Shadow Mountain

May 6, 2002
Naturalist Askins narrates what is both an autobiography and the story of one of America's most controversial conservation projects—the reintroduction of wolves to Yellowstone National Park. Idyllic childhood summer evenings in northern Michigan; interning at a captive wolf project in Indiana; spending time on the west coast of Africa, Yale University and Montana accent the author's exploration of her life story as an enduring love of nature. Askins accomplishes her task with fascinating anecdotes and insightful introspection. The reader learns about the writer's life-altering experience as a college student raising a newborn wolf cub. The heartfelt bonding of the young woman with her wild charge and the enduring memory of this incident helped form her character and direct her future. In 1986, Askins founded the Wolf Fund, whose purpose and function was to reestablish wolves into their proper place within the ecosystem of Yellowstone. The author is most engaging when she candidly recounts the emotional bruises from her sometimes naive misperceptions about both the brutal natural world and the rough-and-tumble world of Western ecological politics. In honestly detailing these revelatory episodes, Askins reexamines her scientific suppositions and her personal premises. Those interested in wildlife, ecology and especially wolves will find this a delightful read.

June 1, 2002
In the 1990s, Yellowstone National Park still had every plant and animal species that was present when European settlers first reached North America except for one--the wolf. And that one was a keystone species, a predator whose absence had a significant effect on the workings of the ecosystem. As an undergraduate student, Askins worked at Indiana's Wolf Park on a study of captive wolves and fell in love with an orphaned wolf pup. The plight of this little wolf inspired her to form the Wolf Fund, an organization whose only goal was to return the wolf to Yellowstone. The story of how this goal was finally reached, despite the enmity of ranchers, death threats, illegal killing of the newly released wolves, and the political machinations of western (and some eastern) politicians, is interwoven with meditations on the meaning of wilderness" "and our connection with nature. Working in the story of her life, the author provides a personal touch that draws the reader in. This celebration of wolves will be popular in all collections.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2002, American Library Association.)