This is a review of Force of Nature – George Fell, Founder of the Natural Areas Movement by Arthur Melville Pearson George Fell was born in 1916 in Elgin, Illinois, not far from where I grew up and now live. He spent his coming of age years in my hometown of Rockford, Illinois and spent
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The Birds and Trees of North America is the latest edition of high-quality notebooks from Field Notes. These perfectly-sized notebooks fit in pockets, daypacks, backpacks, fanny-packs, gloveboxes, center consoles, drawers, and any other place you wish to have at your ready a place to take notes. Photo courtesy of Glendale Communications Group I’ve used Field
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Riverwood Forest Preserve is the newest natural area under the care of DeKalb County, Illinois. Born from a “2020 acquisition and land preservation and grant partnership with the Illinois Clean Energy Community Foundation”, Riverwood is a conservation work in progress. It is already showing spectacular results. The former Oak Club Golf Course is 103 acres
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The (Big) Year That Flew By is the memoir of Arjan Dwarshuis’s birding big year. A Native of Netherlands, Dwarshuis was already a world traveler and birder when he decided to try and break Noah Strycker’s world record of the most birds seen in a single calendar year. By choosing a leap year, 2016, Arjan
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Who is more obsessed? The feather thief, Edwin Rist or the author of The Feather Thief, Kirk Wallace Johnson. The Feather Thief: Beauty, Obsession, and the Natural History Heist of the Century covers the bizarre museum “heist” by American flutist, Edwin Rist. At the time of his crime, Rist was only 20 years old and
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The Complete Birds of the World: Every Species Illustrated is a monster of a book that lives up to its title. Based on the most up-to-date IOC list of birds (at the time of printing), there are 10,711 species included in this book. The birds span 40 orders, 246 families, and 2,313 genera. The format
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Save Bell Bowl Prairie is a grassroots effort to protect an ancient, remnant gravel prairie called Bell Bowl Prairie. The prairie is modestly sized at 12-14 acres (reduced from 25 from recent construction). The most important area of this is only 4.88 acres. The prairie is located adjacent to the Chicago Rockford International Airport and
The Insect Crisis: The Fall of the Tiny Empires That Run the World is a downer of a book that catalogs the massive decline amongst insects. Over the last several decades, nearly every single group of insects from butterflies to beetles, fireflies to bees has been in a downward spiral. Author Oliver Milman is a
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