There are a lot of really great books out there about natural history, but Botkin's approach is a little different. He includes anecdotes about New England water mills, and sounds a little like McKibben; then he crosses the continent to write about sea lions-now he sounds like Moore. He crosses the ocean to Africa in order to write about elephants, and one is reminded of Quammen's Natural Acts. Botkin is not copying the styles of other writers, he is simply exploring similar topics, but from a different perspective-that of an ecologist.
Through twenty-eight essays, and a poignant account of the ecology of his wife's battle with cancer, Botkin approaches each problem-whale hunting, sustainable salmon fisheries, forest management, endangered species, and more-with a completely open mind. He will not accept dogmatic explanations, and his inquisitiveness leads him on a life-long hunt to try to solve some-any-ecological problem. He writes in humorous tones of the slings and arrows of the idealist ecologist, and wonders how, as a forestry expert, he wound up with jobs trying to learn how long whales sleep (no one knew), or how much food an elephant ate (no one knew), or how many leaves are on a tree (no one knew). He despairs that he will ever make a positive contribution to ecology: "Ever the optimist, I had readily accepted the opportunity to work on the salmon issue. Perhaps this time I can really make a difference..." In each essay it appears as if his contribution is minor, until one takes in his body of work, over his long career, to discover that his contribution was actually enormous and invaluable.
The reader of natural history will enjoy Botkin's experiences and insights, but more importantly, those unfamiliar with ecology or natural history (reds, you know who I mean) will learn a great deal without feeling threatened.
As a long standing fan of Botkin's excellent DISCORDANT HARMONIES I looked forward to diving into this autobiographical account of this remarkable naturalist's career & thoughts. Alas, by about a third of the way through I found my attention drifting away & kept asking myself "Yeees... so what?" as essay piled on essay. Botkin has obviously done some really interesting things & has been to some odd and interesting places, but this book has far too much of the feel of satisfying a publisher's request of "why don't you root around in the attic & see if you can throw something together on sabbatical" & not enough of "so here's how my life informed my work & my work informed my life". I passed the book along to one of my best undergrads, and she said almost the same thing without prompting. Several essays seem to be heading for some sort of exciting peak, but then they sort of fizzle out & we are on to the next adventure without really understanding how to place what went before. This is too bad as I am confident that Botkin is capable of much much more. As an alternative, for folks interested in how the lives of ecologists affect their professional work I would suggest Dennis Chitty's excellent DO LEMMINGS COMMIT SUICIDE?
