Authors in this issue discuss play in the context of environmental work. Some writers celebrate the richness of our creative powers; others describe how landscapes of play form a basis for connecting with the natural world. A common idea emerges throughout the writings: play brings people together and sets the imagination in motion–both integral to the ecological work we face now and in the future.

Editor’s Note

Susie Caldwell and Mitchell Thomashow

Contents

WARNING: No Swimming
Marilyn Kallet

Unusual
Marilyn Kallet

Saving Presents: The Re-emergence of Dreamtime and Playtime in Childhood
David Sobel

Comedy and a Play Ethic
Joseph W. Meeker

More Than Just Watching
Michael P. Branch

The Place of Dance
Andrea Olsen

Variations on Baseball
Richard Grossinger

River Soldiers
David James Duncan

Business-as-Very-Unusual
interview with Alan AtKisson

Risking Play
Lilace Mellin-Guignard

Save Coyote
John Herrmann

An Ecology of Tag
Amy Wright

Lighting the Match
interview with Terry Tempest Williams