Chuckwalla Land The Riddle of California's Desert |
|
Author:
| Wallace, David Rains |
ISBN: | 978-0-520-25616-3 |
Publication Date: | May 2011 |
Publisher: | University of California Press
|
Book Format: | Hardback |
List Price: | AUD $60.95 |
Book Description:
|
Described as _a writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and other self-educated seers_ by the
San Francisco Chronicle, David Rains Wallace turns his attention in this new book to another distinctive corner of California_its desert, the driest and hottest environment in North America. Drawing from his frequent forays to Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon, Kelso Dunes, and other locales, Wallace illuminates the desert_s intriguing flora and fauna as he explores...
More DescriptionDescribed as _a writer in the tradition of Henry David Thoreau, John Muir, and other self-educated seers_ by the San Francisco Chronicle, David Rains Wallace turns his attention in this new book to another distinctive corner of California_its desert, the driest and hottest environment in North America. Drawing from his frequent forays to Death Valley, Red Rock Canyon, Kelso Dunes, and other locales, Wallace illuminates the desert_s intriguing flora and fauna as he explores a controversial, unresolved scientific debate about the origin and evolution of its unusual ecosystems. Eminent scientists and scholars appear throughout these pages, including maverick paleobiologist Daniel Axelrod, botanist Ledyard Stebbins, and naturalists Edmund Jaeger and Joseph Wood Krutch. Weaving together ecology, geology, natural history, and mythology in his characteristically eloquent voice, Wallace reveals that there is more to this starkly beautiful landscape than meets the eye.