Rick Bass (born March 7, 1958) is an American writer and an environmental activist.

Right after he graduated, he interned for one year as a Wildlife Biologist at the Weyerhaeuser Timber Company in Arkansas.

He grew up in Houston, and started writing short stories on his lunch breaks while working as a petroleum geologist in Jackson, Mississippi.

He moved to Yaak Valley, where he worked to protect his adopted home from roads and logging.

He was a finalist for the 2008 National Book Critics Circle Award (autobiography) for Why I Came West (2009).