Showing titles in Environmentalists & Naturalists

In this essay, Muir tells his experience of climbing to the top of a tree and riding it for hours through a wild Sierra storm. As he writes, “the danger to life and limb is hardly greater than one would experience crouching deprecatingly beneath a roof.”

If you think having a bad day at the office is spilling a hot cup of coffee on your lap, try starting your day by losing a black bear cub. Like literally..."Oh crap, I just lost a black bear cub!" That's what life was like for Daryl Ratajczak, an aspiring wildlife biologist who was thrown into the world of rescuing orphaned or injured wild black bear cubs.

Elers Koch ("eelers kotch"), a key figure in the early days of the U.S. Forest Service, was among the first American-trained silviculturists, a pioneering forest manager, and a master firefighter. By horse and on foot, he helped establish the boundaries of most of our national forests in the West, designed new fire-control strategies and equipment, and served during the formative years of the agency.

Author Stephen Harrigan spent months diving on the coral reefs of Grand Turk Island in the Caribbean. In this evocative account, he describes his many explorations, both personal and natural. Though he is there to learn about the history of the coral reef, Harrigan freely admits that his true motivation is to become, at least for a time, his “underwater self”.

In her late twenties, writer and naturalist Lucy Bryan found herself in between places. Her marriage to her first love had crumbled. Her beloved father had died of cancer. Doubt had supplanted the faith that had guided her since childhood. Uprooted and adrift, she turned to the natural world in search of meaning, connection, and a renewed sense of self.

Valentin Grüner lebt den Traum vieler Menschen: Mit Anfang 20 gab er seine Heimat, den Bodensee, für ein Leben als Wildhüter und Naturschützer in Afrika auf und zog in die Wüste Kalahari in Botswana. Als er vor neun Jahren ein verlassenes Löwenjunges fand, änderte sich alles: Die kleine Sirga bestimmte fortan seinen Alltag, wuchs heran, lernte auf Streifzügen, mit Valentin zu jagen und sich selbst zu versorgen. Nur durch Willenskraft, Kreativität und Durchhaltevermögen schaffte es Valentin, für Sirga ein Reservat in der afrikanischen Wildnis zu errichten.

On an East African hunting expedition in 1909, Delia Akeley, a 40-year-old American woman, casually captured a baby female monkey, never dreaming this act would overturn both their lives. Delia’s life was isolated and often lonely in an overpoweringly masculine world. She decided to name the monkey JT Jr and study her interactions with humans; a long-frustrated desire to adopt a child led her to also lose her heart to this lovable animal.

You Have Been Referred: My Life in Applied Anthropology, is a career memoir spanning the period 1969 - 2014, and detailing the process whereby the author combined his philosophical grounding in both anthropology and law to find fulfillment in several Canadian nongovernmental organizations (NGOs).

Disequilibrium tells the story of the creation of the Quirimbas National Park and the author's simultaneous descent into the uncontrolled cycles of mania and depression that characterize bipolar disorder and threaten the lives and wellbeing of those affected. The author's struggles to establish the park in the face of widespread poaching and appalling human poverty parallel his painstaking efforts to regain both ‘a functional approximation of sanity’ and then the love and respect of his wife and family. A photo gallery accompanies the text.

Moving through the settings of her life - red rock canyons, aspen forests, mountains, and cities - Jana Richman probes the depths of her internal landscape and asks how we can find stillness in our noisy world. In essays both personal and profoundly universal, Richman eschews quick and easy answers for quiet reflections on the questions: In a culture demanding that every voice be heard, how do we make sense of the resulting roar? Where do we seek solace when the last quiet places are sacrificed to human hubris? How do we shed the angst thrust upon us to create lives of peace?

In The Quarry Fox , Leslie T. Sharpe chronicles the seasons and the vibrant wildlife of a landscape she cherishes, offering her keen insights in an engaging narrative that celebrates the splendor of the natural world. From crafty foxes and hibernating bears to vulnerable monarch butterflies, The Quarry Fox explores the creatures of the Great Western Catskills in loving, lyrical detail.

Chana Cox was a brilliant woman who lived a remarkable and incredibly full life until her passing in March 2019 at 77 years old. In her honor, her children have begun to re-publish memorial editions of her books. The first of these publications is this, her most popular book. A River Went out of Eden tells the engrossing stories of her life and those around her, in the beautiful but unforgiving, Idaho wilderness area.

A dramatic true story about being on a Caribbean Island during one of the largest hurricanes in modern history. Love, friendship, survival, and gracious luck all come into play during this harrowing ordeal. Voiced by National Recording sensation Roger Leopardi. He brings a special talent to the story. A powerful retelling that will leave the listener enriched, emotional, and full of hope.

The Horse Lover weaves together Day's recollections of his cowboy adventures astride some of his best horses, all of which taught him indispensable lessons about loyalty, perseverance, and hope. This heartfelt memoir reveals the Herculean task of balancing the requirements of the government with the needs of wild horses.

For 15 years, Sue Eisenfeld hiked in Shenandoah National Park in the Virginia Blue Ridge Mountains, unaware of the tragic history behind the creation of the park. In this travel narrative, she tells the story of her on-the-ground discovery of the relics and memories a few thousand mountain residents left behind when the government used eminent domain to kick the people off their land to create the park.

Jeff Appelquist has traveled to all 50 of the United States, myriad foreign countries, and six continents. He has survived three years in the Marine Corps infantry; a violent rock slide on Mount Kilimanjaro; a Force Nine gale in a sailboat on the Atlantic Ocean; a frozen regulator while wreck-diving deep in icy Lake Superior; and a ghostly encounter with a Confederate soldier on Little Round Top at Gettysburg. He is a student of history who teaches leadership. He is an international sportsman who loves the outdoors. And he is deeply concerned about the state of our beloved Earth.

In this poetic audiobook, hear the words of legendary outdoorsman John Muir's entreaty to the American people imploring them to develop, as he did, a connection to their national parks. An ardent outdoorsman, a gifted writer, a dedicated preservationist, and a spiritual beacon, John Muir worked in his life and in his writing to inspire everyone to find a love for the wilderness and to become invested in its preservation.

Meet Henry David Thoreau, US Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas, and other intrepid explorers as you travel northern Maine's rugged woods and waters. In a wild country of ledge and trees that stubbornly resists encroaching civilization, find a young couple padding through the trials, triumphs, and sheer mental and physical exhaustion of wilderness travel severely testing their ability to get along and even complete the trip. Fill your ears with roaring rapids and yodeling loons. Smell pungent spruce and dank swamps.

Finalist for the Washington State Book Award From the award-winning author of The Mushroom Hunters comes the story of an iconic fish, perhaps the last great wild food: salmon. For some, a salmon evokes the distant wild, thrashing in the jaws of a hungry grizzly bear on TV. For others...

For nearly 50 years Walter Eschenburg lived and worked as a pioneering wildlife vet in the South African bushveld with its many animals and a host of weird and wonderful people. After a childhood spent in a German castle during the Second World War, a harrowing escape from the Russian army, and a sequence of bold moves and fortunate circumstances, it is here that Walter comes into his own and develops into a seasoned vet. He encounters charging rhinos, tame buffalo, irate cows, and angry giraffes; he deals with snakes and warthogs, amorous elephants, cats, dogs, and donkeys.