Wildness in a Small Place

By Randy Minnich

A journal of the author's observations of the passage of a year in an urban nature area, supplemented with poems and drawings. This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: B0025UWJOS
• ISBN13: 9781411616325
• Release Date: November 2004
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.75 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 6.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Small Book with a Big Love for Nature

Randy Minnich has created a very enjoyable field guide both for people looking for natural wonders around the author's local region, or for anyone in general who loves the outdoors but feels that no real natural wonders can be found close to home. This book chronicles Minnich's year-long observations at the small but jam-packed Latodami Nature Preserve, which is located in the Pittsburgh metro area and is surrounded by development. This small parcel of protected wilderness gave Minnich plenty to write about, as he was able to encounter surprisingly diverse wildlife, and observe wonderful natural processes in every season. City dwellers, especially in the industrialized Northeast, will be amazed by the variety of birds Minnich saw in the small urban preserve, plus the surprisingly healthy ecosystems, and all other manner of woodland mammals, insects, and amphibians. Minnich is not afraid to look into the more brutal side of this natural paradise, especially cutthroat competition among birds and intruding pollution from outside the reserve's boundaries; while he writes in poetic prose that is certainly star-struck, but avoids the treacly preachiness that you get in many books of this type. So whether you're simply looking for something to do in the Pittsburgh area, or despairing about how nature feels so foreign to your forlorn metropolis, Minnich shows how the best of nature is out there if you just know how to look. [~doomsdayer520~]