Environment and Nature Books

Trouble in Bear Country? It's the Berenstain Bear Scouts to the rescue!

Giant Bat Cave has been a home to Bear Country's bats for millions of years. But now crooked Ralph Ripoff wants to turn the cave into an underground theme park!

Can the Bear Scouts "save the cave" before the bats become homeless?

No Western woman writer has shared more of her life as a rancher and environmentalist than Linda Hasselstrom, whose books about living and working on her South Dakota ranch have been an important part of my library since the early 1990s. This collection of essays, written between 1985-1999 and revised for this publication, is a splendid sampling of her prose, by turns brash, provocative, passionate, chilling, and funny. If you haven't yet read Hasselstrom's work, Between Grass and Sky is a fine place to start.

The twenty essays in this book are divided into three sections: Learning to See, Hunter and Hunted, and Who Cares for the Land? The first section takes us deeply into Hasselstrom's homeplace--a landscape of birds, cows, grass, sky, and eternal enigmas. But whether she is writing about stacking hay with an antique tractor on the hottest day in July or tracing the tunnels of mice under the snow or finding snakes in the pressure cooker, Hasselstrom sees all with a fine, practiced eye. "What a busy and engrossing place the prairie is," she writes, and her readers must agree. The second section focuses on the predator-prey relationship and the part that humans play. It includes essays about hunting buffalo, sleeping with grizzlies, and living with loss. Section Three takes a hard look at the consequences of thoughtless land development and the promise of new relationships between communities of people and communities of the land.

This book proves what Hasselstrom has been saying for years: that there is no contradiction between being an environmentalist and a rancher. It is an eloquent testimony to the rancher's daily work on the land, with domestic and wild animals, in all sorts of weather, amid every sort of calamity. It is an appreciation of the strong bonds that unite the communities of those who love the land and use it wisely, as many ranchers do, and a warning of the consequences of reckless, exploitative development.

Once I picked up the book, I couldn't stop until I'd read all the essays, but for me, two stand out. "Sleeping with the Grizzly" is about (at least in part) the challenge of being a menstruating woman on a wilderness trek--it's full of Hasselstrom's characteristic perceptive humor. (No male nature writer could ever have written this!) "The Cow is My Totem" includes the hilarious story of what happened when a coyote blundered into a calf nursery. Savor this comic hyperbole: "From every direction, cows were running toward the nursery. Bags swinging, heads raised, they all bellowed in outrage, assuring their calves that rescue was on the way . . . Rumbling threats, [three bulls] galloped up the slope, persuaded some magnificent stranger was seducing their harem. I estimate that at that moment, fifty thousand pounds of fury was stampeding toward one forty-pound coyote."

Linda Hasselstrom writes with a naturalist's perceptive eye, an environmentalist's concern, and a rancher's long and practical experience of working and living on the land. Between Grass and Sky belongs on the bookselves of all who care about our American prairies.

Reviewed by Susan Wittig Albert
for Story Circle Book Reviews
www.storycirclebookreviews.org
reviewing books by, for, and about women

Peter Taylor's BEYOND CONSERVATION: A WILDLAND STRATEGY draws some important connections between conservation and land management issues. It focuses on managing existing wildlands in Britain and discusses the need to restore and repair damaged ecosystems, blending social, wildlife management and spiritual insights into the mix. In focussing on and highlighting specific management projects in different regions of the country, BEYOND CONSERVATION offers many insights on rebuilding ambitions.

As an ex cattle rancher who spent way too much time (as did my employees) trying to get similar ideas across to the BLM I find this book to be incredibly refreshing. Ranchers, environmentalists and government range managers should be required to read this book. Daggett is to be commended for having the guts to take on this monumental change in attitude amongst all those named above and he's proved his point. Ranchers need to face the fact that they can change their ways for the betterment of all and evironmentalits and government range managers need to open their eyes to the fact that we are never again going to have the rangelands we had 200 years ago. But, with this approach, we can have the best of both worlds for the range, the ranchers and the public. We can also redirect the incredible amount of time, money and effort that is wasted on the wars between all involved to more productive, peaceful and productive pursuits.

Excellent book! This is just what I wanted to give my grandson to counter the raging anti-hunting screeching so prevalent in the mass media.

