TAYLOR HOOD

My name is Taylor Hood. I am a Scottish naturalist, writer/researcher and communicator who has been living in England for just over a decade. Through many pursuits and experiences, I have tried to challenge the anthropocentric world we have constructed for ourselves, remaining open to the other side.

As a child and young teen, I was barely cognisant of my surroundings, let alone the full wonder of the Earth I lived on. However, entry into virtual realms like Azeroth and novels such as The Lord of the Rings sparked in me an awareness that this planet is vast, storied and beautiful and in need of defending. With a renewed appreciation of my surroundings, around the years 2010-2012, I started exploring my home region and then further afield into the Highlands. At the same time, I developed a passion for prehistoric lifeways and natural history. More and more of my time was dedicated to the field of ‘bushcraft’: learning the names of plants and non-human animals, camping, making fires, whittling, modifying knives—all manner of forgotten and unfashionable activities. I also enjoyed attending local bushcraft community gatherings with likeminded people, which is how I broke out of my shell.

These early experiences inspired me to step up and help restore the natural world and facilitate heritage connections. For instance, in early 2013, I volunteered in the countryside for the first time, working with the East Lothian Countryside Ranger Service at Yellowcraig Beach to pick litter, repair paths and remove invasive species. During this time, I started the now-defunct website Oakenwise (2013) (‘Remember the men from whom you are descended’), which received creative contributions on off-the-grid living, ancient music and polytheism. When I moved south at the end of 2013, I established the nature blog The Birkin Tree (2013-2017) to document my deepening appreciation of nature and heritage. It was around this time that I chose to focus on wood carving as a major hobby, crafting spoons, forks, kuksas and flutes.

Though I was saddened that I could no longer explore Scotland and lost some practical opportunities there, my first home in England, rather fortuitously, was close to two important sites. The first of these was Butser Ancient Farm, internationally renowned for its Iron Age roundhouses, Roman villa, rare livestock breeds, bronze casting demonstrations and more. I volunteered at Butser for about a year, taking a keen interest in the Farm’s activities, as the site and its ethos felt like it was made specially for me (an early dream was to be a ‘living history’ re-enactor). The most notable projects with which I helped include the construction of the Wickerman for the 2014 Beltain festival, followed by the carving of the Mesolithic log boat Eurybia (with prehistoric tools like fire, antler picks, shells and bone adzes). I took part in the launch of Eurybia at the Petersfield ‘Secrets of the Heath’ event, telling people about the construction and even taking them out on the water. During all of this, I also started volunteering at English nature reserves for the first time, such as Queen Elizabeth Country Park (carrying out wildlife surveys, pond maintenance and aiding events).

The second of the two important sites close to home was Sparsholt College/University, an idyllic land-based institution. It was here that I decided to pursue a nature conservation education, having previously considered studying history. From 2014-2019, I attained a two-year Level 3 Extended Diploma in Countryside Management (Distinction Star), followed by a BSc (Hons) Wildlife Ecology and Conservation (First). These courses, alongside several work placements across the UK, taught me much. I engaged with traditional rural skills (e.g., coppicing and hedge-laying); developed habitat restoration experience (e.g., tree felling/planting, machinery use, scrub clearance, ‘livestock’ maintenance, and dormouse box construction); implemented species and habitat monitoring techniques (e.g., GIS, Phase One Habitat surveys, National Vegetation Classification, and bird and butterfly transects); and, finally, researched ecological principles and applications (e.g., wildlife biology, landscape ecology, and conservation legislation). As one might imagine, there were many significant events over that half a decade. My time at Creag Meagaidh NNR stands out, where I stayed for my first diploma work placement, undertaking Scots pine transects, surveying dotterel, rearing Highland cattle and skinning deer. I also look back fondly on a challenging dissertation I did at the end of my BSc, which focused on the effects of woodland fragmentation on the lesser-known and scorned Silphidae family (carrion beetles). After my studies, I worked as an ecological consultant, travelling far and wide to record bats and reptiles, as well as to undertake habitat mapping projects. In the area of ecology, my last role involved translocating Great Crested Newts.

