About Us
Earth Notes is produced by KNAU/Arizona Public Radio and
sponsored in part by Northern Arizona University’s Center for
Sustainable Environments (CSE). Segments are authored by
freelance writers throughout the Southwest. Peter Friederici
edits scripts. Tristan Clum, production director at Albuquerque
public radio station KUNM, narrates segments, and KNAU program
director Mitch Teich produces the show.
Based in Flagstaff, Arizona,
KNAU uses
repeaters and affiliated stations in Kingman, Prescott, Show
Low, Page, Grand Canyon, and on the Hopi Nation to reach
listeners throughout most of northern Arizona.
Founded in recognition of the complex and interdisciplinary
characteristics of contemporary environmental issues, the
CSE
engages in practical, cross-cultural research and conservation
projects across the Colorado Plateau and beyond. It brings
together the talents and expertise of scientists, educators,
independent scholars, business leaders, government agencies,
non-profits, students, and community members to seek creative
solutions to environmental problems. CSE’s initiatives are
aimed at safeguarding natural and cultural values and
resources.
Earth Notes scripts are written by freelance writers who live
on the Colorado Plateau and beyond. Take this opportunity to
meet the people who make our show happen.
Peter Friederici
Editor
Peter was exposed at an early age to both nature (he
remembers chasing cottontail rabbits around the backyard; he
never caught any) and to radio (he listened to Cubs games under
the cover while he was supposed to be asleep; they seldom won).
Since moving from his hometown of Chicago to Arizona in 1993,
he has worked as a field biologist, hiking guide, and freelance
writer. His articles and essays on nature and the environment
have been published in periodicals ranging from Audubon
to Highlights for Children. He recently edited
Ecological Restoration of Southwestern Ponderosa Pine Forests
(Island Press, 2003) and
A New Plateau: Sustaining the Lands and Peoples of Canyon
Country (Renewing the Countryside, 2004) and is the
author of The National Audubon Society Field Guide to the
Southwestern States (Knopf, 1999) and an essay collection,
The Suburban Wild (University of Georgia Press, 1999).
He was unfortunate enough to become almost fully employed a few
years ago at Northern Arizona University, where he now works as
a writer and editor.
Rose Houk
Writer
Earth Notes developer and contributor Rose Houk is a
freelance writer based in Flagstaff, Arizona. She travels
frequently on the Colorado Plateau, writing about natural
history, archaeological, and historic topics. Her first
permanent move west was in 1979 as a seasonal ranger at Grand
Canyon National Park. Rose has also worked as a newspaper
reporter and book editor, and she enjoyed a brief career in
broadcasting at public radio station WBKY-FM in Lexington,
Kentucky.
Mike Lamp
Writer
Mike Lamp is really happy writing for Earth Notes
and working with KNAU again. He was a reporter and Morning
Edition host at KNAU from 1996 to 2000 before taking a
similar position at Colorado Public Radio in Denver. In
Colorado, Mike has been pleased to discover that he actually
can ski, after some less-than-successful attempts at the
Arizona Snowbowl. He also spends a lot of time on his bike.
Terri Likens
Writer
Terri Likens has covered a lot of ground as a journalist,
both literally and figuratively. She has worked at journalism
jobs large and small, from coastal North Carolina to the desert
Southwest, including a five-year stint as a reporter and editor
with the Associated Press in Chicago. She also has extensive
freelance writing experience, tackling assignments for
ABCNews.com,
American Profile magazine, and Plateau Journal.
Along the way, she has won top honors in the field from the
Kentucky Press Association, the Hoosier Press Association, the
Arizona Press Association, the National Newspaper Association,
and the Arizona Press Club.
No one was more surprised than Terri, who originally hails from
Kentucky’s Bluegrass region, when she came to Arizona and
realized she was a desert rat at heart. She’s an amateur
naturalist who loves bats, snakes, tarantulas, and time spent
outdoors.
Richard Mahler
Writer
Richard Mahler is a freelance radio producer, writer, and
teacher who divides his time between Santa Fe, New Mexico, and
Santa Cruz, California. He is the author of eight books,
including nature and culture-oriented travel guides to
Guatemala and Belize. Richard’s latest book, Stillness:
Daily Gifts of Solitude, discusses the rapid disappearance
of public silence from our world, including national parks.
