About Roddy Scheer

Environmental Journalism and EarthTalk

Roddy runs EarthTalk, the nonprofit publisher of the syndicated EarthTalk Q&A column and the Emagazine.com website. The organization’s weekly environmental Q&As reach some six million readers through a syndication network of more than 600 media outlets across North America.

A collection of Earth Action Network’s “Earth Talk” answers was published in book form as EarthTalk: Expert Answers to Everyday Questions About the Environment by Plume.

Roddy has served as a regular contributor to magazines including E-The Environmental Magazine, Seattle Magazine, Northwest Travel, American Photo, PhotoMedia, Wildflower and others. He is also a three-time Society of Professional Journalists “Excellence in Journalism” winner.

Books and Field Guides

Roddy is the author of five field guides, including Wild Seattle: Explore the Amazing Nature in and around the Emerald City, a guide to finding nature in and around Seattle. His other recent books focus on Yellowstone, Grand Teton, Southwest canyon country, Pacific Northwest ecology, Washington waterfalls and hiking in Southern California.

In June 2025, Falcon Press published the third edition of Roddy’s Hiking Waterfalls Washington: A Guide to the State’s Best Waterfall Hikes, part of a series of state-by-state waterfall hiking guidebooks. Roddy hiked to more than 70 waterfalls from the Pacific Coast to the Idaho border while researching the book.

Roddy also revised Hiking Southern California, also from Falcon Press.

Nature Photography and Exhibitions

Roddy’s fine art photography, including prints available directly through this website, has been featured in two solo exhibitions. “Mt. St. Helens: 25 Years Later” ran for two years at the Coldwater Ridge Visitor Center at Mount St. Helens National Volcanic Monument and featured photos he took of the recently reawakened volcano in southwest Washington.

Several of Roddy’s Mount St. Helens photographs also appeared in KC Publications’ In Pictures book, Mount St. Helens: The Continuing Story.

His exhibit “A Day in the Life of Butter Island,” featuring images taken over a 24-hour period on one of Penobscot Bay’s most beautiful wild islands, sold out in one day. His work is also on display in corporate and retail locations around Seattle, and he is represented in Maine by Gallery B in Castine.

Seattle Nature Tours and Public Programs

Roddy also leads kayak tours out of Agua Verde Paddle Club on Portage Bay at the foot of Seattle’s University District. Sign up for a public tour and ask for Roddy to learn about the cultural history, urban ecology and environmental relationships of Seattle’s inland waterways.