Posted April 13, 2011 by Matt Skoglund in Saving Wildlife and Wild Places
The furry beast of the plains can finally dance a little jig, and – for the first time in many decades – it can bust those moves north of Yellowstone National Park. Yesterday, the federal, state, and tribal agencies...continued→
Switchboard is the staff blog of the Natural Resources Defense Council, the nation’s most effective environmental group. For more about our work, including in-depth policy documents, action alerts and ways you can contribute, visit NRDC.org.
