Gift Guide:
The Nature Enthusiast or Outdoorsy One
Tripster Upcycled hip pack by Green Guru
01
$45
Fanny packs are back under a new name – hip packs. This one is particularly cool, as each on is unique & made from upcycled materials (climbing ropes, tents, & bicycle tubes). Funky, durable, sustainable, & useful, this is the perfect gift for an outdoorsy millennial in your life.
Tree ring or mountain ring
02
$20
Get the tree version or mountain version (or both) from Clive Roddy's Etsy shop.
The Tri-fecta wrap set by Bee’s Wrap
03
$18-19
If you haven’t heard the news by now, SINGLE USE PLASTICS SUCK. Our planet is slowly coming together to switch to reusable water bottles & eco-friendly straws, as we damn well should be. The next step at home is switching to these reusable & biodegradable wraps for food storage. They also happen to make a great gift for pretty much anyone, and they come in fun prints that make giving someone what is essentially plastic-wrap replacement actually cool. These wraps are made with ethically sourced ingredients in Vermont, stick to themselves, are naturally antibacterial, & work for literally any food you need to wrap up. Gift them to someone to use for packing lunches & picnics, storing food, and wrapping leftovers – both you & the recipient get to feel good about doing your part for the planet.
Topo Designs bi-fold wallet
04
$18
Super durable, washable, and lightweight, this slim wallet is great to give to someone who likes to go on outdoor adventures or camping weekends. Since it easily fits in shorts or jacket pockets or a backpack zipper compartment, it’s ideal for someone who wants to bring their ID, credit card, & a few bills without bringing an entire bag or their larger wallet they use in the city.
Under the stars enamel pin or t-shirt by August Ink
05
$12 or $27
“There is a little bit of magic to be found when you look up at the night sky and all the wonder and possibility expands in front of you! And whether you find that magic while sitting around the campfire or getting above the city lights, you might just want to carry that feeling around with you. I tried to capture a little bit of that in this [design].” – August Ink
“The Pub Nub” cyclist bottle opener
06
$20
OH NO! On a long ride and left your bottle opener in your other tight shorts? Fret not! Get a Pub-Nub — a bottle opener that attaches easily to your handlebar. All of the other cyclists will be jealous. And thirsty. The Pub-Nub is a bike mounted bottle opener machined from T6061 aluminum available in matte gray and matte black.
Get it from Modern Bike, Bike World Iowa, or the Nub Nub site (currently not working at time of posting).
Little Green Bag by Lush
08
$40
If you don’t already know Lush, it’s one of the best cruelty-free, ethical, wide-range bath/shower/skincare/etc. companies out there. This particular gift set is “perfect for zero waste warriors,” as it’s “filled with naked goodies for head-to-toe pampering, so seasoned travelers or the person who’s on the road to a zero-waste lifestyle can enjoy Lush everywhere they roam. Products to shampoo, shower & soften are all wrapped up in a reusable knot-wrap made from recycled PET plastic. Get ready to answer the call of the wild at the drop of a wrap.” – Lush
Plus, the reusable wrap is covered in a colorful greenery print & can be repurposed as a scarf, tote, or accessory.
Hiking shoes cleaning kit
11
$27
This one is super practical for the hiker in your life. It can be hard buying useful gear for people, since most of them get all their own gear as soon as they need it. When you’re looking to get them something that will still be useful, but that they likely don’t have, here’s your gift. The it is all-natural and comes with a special brush and 3 treatments for hiking shoes.
Tree Tribe water bottle
12
$20-32
Made with food grade stainless steel, double layered for insulation, and guaranteed to last a lifetime, Tree Tribe’s water bottles are a noble eco-friendly reusable bottle option. They come in a variety of nature-related, simple designs – and the best part is that a tree is planted for every purchase.
WakaWaka Power+
13
$76
This super cool gift is functional, multi-use, outdoorsy, and supports the clean energy cause worldwide. It’s lightweight enough to easily carry or hang from your pack, and is built for the outdoors – it’s rugged, scratchproof, & splashproof, and is made of high impact & temperature-resistant materials. The WakaWaka site describes it as a powerful, compact solar power bank and flashlight for every outdoor situation. Going to a festival, camping, or picnicking? Have the power you need to share your stories with your friends, use your action cam, play music, or just light up the night sky. All with free energy from the sun.” Every purchase helps spread clean energy access around the world – so far, WakaWaka has provided over 1.2 million people in off-grid areas with access to electricity through 330 projects. It comes in bright yellow or black.
National Parks annual pass
14
$80
“At $80, this might sound steep, but hear me out. This pass covers entry for two people into any of the 2,000 federal recreation sites — including the 58 national parks. That’s access to more than 84 million acres, for TWELVE WHOLE MONTHS. (If you know someone who is in the military, they are able to receive a pass for free. If you are giving this as a gift to someone over 62, it is $80 for a lifetime pass. COME ON!)” – Aminatou Sow, co-host of the podcast Call Your Girlfriend & co-founder of Tech LadyMafia
Bee Friendly tea towel or print by Stuart Gardiner Design
15
$13.50-43
UK-based design duo Stuart Gardiner Design created this seasonal guide to bee friendly flowers for your garden. Bees are under threat, and someone who loves nature would want to encourage bees to pollinate their garden. If your nature-loving friend has their own garden, this design will be perfect for them, either on an unbleached organic cotton tea towel or signed giclée print.
