A Brief History

Inspiration for the creation of the SRNE came from founder and president BD Collier's father, CW Collier. CW was an educator and dedicated nature enthusiast who spent much of his life teaching children, especially his own, about the joy and wonder of the natural world and art.

BD Collier has always had an insatiable desire for a deep connection to the natural world. Growing up in the suburbs of New York City, Collier's earliest connections with other-than-human nature were found in second growth forests, weedy lots on the edge ofsuburban and urban developments, managed parks, zoos, books and nature documentaries. As a young adult, the realization that this 'nature' was in fact an highly managed and curated human construct had a deep impact on him. He reacted by venturing out to find what remnants of unmediated nature he could access. After years of study, travel, and research about the rapidly-changing global ecosystem, Collier dedicated his time to building the foundations of The Society for a Re-Natural Environment (SRNE).

Collier's pre-SRNE projects were focused personal, intimate experiences of the natural world. This early work evolved into investigations of introduced invasive species and the environmental impact of unsustainable human activities. Finally, he began to work toward the official formation of the SRNE and started developing programs that enabled direct action by collaborators and the general public.

Today, Collier engages in sanctioned and unsanctioned eco-cultural works designed to raise public awareness about our impact on the other-than-human environment and the value of unmediated plants and animals in human-dominated landscapes. The SRNE operates almost exclusively in the U.S.