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Books > Sport & Leisure > Sports & outdoor recreation > Field sports: fishing, hunting, shooting
It is now more than ten years since Bruce Brown began the Olympic
Peninsula wanderings that led him to write this powerful account of
how greed, indifference and environmental mismanagement have
threatened the survival of the wild Pacific salmon and, as a
result, the region's ecology and its people. Acclaimed by critics
who likened it to Coming Into the Country by John McPhee and Rachel
Carson's Silent Spring, Mountain in the Clouds has become a classic
of natural history. As the struggle to protect Northwest salmon
runs and the urgency of the fight against environmental
deterioration escalates, Mountain in the Clouds remains an
important and illuminating story, as timely now as when it was
first written.
Essential Fly Fishing - an all-colour handbook - presents the
fundamentals of this great sport quickly and effectively. Proven
teaching techniques and bright, helpful colour illustrations will
enable new fly fishers to: find fish in streams, lakes, and salt
water; select and assemble proper, balanced tackle; cast a fly line
with authority - with rhythm, not strength; recognise and learn to
simulate natural fish foods; learn techniques that really work; tie
effective knots that have maximum strength; and begin the endlessly
interesting process of tying your own flies. This book concisely
explains fishing ethics, offers helpful safety precautions, and
defines basic angling terms. The chapter on fly-rod fish describes
the unique sport that many species - from trout to whitefish -
offer fly fishers. Essential Fly Fishing is a crisp, helpful,
superbly illustrated primer of the highest rank.
'Retire? You can't retire!', Sir David Attenborough told John
Bartram, when the man who has been gamekeeper and senior wildlife
officer for Richmond Park for the past thirty years announced his
intention to step away from the role, bidding farewell to the
iconic park which has been his home, the backdrop for a career many
would give anything for, and a way of life for so long. During a
career spanning four decades John has been the behind-the-scenes
mastermind ensuring the welfare and maintenance of Richmond Park's
world-famous herd of deer - widely thought of as the finest herd in
captivity. Working with these fabled creatures has demanded
balancing their needs with the very real, and often fatal, dangers
the park's visitors pose to his herd, and John pulls no punches
when it comes to his opinion on the deer's place in the scheme of
things, the human 'invaders' and the collision of their two worlds.
A remarkable diary chronicling the final year of John's charmed
life as the guardian of Richmond Park, this memoir tells of the
unique demands of each new season, and of the enormous wrench he
will feel upon no longer waking up in the midst of so much
unchanged and wild beauty.Park Life is a treasure trove of stories
and memories, some poignant and moving, others offbeat and
hilarious: from the quirk of fate and farcical interview that led
to him getting the job, to living in close-quarters with the deer,
the tragedy of putting down fatally wounded animals, and the annual
ritual of the rut - as dependable as the rising and setting of the
sun.
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