A BBC earth documentary
16
$29-56
Get the regular version, UHD/4K version, or Blu-Ray version of Planet Earth II, The Planet Earth Collection (I and II) on Blu-Ray, or Planet Earth II & Blue Planet II in UHD/4K from the BBC's online store.
Books
Live Green: 52 Steps for a More Sustainable Life by Jen Chillingsworth
17
$11
“Many of us are already doing what we can to adopt a greener lifestyle. We recycle, try to reduce our waste and plastics, choose organic food when shopping, eat less meat and opt for environmentally friendly cleaning products. Yet we often wish we were doing more and it can be overwhelming to know where to start
Live Green is a practical guide of 52 changes - one for each week of the year - you can make to your home and lifestyle to reduce your impact on the environment. Tackling all areas of your life from your cleaning routine, home furnishings, food shopping, fashion choices, natural beauty and Christmas, this book has all the ingredients to help you achieve a more sustainable year
From making your own eco-friendly cleaning products, buying vintage furniture, making your own moth repellent and improving your natural beauty regime to creating a capsule wardrobe and creating your own ethical Christmas decorations - discover how to get the most out of life by living with intention” – Design Museum Shop
Run Wild and Be by Sydney Zester
18
$15
Run Wild and Be is a collection of poems & short stories inspired by wild spaces & endurance running. The author, Sydney Zester, is a huge consumer of the outdoors, who believes in cultivating conversation around protection, conservation, movement, & women within mountains, deserts, & oceans. Through her writing, Zester is driven to create a space where stories about running, outdoors, activism, & creation could be shared from the female lens. Trail Runner Magazine calls it “Rupi Kaur for endurance runners,” and Outside Magazine writes, “I am not a runner, but Zester’s wit and humor transcend the sport. She beautifully speaks to the ways that women draw strength from putting their muscles to work in the outdoors.”
Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants by Robin Wall Kimmerer
19
$18
“Called the work of ‘a mesmerizing storyteller with deep compassion & memorable prose’ (Publishers Weekly) and the book that, ‘anyone interested in natural history, botany, protecting nature, or Native American culture will love,’ by Library Journal, Braiding Sweetgrass is poised to be a classic of nature writing. As a botanist, Robin Wall Kimmerer asks questions of nature with the tools of science. As a member of the Citizen Potawatomi Nation, she embraces indigenous teachings that consider plants & animals to be our oldest teachers. Kimmerer brings these two lenses of knowledge together to take ‘us on a journey that is every bit as mythic as it is scientific, as sacred as it is historical, as clever as it is wise’ (Elizabeth Gilbert). Drawing on her life as an indigenous scientist, a mother, and a woman, Kimmerer shows how other living beings offer us gifts & lessons, even if we’ve forgotten how to hear their voices.” – Goodreads
The Hidden Life of Trees: The Illustrated Edition by Peter Wohlleben
20
$45
Make sure you get the illustrated edition, as it makes for a better gift with the stunning, large-format photographs of trees around the world.
“A visually stunning journey into the diversity and wonders of forests. In his international bestseller The Hidden Life of Trees, Peter Wohlleben opened readers’ eyes to the amazing processes at work in forests every day. Now this new, breathtakingly illustrated edition brings those wonders to life like never before. With compelling selections from the original book and stunning, large-format photographs of trees from around the world, this gorgeous volume distills the essence of Wohlleben’s message to show trees in all their glory & diversity. Through rich language highlighting the interconnectedness of forest ecosystems, the book offers fascinating insights about the fungal communication highway known as the ‘wood wide web,’ the difficult life lessons learned in tree school, the hard-working natural cleanup crews that recycle dying trees, & much more. Beautiful images provide the perfect complement to Wohlleben’s words, with striking close-ups of bark & seeds, panoramas of vast expanses of green, and a unique look at what is believed to be the oldest tree on the planet.” – Goodreads
The Golden Spruce: A True Story of Myth, Madness, & Greed by John Vaillant
21
$12-17
“When a shattered kayak and camping gear are found on an uninhabited island in the Pacific Northwest, they reignite a mystery surrounding a shocking act of protest. Five months earlier, logger-turned-activist Grant Hadwin had plunged naked into a river in British Columbia's Queen Charlotte Islands, towing a chainsaw. When his night's work was done, a unique Sitka spruce, 165 feet tall and covered with luminous golden needles, teetered on its stump. Two days later it fell. As vividly as John Krakauer puts readers on Everest, John Vaillant takes us into the heart of North America's last great forest.” – Goodreads