After working in consultancy during Covid, I shifted focus—or rather, returned with renewed vigour—to the written word, doing freelance editing for journals. This conscious movement towards communication, broadly construed, is marked in my mind by the creation of a video project called The Other Side (2020-present), which is dedicated to discussions about nature and heritage, as well as literature reviews and readings of short stories and poems. Indeed, while I have a practical countryside background and vocational qualifications in a scientific field, I have always had a stronger affinity for the humanities and feel that my true purpose—hence Oakenwise—has been to get messages across concerning the plight of nature and the critique of modernity. I have always desired to speak my mind and to write for nature, but it is this endeavour that I have focused on in recent years in particular, steadily accruing a body of work in journals and magazines while honing my storytelling skills. My written work has been published in outlets such as The Ecological Citizen, Earth Tongues, RELIQUIAE, Elsewhere Journal, Amethyst Review and Sci Phi Journal, among others. (I have also practiced fine art in many forms throughout my life, though I do not count this as something that has informed my outlook as much as other pursuits.) In 2023, I completed my most significant writing project and challenging creative work to date: an MA English Literature [by Research] thesis on the subject of Earth-centred sacrality in the fantasies of Lord Dunsany and J.R.R. Tolkien (the latter author’s songs I recite by memory for Tolkien Memorised (2017-present)). I have also delivered two talks: one based on my Dunsany research (the Inkling Folk Fellowship) and another musing on ecological care and utilising the ideas of Byung-Chul Han and Patrick Curry (International Ecoliteracy Research Festival in Denmark in 2025). All of these writings and more may be found on my site, including information about Sarturus, an ecocentrically aligned fantasy narrative I construct with my twin, which accounts for hundreds of pages of text, diagrams, maps, audio dramas and other media.

I think of my history as rather rhizomatic, meaning I have explored all manner of different skills and interests to further understand how to defend the Earth. Stepping back, it seems I have blended the practical with the theoretical, the sciences with the humanities and, to some extent, the rustic with the digital (as a way of amplifying wild voices). To me, this humane and eclectic approach is what it means to have a truly open and fully Earth-centred outlook.

The Ecological Citizen

In 2022, I submitted an article to The Ecological Citizen journal, which led me to reading Dr Patrick Curry’s books and papers, as well as a 2024 course by him (‘Wonder and Enchantment’ – Centre for Myth, Cosmology and the Sacred, 2024), eventually translating the latter into a video series for The Other Side. Later that year, I answered an advertisement the journal put out for a social media role—the start of an exceedingly fruitful relationship…

Today, I am an Associate Editor/Outreach Manager/Fiction Co-Editor at TEC, a peer-reviewed journal dedicated to promoting ecocentrism (‘Confronting human supremacy in defence of the Earth’). In my capacity as Associate Editor, I primarily review research papers—often providing substantive guidance—attend meetings and perform a range of administrative tasks. I instigated, as part of this role, a special edition on ecocentrism in the built environment (Vol 9 No 2, upcoming). As Fiction Co-Editor, I read and judge short story submissions. Notably, I co-edited the Feral Lines flash fiction collection for the journal’s fiction section (Vol 9 No 1). In terms of outreach, I manage most social media activities and strengthen awareness of the journal as a whole. For instance, I have helped get the journal into a submission database, created bespoke YouTube videos for the journal’s channel, developed our Friends programme, boosted overall social media presence and written contributions to our ‘What Is?’ series of ecocentric definitions.

As Lead Editor for Rewilding Successes, I contact rewilding groups/researchers for stories and collaborate with authors to get their stories told. I have also spearheaded a new interview format and implemented a Global Map of Stories.

Finally, I am a contributor to the Earth Tongues blog, a space for TEC’s largely independent writers to speak for the Earth.