Jim Tantillo is a former Massachusetts Park Ranger who worked at Walden Pond State Reservation for six years. He has M.S. and PhD degrees from Cornell University, where he currently teaches ethics and environmental philosophy in the Department of Natural Resources.

Married with two children, he has also held positions as executive director of the Tompkins County SPCA and as CEO of Historic Ithaca, a nonprofit historic preservation organization.

A grouse hunting purist, Jim will generally argue until he is blue in the face that the One, True, Correct Way to Hunt Grouse is with a 16 gauge Parker double gun over the staunch point of a well-trained English setter.

In the spirit of political toleration, however, he also argues until he is equally blue in the face that his retriever and spaniel owning friends be permitted to hunt grouse legally as they see fit, despite their aesthetically misguided preferences for flushing dogs or 12 gauge autoloaders!