Customer Reviews

Making the Bear Dance

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The American public lands are great places of our common heritage and they are places where people chose to spend their careers doing highly unusual work in spectacular settings. Thousands of people have worked for the US Forest Service, the BLM, and the National Park Service in this beautiful public heritage but few have written well about their experiences since Edward Abbey published Desert Solitaire in the 1960s.

Jeff Conner is an easterner who chose to come out West to experience our public land heritage in a rambling career with various federal agencies. He took careful notice of the land in places like Utah, New Mexico and California and his experiences working on forest fires reveal the true adventure of wildland fire and park rangering. Jeff recognizes that public lands are the great places for the great American adventure and his stories reflect his close attention to landscape and his strange experiences with the people who work on public lands.

I highly recommend this book, having pursued a career in conservation myself. If you ever wanted to know what people who fight fires and raft rivers for a living really experience out in the field, read Jeff's book. His description of fighting little fires in New Mexico and huge fires in California are pure gold. He writes well and he notices the right things. His story of the big Happy Camp Fire in California will surprise you and raise your heart rate.

This is a great read. Savor it and renew your commitment to our public lands and the public servants who work there on our behalf.