Youth, too, can learn much from
this book. As you know, today’s young people are increasingly removed from an understanding and appreciation of the
natural world. This book could be a starting point for such youth.
Some stories take the reader to remote mountain streams in Pennsylvania, and others to the unique
trout waters of Yellowstone National Park, one to the coastal salmon rivers of British Columbia and another to the lower Florida
Keys.
There are tales of ice covered lakes and snow covered woodlands, of spring time trout streams and autumn farm lands. While
each starts and ends with an outdoorsmen’s tale, those flanking paragraphs are wrapped around a more important middle
story, most intended to increase one’s appreciation and understanding of the wildlife encountered.
I can also suggest this
book as a supplementary reading for students involved in home-schooling situations.
Finally, the serious student of the environment—of that
aforementioned old-fashioned kind of ecology—will find in this book many examples of the inter-relationships between
organisms and their environment. For example, believe it or not, there is a link between the famous trout of Yellowstone
National Park, the hot springs and geysers found there, and modern DNA forensic science as popularized by such TV crime shows
as Law and Order - SVU.
The book answers a myriad of questions about nature, such as:
Why do female mayflies fly upstream to lay their eggs?
Are beavers really smart enough to have most of the trees they cut
drop into the stream?
What is the unseen relationship between rabbits and groundhogs?
Is there some relationship between osprey and football players?
There are many such stories in this book.
Note, also, that the end of each
chapter some “mind-tickling” questions are posed, the answers to which may be found at the end of the book.
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Details: Paperback, 195 pages, 5 1/2 x 8 1/2
inches, 9 color photographs.
