Shadow Mountain : A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild

Rating:
Summary: Fabulous
Review: Shadow Mountain is fabulous! A must-read for anyone interested in nature, wildlife, or life in general. A great story with thought provoking asides on our relationship with the wild world and why it is critical to us as individuals and as a culture.

Rating:
Summary: A Must-Read!!!
Review: The consummate wordsmith, Renee Askins creates a gorgeous and flowing account of her journey to reintroduce wolves to Yellowstone, infusing her courageous tale with vivid imagery of her relationship with the wild throughout her life. Wrought with ferocious emotion and a blazing intellect, Askins' writing effortlessly melds her deep philosophy concerning wildness with the page-turning details of her time spearheading the wolf-recovery effort. Truly a must-read for any nature lover, or any lover of beautiful writing and storytelling.

Rating:
Summary: Renee's Wolf Dream is Alive and Well in Yellowstone
Review: This is a remarkable story of one woman's courage to fulfill a promise she made long ago to a tiny wolf pup to one day have wolves roam wild again in Yellowstone. Renee worked very, very hard to make this a reality and all the behind-the-scenes information makes for very good story telling. Her foray with Washington bureaucrats is astonishing in that they were not able to undermine her plan. It was very compelling to read about her struggle to formalize her vision for Wolf Fund, find support, hammer away at the plan amid lack of funds, bear through immeasurable heartbreak and witness incredible coincidences and miracles. It makes one shake their head and wonder how she stuck with this for nearly 15 years? But we come to understand her reasons and learn along the way. Shadow Mountain is an excellent book for someone interested in understanding what it took to get the wolves to Yellowstone. It is a handbook for those seeking to approach conservation from a different mindset rather than "us and them." It's also a story told from a very honest and accessible place -- Renee's heart. She is very revealing, raw and very gifted in her prose and retelling of meaningful people and places. She will be remembered in the same breath as Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey.

Rating:
Summary: Renee's Wolf Dream is Alive and Well in Yellowstone
Review: This is a remarkable story of one woman's courage to fulfill a promise she made long ago to a tiny wolf pup to one day have wolves roam wild again in Yellowstone. Renee worked very, very hard to make this a reality and all the behind-the-scenes information makes for very good story telling. Her foray with Washington bureaucrats is astonishing in that they were not able to undermine her plan. It was very compelling to read about her struggle to formalize her vision for Wolf Fund, find support, hammer away at the plan amid lack of funds, bear through immeasurable heartbreak and witness incredible coincidences and miracles. It makes one shake their head and wonder how she stuck with this for nearly 15 years? But we come to understand her reasons and learn along the way. Shadow Mountain is an excellent book for someone interested in understanding what it took to get the wolves to Yellowstone. It is a handbook for those seeking to approach conservation from a different mindset rather than "us and them." It's also a story told from a very honest and accessible place -- Renee's heart. She is very revealing, raw and very gifted in her prose and retelling of meaningful people and places. She will be remembered in the same breath as Jane Goodall and Diane Fossey.

Rating:
Summary: A Memoir of Working For Wolves
Review: Wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park by 1926. They were the only creatures banished from the preserve, because humans unrealistically feared them and the cattle damage they might do. As Americans became aware of what ecology was, more were able to accept that the missing wolves ought to be restored to the nature preserve, for they should have been preserved along with all the other creatures. Renée Askins would certainly not claim that she was the one to effect their restoration into Yellowstone, but she certainly deserves much of the credit. Her lovely memoir, _Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild_ (Doubleday) not only tells about her involvement in this huge project, but also is her autobiography, taking in her upbringing, her lovers, and in many pages, her dogs. It is sweet and compelling reading.

