About the founder and Director
Naturalist Steve O'Neil is the Executive Director of ENP
Steve is from Hendersonville, North Carolina. He spent his early years chasing snakes, lizards, and salamanders all over the mountains of North Carolina. During his college years, Steve studied wildlife and fisheries management and recreation management as well as zooarchaeology.
Steve has worked in many interesting seasonal and full-time positions at many well known private, State and National Parks, private inns, camps, and farms some of these include The Great Smoky Mountain National Park(TN/NC), Hammocks Beach State Park(NC), Chimney Rock State Park(NC), Falling Creek Camp for Boys(NC), Flat Rock Nature Canter(NC), Kitty Hawk Aero Tours(NC), The Great Smoky Mountains Railway(NC), Little Saint Simons Island Inn(GA), and Earthshine Lodge/Discovery Center(NC). His job titles have included: seasonal park ranger, trail ranger, interpretive naturalist, camp counselor, nuisance black bear, wild boar, and Timber rattlesnake trapper/relocator, and aircraft mechanics assistant.
Steve's passions are reptiles and wildlife conservation, public nature education and renewable energy, and Electric Vehicle technology and science literacy. He was greatly inspired to follow his dream of working with wildlife in his early years first by his adoptive parents Catherine and Clayton O'Neil who gave him a love for all things natural and real. Later Steve was influenced by Marlin Perkins and Jim on Wild Kingdom, Jacques-Yves Cousteau, Bill Nye the Science Guy, Sir David Attenborough, Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, Grizzly Adams, Carl Sagan, Marty Stouffer's Wild America, Rachel Carson, Harry Butler Down Under, Steve Irwin "The Crocodile Hunter," Captain Paul Watson of The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Elon Musk and Neil DeGrasse Tyson.
Steve has conducted hundreds of nature, wildlife, and music presentations to thousands of children and adults over the years. He has lead many camper groups of youngsters and adults into forests, fields, caves, swamps, and dunes in search of all things and all places wild and wonderful. Steve is a volunteer wildlife rehabilitator specializing in reptiles and Opossums.
Steve has put in hundreds of volunteer hours keeping track of several wild turtles and snakes in the wilds of WNC, and he has worked as a volunteer citizen scientist for the North Carolina Wildlife Resources Commission's Nongame-Endangered Wildlife program monitoring reptiles, amphibians, and bats.
Steve's Suggestions
Steve Recommended Movies:
Steve Recommended Books:
Causes:
Star Wars (all of them)
Star Trek (all of them in sequence)
Indiana Jones (all of them)
Serenity (Sequel to Firefly but watch only AFTER watching the entire Firefly series)
The Great Escape
The Italian Job (original and new)
Hidden Figures
Apollo 13
First Man
Apollo
The Martian
Science and Nature Reference
Cosmos – Carl Sagan
Earth in Human Hands – David Grinspoon
Venomous – Christie Wilcox
Unstoppable – Bill Nye
Undeniable – Bill Nye
Merchants of Doubt - Naomi Oreskes
The Ghosts of Evolution - Connie Barlow
Nature is Trying to Kill You - Dan Riskin
Clean Disruption - Tony Seba
Vulture - Katie Fallon
America's Snake - Ted Levin
Spillover - David Quammen
Fiction/Science Fiction
Anything by Arthur C. Clarke
Anything by Isacc Azimov
Sahara – Clive Cussler
Inca Gold – Clive Cussler
Anything by Clive Cussler
Anything by Carl Hiaasen
Anything by Gary Larson
Save Japan Dolphins Ric O'Barry is working to end the slaughter of dolphins in Taji, Japan. Learn more about what you can do to help Ric stop the killing.
Steve Recommended TV Shows:
Steve Recommended Documentaries:
Bill Nye the Science Guy (Netflix)
Bill Nye Saves the World (Netflix)
Star Talk (Netflix and others)
Whale Wars
Jeopardy
Star Wars - all and the animated series
Star Trek - all in sequence
Firefly (Netflix)
Battlestar Galactica (original series and reboot)
Futurama
That 70's Show
Andy Griffith Show
Magnum PI (old and new)
MacGyver (old and new)
These may be found on Netflix, Amazon Prime, Hulu, Vimeo, DirecTV/Dish Network, Disnay+, Curiosity Stream, etc
Cosmos (original) – Carl Sagan
Cosmos (reboot) – Neil DeGrasse Tyson and Seth McFarlane
Cosmos - Possible Worlds
Racing Extinction - Louie Psihoyos, Leilani Munter, Elon Musk
Your Inner Fish, Your Inner Reptile, Your Inner Monkey – Neil Shubin
National Geographic Explorer
Nova - all of them
Planet Earth and Planet Earth 2
The Day The Dinosaurs Died - NOVA
Who Killed the Neanderthals
One Strange Rock
Seven Worlds One Planet
Sharkwater and Sharkwater Extinction and REvolution – Rob Stewart and Sea Shepherd
The Cove
Blackfish
Chasing Ice
Merchants of Doubt - Naomi Oreskes
Who Killed the Electic Car
Revenge of the Electric Car
Gasland
Gasland II
Supersize Me
Food Inc.
Cowspiricy
Steve recommended Youtube:
Science Steve’s Channel: Look up Earthshine Nature Programs or go there now.
SpaceX
Big Think
Chris Hadfield's Rare Earth
Earth Guardians
Everyday Astronaut
Lab Padre
Fragile Oasis
Fully charged show
GoPro
Jared Owen
Leilani Munter
Louie Swartzberg
Melodysheep
Minute Earth
NASA
NASA Johnson
NASA/Jet Propultion Laborotory
National Geographic
OrianneSociety
Physics Girl
Prince Ea
RadioLab WNYC
SciShow
Shots of Awe
SmarterEveryDay
SolarCity
Stated Clearly and Stated Casually
It's OK to be Smart
Kurzegestagt
TED
TED-Ed
Tesla
SpaceX
TedX Talks
Tested
The Muppets
The Nature Conservancy
The Planetary Society
Transport Evolved
Vice
Xavier Rudd