Growing up in the Pacific Northwest, Betsy Howell spent her childhood exploring and thriving in old-growth coniferous forests. In the summer of 1986, she volunteered in Mt. Hood National Forest, surveying northern spotted owls. That position turned into three decades as a wildlife biologist with the U.S. Forest Service agency.

 

Betsy L. Howell is a writer and wildlife biologist living on Washington State's Olympic Peninsula. She has worked as a biologist since 1986 and earned her bachelor's degree in wildlife management at Washington State University. She began writing in 1998 and has published articles on natural history and travel in American Forests, Earth Island Journal, The Wildlife Professional, South Loop Review, Clackamas Literary Review, Apple Valley Review, 1859 Oregon's Magazine, and Prairie Fire. Her two previous books are Acoustic Shadows, Men at War and a Daughter Who Remembers Them, a memoir about her father and great-great-grandfather and their lives as soldiers; and The Marvelous Orange Tree, A Novel of the Civil War, a story chronicling the life and war experiences of a woman soldier from the time. She is a member of The Wildlife Society, Partners in Amphibian and Reptile Conservation, the Martes Working Group, and the Author's Guild.