Hi! I’m Shane Sater.
Who am I?
I’m a naturalist, storyteller, and human being with a passion for the natural world around us. I believe that the animals, plants, and other creatures we share this planet with can teach us meaningfully, connect us deeply, and help us heal broken relationships and generations-old traumas. My background is in environmental science and field ecology, with a focus on plants, animals, and insects in the northwestern United States. I hold a BA in Environmental Science from Carroll College (Helena, MT, USA). My undergraduate thesis was a guide to some of the incredible diversity of insects on a local stream restoration site. I’ve volunteered extensively to help restore watersheds and habitats and to share my passion for nature with people of all ages.
I started this storytelling project in June 2022, originally under the name of “What’s Going On Out There?”, with community support via Patreon. Eventually, I realized that the name didn’t immediately tell people what it was about, so I changed it to Wild With Nature.
Wild With Nature: a work in progress
The name change hasn’t been the only thing that has evolved over these years. I do this because I care about sharing my love of nature with my community, through stories. It’s not profitable. If I were to track my hours (which I don’t), I estimate that my current community funding would cover around 50% of my time at minimum wage. Making money isn’t my motivation for doing this, though all of the support you give is lovely and lets me know that this work matters to people.
Anyhow, the nice thing about a passion project is that there’s space for it to evolve over time. Since February 2023, I’ve made Wild With Nature fully bilingual, publishing my stories and podcasts in English and in Spanish. I’ve gone from publishing stories once a week to once a month, which has allowed me to spend more time on each one. It’s also allowed me to create much more complicated podcasts, richly illustrated with my ambient nature recordings.
Besides nature and community, I’m also passionate about connections across language boundaries, which is a big part of what has inspired me to make this project bilingual. I also care about honoring and learning from the diversity of human culture and experience. I acknowledge the Native people of western Montana, including the Blackfeet, Salish, and Kootenai, on whose traditional territories I live. It’s an honor to live and learn on this landscape, which has such a rich cultural history extending back for millennia.
– Shane Sater
