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Nature Now
Nature Now Team
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KPTZ’s Nature Now presents eclectic and authentically local news, insights and observations about the natural world around us. Anything that grabs the attention of the Nature Now team can be heard on these weekly shows: birds and bees, flowers and trees, the weather and the stars – everything from microscopic Salish Sea plankton to ecosystem dynamics in a changing world. Listen at 12:30pm on Wednesdays and repeating Saturdays, as well as most Thursdays at 5:30pm.
Every member of the Nature Now team is fascinated by the wonders of the natural world around us, is endlessly curious, hungry for new knowledge, and loves to share these passions with KPTZ listeners.
Jackie Canterbury, a third generation Washington state native, acquired a passion for birds and conservation in college, earning bachelor’s degrees at the University of Washington and Evergreen State College plus MS and PhD degrees from the University of Nebraska–Lincoln with an emphasis in physiology and neuroscience. Her master’s degree program involved developing a conservation strategy for nongame birds for the state of Nebraska and her PhD work focused on the Yellow-breasted Chat.
After training as a marine scientist, Nan Evans spent her professional career in natural resource management policy and government affairs for the federal government, the State of Oregon, and The Nature Conservancy.
Debaran Kelso holds a Master’s degree in Ecology. She has worked as a field biologist in various parts of the world, but has made the Olympic Peninsula home for the past 30 years, focusing her study on Northern Spotted Owls.
Mary Robson taught college English on the east coast and then made a life switch to horticulture. She taught at Edmonds Community College, and then for 18 years at Washington State University where she applied her master gardener talents through the cooperative extension service.
When not at KPTZ, you can find team members out in nature with hiking boots or waders, binoculars, cameras, and notebooks. Email the Nature Now team.
Ever wonder what bird is singing in the morning when you open the door to greet the day? Or, why the tides are different around the world? Or, what the latest science tells us about salmon recovery efforts? If so, listen to Nature Now on Port Townsend’s community radio station, KPTZ at 91.9 FM. An original production by KPTZ volunteers, Nature Now is a program of information and insights about the natural history of our region.
Join KPTZ’s Nature Now team as they explore the wonders and puzzles of the natural world around us. Fascinating topics range broadly from ecology, specific plant or animal species, human interaction with nature, discussion with authors, conservation strategies, and, sometimes, even philosophical questions.
The new exciting news is that, in addition to listening to Nature Now programs live or from the KPTZ archives, you can also listen to Nature Now as a podcast on your smart phone. Subscribe to Nature Now in your podcast app and access more than 100 past and current episodes.
Nature Now
Nature Now Team
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Episodes
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(Reprise airdate: September 2, 2026) We are all familiar with Washington’s state flower, the native Pacific Rhododendron. Did you know there is a classification for that ecosystem – it is called the Rhododendron forest. Remnants of the Rhododendron forest are on the Toandos Peninsula in Puget Sound and are technically part of a “globally imperiled plant association”. This forest type has been confirmed by botanists with the Department of Natural Resources’ Natural Heritage Program. Over the past decade biologists have mapped this globally rare type of forest which represents the largest occurrence of its type left in the world. Although this native forest type was once common west of the Cascades in Washington state, it has largely been eliminated by conversion to tree plantations and development. Join Jackie Canterbury as she talks with Peter Bahls, Director and Biologist for the Northwest Watershed Institute and Heidi Eisenhour, Jefferson County Commissioner about their collaborative efforts to protect this globally rare remaining Pacific Rhododendron forest.
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(Reprise airdate: September 2, 2026) We are all familiar with Washington’s state flower, the native Pacific Rhododendron. Did you know there is a classification for that ecosystem – it is called the Rhododendron forest. Remnants of the Rhododendron forest are on the Toandos Peninsula in Puget Sound and are technically part of a “globally imperiled plant association”. This forest type has been confirmed by botanists with the Department of Natural Resources’ Natural Heritage Program. Over the past decade biologists have mapped this globally rare type of forest which represents the largest occurrence of its type left in the world. Although this native forest type was once common west of the Cascades in Washington state, it has largely been eliminated by conversion to tree plantations and development. Join Jackie Canterbury as she talks with Peter Bahls, Director and Biologist for the Northwest Watershed Institute and Heidi Eisenhour, Jefferson County Commissioner about their collaborative efforts to protect this globally rare remaining Pacific Rhododendron forest.
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(Reprise airdate: September 2, 2026) We are all familiar with Washington’s state flower, the native Pacific Rhododendron. Did you know there is a classification for that ecosystem – it is called the Rhododendron forest. Remnants of the Rhododendron forest are on the Toandos Peninsula in Puget Sound and are technically part of a “globally imperiled plant association”. This forest type has been confirmed by botanists with the Department of Natural Resources’ Natural Heritage Program. Over the past decade biologists have mapped this globally rare type of forest which represents the largest occurrence of its type left in the world. Although this native forest type was once common west of the Cascades in Washington state, it has largely been eliminated by conversion to tree plantations and development. Join Jackie Canterbury as she talks with Peter Bahls, Director and Biologist for the Northwest Watershed Institute and Heidi Eisenhour, Jefferson County Commissioner about their collaborative efforts to protect this globally rare remaining Pacific Rhododendron forest.
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