Besides Earth Notes, Richard has contributed
commentaries, features, and scripts to the programs of NPR,
PRI, CBC, CBS, Pacifica, and other networks. When not in his
radio production and writing studio, he enjoys hiking, making
art, traveling, and teaching a kind of stress reduction that
involves meditation and yoga.
Dennis Wall
Writer
Before taking a real job at NAU five years ago, Dennis Wall
worked for 15 years as a freelance writer and photographer. His
work has appeared in several dozen publications, including
Southwest Art, Popular Science, New Mexico Magazine, and
Third Coast, the now-defunct Austin, Texas, city magazine
where he first made the leap from mental health work to
writing. He has also published a book of text and photographs,
Western National Wildlife Refuges: 36 Ecological Havens from
California to Texas. Dennis works as editor and newsletter
publisher with the Institute for Tribal Environmental
Professionals, a tribal training and support organization based
at NAU. A fervent amateur musician, he regularly performs an
eclectic mix of dinosaur rock and originals at a local coffee
shop and is happily at work on a self-produced first CD. His
hobbies include songwriting, exploring the wild West, and
reading at least a dozen children’s books each week, usually in
the presence of his son, Marley, and daughter, Chloe Juniper.
His wife, Susan, is a home care/hospice social worker who
serves patients across northern Arizona.
Sadie Babits
Writer
Bio coming soon.
David Portree
Writer
Bio coming soon.
Rachel Turiel Hinds
Writer
Rachel Turiel Hinds studies the uses of local plants in the
San Juan Mountains,
and is an urban farmer in Durango, Colorado. She can be reached
at
sanjuandrive@frontier.net.
Tristan Clum
Narrator
Tristan Clum is the voice of Earth Notes and
production director at KUNM in Albuquerque. Tristan was the
capital bureau reporter for KUNM from 1997 until 1999, after
which he served as a Morning Edition/All Things Considered
host and reporter at KNAU. He has won numerous awards for
reporting and anchoring from both the Arizona and the New
Mexico Associated Press.
Tristan began his career in public radio in 1988 as a reggae
show host and programming assistant at KNMS-FM in Las Cruces,
New Mexico. In the decade that followed, he worked as a public
television producer and as an assignment editor for the
Albuquerque NBC affiliate. Tristan graduated from the
University of New Mexico in 1992 with a degree in political
science. When he’s not working in one of KUNM’s studios, he
likes to ride his mountain bike across the hills of New Mexico.
John Stark
KNAU General Manager
John Stark has been KNAU’s general manager since September
1993. Under his leadership, the radio station has made
significant advances resulting in KNAU’s current position as
one of the public radio system’s most innovative stations.
Prior to arriving in northern Arizona, John worked at public
radio stations in Las Vegas, California, and Colorado, as well
as serving as associate producer of NPR’s Morning Edition
in Washington, D.C. John is an inveterate Grand Canyon
backcountry hiker.
Mitch Teich
KNAU News Director
Mitch Teich has been a radio junkie since he was a little
kid, and is still in something of a state of disbelief that he
could parlay that interest into a career. Mitch can trace his
career in radio back to age ten, when he would bring a tape
recorder to Memorial Stadium in Baltimore and broadcast
baseball games from the bleachers to an audience limited to
close relatives. His professional career has included work as a
reporter for WMT in Cedar Rapids, Iowa; news director at KDEC
in Decorah, Iowa; and as a reporter and producer at Minnesota
Public Radio and North Country Public Radio in northern New
York. He joined the KNAU news department in May 1999 as a
reporter and local Weekend Edition host, and was
promoted to news director in November 2001. During his time in
northern Arizona, Mitch has collected national and local
accolades for his reporting on forest restoration efforts,
high-altitude athletic training, and Internet connectivity on
the Havasupai Indian reservation. On the off chance Mitch isn’t
in the newsroom, you can find him playing and watching
baseball, learning the piano, or enjoying the outdoors with his
wife, Gretchen and daughter Sylvi.
