Twin Cities Naturalist

Kirk Mona, writer of the Twin Cities Naturalist, is a professional naturalist living in the Twin Cities in Minnesota. He is an alumni of the University of Minnesota with bachelor’s of science degree in Environmental Studies and Youth Development. He start his career as a naturalist more than 10 years ago. Currently, he is the Outreach Coordinator and an Interpretive Naturalist for the Lee & Rose Warner Nature Center in Marine on St. Croix, Minnesota. Kirk is also a national award winning writer: In addition to The Twin Cities Naturalist, he writes regular columns for the National Association of Interpretation’s Legacy Magazine, Stillwater Living Magazine and the Country Messenger Newspaper.

People choose to blog for a variety of reasons. What was it that inspired you to start writing the Twin Cities Naturalist?

I started writing a personal blog back in 2001 but decided I wanted to do a more public project. I love exploring the Twin Cities and I love writing and telling stories. I’m a professional interpretive naturalist and I enjoy interpreting the natural world for people. With the Twin Cities Naturalist blog I can reach a wider audience. I chose the name because I wanted to be grounded in a specific place. The reach of the blog is beyond the Twin Cities though. I like that I can showcase what we have to offer to a wider audience while also exposing local readers to a wider world of content. Blogging also helps me keep writing constantly which is good practice as I also write columns for magazines and other outlets. Writing daily helps me hone my writing style.

Blogging isn’t always easy. What is your biggest blogging obstacle? How do you tackle it?

My biggest obstacle is time. I have a young toddler at home and he takes up much of my free time. I try to blog after he goes to bed but my wife is now a blogger too so we have to take turns using the computer. Sometimes we both have a story we are dying to blog about and we have to negotiate time. I sometimes end up blogging at lunch as well as writing a couple of posts on the weekend and scheduling them for future posting. I have more ideas for topics than I have time so as I notice things I make notes so I can blog about them in the future. At any given time I probably have ten to twenty posts in various states of development. Some are just a single sentence on a topic and I may or may not come back to it. If I miss something that is seasonal, I’ll file the idea away for next year. I’m just dying to do posts about bald faced hornets and the geology of the Twin Cities this spring.

What is one thing you hope your readers learn/understand from reading the Twin Cities Naturalist Blog?

My hope is always to give people a new perspective to help them enjoy their world. I could write a blog about natural history and related topics for hundreds of years and never run out of topics. I hope to give people a glimpse into a world they may otherwise ignore. I personally find that the more I learn about plants, animals, geology, etc, the richer my everyday experience. If you know nothing about the natural world, a walk in the woods is like a visit to a foreign country. You don’t speak the language so it can be difficult to fully appreciate all that is going on around you. If I can help people understand some of what is there to be seen I hope their experience will deepen. I find the more I learn to observe, the shorter distance I go into the woods. I keep stopping to notice all the incredible little things. A single tree is hosts to birds, fungi, insects, lichens and more.

What other blogs do you enjoy reading and why? Who are your favorite local Twin Cities bloggers?

There are many wonderful bloggers in Minnesota and the Twin Cities. Locally, I tend to keep an eye on Sharon Stiteler’s Birdchick blog for bird related news, Paul Huttner’s Updraft blog for weather and climate discussion, Greg Laden’s Blog for Science and Culture and PZ Myers Pharyngula for a daily (over)dose of rancor and science debate.

Sharon writes one of the top rated bird blogs in the world and does so with her wry sense of humor. Paul always has the latest weather news which never fails to capture the imagination of true Minnesotans. Greg’s blog is just enormous and wide ranging and one of the top read nature/science blogs in the country. Pz Meyer’s is technically out of the Twin Cities but his blog is also nationally wildly popular and I can’t keep up with all his posts. He’s got a good mix of humor, science and skepticism that keeps me thinking.

There does seem to be a lot of blogging talent in the state. Perhaps it is the cold. We’ve got a lot of time on our hands once the sun goes down after 4:00 in the winter. I also enjoy reading my wife’s blog, Silverbug Studio. She is a jewelry designer, photographer and maker. It is really interesting to read a blog written by someone you live with because it makes you notice things you’ve overlooked. She took a beautiful photo of a bush by our garage the other day. I pass it every day and I’d never noticed how beautiful it was in the winter.

Theater, sports teams, an involved community, phenomenal parks – the Twin Cities are a great place to live. What are your favorite aspects of Twin Cities life?

The outdoors! I’ve lived here my entire life and I’ve still not explored all of the natural spots in the Twin Cities. There are parks everywhere and we even have the largest river in the country running right through the middle of both downtowns. In the past, the river was used as a dumping ground, a kind of open sewer to take our garbage away and people didn’t give it much thought. Obviously that attitude has changed a lot. In a lot of the city the river is hidden from view and there are people who live long lives here having never seen or touched the river. That needs to change and I’m happy to see both cities focusing more on the river and making it a focal point of the Twin Cities. I also love that people here love to get outdoors and celebrate all the seasons. The Twin Cities is very outdoor oriented compared to other cities which may surprise people from other warmer places who would think we’d just hibernate all winter long.

What is your biggest non-blog related goal for 2010?

My biggest goal is to be more present in my own life and take time to make the most of every experience. It is too easy to coast though life on autopilot and not really engage with the world. I’m going to try to appreciate and fully experience very moment. I’m not doing it for the blog, but I’m sure the observations and experiences of the year will find their way there.