The Sespe Wild: Southern California's Last Free River (Environmental Arts and Humanities) - Softcover

Monsma, Bradley John

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0874177049 ISBN 13: 9780874177046

Publisher: University of Nevada Press, 2007

Synopsis

Fifty miles northwest of Los Angeles, Sespe Creek flows through some of the wildest territory in California. To nature writer and outdoorsman Bradley John Monsma, it is the place ""that teaches me to be fully alive,"" a place that reminds us of what we've lost and inspires us to love what's left. ""The Sespe Wild"" chronicles Monsma's exploration of this fantastic region. His attention ranges from the physical Sespe to its subsurface geology, and he discusses both the Chumash people who first occupied it and the impact of Spanish and American settlers. He also considers the Sespe through the eyes of some of its nonhuman populations - the nearly extinct condors, the vanished grizzlies, the mountain sheep, steelhead trout, and red-legged frogs. He ponders the tension between preservation and management of wilderness and the critical issues that arise wherever wilderness and cities meet. Monsma's informative, nuanced, and witty meditation on one of California's last best places brilliantly combines history with attentive observations on the natural world, the symbolic and spiritual levels of human experience with the land, and the power of the land's ongoing creation and renewal.

About this title

Review:

"A deeply appreciative, penetrating yet unpretentious saunter through the surprising wilderness that Los Angeles had the good luck not to devour. Monsma's elegant sentences and love for the Sespe bring his portrait to life." --David James Duncan, author of My Life as Told by Water

." . . 176 pages of brilliant ponderings and up-to-date reporting, a beautiful blend between Thoreau-esque nature writing and straight, accurate environmental journalism." --Matt Kettmann, Santa Barbara Independent, 2 September 2004

"Every river deserves an interpreter, an advocate, and a poet. Sespe Creek now has all of these, thanks to Bradley Monsma's insight, persuasion, and literary grace. His exquisite narrative reveals why this place is so important to all of us, and why the choices we make are important to the fate of all that is wild." --Tim Palmer, author of California Wild
"The Sespe Wild partly fills what has been a void: serious nature writing about the Sespe. Don't look for it to guide you to particular locations. Don't look to it for a detailed history of the last 15 years of conservation battles. Look to it as a book to enhance your sense of wonder at nature's magnificence in a place called the Sespe." --Alasdair Coyne, Southern Sierran, April 2005
"What sets the author aside from other environmental writers is that he finds the perfect balance between poetry and information." --Joshua Chase , Las Vegas City Life, 9 March 2005
"The book embraces the region's contrasts and conflicts and the intersection of unlikely partners--the metropolitan expanse of the greater Los Angeles area with the untamed wilderness of the Sespe backcountry. As the author records his own passage between these two worlds, it becomes clear that a contemporary, holistic view of wilderness must similarly encompass such extremes.... The author's attempt to view the land from these multiple perspectives is precisely what makes the book such a delightful and informative read." --Alison Preston, ISLE 13.2, Summer 2006

About the Author:

Bradley John Monsma is professor of English and interdisciplinary studies at California State University, Channel Islands, where he teaches courses on multicultural literature and environmental writing. His essays and articles have appeared in several literary and scholarly journals. An ardent backpacker and whitewater kayaker, he has enjoyed wild places and rivers throughout the western United States and Canada.

About this edition

• Publisher: University of Nevada Press
• Publication date: 2007
• ISBN 10: 0874177049
• ISBN 13: 9780874177046
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 176