17 Outdoor and Environmental Magazines that Pay Writers

Updated 5/28/23

If you love the great outdoors and are passionate about conservation, you can get paid for writing about it! Hiking and climbing enthusiasts are welcome to share their adventures, as are those who are dedicated to preserving wild habitats and the creatures that live in them.

Magazines focusing on the environment have a dedicated readership, and some pay quite well for a thoroughly researched feature. But even if your only interest is writing about your hiking adventures, there is plenty of opportunity to get published.

NOTE: For more paying markets, including markets for humor, poetry, speculative fiction, personal essays, parenting, and more see: Paying Markets.
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Alpinist Magazine is committed to "celebrating world alpinism and adventure climbing in the simplest, most beautiful manner possible. The heart of Alpinist lies in first-person accounts of long routes from around the world, investigative reports of subjects compelling to climbing aficionados, and documentary pieces that capture the spirit of ascent in any of its myriad forms. We welcome queries on article ideas from our readers, and encourage contact prior to the submission of articles." Payment is $.25 per word for feature articles.

Anthophile magazine is "a space for our contributors to explore and celebrate the plant and flower filled landscape we live in (understanding that plants and flowers are part of life's bigger picture, a synthesis and celebration of many arts and sciences) It will publish contemporary fiction and poetry, alongside incisive and erudite essays, and features. We are open to both experimental and traditional forms of writing, anything that's meaningful, surprising, felt. We like humour, and enjoy satire, 'fake non-fiction, open letters and the weird and quirky. We don't want to be too prescriptive about length but as a guide, non-fiction pieces between 800 and 2,500 words, short fiction, no more than 4000 words. We are open to publishing extracts from existing books and collections." Payment not specified. 

Backcountry Magazine wants "researched, original ideas with a strong backcountry hook, from current events to prolific characters to unique destinations. We are always looking for Feature ideas, as well as Destination stories for our Route Finding Department. Pitch us Profiles and Newsworthy items, Mountain Skills pieces, and Accounts of avalanches and other mountain mishaps as well." Payment is 35 cents/word.

BirdWatching magazine is all about, um, watching birds. It’s a good idea to send a query or story proposal before you go to the trouble of finishing a manuscript. Payment is not specified.

Coastal Review Online is a daily online publication that contains news, features and commentaries covering a wide variety of environmental and conservation issues and events along the N.C. coast. It also contains features about the coast’s history and culture, profiles of its noteworthy people and “green” travel stories about its places. Payment is $75 - $200.

Mother Earth Living is a magazine that strives to be "entertaining and informative for readers interested in living a healthy, environmentally conscious lifestyle." Various sections of the magazine have different requirements. Articles in the four departments—Home, Health, Food and Garden—should be succinct and shorter than features. Features are longer and frequently require vendor resources—information on where you can buy certain products. Payment is negotiated.

Earth Island Journal is always looking for compelling and distinctive stories that anticipate environmental concerns before they become pressing problems, stories that scan the horizon for the next big issue. "We want stories that will surprise, provoke, and entertain our readers and that explore new territory overlooked by other publications. We cover the entire spectrum of environmental issues, including, wildlife and lands conservation; innovations in science and technology; public policy and the politics of environmental protection; climate and energy; animal rights; public health; environmental justice and cultural survival; and environmentally related film, music, and books." Payment is 25 cents/word for print stories. You can expect to earn about $750-$1000 for an in-depth feature story (about 4,000 words). For online reports, the fee ranges from $50 to $100. "Online reports are a great way to get into the Journal, especially if you are new to reporting and writing. We publish online five days a week and are always looking for fresh ideas."

Sierra is the storytelling arm of the Sierra Club, the United States’ oldest, largest, and most influential grassroots environmental group. "We are a national print and digital magazine publishing award-winning journalism and cutting-edge photography, art, and video dedicated to protecting the natural world. Combining features on green living and outdoor adventure with reporting about threats to the environment, Sierra brings together leading journalists, photographers, and filmmakers to convey the ideals at the heart of the Sierra Club’s mission." Payment is not specified.

