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Whether in a city or the wilderness, near or far, there’s joy to be had in a journey where the destination doesn’t matter (READ MORE)
A maverick ecologist went to court against the National Park Service. Behind his lawsuit is a larger question: Is it appropriate to use unnatural means such as chainsaws and logging equipment to save ancient sequoias and protect public lands? (READ MORE)
Rafting the Grand Canyon seemed the perfect wilderness escape until we found we’d brought a deadly virus with us (READ MORE)
In a December 25th story on Outside Online by Los Angeles writer Shawnté Salabert, Outside Magazine named Jordan Fisher Smith’s Engineering Eden as one of ten books that shaped the outdoor world in the last decade. Among others named were Cheryl Strayed’s Wild, Elizabeth Kolbert’s The Sixth Extinction, Naomi Klein’s This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs Climate, and David James Haskell’s The Forest Unseen. At least one book editor had two books in the list, Crown Publishing’s Kevin Doughten, who edited Haskell and Smith’s books.
“Here are ten books from the past ten years that sparked debate, changed discourse, and spawned movements in the outdoor world. These stories made us marvel at the seemingly impossible limits of the human body and feel enthralled with the wonders of nature. They mobilized us to stand up against environmental injustice, taught us about climate change, and inspired us to take our ideas out into the world,” wrote Salabert. (read the full article)
In December 2016, Engineering Eden was nominated and longlisted for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Award, which celebrates writing that exemplifies literary excellence on the subject of physical and biological sciences.
Should We Control Nature to Make It Nicer? Death by grizzly, a trial, and the fight over controlling nature
By Michael Engelhard | Jan 20 2017
Former California park ranger Jordan Fisher Smith knows the dark side of the outdoors. He wrote Nature Noir–an account of crazed miners, violent drug users, and other backcountry dangers–and suffered for years from undiagnosed Lyme disease, which he contracted while on patrol. His new book, Engineering Eden: The True Story of a Violent Death, a Trial, and the Fight Over Controlling Nature (Crown, 2016), tackles the issue of managing wildness.
At dawn on Sunday, September 18th, a blanket of clouds hung over the tawny grass mountainsides around Missoula, Montana. The cottonwoods had begun to turn yellow. On the south edge of town, in the home that the retired wildlife biologist John Craighead had occupied with his wife, Margaret, for six decades, the couple’s daughter, Karen, had been sleeping only intermittently…
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Emmylou Harris and a Teddy Roosevelt impersonator celebrate a hundred years of the National Park Service at Yellowstone.
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