The University of Wisconsin Press

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Environment / Natural History / Wisconsin

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Prairie Time The Leopold Reserve Revisited John Ross and Beth Ross A North Coast Book An exploration of time and place in nature In the rush of modern life, we measure our lives by the clock, the calendar, the timetable. But there are older rhythms in nature: the call of chickadees before the first hint of spring, the golden face of a compass plant in July, the first snowfall. These signs mark the passage of time in a world that Aldo Leopold knew well and eloquently described. With notebook and camera in hand, John and Beth Ross revisit the Aldo Leopold Memorial Reserve in south-central Wisconsin fifty years after Leopold's death. Thanks to the efforts of Leopold, his family, and the Leopold Foundation, this once-ruined farmland is now largely restored to a natural state. The Rosses explore the terrain of this sandy land, encounter its natural citizens, and relate life here to its physical underpinnings. Following Leopold's own practice of phenology, they note the seasonal changes: arrivals and departures of wild geese, the blossoming of the pasque flower at the edge of melting snow, the appearance of monarch butterflies on the milkweed. And further, they seek to find in this landscape an underlying morality, a communion of understanding, a sense of place in the cosmos. Beautifully illustrated with color photographs, the book also includes notes on the behavior, habitat, and human interactions with ninety-four species of plants, birds, and other animals found in the reserve. An extensive glossary explains terms from geology, ecology, meteorology, and related life and earth sciences. "Prairie Time is about relationships—among prairie and woodland, climate and weather, moraine and outwash, annual cycles and the chronology of natural events—and the human relation to the land."—Nina Leopold Bradley John E. Ross is professor emeritus in agricultural journalism and environmental studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Beth Ross is a writer and photographer. Media & bookseller inquiries regarding review copies, events, and interviews can be directed to the publicity department at publicity@uwpress.wisc.edu or (608) 263-0734. (If you want to examine a book for possible course use, please see our Course Books page. If you want to examine a book for possible rights licensing, please see Rights & Permissions.) The University of Wisconsin Press publishes several books about Aldo Leopold and many related titles on environmental topics. Use our search feature to find other books of interest. Here are some of the key titles: The Essential Aldo Leopold Quotations and Commentaries Edited by Curt D. Meine and Richard L. Knight The River of the Mother of God And Other Essays by Aldo Leopold Edited by Susan Flader and J. Baird Callicott Aldo Leopold His Life and Work Curt Meine Game Management Aldo Leopold With a new Foreword by Laurence R. Jahn Thinking Like A Mountain Aldo Leopold and the Evolution of an Ecological Attitude toward Deer, Wolves, and Forests Susan L. Flader

August 1998 256 pp.   7 x 10   44 color illus. Cloth $34.95 t ISBN 978-0-299-15660-2 ADD TO CART

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