Northern Woodlands’ audience consists of conservation-minded people with an interest in all aspects of the forests of the Northeast. "Our articles and columns range in scope, and may include subjects such as woodlot management, wildlife species, scat, chainsaw maintenance, woodworking, and reflections on natural landscapes. We like to surprise our readers with stories they won't find anywhere else. We are not a trade magazine for the forest products industry or an advocacy magazine for preservationists." Payment varies.

Reckoning is seeking "creative writing about environmental justice. Fiction preferably at least a tiny bit speculative, nonfiction preferably more creative than journalistic, poetry tending towards the narrative and preferably with some thematic heft, art leaning away from the pulpy heavily towards the political. But the heart of what we want is your searingly personal, visceral, idiosyncratic understanding of the world and the people in it as it has been, as it is, as it will be, as it could be, as a consequence of humanity’s relationship with the earth." Payment: 8 cents a word for prose, thirty dollars a page for poetry, art negotiable, minimum twenty-five dollars per piece.

Humans and Nature Press is open to a wide range of types of writing and treatment of issues. "We accept essays, book reviews, poems, and artwork, including comic art. Our readership is interested in discussions that bear, directly or indirectly, on the areas of conservation, evolutionary biology and ecology, environmental ethics, environmental philosophy, law, and policy, and the environmental humanities. Authors receive an honorarium for publication of original work." See submission periods.

Fiction and nonfiction

Bear Deluxe. The Bear Deluxe Magazine is the flagship project of Orlo and is published semi-annually from our headquarters in Portland, Oregon. "The magazine aims to enrich the cultural dialogue about the environment through creative nonfiction, interviews, reportage, essays, reviews, poetry, fiction and visual art published in the soy-based inky, recycled pages of the magazine and online." Payment is negotiated.

The Future Fire publishes "beautiful and useful fiction and poetry that focuses on the social-political elements of imaginary, futuristic, fantastic, horrifying, surreal or otherwise speculative universes. We are particularly interested in feminist, queer, postcolonial and ecological themes, writing by under-represented voices, and stories from outside the Anglophone world." Payment: $20.

Woods Reader is a publication for those who love woodland areas: whether a public preserve, forest, tree farm, backyard woodlot or other patch of trees and wildlife. "Our readers like to hear about others’ experiences and insights, especially those that make an impression that they think about long after they have finished the article.  Submitted content should center around trees and woodlands." Payments range from $25 for short poetry, and up to $150 for longer articles. Photographs and illustrations are by offer. Accepts fiction/fantasy.

Moss is dedicated to exploring the intersection of place and creative expression. Moss accepts submissions in fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Submissions are limited to residents of Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and British Columbia, or those with a substantial connection to the region. Moss pays $125 for accepted fiction and nonfiction, and $35 per accepted poem. 

Contra Viento is a journal for art and literature that seeks to understand rangelands in all their varied forms. "Rangelands are the tundra and the steppe, the prairie and the plains, the shrubland, the savanna, and the desert. These places are defined by their scale: rangelands are vast. And they are defined by what they often lack: water, people, and popular resources. Rangelands exist where humans have yet to build, where forests have receded and crops do not encroach." They are especially interested in submissions from writers and artists historically underrepresented on rangelands and in projects with specific focus on grazing cultures. They accept  literary fiction and nonfiction, poetry, visual art of any medium, and work that blends or subverts these genres. Accepted work will be rewarded with an honorarium.

Gray's Sporting Journal accepts fiction, nonfiction, and poetry. Their main focus is hunting and fishing, but they also publish yarns, features, and travel pieces. They publish one poem per issue. They pay from $600 to $1,250 for features, based on quality, not length; yarns average $600; poems, $100. They pay $50 to $300 for photographs. For Expeditions pieces, they pay $850 to $1,000 plus $75 per picture published. All payment is made upon publication.