Northern Front: New and Selected Essays

In places as remote as Alaska’s north slope and as familiar as a mid-western family farm there are tensions that exist between nature and the people who define a given land as home. People drawn to the wilderness are often moved to save it or resist it, depending on their desire for adventure or comfort, tradition or change, sustainability or profit. In sixteen elegant essays, award-winning writer and naturalist John Hildebrand takes a clear-eyed look at how these forces move and change the people and the land. Hildebrand writes of landscapes in dispute: Native Alaskan groups are pitted against each other over oil development, Hmong emigrants jostle locals in a public hunting ground, farmers battle a formidable company town and city hall. Nature itself is also in flux as timber wolves and sandhill cranes reclaim lost ground and a marine biologist gauges the effect of an invading species on previously undisturbed areas. This book reflects the day-by-day disappearance of wild places and the ever-changing face of the American landscape. Hildebrand’s characters are unforgettable, and his stories gracefully capture the spirit of all people.