Known for her observant and beautifully illustrated books on the rivers, deserts, and mountains of the West, Zwinger focuses on her guiding principles as a naturalist as she "looks" with notebook and pencil, believing that "to know the world intimately is the beginning of caring". Illustrations.

Modern American Environmentalists profiles the lives and contributions of nearly 140 major figures during the twentieth-century environmental movement. Included are iconic environmentalists such as Rachel Carson, E. O. Wilson, Gifford Pinchot, and Al Gore, and important but less expected names, including John Steinbeck and Allen Ginsberg. The entries recount how each individual became active in environmental conservation, detail his or her significant contributions, trace the influence of each on future efforts, and discuss the person's legacy. The individuals selected for the book displayed either an unparalleled commitment to the conservation, preservation, restoration, and enhancement of the natural environment or made a major contribution to the growth of environmentalism during its first century. With a foreword by environmental historian Everett I. Mendolsohn, a time line of key environmental events, a bibliography of groundbreaking works, and an index organized by specialization, this biographical encyclopedia is a handy and complete guide to the major people involved in the modern American environmental movement.

This collection of biographies describes twelve women conservationists who helped change the ways Americans interact with the natural environment. Their writings led Americans to think differently about their land--deserts are not wastelands, swamps have value, and harmful insects don't have to be controlled chemically. These women not only wrote on behalf of conservation of the American landscape but also described strategies for living exemplary, environmentally sound lives during the past century. From a bird lover to a "back to the land" activist, these women gave early warning of the detrimental effects of neglecting conservation. The main part of this work covers six historical figures who pioneered in their thinking and writing about the environment: Mary Austin, Florence Merriam Bailey, Rosalie Edge, Marjory Stoneman Douglas, Helen Nearing, and Rachel Carson. A later chapter gives portraits of six post-World War II conservationists: Faith McNulty, Ann Zwinger, Sue Hubbell, Anne LaBastille, Mollie Beattie, and Terry Tempest Williams. The work covers a broad range of conservationist concerns, including preservation of deserts and old growth forests, wildlife protection, wetlands maintenance, self-sufficient sustainable ways of producing food, and pollution control. A conclusion examines where conservationists have picked up after Rachel Carson's Silent Spring (1962) and gives conservation ideas for our time. An appendix lists the published writings of the twelve conservationists.

The Colorado Rockies are Ann Zwinger's subject in prose and drawing. There, 8,300 feet above sea level, summer is short and winter long and often harsh; it is a place where much of life exists on the margin. In good years the grasses are lush; in bad years, even the mice starve. But it is a land the Zwingers have lovingly explored and recorded, careful not to disrupt the balance of the land, the relationship of plant to animal and of each to its environment.These forty acres, called Constant Friendship after the Maryland land her ancestor settled in the early 1730s, are a place of all seasons, for even in winter there is a promise of spring, and in spring the foretaste of summer. The white of snow becomes the white of summer clouds, the resonant green of spruce becomes the green head of drake mallard ... here part of each season is contained in every other.In beautiful and simple language and with 80 illustrations, Beyond the Aspen Grove tells of meadow, lake, marsh and forest, of algae and dragonflies, of deer and jays that live in the thin clear air of the mountain world.

Known for her observant and beautifully illustrated books on the rivers, deserts, and mountains of the West, Zwinger focuses on her guiding principles as a naturalist as she "looks" with notebook and pencil, believing that "to know the world intimately is the beginning of caring". Illustrations.

Next to rain forests, deserts are the most biologically diverse ecosystems on Earth. In fact, a desert is never a single ecosystem but a concentration of dozens, ranging from arid flatlands to high mesas to canyons, and oases. Filled with unexpected life and unforgiving conditions, the desert evokes a vivid and passionate response from those who experience it and has inspired powerful literature. The writings in this collection celebrate this complex environment in all its wondrous guises. Among them, 19th-century explorer Sven Hedin staggers through a deadly sandstorm in the Taklamatan desert, whose name means "You enter and do not return." Ann Zwinger contemplates golden asters and rabbitbush in a lonely Utah canyon. Ariel Dorfman encounters time and memory in El Norte Grande. This fascinating anthology is the first in a series from Greystone Books celebrating a single natural or geographic phenomenon through the eyes of major world writers past and present.