World Wildlife Fund

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The Storks' Nest

Life and Love in the Russian Countryside

Meet Laura Williams

Laura Lynne Williams set up the World Wildlife Fund’s first office in Russia in 1993 and for four years coordinated WWF’s biodiversity projects throughout Russia. Since leaving Moscow for the countryside in 1997 to work for one of Russia’s strictly protected nature reserves, called zapovedniki, she has freelanced as a nature writer, contributing articles to National Wildlife, BBC Wildlife, and other magazines. She writes the “Notes from a Russian Village” column for Russian Life magazine. Laura has a bachelor’s degree in international environmental policy from Cornell University and a master’s degree in conservation biology from the Yale School of Forestry and Environmental Studies. She grew up in Colorado where she learned to love horses and wildlife.

Today she lives with her husband, award-winning nature photographer and naturalist Igor Shpilenok, in the remote Russian village of Chukhrai, whose population recently swelled to twenty-one with the birth of their second son.

Listen to Laura describe her new book The Storks' Nest: Life and Love in the Russian Countryside. LISTEN

Experience life in the Russian Countryside. WATCH (The Storks' Nest Film)