Justin A. Levine is a writer, homesteader, hiker, and search and rescue volunteer. He lives, works and plays in the Northern Adirondack Mountains of New York on a two-and-a-half acre homestead with his wife, step-son, a dog, two cats, a couple of ducks and a bunch of chickens.
Justin is the outdoors writer for the Adirondack Daily Enterprise in Saranac Lake and the weekly Lake Placid News in Lake Placid. He covers environmental politics and science, as well as outdoor recreation and high school, college and professional and Olympic sports for the two papers as well.
Justin has written and photographed for magazines, newspapers and websites such as the Adirondack Almanack, Adirondack Life, LocalADK and Offthegridnews.com among others. He has written short books on soccer, basketball and homesteading.
Justin’s writing career began in a small cabin in the woods that had no running water, electricity or indoor plumbing. While living off the grid, Justin began a blog on www.middleofthetrail.com, which was quickly picked up by the 7,000 subscriber-strong Adirondack Almanack. Middle of the Trail grew in popularity as well, and Justin’s Cabin Life blog series was being read by more than 14,000 people each month. A compilation of the first fifty essays has sold well on Amazon and reached as high as the second spot on Amazon’s most popular nature writing books.
Prior to becoming a writer, Justin graduated from Paul Smith’s College with a bachelor’s degree in Natural Resources Management and Policy. He worked for the New York State’s Department of Environmental Conservation Recreation division. Justin worked and lived in Jacksonville, FL for five years working for the city’s Environmental Quality Department in water quality. He conducted long and short term environmental studies, wrote policy and technical papers and was involved in community outreach. Justin was involved in two off-shore artificial reef projects and conducted aerial surveys of sandbar formations and sampling locations as well.
After relocating back to the Adirondacks, Justin became involved in the all-volunteer group Search and Rescue of the Northern Adirondacks. The non-profit based in Saranac Lake provides assistance to state Forest Rangers, State Police and other emergency response organizations. Justin joined and two years later was elected Secretary. He earned the state Searcher 1 (Crew Boss) certification and was later elected to the position of Training Officer.
Justin leads monthly trainings for the team and works with Forest Rangers and other volunteer groups to put on large joint training exercises.
Mr. Levine is an experienced and comfortable public speaker who can give lively and engaging readings, presentations and slide shows on topics from environmental politics to living off the grid to living with chickens. He is available for lectures on search and rescue topics, homesteading and natural science themes.
Email info@justinalevine.com for more information about booking Justin for a lecture or presentation.