Review
From the book jacket: In 1953, birding guru Roger Tory Peterson and noted British naturalist James Fisher set out on what became a legendary journey - a 30,000 mile trek around North America. They traveled from
Newfoundland to Florida, deep into the heart of Mexico, through the
Southwest, the Pacific Northwest, and into Alaska's Pribilof Islands. Two
years later,
Wild America, their classic account of the trip, was
published.
On the eve of that book's fiftieth anniversary, naturalist Scott
Weidensaul retraces Peterson and Fisher's steps to tell the story of wild
America today. How has the continent's natural landscape changed over the
past fifty years? How have the wildlife, the rivers, and the rugged,
untouched terrain fared? The journey takes Weidensaul to the coastal
...
Beyond the Book
About the author: Born in 1959, Scott Weidensaul has lived almost all of his life among the long ridges and endless valleys of eastern Pennsylvania, in the heart of the central Appalachians, a landscape that has defined much of his work.
He has written more than two dozen books on natural history, including
Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds (1999), which was one of three finalists for the Pulitzer Prize for general nonfiction. He lives in the Pennsylvania Appalachians.
Some key events in the USA environmental movement:
- 1864: Legislation passed making Yosemite Valley into a state park.
- 1866: The word 'ecology' is coined by a German biologist, Ernst Haeckel.
- 1877:...
