Lyons Regional Library

"In the rich naturalist tradition of H Is for Hawk and The Soul of an Octopus, Beaverland tells the tumultuous, eye-opening story of how beavers and the beaver fur trade shaped America's history, culture, and environment. Before the American empires of steel and coal and oil, before the railroads, there was the empire of fur. Beginning with the early trans-Atlantic trade in North America, Leila Philip traces the beaver's profound influence on our...

Examines the environmental legacy of FDR and the New Deal, evaluating the creation of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the dozens of State Park systems that were protected by his decisions.

"The bald eagle is regal but fearless, a bird you're not inclined to argue with. For centuries, Americans have celebrated it as "majestic" and "noble," yet savaged the living bird behind their national symbol as a malicious predator of livestock and, falsely, a snatcher of babies. Taking us from before the nation's founding through inconceivable resurgences of this enduring all-American species, Jack E. Davis contrasts the age when native peoples...

Bat populations in the western portion of the US are threatened by the rapid westward expansion of White-nose Syndrome (WNS), a disease implicated in the loss of over a million bats since 2006. Pseudogymnoascus destructans (Pd), the fungus believed responsible for WNS, has been confirmed in southeastern Wyoming, southcentral Kansas, western Oklahoma and the Texas panhandle, potentially placing at least 13 of the 18 bat species native to Colorado at...

Nature writings of Aldo Leopold, one of the foremost conservationist of our century

Evaluates Theodore Roosevelt's role in launching modern conservationism, identifying the contributions of such influences as James Audubon and John Muir while describing how Roosevelt's exposure to natural wonders in his early life shaped his environmental values.

An award-winning historian tells the story of hunting in America, showing how this sport has shaped our national identity. From Daniel Boone to Teddy Roosevelt, hunting is one of America's most sacred-but also most fraught-traditions. It was promoted in the 19th century as a way to reconnect "soft" urban Americans with nature and to the legacy of the country's pathfinding heroes. Fair chase, a hunting code of ethics emphasizing fairness, rugged independence,...

Brenda Peterson tells the 300-year history of wild wolves in America. It is also our own history, seen through our relationship with wolves. Peterson makes the powerful case that without wolves, not only will our whole ecology unravel, but we'll lose much of our national soul.

Publisher's description: The surprising story of our "naturalist president" Theodore Roosevelt and how his lifelong passion for the natural world set the stage for America's wildlife conservation movement. No United States president is more popularly associated with nature and wildlife than Theodore Roosevelt--prodigious hunter, tireless adventurer, and ardent conservationist. We think of him as a larger-than-life original, yet in The Naturalist,...