Lake Effect

Tim Coonan is a wildlife biologist who spent 30 years with the National Park Service, most notably at Channel Islands National Park, where he led a successful recovery program for an endangered species, the island fox. Tim then taught science to impressionable middle-schoolers, which in some ways were more difficult to work with than island foxes. Tim grew up in suburban Los Angeles, graduated from Notre Dame, and earned a masters at Northern Arizona University. He co-authored the definitive (granted, the only) book on the island fox, and published a memoir about family station wagon road trips (Our Lady, Queen of the Highways) in 2022. He has two grown daughters and lives in Ventura, where he enjoys living a mostly-outdoor life (you know, hiking and all that) with his partner, Nell, who also runs triathlons. Tim watches Nell run triathlons.