National Wildlife :: Education by Design Store

Customer Reviews

Great Photos!

2007-06-08
I agree with the previous reviewer that National Wildlife is often pessimistic. Sadly, I "get it for the pictures," so-to-speak. The photos are truly beautiful, and they have a yearly contest and issue with photo winners.

In most of the articles, however, it seems the writers are trying to convince everyone that humans are ruining the planet. Probably all readers of National Wildlife already know this, but are interested in learning more about national wildlife . . . which is the name of the magazine, after all. You can't just jump in and tell everyone they're endangering animals and then hope they'll care about it--people need to have vested interest in something to really care about it. They should tell the readers how to do direct things such as birdwatch, start a pond, or plant a wildflower garden. They should educate readers on the habits and lives of various animals, and then let the readers know that the animals are in potential danger. If they make nature FUN for readers, then we'll realize what a loss it would be in our own lives to suddenly be without it. As the saying goes, "you can catch more flies with honey than with vinegar." National Wildlife needs to use a lot more honey and a lot less vinegar.

National Wildlife as an organization does try to encourage people to get involved with positive steps, such as through their national campout, Certified Wildlife Habitats and accompanying book (Attracting Birds, Butterflies, and Other Backyard Widlife), etc. It would be nice to see this positive mentality carried over to the magazine itself.

A Melancholy Look at Wildlife

2005-08-03
National Wildlife has followed the trend taken by most other nature magazines in the past decade - the trend of pessimism. Mother Nature knows there are serious problems for wildlife associated with human society, but I need the occasional pleasant break to keep me out of the depressed state seemingly held by these magazine editors. As recently as ten years ago, National Wildlife and others ran detailed articles about the fasnicating lives of our wild neighbors. Since then, the magazines have gone from a nature documentary format to one of "bad news monthly." With our increasingly urbanized human population, this may be the only way to sustain interest in wildlife and their plights, but I fear it is turning some of us away. While I don't think National Wildlife should shy away from political and lifestyle issues, I do think they should lighten up a bit. The photographs are still beautiful, and the animals are still fascinating. I hope the NWF doesn't lose sight of why we became interested in wildlife in the first place.