David Astin

I am a part of the whole.

David is an award winning three-decade veteran of science classrooms in Minnesota.  He has received recognition for science teaching, land stewardship, service learning, citizen science projects and outstanding support for students.  He lives in Golden Valley with his best friend and wife, Sue.  Children Kristine and Karl have endured (captive in the car on road trips) explanations of the natural world too many times.

Growing up in southern Wisconsin as a member of an outdoor family, he developed an appreciation of the natural world of which he is a part.  He is greatly concerned about global warming, invasive species, habitat destruction, keystone predator removal, scarcity of wetlands to provide recharge for our freshwater resources, and continued ecosystem function.

David's passion is recording what he sees as accurately as possible in photographs, and  then offering the images for others to observe and learn from. He hopes the visual experience will help others gain understanding of the simple beauty and long term economic advantages afforded us by our natural systems.
 
In 2006, David spent five weeks as a volunteer at Badlands National Park in South Dakota, photographing and interpreting this National treasure, and traveled to Peru.  In 2007- an introduction to the beauty of Alaska. In 2008 in Mexico and then in 2009 Platte River Nebraska. Thousands of miles, diverse wildlife and new friendships make this collector of photographic natural history a happy learner.

"The only way to truly understand your relationship with nature is to think yourself into the picture "
 
 -David Astin