Celebrate Earth Day Every Day

April was a good month for Mother Nature.  April 22nd was Earth Day which is intended to inspire awareness and appreciation for our natural environment.
April 21st is John Muir's birthday.  Yes--the John Muir.  He founded the Sierra Club and was one of our leading nature preservationists.  He is so well-loved that his image is on the new 2005 California quarter.
April 21st is also the anniversary of Aldo Leopold's death, who is known as The Father of Wildlife Management.  I had never even heard of Mr. Leopold until a few years back when my baby sister, who works for the Ohio Division of Wildlife, gave me her old, ratty copy of A Sand County Almanac.  It was the first book on Nature Writing I had read--but not the last.  Whether you like ecology and environmental issues or just enjoy reading about the beauty of our natural world then Nature Writing is for you.
Celebrate Earth Day every day by reading something by these great authors:

Edward Abbey
John James Audubon
Rachel Carson
Annie Dillard
Gretel Ehrlich
Euell Gibbons
John Muir
Brian Payton
Alex Shoumatoff
Henry David Thoreau
Terry Tempest Williams

And don't forget to read Mr. Leopold's A Sand County Almanac.  It's a beautiful book!

For the Birds

I recently took a few days off to go up to Magee Marsh near Lake Erie to go birding. In the spring the warblers are passing through and you can get a closeup look at these small, colorful birds. It is an amazing experience and I would recommend it to anyone who likes nature and/or birds. So, since I had such a wonderful time, I thought I look for some books to "extend my vacation".

Try one of the following:

Life List: A Woman's Quest for the World's Most Amazing Birds
Olivia Gentile

The Armchair Birder: Discovering the Secret Lives of Familiar Birds
John Yow