nathan gave me this book shortly after we started seeing each other, as he wanted to give me a portrait of the land he grew up on in the interior of bc. gayton, a draft-dodger who has long been resident in nelson,bc is a forester and naturalist who writes with clarity from both a scientific and social perspective about the histories of place and development in our increasing alienation from the natural world. in this book of essays, gayton travels from the kootenays into washington and idaho, exploring his connection to the land and its imprint on him over time. his work is important precisely because it explores his own “interior landscapeâ€? while relating that to places and scientific ideas about the world. my one criticism about gayton’s writing is of his belief that technology will somehow answer the ecological devastation we have wrought as a species and his optimism in the persistence of fossil fuels long into the future. while he sees the need to make change in the way we view and manage the world - the changes he proposes are in my view, half-measures - though i do believe that to make *any* changes at all, these types of individual-connections to the land are integral to changing the frame of reference through which we view our decisions. ( )