Stinging Trees & Wait-A-Whiles: Confessions of a Rainforest Biologist

By William Laurance

The last traces of Australia's tropical rainforest, where the southeasterly winds bring rain to the coastal mountains, contain a unique assemblage of plants and animals, some primitive, many that are found nowhere else on earth. And fifteen years ago, they also contained Bill Laurance, a budding ecologist seduced by the nature of the landscape in north Queensland. Laurance isn't your typical scientist: he wears cut-offs instead of white coats, enjoys the occasional food fight, and isn't afraid to speak his mind, even if it gets him into trouble, as it often did in the Australian rainforest and as he recounts in his marvelous Queensland journal Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles.
The book is his record of the time he spent in this remote area and his run-ins with plant, animal, and human species alike. Laurance lived in a tiny town of loggers and farmers, and he witnessed firsthand the impact of conservation issues on individual lives. He found himself at the center of a bitter battle over conservation strategies and became not only the subject of small-town gossip but also the object of many residents' hatred. Keeping ahead of his high-spirited young volunteers, hounded by the drug-sniffing local policeman, and all the while trying to further his own research amid natural and unnatural obstacles, Laurance offers us a personal and hilarious account of fieldwork and life in the Australian outpost of Millaa Millaa. Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles is a biology lesson, a conservation primer, and an utterly energetic story about an impressionable young man who wound up at the epicenter of an issue that tore a small town apart.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226468968
• ISBN13: 9780226468969
• Release Date: September 2000
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 196 Pages
• Weight: 1.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 6.3" x 9.3"

Customer Reviews

Part of the Solution

It would be hard to suggest my review is subjective, since I worked with Bill Laurance in the rainforests of north Queensland in those hot, humid and heady years, and am also in the book-though its appearance in print was a great surprise. Nonetheless, for the reader, biologist, or armchair traveler, this book has a bit of everything. Laurance describes his pursuit of a Ph.d in biology with candor, insight and humor. It was an incredible time in Australia, and for once, at least, the forests won: much of Australia's remaining lowland and montaine rainforest was protected by World Heritage designation and the Rat Patrol and Higher Mammal Crew (led by Laurance) were right in the thick of it. Bill describes the realities of field work: the sheer physical aspect of being in the rainforest, the thrill of encountering relict and highly adapted species, the tension with local townspeople who make their living in extractive industries like logging, and the constant infusion of travelers and characters who were recruited to the little house on Coral Street. Small town, Australia is accurately depicted in the pages of this book: the miners, the timber cutters, pastoralists and plain drunks, most who ultimately come to respect Dr. Laurance and his work. Laurance also describes his travels in New Guinea, including several dangerous and hilarious encounters with local tribesman. Throughout are scattered insights about biology: why for example there are few aquatic marsupials (they would drown in a pouch), and human nature. My only complaint with the book, is that Laurance got the details of my own expedition in search of Morelia carinata with Geoff Cunningham substantially wrong: We did not lose our packs and food in a river crossing in the Kimberley, but walked 42 days to the coast for a rendezvous with a boat that never arrived due to a cyclone. After waiting ten days at the coast, we walked 168 miles to the nearest cattle station on the edge of nowhere. We did not eat anything but grasshoppers and wild figs for ten days, and were grateful to emerge from the outback with our lives. But, since I lost touch with Bill for 5 years, I can imagine he might get those details mixed up. All in all, it's a wonderful book, and a real insight into the challenges of field biology and habitat conservation. Laurance's post-script is a call to action to halt the destruction of rainforests around the world. Get involved. As he used to say, "If you're not part of the solution, you're part of the problem."

Who Knew Leeches Could Be Funny?

After reading a wonderful review in the Chronical of Higher Education, I knew that I had to get my hands on this book. Similar to Tim Flannery's Throwim Way Leg, Stinging Trees and Wait-a-Whiles recounts a biologist's travels and adventures into the Australian rainforest with his dog (Tulley) and a motley crew of volunteer research assistants.Although Bill Laurance is a brilliant scientist, he is also a gifted writer who has the ability to spin dry field notes into witty reading.I highly recommend this book!