Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland - Softcover

Pyle, Robert Michael; Louv, Richard

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0870716026 ISBN 13: 9780870716027

Publisher: Oregon State University Press, 2011

Synopsis

An engrossing memoir and eloquent portrait of place, The Thunder Tree shows how powerful the relationship between people and the natural world can be. "When people connect with nature, it happens somewhere," Pyle writes. "My own point of intimate contact with the land was a ditch... Without a doubt, most of the elements of my life flowed from that canal." The High Line Canal, originally built outside of Denver, Colorado, as part of a plan to move river water to the Western plains for irrigation, became the author's place of sanctuary and play, and his birthplace as a naturalist. This reprint of the classic book, updated with a new foreword by Richard Louv and a preface to this edition, makes one of Pyle's important early works once again available. For a new generation of readers, it offers a powerful argument for preserving opportunities for exploring nature.

About this title

From the Back Cover

When people connect with nature, they do so in a specific place, and The Thunder Tree shows how that connection can change a life forever, how roots in the earth can be as important as roots in a family. For Robert Michael Pyle, that place was the High Line Canal in Denver, Colorado, which he first discovered as a boy in the 1950s."From the time I was six," he writes, "this weedy watercourse had been my sanctuary, playground, and sulking walk. It was also my imaginary wilderness, escape hatch, and birthplace as a naturalist. Later the canal served as lover's lane, research site, and holy ground of solace."In this lyrical memoir and unforgettable portrait of place, Pyle argues eloquently that if we fail to preserve our opportunities to explore nature, we will diminish our lives and our culture immeasurably. (51/2 X 81/4, 240 pages)

About the Author

Robert Michael Pyle is the author of Mariposa Road, Chasing Monarchs, Where Bigfoot Walks, and Wintergreen, which received a John Burroughs Medal. He lives in Southwest Washington.

About this edition

• Publisher: Oregon State University Press
• Publication date: 2011
• ISBN 10: 0870716026
• ISBN 13: 9780870716027
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 224