Just the title provides food for thought: Blue Ridge 2020, An Owner's Manual, reminds us that the public has a responsibility for effective stewardship of the public lands in the Blue Ridge. I also like the play on words of 2020--hindsight is 20/20, and if we don't take a hard, clear look at what is happening to the ecology of the Blue Ridge and work hard to improve it, we will have deep regrets by the year 2020. The human scale of twenty years is very effective. I'm 31--what kind of Blue Ridge will I experience at 51? As a local environmental activist in the Page Valley, I find this book is a tremendously useful and motivating resource. In one book, Steve Nash provides an overview of specific problems and practical solutions. His writing style is clear and accessible. If you care about the health about the Blue Ridge or want up to date information about the quality of air and water in the mountains, this is a book you need to read. This is one of the best "state of the ecology" books I've read, and it is particularly useful for its regional approach.

Andrea Olsen's book wakes up your conscious being and brings back your connectedness to earth. It makes you grateful for gravity and the nature that surrounds you and you might begin to be in awe of yourself and others. As Bebe Miller already said, this book will be with you for a long time. Body and Earth touches all your senses with its beautiful art work and its suggested exercises are easy and joyful to complete if you wish to do so. Here are just some of the "exercises" the book suggests: Water - notice how just by sipping some nice clear water it transitions from an external to an internal state. Movement - imagine creating a short dance for every day of the week and how this might wake up your senses and might relate to your sense of space. Food - write your own story of digestion as food moves through you to nurture you. Oh, and your place. Choose a small area outside and investigate it: where is water, what insects live on it, how is life like from the perspective of an insect, what plants are on this chosen place of yours and how do they smell and even taste? The book truly invites you to investigate yourself and all that surrounds you. This book is so much fun and so enjoyable that you learn a lot along the way without even noticing. It's a great gift for anyone.

This is also a wonderful book for body workers and their students. As a Yoga teacher I have had the opportunity to work with Andrea and I know that her suggestions really work because you have a chance to experience yourself what she teaches. It brings anatomical teachings back to life. To paraphrase Andrea, this book will make you feel and as you feel you are becoming a caretaker of body, a caretaker of earth. I think we have already caused too much pain to both, so this book might encourage us to heal and act.

Boundaries of Home: Mapping for Local Empowerment

One of New Catalyst Bioregonal Series. Includes more than a dozen examples of homegrown maps successfully used in ongoing struggles for more democratic community control. Thirty maps and illustrations total. "aims to inspire and stimulate the building of new, ecologically sustainable cultures and communities in their myriad facets through presenting a broad spectrum of concerns ranging from how we view the world and act within it, through efforts at restoring damaged ecosystems or greening the cities, to the raising of new and hopeful generation." Edited by Doug Aberly, the introduction "The Lure of Mapping", and chapter 2,"Eye Memory: The Inspiration of Aboriginal Mapping". The third section, "Mapping the Experience of Place" and "New Terrain: Current Mapping Thought" feature selections from 13 other contributors, including Kirkpatrick Sale. The book concludes with "How to Map Your Bioregion: A Primer for Community Activists" and "Evolving Maps, Evolving Selves: Access to Further Resources". Resources and bibliography, 144 pages. Paperbound.

The Bugman On Bugs: Understanding Household Pests And The Environment presents the practical wisdom of a board certified entomologist concerning dealing with common pests such as cockroaches, ants, flies, spiders, fleas, bed bugs, termites, and more. A simple, basic guide for the lay reader with bug problems, The Bugman On Bugs does not go into excessive detail but simply offers solid advice, including tips when a bug problem can be dealt with on one's own and when one should call a professional. Also highly recommend is the previous volume in this series, "Ask the Bugman."

Not many Environmenal Health Specialists like myself will probably ever read this book (or even the chapter 'Septic Tank Suburbia'), but they should. Sanitarians, the old term for health inspectors, have approved a crap-load of septic systems serving sprawl development in this nation, and in reading it, the old timers would quickly recognize their place in the undoing of the American environment. Regardless of their 'professional' title.
I was so impressed with the author's history of septic tank sprawl that I emailed him with thanks. I'm actually surprised no one else has reviewed this title on Amazon.
For recent American environmental history, this is one of the best.