Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone

Book Description

“Wildness is something best measured in the dark. On black, moonless nights when the horizon goes limp, and every scratch and thud and snap of branch outside the tent touches off spot fires in your brain. Sort of like now. The sow grizzly is back again, circling, gulping down the dark and blowing it out again through her nose.” So begins Gary Ferguson's tale of his three-month odyssey at Hawks Rest in the heart of the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem.

Beginning with a hundred-mile hike to reach Hawks Rest, Ferguson recounts his adventures observing grizzly bears, tracking wolf packs, and encountering other wildlife in what is now the largest intact ecosystem in the temperate world. Along the way he meets an intriguing array of backcountry hikers, park rangers, elk hunters, outfitters, and wildlife biologists all grappling with the challenges of preserving this magnificent slice of wilderness. Personal, poignant, and often gripping, Hawks Rest celebrates “this profusion of things fierce and vast and thrilling” as it chronicles the stresses that threaten America's most beloved wilderness lands.

Customer Reviews:

Elk Hunting in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone.......2007-08-09

I bought this book hoping to gain insite to the "Real" yellowstone wilderness. There are real tibits and treasures of this experience in this book that I thoroughly enjoyed. The major part of the book was devoted to the political rallying that goes on with the government and NPS and elk hunters. I believe that the hunting and salting issue deserve to be brought to the publics attention, but do not believe that so much of a book supposedly about a summer on Hawk's Rest should have been devoted to it.

Gary Ferguson is a very engaging writer and always delivers the goods on wonderful story writing and this book it no different. I just wish he had focused more on the wildlife and wilderness experience with short interjections on guiding and elk hunting.

Disappointing.......2006-11-18

I visited Yellowstone a few months ago and picked up Hawks Rest at a local bookstore. I was thoroughly awed by the beauty and majesty of the park but was disappointed by the crowds that I just couldn't get away from. I was hoping that Hawks Rest would give me insights into the "real" world of Yellowstone.

Given these expectations, the book truly did satisfy my purposes and I was pleased. But it also turned into a political screed. Although I very much believe in Ferguson's cause of alerting the public to the abuses of the elite hunting culture in Yellowstone, I feel that he devoted too much of this book to this cause. Hawks Nest is subtitled A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone. I wish this, rather than promoting a political agenda, had been the focus of the book.

Well-written nature stories, with anti-outfitter rants thrown in.......2006-02-28

Ferguson's book takes us to a corner of the US that not many people will ever see - - the Thorofare region in the southeast part of Yellowstone National Park. This region boasts the point in the lower 48 states farthest from any road-though if islands are eligible, the prize really belongs to Point Houghton on Isle Royale. Unlike Point Houghton, the Thorofare is a busy place despite its remoteness.

Ferguson is working for the US Forest Service for a summer in the Thorofare. He's staying at the USFS cabin, "Hawk's Rest," which provides the title of the book. Besides him and his National Park Service colleagues, three kinds of people show up in the Thorofare - - backpackers, outdoor leadership programs for teenagers and young adults, and outfitters with their hunter clients.

Ferguson discusses each group but gives most of his attention (and his vitriol) to the outfitters. If he is to be believed, the outfitters act as if they have property rights, and act as if they are a law unto themselves. They're rude to him, and they treat the other groups with contempt. Though the book is about the Thorofare as a whole, your reaction to the book will depend on your reaction to the outfitters in it.

Ferguson starts and ends the book with a discussion of the route he took there and back. The route there, beginning at his home in Montana, is a wonderful journey for the reader. His return route is not very interesting for the reader nor, it seems, for him. At that point he was glad to be going home. That's too bad, because I wasn't ready for the book to end. He writes very well, and his story is engaging throughout.

The Modern Wilderness.......2005-07-02

The story of a summer spent in a ranger cabin located in the most remote spot in the lower 48, just to the southeast of Yellowstone National Park.

The book contains a number of evocative scenes and teaches quite a bit about what the wilderness is really like. But the main theme of the book is how bad the local outfitters are, catering to largely ignorant and uncaring hunting clients, they break the law with impunity and generally behave badly.

The most remote spot in the lower 48 is actually quite heavily travelled and usually travelled by unattractive characters.

The scene painted is undoubtedly true, but truth comes in many flavors and the focus on the bad makes this book a bit grim.

A Mixed Season.......2003-10-23

Yellowstone needs an Ed Abbey, it needs an outspoken and opinionated, brawling, ornery cuss. Someone who will say what is wrong and what is right. Unfortunately, Gary Ferguson isn't that person. His writing is fluid and occasionally graceful and there is no doubt he loves the land. But in this book he is rarely able to truly deliver a sense of wonder or transfer it to the reader. We can never close our eyes and see a grizzly sparring with a wolf pack or a fledgling bald eagle peering down from the nest. Having hiked and hunted in the Thorofare my whole life I was hoping for something more evocative.

