Once again, Joe Hutto has written a book that allows us to experience an environment we don't normally have access to. This time it's Bighorn Sheep habitat high in the Wind River Mountain range of Wyoming.
In the mid-90s, Hutto published Illumination in the Flatwoods, his observations and reflections about raising a brood of motherless turkeys. The writing in his new book, The Light In High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness, Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species, traverses the wide sweep of landscapes and emotions Hutto experienced during many years of gathering information for The Whiskey Mountain Bighorn Sheep Study. He also backtracks to tell a few stories about his early years in Wyoming, when snow was deep and bear encounters were frequent.
The Light In High Places combines intimate wildlife observations with intimate personal observations. And those observations shine a bright light on the disturbing environmental devastation that is occurring far, far away from the cause: our consumption-crazed urban behaviors.
Just got through reading this on my Kindle. Great read but pictures do not show well on Kindle
ReplyDeleteJust finished reading hard copy - I'm a slow reader... or should I say I haven't much time to read, but when I could I savored every insight, every image, every personal reflection on an environment I'll never see. After a while, I was hoping the book would go on forever. After the sobering epilogue, I am hoping that humanity can go on forever. But arrogant disregard for our impact on the planet puts all in jeopardy.
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