[alert variation=”alert-info”]Publisher: Oregon State University Press
Formats: Papberback
Purchase: Powell’s | Amazon | IndieBound | Barnes & Noble[/alert]

For the Love of Rivers is nature writing at its best, although though it’s much more than that. The book is a scientific thesis by river ecologist Kurt Fausch. His writing is very good and very enjoyable, and naturalists, ecologists, environmentalists, even fishermen will take great pleasure in reading this trade paperback, but it might be more than the average reader can digest. The book includes thirty-six page notes, and dotted with stories from Fausch’s fieldwork (and some read like a travelogue).

“I want to draw you across the reflective boundary, show you the science, how it is done and why people do it…”

The book is the result of more than three decades of studying streams in Michigan, several trips in Japan, and fieldwork in our western and northwestern rivers. The book teaches readers about stream ecology and related riparian forests and how they are interconnected with animals, insects, soil, surrounding terrain, topography and geology. Fausch illustrated his text with many nice black-and-white sketches, and excellent location maps to orient readers. Readers also learn about how the stream experiments are carried out, also the occasionally huge challenges in the field.

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