Exploring how landscapes shape people and how people shape landscapes

Welcome! I’m Shawn McCrohan, a conservation leader and lifelong trail explorer drawn to the quiet majesty of ancient forests and wild landscapes. Through field experience and conservation leadership, I explore how landscapes shape cultures, institutions, and the choices we make about the natural world.

My relationship with nature began on horseback, riding the chaparral trails and forgotten concrete rivers of Griffith Park beneath the Hollywood sign, and later along the Pacific Crest Trail, where I first sensed that land is not just scenery but something that holds lessons and deserves respect.

That early connection grew into a lifelong interest in how people and landscapes influence one another. With a background in geography, park management, and environmental education, I work at the intersection of field experience, conservation, and cultural understanding to help protect wild places and deepen people’s connection to nature.

Over time, I’ve wandered through the Blue Mountains of Australia, slept on temple ruins along La Ruta Maya, hang glided past Christ the Redeemer, and had my ponytail tugged by a curious silverback gorilla in Rwanda. I’ve spent time in deserts, rainforests, alpine routes, and some of the most intact wild landscapes on Earth. These experiences continue to shape how I think about conservation, education, and public engagement.

Each journey reinforces my belief in the importance of protecting the wild landscapes that sustain and inspire human communities.

How can we stop human-caused biodiversity loss?

I’m interested in how we move upstream toward more durable forms of environmental protection—rethinking the stories we tell, the systems we uphold, and the values we embed in decision-making.

This means examining the structures, incentives, and institutions that shape human impact on the planet, and identifying where meaningful leverage exists to protect ecological systems at scale.

Current questions I’m working through:

• How can we safeguard the last remaining ancient forests, large wildlife, and oceans—the living systems that sustain planetary health?

• What would it take to redesign economic and organizational systems so that long-term ecological integrity is embedded in decision-making, rather than treated as an external concern?

• How do we ensure policymakers and institutions not only understand but act decisively to protect air, water, soil, and biodiversity?

• How do we reimagine systems of governance and economy around care, reciprocity, and ecological limits?

The shift I'm exploring:

From‍ ‍→‍ ‍ To

Awareness campaigns → Systemic accountability

Individual action → Collective transformation

Nature as scenery → Nature as life’s foundation

Green capitalism → Embedded Economy/Well-being economy / Post-growth economics/ Check out Doughnut Economics

Note on this site

This site is part field journal, part reflection on ecosystems and human systems, and part record of time spent in landscapes across the world.

It reflects an ongoing inquiry into what it means to live responsibly in a time of ecological change.