Erica Gies
Author and journalist

Erica Gies

Erica is the author of Water Always Wins: Thriving in an age of drought and deluge, and an independent journalist who covers science and the environment from Victoria, British Columbia, and San Francisco, California. Her work appears in the New York Times, Scientific American, Nature, Ensia, The Economist, bioGraphic, National Geographic, and other outlets.

Featured stories

‘Slow water’ could transform the Southwest, one little rock wall at a time

What if we let water flow where it wants, slowly? More American landowners are joining the nature-inspired movement.
Nature

Climate Science and the Case of the Missing Moisture

Expected air moisture is missing over drier areas worldwide, possibly because climate models undervalue the effects of plants and other life. This finding could...
Climate ChangeWater
Nature

More than Carbon Sticks

The concept that planting trees will help mitigate climate change by storing CO2 is too simplistic, ignoring the large effect that plants have on...
BiodiversityClimate ChangeWater
Scientific American

To Revive a River, Restore Its Hidden Gut

Radical reconstruction in Seattle is bringing nearly dead urban streams back to life
BiodiversityConservationSlow Water
Scientific American

The Radical Groundwater Storage Test

New tactics for capturing floods and surviving droughts could help communities across California and the world.
AdaptationNature-Based SolutionsSlow Water
Scientific American

Sponge City Revolution

Restoring natural water flows in cities can lessen the impacts of floods and droughts.
AdaptationNature-Based SolutionsSlow WaterWater
Scientific American

The Meaning of Lichen

How a naturalist’s observations in the wilds of British Columbia inspired a scientist to discover hidden symbioses—overturning 150 years of accepted scientific wisdom.
BiodiversityScience
bioGraphic

Patience, Peace and Persian Leopards

Despite myriad threats, two Kurdish scientists in Iraq are fighting to create a peace park in the heart of the Middle East.
BiodiversityConservation
The New York Times

Restoring Iraq’s Garden of Eden

BiodiversityWater
Nature

Fortresses of Mud

Rising seas threaten the San Francisco Bay Area, home to one of the largest estuaries in North America. But marsh-restoration efforts could hold back...
AdaptationClimate ChangeNature-Based SolutionsSlow Water

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