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Erin Addison

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Erin Addison

Landscape Architect | Writer | Researcher | Environmental Steward

Professional Profile

Erin Addison is a landscape architect, writer, researcher, and environmental steward with over 30 years of experience in cultural and natural heritage conservation. Addison’s professional work combines landscape architecture, sustainable landscape design, arid land planning, cultural heritage conservation, natural heritage conservation, research, and writing.

Her career has included extensive professional work in Jordan and Saudi Arabia, including consulting on UNDP, USAID, Government of Jordan, UNESCO, and private-sector projects.

Education & Academic Research

Addison’s academic background spans history, research, and landscape architecture. Her doctoral research focused on apocalypticism in the ancient Mediterranean world. She later earned an MLA from the University of Arizona in Tucson. Her research has included the relationship between water, landscapes, cultural heritage, and natural resources, particularly in Jordan.

Landscape Architecture & Conservation

Addison’s professional focus includes the conservation and management of cultural and natural landscapes, particularly in arid environments.

Her experience includes rangelands, tourism sites, national parks, and UNESCO World Heritage Sites such as Petra and at-Turaif.

Writing

Addison is also a writer of fiction, scholarly articles, book chapters, and novels. She has published over a dozen scholarly articles and book chapters. Her first novel, The Intervals, was a finalist for the Page Turner Awards in 2020. Her second novel, The Servant of Dreams, draws on her professional work and years of experience in Jordan.

Addison Usufruct

Addison Usufruct provides a framework for bringing Addison’s landscape architecture, conservation, research, writing, and environmental stewardship together. The legal construct of usufruct reflects the responsibility to use and enjoy what is entrusted to us while respecting its integrity and preserving its value for the future.

Jordanian Dirt

Jordanian Dirt
  • November 28, 2025
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Jordanian Dirt I am working on an essay about I book I read a few months ago, entitled The Map of Salt and Stars, by Zeyn Joukhadar (2018). The...

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Ephedra torreyana + hogans!

Ephedra torreyana + hogans!
  • October 22, 2025
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In early October my mother and I went for petite road trip to northern Arizona to stay in a hogan within the Monument Valley Navajo Tribal Park. On the...

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Quailbush

Quailbush
  • September 19, 2025
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I love tough plants. A tough, beautiful, useful plant is a superstar. Big saltbush – also called quailbush in the desert Southwest – is just such a wonderment. There...

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Shade [1]

Shade [1]
  • August 20, 2025
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This is hardly the last thing I will have to say about shade. Here in Tucson we are having our second consecutive ‘nonsoon’ – the monsoon that doesn’t show...

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Creosote and Field Station fan rant

Creosote and Field Station fan rant
  • August 9, 2025
  • 2 Comments

I missed last week because I drove to California to help my mother host a family reunion, of sorts, in memory of my aunt, who would have been 99...

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The palo brea logo

The palo brea logo
  • July 26, 2025
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First, thank you to everyone who has been kind enough to write me about the website and blog. I’ve had a few questions about my logo/ page-loader (shout-out to...

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Superstition mallow – July 18, 2025

Superstition mallow – July 18, 2025
  • July 18, 2025
  • 3 Comments

I plan to post occasionally about arid-adapted species I particularly love, and I have to start with superstition mallow (Abutilon palmeri – https://www.smgrowers.com/products/plants/plantdisplay.asp?plant_id=3968 ). Native to the Sonoran desert...

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Landscape as Narrative – July 8, 2025

Landscape as Narrative – July 8, 2025
  • July 12, 2025
  • 6 Comments

I’ll be the first to agree that this website is a peculiar assemblage – a fragment of a novel; a collection of articles about deforestation, Muslim shrines, a park...

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