Wild Sanctuaries

Fülszöveg

From the sand dunes of the Atlantic Coast to the islands of the Pacific and the tundra of Alaska lie hundreds of national wildlife refuges preserving our unspoiled national heritage and opening up new horizons to American lovers of nature. Never before have the beauty and excitement of these great wildlife preserves been captured, so vividly and so effectively, in one magnificently illustrated volume.
Wild Sanctuaries
Our National Wildlife Refuges— A Heritage Restored
ROBERT MURPHY
Foreword by Stewart L. Udall Secretary of the Interior
Illustrated with over 250 photographs in full color and monochrome, and 32 maps
Amid the golden marshes and blue waters of a national wildlife refuge on the Delaware coast, Robert Murphy found the road back to wild America. There, at the Bombay Hook Refuge, the wild geese and ducks winter in confident freedom. Visits to Bombay Hook inspired him to travel farther through the great National Wildlife Refuge System that dots America from coast... Tovább

Fülszöveg

From the sand dunes of the Atlantic Coast to the islands of the Pacific and the tundra of Alaska lie hundreds of national wildlife refuges preserving our unspoiled national heritage and opening up new horizons to American lovers of nature. Never before have the beauty and excitement of these great wildlife preserves been captured, so vividly and so effectively, in one magnificently illustrated volume.
Wild Sanctuaries
Our National Wildlife Refuges— A Heritage Restored
ROBERT MURPHY
Foreword by Stewart L. Udall Secretary of the Interior
Illustrated with over 250 photographs in full color and monochrome, and 32 maps
Amid the golden marshes and blue waters of a national wildlife refuge on the Delaware coast, Robert Murphy found the road back to wild America. There, at the Bombay Hook Refuge, the wild geese and ducks winter in confident freedom. Visits to Bombay Hook inspired him to travel farther through the great National Wildlife Refuge System that dots America from coast to coast. That journey, a pilgrimage back to the wild America now so largely vanished elsewhere, is described in this book.
The adventure, Robert Murphy writes, "would eventually place me practically eyeball to chilly eyeball with a large Okefenokee alligator in Georgia, within fifteen yards of a very large Kodiak brown bear in Alaska," and "within stone-throwing range of the very rare musk-ox on Nunivak Island in the Bering Sea." He presents a wealth of wildlife refuges—from a wild Sea Island off the Carolina coast to the thou-sand-mile ornithologist's paradise of Hawaii's Leeward Islands; from the National Bison Range in Montana's mountains to the lonely plateaus of an antelope refuge in Oregon. "Wild Sanctuaries tells also of the tragic waste of our wildlife resources in the past; of many rare species saved on the verge of
Front jacket photo: Sandhill cranes dancing, by David B. Marshall, from Bureau of Sport Fisheries and Wildlife, U.S. Department oi the Interior. Back jacket photo: Moose, by C. J. Henry.
extinction; of magnificent work done by dedicated men in restoring misused land to its original splendor, tempting animals and birds to return to areas they had abandoned. The book presents fascinating details of the regular paths, or flyways, along which thousands of birds migrate each year. Here too is a vivid depiction of the wondrous diversity of birds and animals that inhabit our sanctuaries: the rare whooping crane and Everglade kite; the American bison, pronghorn, sea otter, and loggerhead turtle; the alligators in ghostly swamps festooned with Spanish moss in the South, and the caribou, walrus, and reindeer of Alaska.
The volume closes with the most extensive directory of national wildlife refuges currently available, including pertinent, practical information for visitors. Public use of the refuges is being encouraged where it does not interfere with their primary purpose, Nearly twenty million people visit these refuges each year. They include sightseers, birdwatchers, and photographers. Many enjoy picnicking, swimming, boating, and some camping. Waters in many refuges are open for fishing, and hunting is available on certain refuges at particular seasons.
Activities available at individual refuges are described in this directory. And throughout the book, America's wildlife sanctuaries come to life in superb photographs in full color and monochrome by such leading nature photographers as Leonard Lee Rue, Thase Daniel, Willis Peterson, Luther C. Goldman, W. F. Kubichek, Gale Monson, David B. Marshall, Allan D. Cruickshank, and many others.
Printed in rich gravure, Vfild Sanctuaries is a magnificent portrait of untrammeled nature, protected from man by man a book which will stand alone in its field for many years to come.
ROBERT MURPHY, one of America's most distinguished nature writers, was formerly senior editor of The Saturday Evening Post. He is the author of The Peregrine Falcon, The Golden Eagle, The Phantom Setter and The Pond, which won the 1964 Button Animal Book Award. In addition, his Wild Geese Calling, a book for young people, received the 1966 Dutton Junior Animal Book Award. In his free time, Mr. Murphy is a photographer, camper, grouse hunter, and falconer. Vissza