A Reflection on Home, Nature and Wild Places

My name is Charles Post. I’m an ecologist, outdoorsman, award-winning filmmaker, and conservationist. I also serve as the brand director for Top 50 Farmers, an organization promoting healthy soil across Europe by highlighting the farmers leading the way in regenerative agriculture.

I grew up on the northern coast of California, where the great oak and redwood trees meet the Pacific Ocean. Nature was always my guide—whether it was the birds, fish, forests, or the towering mountains of the Sierra Nevada. My early years were spent at the University of California, Berkeley, earning undergraduate and graduate degrees in ecology, which led me down a winding and exciting path, one bound to wild places, working landscapes, and their conservation.

Spending months on end working and living outside teaches you a lot about the importance of gear. It’s not just about comfort; it’s about having the right tools to pursue your adventures and investigations in nature.

As a young twenty-one-year-old, I lived in a two-person tent in a small meadow, in the lee of a Douglas fir, surrounded by ancient forest where black bears and Blacktail deer were my closest neighbors. I later moved to an off-grid cabin built from old-growth redwood, with water from Fox Creek and heat from a small stove fueled by split fence posts left by past homesteaders. Wind, rain, snow, and misty mornings were constants, and good, durable gear was critical. So GORE-TEX Gear became my go-to solution.

When you rely on a good jacket, sturdy waterproof pants, warm gloves, and tough boots, you need to trust them—mile after mile, month after month. Those early years in the field shaped my appreciation for well-built, responsibly designed gear that’s made to last. It’s essential for those of us who live and work in close connection with nature.

Many years have passed since my time in the forests and coastal wilderness of Northern California. I moved to Montana, lived, and worked in the heart of the greater Yellowstone ecosystem, one of the greatest intact and interconnected ecosystems left on Earth where wolves, bears, and great herds of migratory animals still thrive. I focused my energy on the intersection of the people and wildlife who call this wild and fantastic place home. After six years, my wife, Rachel Pohl, and I took a leap and moved across the world to a remote island chain in the Norwegian Arctic. Home is an old farmhouse surrounded by towering peaks and the relentless Norwegian Sea. The weather here in the Lofoten Islands is unforgiving—wind, snow, hail, and sleet are as much a part of the landscape as the sea, shorebirds, sheep, and snowshoe hares that move gracefully across the fields and mountains.

My GORE-TEX Gear is perfectly suited for life in Lofoten—it’s as if they were made for each other. Staying warm and dry gives me the freedom to experience this place throughout the seasons, with fewer limits on how long and how far I can go. Moving slowly through this landscape, getting to know it as one would a new friend, has been the best way to truly understand it.

The more we get to know a place, the more inclined we are to protect it. This is true for the new place I call home. Looking back on a lifetime of adventures and time spent in nature, I can tell you that the way we treat and value our planet is often reflected in how we care for our gear—the very elements that make our relationship with nature possible.

As we consider the impact we want to have on our home planet, remember this: every day, we have the opportunity to make a difference. Caring for our gear is one of many decisions that can have cascading impacts on the places we love.