Ep. 75 - A Naturalist's Life (Part 2) - A "Hike" with Sandy Geffner

The Field Guides

Part 2 of our time in the woods with naturalist Sandy Geffner. This time, Sandy leads Steve and Bill on a “hike”—though with Sandy, the word takes on a different meaning. You might not cover much distance, but you’ll travel miles in understanding: exploring ecology and hearing stories of the forest and the wildlife within it. Enjoy!

This episode was recorded on July 21, 2025 at JP Nicely Memorial Park in West Falls, NY.

Episode Notes and Links

Sandy’s favorite books: A Sand County Almanac by Aldo Leopold and Finding the Mother Tree by Suzanne Simard.

But we feel that we have to call ourselves out here because we’ve been critical of Simard’s work before and maybe we should’ve brought this up with Sandy during the episode (but we obviously didn’t have the stones). For a deep dive into some of the criticisms of Simard’s word, check out the In Defense of Plants podcast’s series of episodes that starts here. Or this article by three professors who’ve spent their careers studying forest fungi.

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Photo Credit

The Natural Side of UB by Robby Johnson