Although he shines a light on the good-old-boy cronyism that transforms the Teton Wilderness into a collection of outfitter fiefdoms every year, he doesn't really get down and dirty and rake the muck. Sure he throws a few weak jabs here and there at the big commercial guides and their dour hands, but mostly he just steps out of the way of the issue. In the end, the book adds just a bit to our collected knowledge of the Yellowstone ecosystem.

More damaging than a few redneck salt licks up a drainage someplace are the trophy home subdivisions encroaching the park on all sides. These developments are grinding up the habitat in ways an outfitter could never accomplish, and they are being built by those who profess to love the country the most. Ferguson takes a brief stroll down that path before turning aside - perhaps in his next book?

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Black Orchid
Nicholas Meyer
Manufacturer: DoubleDay
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: 0385272499

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Brazil: orchid of the tropics,
Mulford Bateman Foster
Manufacturer: Jacques Cattell Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Brazil | South America | Latin America | Travel | Subjects | Books
General | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007DEF6A

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The Brazilian bifoliate Cattleyas and their color varieties: Their speciation, distribution, literature, and cultivation : a monographic revision
Jack A Fowlie
Manufacturer: Day Print. Corp
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006WQ1UA

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Algumas orquideas das mais altas regioes do Brasil: Some orchids of Brazil's highest highlands (Bradea)
G. C. K Dunsterville
Manufacturer: Herbarium Bradeanum
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006E6WNO

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Cattleya labiata Lindl
L. C Menezes
Manufacturer: Orchid Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B000721L6S

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Cattleya warneri T. Moore
L. C Menezes
Manufacturer: Orchid Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006QHDXU

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Dicionario etimologico dos generos e especies das orquideas do Brasil: A etimologia a servico dos orquidofilos
Jose Gonzalez Raposo
Manufacturer: Editora Ave-Maria
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
General | Botany | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
Portuguese | Foreign Language Nonfiction | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
Portuguese | Foreign Language Books | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 8527607840

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The genus Sophronitis
Jack A Fowlie
Manufacturer: Orchid Digest
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00071V1ZK

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Iconografia de Orchidaceas do Brasil (Orchids Brazil )

Manufacturer: S. A. Industrias Graphicars - F. Lanzaea. Cliches: Funtimod E. Fortuna Comp. Ltd.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Leather Bound
ASIN: B000GXCIDI

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Orchidaceae Brasilienses
Guido F. J Pabst
Manufacturer: Brücke-Verlag Schmersow
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Plants | Biological Sciences | Science | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007ALNKY

Book Description

INTRODUCTION

Boston is as close to the Old World as the New World gets, an American city that proudly trades on its colonial past, having served a crucial role in the country's development from a few wayward pilgrims right through to the Revolutionary War. It occasionally takes its past a bit too seriously - what might pass for a faded relic anywhere else becomes a plaque-covered tourist sight here - but none of that detracts from the city's overriding historic charm, nor its present-day energy.

Indeed, there are plenty of tall skyscrapers, thriving business concerns and cultural outposts in Boston that are part-and-parcel of modern urban America, not to mention excellent mergers of past and present, such as the bustling Quincy Market, a paradigm for successful urban renewal. And despite the occasional wearisome touch, no other city in America gives a better feel for the events and personas behind the nation's birth, all played out in Boston's wealth of emblematic and evocative colonial-era sights, conveniently linked by the self-guided walking tour (one of a handful in the city) known as the Freedom Trail. As well, the city's cafés and shops, its attractive public spaces and the diversity of its neighborhoods - student hives, ethnic enclaves and stately districts of preserved townhouses - are similarly alluring, going some way to answering the twin accusations of elitism and provincialism to which Boston is perennially subjected.

Boston is also at the center of the American university system - more than sixty colleges call the area home, including illustrious Harvard and MIT, in the neighbouring city of Cambridge, just across the Charles River. This academic connection has played a key part in the city's long left-leaning political tradition, which has spawned a line of ethnic mayors, and, most famously, the Kennedy family. Steeped in Puritan roots, local residents often display a slightly anachronistic Yankee pride, but it's one which has served to protect the city's identity. Indeed, the districts around Boston Common exude an almost small-town atmosphere, and, until the past decade or so, were relatively unmarred by chain stores and fast-food joints. Meanwhile, groups of Irish and Italian descent have carved out authentic and often equally unchanged communities in areas like the North End, Charlestown and South Boston.

