The Great Alaska Nature Factbook: A Guide to the State's Remarkable Animals, Plants, and Natural Features - Paperback

by Susan Ewing (Author)

The Great Alaska Nature Factbook is a popular and fun to read reference guide to the animals, plants, and natural features of our 49th state and the last frontier. Learn about everything from King Crabs to Fireweed, Epilobium angustifolium. Did you know Marbled murrelets are the only seabirds to make their nests in trees? In Alaska, Jack Frost delivers two kinds of ice crystal glaze: hoarfrost and rime. Over 200 fascinating entries accompanied by line drawings and a state map.

Back Jacket

Through engaging text and illustrations, "The Great Nature Factbook" reveals the North Country's natural wonders:

One acre of tundra can contain an estimated two tons of living fungi.

Fourteen species of wild orchid grow in Alaska.

Denali National Park and Preserve was once-upon-a-time a tropical forest.

Loons can sink straight down in the water like submarines.

The Bering Glacier complex in the Chugach Mountains is twice the size of Rhode Island.

Alaska hosts over 100 million seabirds every year.

Author Biography

I wanted to be a veterinarian or a girl Davy Crockett when I grew up. As it turns out, I became a writer. It still surprises me. I've written several nonfiction books on natural history and two illustrated children's books, and my essays, articles, and short stories have appeared in a variety of national magazines and anthologies including the books "Great Rocky Mountain Nature Factbook, Ten Rowdy Ravens, and Lucky Hares and Itchy Bears. "
My writing has a broad range because my life has been one grand survey of topics and experiences. Born and raised in Kentucky, I headed north and west soon after graduating from high school, living in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest for many years. Before settling into writing, I worked a variety of jobs, including bull cook in the oil fields of Prudhoe Bay, commercial fisher, print shop photolithographer, waitress, flower delivery driver, mining claim staker, energy use advisor, and wildlife information officer. Somewhere in there I graduated from the University of Alaska-Fairbanks. In 1991 I moved to the Gallatin Valley of Montana, and here I am, still.