Chris Clarke

Chris Clarke is a natural history and environmental writer, an editor and photographer.Born in Upstate New York in the very early 1960s, Chris moved to the West Coast in 1982. Chris has worked as an editor and writer for a number of environmental news publications in print, online and radio, most prominent among them KCET TV in Los Angeles. He’s also been a nationally syndicated garden writer with the Knight Ridder chain, his column generally appearing under the heading “The Irascible Gardener.” Chris’ writing has appeared in publications ranging from Camas and Orion to Bay Nature, California Wild, the New Internationalist, Berkeley Insider and the East Bay Monthly, and about thirty daily papers nationwide.In the mid-1990s Chris’ fondness for the desert southwest, nascent since he first visited as an adult in the early 80s, blossomed into an obsession. He’s traveled extensively in the Mojave, Great Basin and Sonoran deserts, as well as in the steppes and slickrock country of the Colorado Plateau. His aridland obsession notwithstanding, Chris also bears a great fondness for more well-watered landscapes, the mountains of coastal and northern California and the Sierra Nevada in particular.From 1989 until 2008 Chris lived in the East Bay with his ex-wife, Becky Lum. Much of that time was spent in the company of their dog, Zeke, who died of advanced old age in early 2007. Chris and Becky divorced amicably in 2008 and remain close. Walking With Zeke: A familiar story, Chris’ chronicle of their last years with Zeke, was published in 2008. Chris currently resides in Los Angeles and is planning to return to the desert to settle permanently sometime soon.