Today, Boston's relatively small size - both physically and in terms of population (at under 600,000, it ranks well below most other similarly important US cities) - and its provincial feel actually serve to the city's advantage. Though it has expanded significantly through landfills and annexation since it was first settled in 1630, it has never lost its core, which remains a tangle of streets over old cowpaths clustered around Boston Common (which was itself originally used as cattle pasture). Delightfully, this center can really only be explored properly on foot; for even as Boston has evolved from busy port to blighted city to the rejuvenated and prosperous place it is today, it has remained, fundamentally, a city on a human scale.

Customer Reviews:

Best travel guide to Boston.......2003-09-23

So what's guy living in Brooklyn have to say about the guidebook for Boston? Well, I have homes in both, and have lived in Boston on and off for decades, so I do have some familiarity with that city, thank you very much. Now, where in Hahvahd Yahd did I pahk my cah?

Seriously, even though I've lived in Boston for a long time it's still a city I don't feel very familiar with. Its complex street system is one thing I'll never master. It's the same feeling I have about Queens, NY, where I also lived for a while but never felt comfortable with. I guess it's because I prefer organized cities. (The small city I grew up in had just one main street, how nice and easy!)

Thankfully The Rough Guide to Boston is well organized and well written. I've read through two dozen guide books on the city and this is by far the best. The Fodor guide is too wordy and confusing, the Dummies guide too shallow and pretentious, the guide put out by the Hahvahd students totally indecipherable and inaccurate. This volume has the right balance between information and entertainment. It's concise yet complete, small yet immensely useful, and it's printed on nice paper so it'll last a good long time. The "24 things not to miss" are the best "best-of-Boston" list I've seen because it goes beyond the obvious popular tourist spots.

If you plan to visit Boston or go to school there, get this high-quality book.

Book Description

Award-winning microbiologist and food safety expert, Richard Lacey, sweeps away the mystery surrounding this subject and provides the reader with a fascinating and readable account of the truth about the food we eat. He takes the reader on an eye-opening trip from farm to store to kitchen, exposing in detail how livestock is raised, what goes into its feed, how dried and packaged foods are processed, what germs and additives can be found in food, what to look for and what to avoid in supermarkets, how best to prepare food for safety and nutrition, and how to begin to solve some of the many pressing problems arising from modern food production and consumption patterns. He explains the specific dangers to the consumer from modern factory farming methods, the nutritional differences between wild and farmed fish, the environmental consequences of maintaining a meat-eating society, and responsible ways to make food more delicious, healthy, and enjoyable.

Hard to Swallow: A Brief History of Food

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Hard to Swallow: A Brief History of Food
Richard W. Lacey
Manufacturer: Cambridge Univ Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M4T8U2

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Hard to Swallow A Brief History of Food
Richard W. Lacey
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000O00C04

Book Description

"Providing the theoretical framework to model phenomena with discontinuous changes, this unique reference presents a generalized monotone iterative method in terms of upper and lower solutions appropriate for the study of discontinuous nonlinear differential equations and applies this method to derive suitable fixed point theorems in ordered abstract spaces."

Monotone Iterative Techniques for Discontinuous Nonlinear Differential Equations (Pure and Applied Mathematics (Marcel Dekker))

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Monotone Iterative Techniques for Discontinuous Nonlinear Differential Equations (Pure and Applied Mathematics (Marcel Dekker))
Seppo Heikkila
Manufacturer: NY
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000MUDCMG

Customer Reviews:

Wonderful companion to IF YOU WANT TO WRITE.......2006-03-30

A woman who lived with passion, spunk, and humor, Brenda Ueland is an inspiration to women writers, and especially to writers of memoir. Her style is unbridled and totally original; her voice bounces off the page and engages the reader. Her book of advice on writing, IF YOU WANT TO WRITE, is a classic, and I recommend it (at the top of my list) to all students in my writing workshops. STRENTH TO YOUR SWORD ARM is a fine collection of articles, essays, and newspapers columns written by Ueland. An added bonus in this book is the delightful foreward written by memoirist Susan Allen Toth. Overall, this book is a wonderful way to learn more about Brenda Ueland. Clearly, there is no one else like her. -- Cindy La Ferle, columnist and author of Writing Home. www.laferle.com

Brenda Ueland--The Old Friend You've Never Met.......2000-05-19

Reading Brenda Ueland's essays are like chatting with an old friend. Her description, enthusiasm, and sheer enjoyment of writing permeate every page of this charming book. Each essay is short--between 2 and 4 pages--and deals with a single topic, making it possible to skip between topics rather than read from page one. Her characters are colorful and wonderfully drawn--you will feel as if you were sitting in the park with her, listening to this marvelous woman telling tales of her amazing life!

Strength to Your Sword Arm: Selected Writings Introduction by Susan Allen Toth

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Strength to Your Sword Arm: Selected Writings Introduction by Susan Allen Toth
Brenda Ueland
Manufacturer: Holy Cow! Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000R8K6UE

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