Meet Amy Martin | author & journalist, community rabblerouser, nature nut

We had the good fortune of connecting with Amy Martin and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Amy, why did you decide to pursue a creative path?
I was an accelerated learner and took my college entrance exams at age 13. Too young to fill out the application myself, so my father did. In the slot labeled “future occupation” he wrote “writer.” News to me. I planned to become a forest ranger in Idaho, as far from my family as I could get, That required a college degree, I was chagrined to learn. So in the mid-’70s I settled in the boonies of Red River County in NE Texas — no radio, no TV, no newspapers — and became a cucumber farmer for Best Maid Pickles. After three years, my brain started to atrophy, so I began attending Paris Junior College. A teacher entered an essay of mine in the college creative writing contest, which I won. A writer was born and I fulfilled my father’s prediction.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
We live many lives in a lifetime. For me it was farmer, bartender, video production, entertainment journalist, and ultimately nature writer. What is the through line of all these things? Curiosity. A joy in discovering the world — vegetables, human nature, performance, ecology — and sharing it with others while relying the whys of it all. The sole thing that makes human beings human is curiosity. We wonder, we seek, we explore, and then we share. And in doing so we move humanity forward.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
My book Wild DFW: Explore the Amazing Nature Around Dallas-Fort Worth is all about not just sharing our favorite places but also why they are so special. How the rich black clay soil is actually the swamp mud of an ancient inland sea. How the North Texas terrain was once rich with peaks and valleys until we filled the valleys with reservoirs and here to find the remnants of these lost lands. How the half-dozen varieties of bedrock spin off a myriad of soils that foster specific plant and wildlife communities that lead to incredible biodiversity. These are the miracles of our ecoregion. It takes just a little but of knowledge to bring them alive.

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
I met Scott through the North Texas Master Naturalists. Not long after I finished my master naturalists training, I shattered my second cervical vertebra in a car wreck — an injury called Hangman’s Fracture that only 2% survive intact. I had to learn to walk again. Once friends got me graduated from shuffling around the house and driveway, to walking the neighborhood and greenbelt, Scott took over by leading me on hikes in some of Dallas’ wilder areas. The precarious dirt trails challenged my sense of balance, though he did not realize just how challenging it was for me. Scott introduced me to wild areas I’d have never gone by myself, much even be able to find. Those hikes became the bedrock of the Wild DFW book. I am grateful.

Website: https://Wild-DFW.com/

Instagram: @WildDFW

Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amy-martin-3a69137/

Twitter: @WildDFW

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/WildDFW

Other: My personal website is https://moonlady.com/

Image Credits
Photos by Daniel Koglin, Scooter Smith, Stalin SM, and a myriad of friends,