The Light In High Places: A Naturalist Looks at Wyoming Wilderness--Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep, Cowboys, and Other Rare Species
“A fine fresh gust of mountain air from the Wind Rivers and a wonderful book of elegies and celebrations of the beauty and resilience of wild nature, together with sketches of the dedicated few still fighting to offset the poor stewardship and folly of our greedy species. A clear-eyed, insightful, stimulating, and lyrical book, very well-written throughout.” (Peter Matthiessen, author ofShadow CountryandThe Snow Leopard)“The Light in High Placesis full of intelligence and passion, first-rate storytelling, and, ultimately, transcendence. It is an instant classic—a beautiful profile of a unique place on earth in an alarming and yet exhilarating moment in time.” (Rick Bass, author ofThe Wild Marsh: Four Seasons at Home in Montana)“The Light in High Placesis an exquisite adventure in the alpine territory of Wyoming that few of us will ever get to see, and it is a powerful call to arms for all of us to gear up and treat our planet with compassion.  Hutto writes in the tradition of Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, Rachel Carson, Barry Lopez, and Joseph Wood Krutch.  Quite simply, this book is  wonderful.” (John Nichols, author ofThe Milagro Beanfield War)“Joe Hutto takes the art of being alone in the wild to new heights in the magnificently writtenThe Light in High Places, a story of personal and ecological discovery in one of North America’s last great places.” (M. Sanjayan, Lead Scientist, The Nature Conservancy)“The Light in High Placesextols the quiet pleasures of living simply and close to nature in Wyoming’s wilderness while the author observes bighorn sheep or herds cows. In lucid and lyrical sentences, it chronicles the ecological and cultural changes that affect this land—and all our future.” (George Schaller, leading field biologist, mammalogist, naturalist, conservationist and author)“A highly readable account of important research on bighorn sheep in Wyoming, solving a longstanding puzzle about the decline of a once large sheep population. It is, however, more than that, as the author recounts vividly the difficulties of such field work as well as his emotional trials and tribulations being involved in work with painful ramifications. It is that which makes it superior to good science well told. Highly recommended!” (Valerius Geist, Professor Emeritus of Environmental Science, The University of Calgary)“Impossible to put down—an intensely lived and well-researched potpourri of ecology, ethology, geology, anthropology. Joe Hutto’s life intersects with the decline of  high Rocky Mountain ecosystems and of the cowboy culture that occupied them—a struggle for personal fulfillment documenting a tragic transformation.” (Daniel Simberloff, Nancy Gore Hunger Professor of Environmental Studies, University of Tennessee; past president, American Society of Naturalists)