Customer Reviews

For Everything There Is a Season: The Sequence of Natural Events in the Grand Teton-Yellowstone Area

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For anyone who's in love with the land of the Yellowstone and the Grand Tetons, Craighead's book is required reading. What a joy to follow the changes of the seasons and the cycle of birth and migration of the area's animals with this knowledgeable man as a guide! Craighead focuses on weekly changes in climate and life, and each week is brimming with details of flora and fauna. I am constantly learning about my home, but this book isn't just for Jackson Hole dwellers - there are vivid photos on every page and extensive appendices for birders and amateur ecologists, as well as mammoth additional reading lists and a detailed index. Thanks, Frank.

This book is a literal reprint with a new cover and new title of Frank Craighead's previous book "For Everything There Is A Season". If you're interested in the natural history of the greater Yellowstone region or in the correlations of natural events then one of these are a must have addition to your library. But they are identical with nothing more than a cover and title change so do not buy both.

The book is great, but buyers should be aware that it is an exact reprint with a new jacket and a new title. I certainly wouldn't have purchased an exact copy of a book already in my library and feel that Amazon and the publisher should make this clear.

As one who was first shown the Northern Lights, alerted to a bull elk's bugle, and introduced to Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) by Frank Craighead, and one favored with the chance to rent a cabin from him facing the Tetons and to enjoy many hours of conversation and dinners with him and his family, I feel qualified to say that this rare book, FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON, is a portrait of the man as well as the biologist. With an almost poetic passion (but minus sentimentality), Frank shares with us the intricate details of biotic life in the Grand Teton-Yellowstone ecosystems---what "events" occur coinstantaneously and may signal the occurence of what OTHER events, within each given season and "subseason". His knowledge of these interrelationships is transfixing to the amateur naturalist (like myself!), and inspiring. The flow of Life itself brims from this book. And while he could easily hoard such choice hints as where and when to find morel mushrooms or certain rare flowers, he doesn't: He is generous in trusting his readers to not harm the biota they discover via his book. A better homage and resource book for this region could not be found.

Frank Craighead was a leading biologist of grizzly bears who came from a remarkable family of naturalists and writers. He was also a long-time resident of Jackson Hole who took extensive notes of what he observed. This book is the result, tying observations of the natural world together. When one species of bird arrives or departs from the area, what flowers will be in bloom? What berries might be available for picking? What insects are active, and what does that mean for the angler's choice of fly?

The result is remarkable, if only because it makes clear how few people have the knowledge to present such information for their own home base. Farmers once did, but now worry more about soil moisture and futures markets than whether the red-tailed hawks are fledging.

Unfortunately, the book reads all too often like a list. Many sentences read like this one: "Golden eagles are fledging, as summer flowers like houndstongue and monkshood are appearing, and as golden aster, woolly yellow daisy, ballhead sandwort, and sego (or mariposa) lily peak." With a good field guide, this would be useful information to help me learn plant identifications, but it's hard to think what else one might do with it. For a visitor who will only see one week of the year, only a few pages of the book will be useful, though a year-round resident of the area can use the entire book.

Craigshead doesn't bring his biological knowledge to such observations and try to explain why these things might go together. Of course the links between golden asters and golden eagles must be indirect, through many other links in the web of the ecosystem, but it would make for a more interesting book if he had thought in terms of ecosystems instead of species.

As one who was first shown the Northern Lights, alerted to a bull elk's bugle and introduced to Blue Flax (Linum lewisii) by Frank Craighead, one who was favored with the chance to rent a cabin from him facing the Tetons and enjoy many hours of conversation and dinners with him and his family, I feel qualified to say that this rare book, FOR EVERYTHING THERE IS A SEASON, is a portrait of the man as well as the biologist---there is nothing detached or dry in Frank's telling, but a thinly veiled almost poetic passion for the natural world he so intimately knows---and wants others to know as he does. For if you can love nature, you will want to save it; And I see that as one of Frank's primary goals. Yet he is generous, not hoarding, in his knowledge of secret sites where exciting biota interact: He could easily withold where and at what exact time of year one finds morel mushrooms or certain unusual flowers, but he doesn't. He trusts the reader enough to not harm what he discovers through Frank's book. A valuable, valuable read and resource. There could not be any better for that region.

Frank Craighead links natural events together in time and space. Using his Moose, WY home area as a base he reviews natural history for each month in the year. We become used to reading or being told "this flower blooms in early April" or "the first week of January is good for seeing this" - information based on our constructed, fixed calendar. As we all know, plants, migratory birds, or fungi, may turn up early or late, according to seasonal cues such as temperature, weather and lots more. This book links together natural events that one will see happening at the same time. All at the same time the book is a poetic essay, specific information on the natural world, and a guide through the year. We can each apply this form of observation to our own local environment. It reminded me of my favorite "A Field Guide to Rocky Mountain Wildflowers" (Peterson Field Guide Series; by John & Frank Craighead and Ray Davis) which for each species lists for "flowering season" what other species can be observed in specific behaviors or what other flowers are in bloom. Finally, this is not a dense, technical book, but is easily readable and reminds us of the riches of nature when we slow down to observe and appreciate.