Green Fire: Stories from the Wild - Paperback

by Earle F. Layser (Author)

This is a book for biophiles, people who love wild animals. It is an eclectic collection of thirteen original multilayered stories with interrelated themes-stories within stories-about grizzly bear, cougar, wolf, wolverine, bison, wild sheep, pika, and others. Centering on the Greater Yellowstone region and the Northern Rockies, they incorporate current issues, attitudes, conservation, science, history, natural history, and folklore, and range from whimsical to the informed scientific. Interwoven into each essay are unusual and little known facts and facets about the animal and its history. All the stories convey the value and need for conservation and the importance of protecting and restoring not just the species themselves, but entire ecosystems and wildland habitats. Metaphorically, Green Fire refers to a flame that burns within wild creatures, a life force. Its glow reflects in the indomitable and resilient spirit of untamed nature and equates to the past vitality and abundance of once wild America. The heroes in this book are the wild animals: the last plains bison, which near the end carried bullets embedded in their bodies from gun shots they had survived; the last wolves in the early twentieth century, who had missing toes, paws, teeth, and tails from having escaped leg hold traps, survived being shot, or had escaped death by disgorging poisons, but continued to elude their pursuers; the small bands of bighorn sheep that survived relentless year-round hunting by retreating to live in the most remote, inaccessible, and inhospitable crags; and the resilient beaver, that were once hunted and trapped to near extinction that have repopulated former habitats throughout the Rockies. The specialized language of science has been mostly put aside; instead the narratives employ an anecdotal approach akin to traditional nature writing intended for general audiences..

Author Biography

The author, Earle F. Layser, grew up on a farm in a rural and mountainous setting near the small and picturesque village of Cedar Run in north-central Pennsylvania. The author fished, hunted, and ran traplines. From an early age his destiny was determined by the outdoors and wildlands. After completing an enlistment in the military, at age twenty-one the author matriculated in forestry at the University of Montana and was a smokejumper. He earned a Master of Science degree in botany and plant ecology at New York State College of Environmental Sciences at Syracuse, and later completed additional graduate studies in biosystematics and ecology at Washington State University and Colorado State University, working his way through school as a teaching and research assistant, herbarium curator, sawmill laborer, and in seasonal forestry positions. He was certification as a wildlife biologist by The Wildlife Society, a professional ecologist by The Ecological Society of America, and as a forester by the Society of American Foresters. In 1977, he was the recipient of the prestigious national American Motors Conservation Award. The author's career took him throughout the western United States and Alaska in various resource management and administrative positions with the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Interior, and later, as a private consultant. In 1976, his career brought him to the Greater Yellowstone in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, which he had first visited as child with his parents in 1947, camping out of the back of a wood-paneled station wagon. The author discovered a strong connection to the area, especially its abundant wildlife and backcountry. In 1990, he retired from government service and returned to the Tetons as a natural resources consultant, photographer, and writer. He has published scientific research papers and monographs on land-use planning, botany, plant ecology, and wildlife, and also a large number and variety of popular articles in magazines on natural history, travel and history. He is the author of other two other books: Flora of Pend Oreille County, Washington, and the award winning biography, I Always Did Like Horses and Women: Enoch Cal Carrington's Life Story. He and his wife, Pattie, currently live with their dog, Benji, on the west slope of the Tetons in Alta, Wyoming. Benji provided comfort and support by sleeping on the author's foot throughout the writing of this book.