About the author…

Hello, friends! Marc Collins here - your host, and a Marchwarden (more on that term in the next post) of the Riverbend Preserve.

I mostly operate anonymously behind the scenes to keep the focus on the mission, but I thought I’d use one of these posts to share a little bit about myself and why I’m doing what I’m doing out here.

Mostly anonymous

I grew up as something of an oddball in the safety and comfort of suburban Central Florida, but my parents used to take us up into the mountains of North Carolina any chance we got.

Even as a kid I was invigorated by the change in temperature and scenery, the crisp air in the fall, and of course the green glory of big, deciduous forests.

The Great Smoky Mountains, simply divine

I loved the quiet majesty of the place, and always lamented returning to the flat heat and humidity of the Sunshine State.

Florida has its own wonders like cold springs and limestone caves, but for me the sandy soil and endless stretches of pine trees and palmetto scrub just wasn’t the thing.

Meh.

So, I resolved…one day…to find a patch of forest with maybe a river nearby that I could call my own. A place of peace, comfort, and communion with the natural world.

***

I was a theatre kid who parlayed his love of staging and story into a career producing live events. In 2001, I started a production company which has done well enough to keep me in eggs and butter, so to speak, while also affording me the opportunity to travel and see a lot more of the world. Much of it from the air.

IYKYK

In 2017, I was living in San Francisco and decided it was time to set my wilderness plan in motion. Having fallen in love with the Pacific Northwest a few years earlier, I started the search in the green hills west of Washington State’s Cascade Mountains.

Here’s that story, in case you’re interested.

Fast forward a few months, and my name was on the deed of some wilderness acreage in western Lewis County.

As I spent more and more time on these enchanting grounds, I found that my personal desire for peace and quiet was making room for new passions like responsible conservation and creating a place for people to immerse themselves in an unspoiled corner of the natural world.

June, when the fields are white with daisies

Incredible works about forest ecosystems like The Hidden Life of Trees engaged my curiosity, leading away from active management practices and towards passive non-interference.

Today, access points and infrastructure are carefully placed for the lowest possible impact. I keep my distance from the wildlife so they don’t modify their behavior or patterns, and even the ecological grant projects I’ve started with the NRCS are focused on restoring the original condition of this land in order for native species to thrive on their own terms without being managed or engineered.

One of our basic needs as humans is to feel that we’re contributing to the world in some way. For me, the call to permanently protect and preserve this 220 acre valley and all the forms of life that make their homes in it is a mission and legacy that I can be proud of.

***

For my day job I still own and operate that production company doing work that I love, and between work trips I split my time between a canvas outfitter’s tent on the Riverbend Preserve and across the country in a high rise apartment in Manhattan. It’s a fulfilling life where I get to have wildly divergent experiences in two places that feed my soul.

New York City is bursting with arts, culture, amazing restaurants, and the kind of kinetic, bootstrap energy that makes me proud of what our species can accomplish - but there are fewer elk grazing by the western tree line at dusk.

I can cool my bare feet in the Chehalis River and stargaze with quiet wonder on clear nights at Riverbend - but it’s harder to find a world-class meal or lose myself in the cinema with a tub of buttery popcorn at 68th & Broadway.

How lucky am I to get the best of both worlds; a city life and a country life?

City to the left, country to the right

So that’s a bit about me. Drop me a line here if you’d like, I’d love to hear from you. Tell me what the natural world means to you, or what you’re doing to feed your own passions.

Life is rich but short, you know? Let’s make the most of our time here.

-Marc