Melanie Choukas-Bradley is a Washington, D.C. author and naturalist who leads field trips and tree tours for the Audubon Naturalist Society, the United States Botanic Garden, Casey Trees, the Maryland Native Plant Society and the Nature Conservancy. She is the author of City of Trees: The Complete Field Guide to the Trees of Washington, D.C., illustrated by Polly Alexander. The first two editions of the book were published during the 1980s. A third edition was

Melanie Choukas-Bradley with a
lace-bark pine, National Arboretum,
Washington, D.C.
Photo by Roberta Gutman.

published by the University of Virginia Press in the fall of 2008. The Washington Post Book World called City of Trees: "…a splendid field guide—practical, botanically sound, and filled with good stories." City of Trees was featured in the Post’s September 22 and November 4, 2009 KidsPost columns of the Style section. The book was recommended by author/naturalist Mark Garland on WAMU’s “Metro Connection” in his winter nature reading guide on January 22, 2010. Melanie is profiled in the Spring 2010 issue of Arbor Friends (publication of the Friends of the National Arboretum) and in the Winter 2009-2010 issue of The Washington Gardener Magazine.

Melanie is the author of two natural history books about Sugarloaf Mountain, Maryland, illustrated by Tina Thieme Brown, and she has been a long-time free-lance contributor to The Washington Post and other publications. Melanie teaches a summer wildflower identification class through the Natural History Field Studies Program sponsored by the Audubon Naturalist Society and the Graduate School. She lectures widely and has been a guest on the Diane Rehm Show, the Kojo Nnamdi Show* and All Things Considered. She was recently interviewed on WAMU’s Metro Connection.

Melanie served as programs and education director for the 25th anniversary celebration of Montgomery County, Maryland ’s nationally acclaimed Agricultural Reserve in 2005. As a staff member of the House Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Melanie played a major role in the first post-Love Canal Congressional hearing on hazardous waste disposal. The hearing was chaired by Al Gore. Melanie is a former news director for a New Hampshire radio station. She is a vice president of the Maryland Native Plant Society and she serves on the Chevy Chase Tree Ordinance Board.

She is currently working on a book about the Boundary Bridge area of Rock Creek Park, with photos by Susan A. Roth. She lives in Chevy Chase, MD with her husband, Jim, an energy attorney, musician and songwriter. Her daughter is in graduate school and her son is a college sophomore.

* Kojo Nnamdi show with guest host Corey Flintoff - Sugarloaf: The Mountain's History, Geology, and Natural Lore
* Kojo Nnamdi interview - Montgomery's Agricultural Reserve at 25
* Kojo Nnamdi interview - The City of Trees

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