Allison Torres Burtka
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allisonburtka.bsky.social
Allison Torres Burtka
@allisonburtka.bsky.social
Freelance writer and editor in metro Detroit. Words in Outside, National Geographic, the Guardian, Audubon, Harvard Public Health, Well+Good, WebMD & more.

writing portfolio: https://atburtka.journoportfolio.com/
government websites, too.
October 2, 2025 at 4:10 PM
These absolute pieces of shit.

This is what the Health & Human Services and HUD websites are displaying right now.
October 2, 2025 at 3:59 PM
True. These Sandhill cranes are basically pterodactyls, and they sound like them, too. They have been around for millions of years.
August 19, 2025 at 11:58 AM
I have to say it was a good day.
August 15, 2025 at 4:36 PM
I was looking for something on the CDC website about teen mental health and ran into this. On a page that is not even about gender.
August 13, 2025 at 12:22 PM
Found this bullshit on a CDC website about adolescent mental health. The page it's on says nothing about what this administration labels "gender ideology." It's about supporting teens struggling with mental health. For people who want to keep struggling teens alive and healthy.
August 7, 2025 at 3:06 PM
A5. This is last year, but kayaking through a little sea cave in Apostle Islands National Lakeshore.
May 1, 2025 at 1:38 AM
"At the University of Michigan, our dedication to academic excellence for the public good is inseparable from our commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion." INSEPARABLE, they said. This is what the university is killing.
March 28, 2025 at 11:23 PM
I loved my Kenai Fjords boat tour! I looked forward to seeing glaciers, puffins, maybe sea lions, but I saw way more wildlife than I expected--a whale, seals, bald eagles, mountain goats, otters, and tons of sea lions (literal tons, since they can weigh up to 1,500 pounds!) and puffins.
March 13, 2025 at 12:19 PM
I wrote 2 stories in this book, and I'm so happy to have it in print. These women--breast cancer survivors who row with Recovery on Water, and Indigenous women runners and advocates--are amazing, and they're making space for others, inviting them in.
www.chroniclebooks.com/products/pla...
March 5, 2025 at 9:24 PM
This is what the CDC's website looks like now. More than 3,000 pages have been taken down, per NYT.

People rely on medical information from the CDC every day. (Including me, as a journalist, but no one's going to die if I can't write my articles. People will die when the CDC's work is interrupted)
February 3, 2025 at 4:47 PM
If you see this post, quote with a bridge from your gallery.
January 24, 2025 at 2:16 PM
A2 #ParkChat When we approached Holgate Glacier at Kenai Fjords National Park, I was surprised how quickly the air temperature dropped.
January 23, 2025 at 1:34 PM
A3 #ParkChat I'm always interested in plants that are unfamiliar to me. With these, in New Mexico, I was fascinated by the sound they made in the wind when the branches hit each other.
January 23, 2025 at 3:08 AM
An editor might also suggest replacing "impactful" with a decent adjective.
January 16, 2025 at 7:44 PM
Some of my favorite work projects of 2024:
1. A family trip to New Mexico that led to a piece in Lonely Planet's "Epic Runs of North America" about White Sands National Park & an article on sandhill cranes for National Wildlife Magazine @nationalwildlife.bsky.social www.nwf.org/Home/Magazin...
December 26, 2024 at 9:18 PM