Audrey D. Benedict

Audrey DeLella Benedict is the founder and director of Cloud Ridge Naturalists, a forty-year old nonprofit natural history education and publishing program. She is a naturalist in the classic tradition, an experienced global wilderness guide, a science writer and a passionate advocate for research and conservation efforts illuminating the repercussions of climate change in Arctic regions and in the global ocean. Audrey's books merge powerful photography with a science-based narrative in an effort to bridge the ever-widening gap that exists between our day-to-day lives and the natural world. Ultimately, her books celebrate nature's magnificence and complexity, but are also an urgent call for conservation action and stewardship. She splits her time between her home at nearly 9,000 feet along the Colorado Front Range and an off-grid cottage on a tiny island in Washington’s San Juan Islands.