Mountain Islands and Desert Seas: A Natural History of the U.S.-Mexican Borderlands (The Louise Merrick Natural Environment, No 15)

Most nature writing talks entirely too much about spiritual matters for my taste. I prefer a technical, scientific approach citing "hard" observed data rather than "soft" emotional data. Gehlbach suits my tastes. He calculates the density of fish in a pond, lizards in the desert, and measures the impact on vegetation of people walking on trails. But it's not all dry science. There are interesting passages on the adapatable coyote, the less adaptable grizzly bear and wolf, the geographic expansion of the coatimundi and the armadillo, the extinction of ice age mammals, and many other subjects. It's a real feast. The subject is the Mexican/US borderlands from the Gulf of Mexico to the Colorado River. This is a mostly desert area, but with a number of "sky islands" -- green mountains that rise above the deserts. Two criticisms of the book. First, some of it is dated -- written as it was in the 1970s. For example, the author talks about the impact of DDT, a pesticide that has been banned for many years. Secondly, he presumes the reader has a pretty fair knowledge of species of plants and animals. When he embarks on a discussion of the trogon for example he doesnt tell you that it's a colorful, sub-tropical bird. He expects you to know that much about it. This book ranks at the top of my favorite nature writing. It's informative, well written, and covers a lot of subjects relating to the fascinating barren lands along the border. Smallchief