Q & A With Singer-Songwriter Kate Taylor

Kate Taylor, who has been making music since her teenage years, will perform an acoustic set at NWF’s Conservation Achievement Awards ceremony, being held in Washington D.C. later this week. Taylor has always held an affinity with nature, and National Wildlife Federation is proud to welcome her as we honor today’s conservation heroes.

Read on to learn more about the inspiration nature provides for Taylor, and why she feels it’s important that we take care of the planet. When you’re done, you can find out about this year’s Conservation Achievement Award honorees, including former EPA Administrator William Reilly and NBC News’ Chief Environmental Affairs correspondent Anne Thompson.

Finally, when you’re finished, tell us about the ways nature inspires you!

Tell us about your favorite animal (or plant)?

There are so many mighty and noble animals with whom we share this beautiful planet.  I love them all. What is not to love?  The fur, the scales, the feathers!  But my heart beats especially for a bivalve that lives in the sands of the ocean floor;  the quahog, the hard shelled clam.  Why do I love this creature of the sea so much, it’s relatively small, it doesn’t move, it lives and grows and reproduces in the same spot it was born?

I love this bivalve because it makes a beautiful shell, it is quiet and humble and it lives and breeds in a brine that is so very close to our own human saline.  I love the quahog.

Oh, and I love bees.  Oh wait, then there are the hummingbirds and the elephants.  And the wolves.

My favorite plant?  How do you pick a favorite plant?  You love them, they love you back.  Maybe I’d say a redwood tree was my favorite plant if I were to get to see one.

What’s a natural place you’ve always wanted to visit?

Yes, I would love to go to a redwood forest.  I would love to go to the Russian tiaga.

I would love to climb the Himalayas.  I would love to go to Yellowstone.  I would love to go to that waterfall in Africa.  I would love to go to New Zealand

What’s your favorite childhood memory of nature?

My brothers and I had many happy hours in the woods and by the creek near the house where we grew up.  We spent all seasons with these trees, and this gentle rushing water was our playground.  And we’d go to the sea sometimes, and we were light-hearted by the shore.

As a young adult, I lived in a tipi for several summers.  There is only a thin layer of canvas between you and the earth and you and the sky.  This connection gives you the best dreams.

Has nature ever inspired any of your music?

It’s my most favorite thing to sing about.

Why do you think it’s important for us to take care of the earth?

We’ve got one home planet.  It is beautiful and generous.  We are surrounded by life.  It is what sustains us.  It is what makes it possible for us to nurture this body we’ve been given to live in, to grow in and to realize our spirit with. What a gift. Why would you want to mess that up?  This is a moral issue.