In 1980, Askins was a college student working at a wolf research facility in Indiana. She had a wolf pup thrust upon her to raise, and although she had plenty of experience with wild and domestic animals before, this was "the first time I truly began to face and fathom the capacity of another species." When the pup was taken from her, she was heartbroken. She sobbed, and (this is something she does quite a bit throughout the book), she howled. And she was answered by the pack, which "one by one, called out in the long, graceful wail that is the code of their species. Their own had been taken. I had no doubt they knew." (Also throughout the book is this sort of mystical anthropomorphic speculation, which may put some readers off, but which has served the author well.) In 1986, she founded the Wolf Fund. Returning wolves to Yellowstone was its one and only purpose. Much of the book is devoted to how she lobbied and cajoled bureaucrats and donors. It is a complicated story, but wolves were returned to the park, and the Wolf Fund, having achieved its goal, in contrast to other bureaucracies, simply shut itself down.

Askins's delightful writing includes many non-wolf topics. She writes with feeling about a friend and a sister who died of cancer. She describes with amusement the activities of her dogs, and winds up at the Westminster Dog Show in New York, looking for an "apricot, teacup, powder puff Chinese Crested." She faces feral dogs in West Africa (by howling). In these episodes, and all others she includes here, she gracefully ties the themes back to her life with wolves and the lessons she has learned from working with them and for them. She has the good sense to realize that reinstating the wolves was a hopeful symbolic act, and that compared to other protections of endangered species, it was biologically insignificant. She is open about losses; some of the wolves have been deliberately killed, some in response to cattle depredation, although such instances have been few. And she realizes that with electronic monitor collars strapped on them, with a population "managed" rather than entirely wild, the wolves are not truly free. The ironies of managing wilderness permeate this fine volume of heartfelt memoir and reflections on successful environmental action.

Rating:
Summary: A Memoir of Working For Wolves
Review: Wolves were eliminated from Yellowstone National Park by 1926. They were the only creatures banished from the preserve, because humans unrealistically feared them and the cattle damage they might do. As Americans became aware of what ecology was, more were able to accept that the missing wolves ought to be restored to the nature preserve, for they should have been preserved along with all the other creatures. Renée Askins would certainly not claim that she was the one to effect their restoration into Yellowstone, but she certainly deserves much of the credit. Her lovely memoir, _Shadow Mountain: A Memoir of Wolves, a Woman, and the Wild_ (Doubleday) not only tells about her involvement in this huge project, but also is her autobiography, taking in her upbringing, her lovers, and in many pages, her dogs. It is sweet and compelling reading.

In 1980, Askins was a college student working at a wolf research facility in Indiana. She had a wolf pup thrust upon her to raise, and although she had plenty of experience with wild and domestic animals before, this was "the first time I truly began to face and fathom the capacity of another species." When the pup was taken from her, she was heartbroken. She sobbed, and (this is something she does quite a bit throughout the book), she howled. And she was answered by the pack, which "one by one, called out in the long, graceful wail that is the code of their species. Their own had been taken. I had no doubt they knew." (Also throughout the book is this sort of mystical anthropomorphic speculation, which may put some readers off, but which has served the author well.) In 1986, she founded the Wolf Fund. Returning wolves to Yellowstone was its one and only purpose. Much of the book is devoted to how she lobbied and cajoled bureaucrats and donors. It is a complicated story, but wolves were returned to the park, and the Wolf Fund, having achieved its goal, in contrast to other bureaucracies, simply shut itself down.

Askins's delightful writing includes many non-wolf topics. She writes with feeling about a friend and a sister who died of cancer. She describes with amusement the activities of her dogs, and winds up at the Westminster Dog Show in New York, looking for an "apricot, teacup, powder puff Chinese Crested." She faces feral dogs in West Africa (by howling). In these episodes, and all others she includes here, she gracefully ties the themes back to her life with wolves and the lessons she has learned from working with them and for them. She has the good sense to realize that reinstating the wolves was a hopeful symbolic act, and that compared to other protections of endangered species, it was biologically insignificant. She is open about losses; some of the wolves have been deliberately killed, some in response to cattle depredation, although such instances have been few. And she realizes that with electronic monitor collars strapped on them, with a population "managed" rather than entirely wild, the wolves are not truly free. The ironies of managing wilderness permeate this fine volume of heartfelt memoir and reflections on successful environmental action.