Julian Hoffman

@[email protected]
997 Followers
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142 Posts

Writing, nature, people, climate, place. Author of IRREPLACEABLE: The Fight to Save our Wild Places and THE SMALL HEART OF THINGS. Upcoming: LIFELINES & RIVER SONG
Prespa, Greece

#Wonder #Wildlife #Resistance #Environment #Climate #RadicalHope #Place #Biodiversity #Writing #Community

Websitehttps://julian-hoffman.com/
Recent writing: The Spirit of the Wetlandshttps://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-spirit-of-the-wetlands/
Latest book: Irreplaceablehttps://www.penguin.co.uk/books/303781/irreplaceable-by-hoffman-julian/9780241979495
Julian HoffmanJul 10, 2023
Last night, as I was reading in bed, something small flew into the room and landed on my chest. I quickly closed my fingers around it and padded downstairs to the front door. Outside, in the dark, I watched light leave my cupped hand as a firefly drifted away over the garden.
Julian HoffmanMay 16, 2023
Emergence MagazineMay 16, 2023

In this week’s podcast, Arati Kumar-Rao is struck by the immense power of the ancient river Ganga, and wonders how human activity will continue to both affect and be determined by the will of its waters.

Listen to “In the Shifting Embrace of the Ganga.”
https://emergencemagazine.org/podcast/ #ShiftingLandscapes #Podcast

Emergence Magazine Podcast

Emergence Magazine's podcast features exclusive interviews, author-narrated essays, contributor conversations, fiction, multipart series, and more.

Emergence Magazine
Julian HoffmanApr 15, 2023

Delighted to be giving an illustrated talk for the Anglo-Hellenic League about the Prespa lakes in London on May 3rd at 7pm at the Hellenic Centre.

Beginning with the idea that it's a crossroads place, where three countries meet around the shores of two ancient lakes, there'll be brown bears, borders, pelicans, sacred junipers and transboundary bridges being built.

The event is free to attend but registration is required via the link. With a wine reception to follow!

https://www.eventbrite.com/e/prespa-a-crossroads-place-tickets-607434481887

Prespa, a Crossroads Place

The environmentalist and author, Julian Hoffman, is giving an illustrated talk about the Prespa Lakes region in Northwest Greece.

Eventbrite
Julian HoffmanFeb 2, 2023
Emergence MagazineFeb 2, 2023
“If there are pelicans nesting in a wetland, something is good with the health of this wetland.” For #WorldWetlandsDay we share a story set along the shores of the Prespa lakes in northern Greece. Read "The Spirit of the Wetlands," by @JulianHoffman. https://emergencemagazine.org/essay/the-spirit-of-the-wetlands/ Photo courtesy of the Society for the Protection of Prespa.
The Spirit of the Wetlands – Julian Hoffman

Julian Hoffman witnesses the drastic decline of Dalmatian pelicans as they succumb to avian influenza. As the wetlands fall strangely quiet, he senses the porous boundaries between our health and that of the ecologies we inhabit.

Emergence Magazine
Julian HoffmanJan 11, 2023

"Back then, there were so many - and then they would migrate again. These birds are migrants as well...nomads." ~ Tolikas Nitsiakos, shepherd on Mt. Grammos

NOMADS - a wonderful and moving short film made by the Hellenic Ornithological Society
on traditional transhumant shepherds in the mountains of Greece and the endangered Egyptian vulture, of which only five pairs are still to be found in the country.

#Transhumanism #Transhumance #EgyptianVulture

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Str2PxS9sFQ

NOMADS

YouTube
Julian HoffmanJan 6, 2023

“I don’t know if it is going to be preserved after our generation,” says Kostas. “We are probably the last ones.”

Excellent piece by Katy Fallon on Vlach #transhumance in the mountains of Thessaly, a herding tradition gradually fading throughout Greece. With superb photos by Vasilis Tsiolis.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/02/greece-nomadic-herders-life-in-the-hill-photo-essay

‘My heart beats up here’: Greece’s nomadic herders on life in the hills – a photo essay

For hundreds of years the Vlach herders in Greece and the Balkans have moved livestock to high mountain pastures for the summer months. But their numbers are dwindling as their arduous existence is threatened by soaring costs

The Guardian
Julian HoffmanJan 4, 2023
Lesser Prespa Lake from the old juniper wood above the clouds today.
Julian HoffmanJan 4, 2023

"We were thinking we must be able to do something about this, there must be some guidance, or some way to prevent it spreading, but everything was geared towards poultry farms. There was no information on wild birds."

Devastating and moving account from the frontline of the avian flu crisis.

#AvianFlu #FarneIslands #AvianInfluenza #H5N1

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/jan/04/farne-islands-bird-flu-i-was-one-in-hazmat-suit-we-picked-up-6000-dead-birds-aoe

​I helped pick up 6,000 dead birds last summer. This is what I learned about the horrors of bird flu

In the past year, avian flu has ravaged colonies of seabirds in the UK. Gwen Potter, a National Trust countryside manager working on the Farne Islands, was among those who donned hazmat suits on the frontline

The Guardian
Julian HoffmanDec 31, 2022
Last light of the year lowering over Great Prespa Lake, where a heron as still as the water watches from the shore. Wishing all a Happy New Year at this time of turning!
Julian HoffmanDec 29, 2022

A cloud inversion covers the whole of the Prespa lakes today, tapering to its end right above our mountain village.

#CloudInversion #SeaOfCloud