Dirt Work: An Education in the Woods
Recent college graduate Byl (in philosophy, no less) made an unusual choice for summer employment as a “traildog” at Glacier National Park. What began as a lark becomes a transformative experience stretching into years spent wielding chainsaws and shovels doing “dirt work” in the back country for the National Park Service in Montana and Alaska. Framed with descriptions of the tools she learned to handle with aplomb, Byl shifts rapidly from thoughts on Thoreau to the sexual politics of women in a male-dominated field, to questions about the “wild” and pragmatic concerns over health insurance. Along the way she casts baleful glances in many directions, from tourists to Outside magazine to her employers and fellow federal employees. This is certainly an author with a literary chip on her shoulder, but the work is unique and Byl does such a good job of celebrating a colorful cast of characters that the occasional surges of attitude will be overlooked in light of her tale of an education earned in the woods that so deeply complements that of the classroom. --Colleen Mondor