On the Wild Edge: In Search of a Natural Life

About this book

A naturalist captures the beauty and capriciousness of nature as he reflects on twenty-five years of life on a mountainside in southwestern Colorado Twenty-five years ago David Petersen and his wife Caroline pulled up stakes trading Laguna Beach California for a snug hand-built cabin in the wilderness. Today he knows that mountain land as intimately as anyone has ever known his family his lover or his own true self. He has become so attuned to his environment as this memoir demonstrates that when a dead twig snaps he knows what stepped on it how much it weighs and what its intentions are. The author conflates a quarter century into the adventures of four high-country seasons tracking the rigors of survival from the snowmelt that announces the arrival of spring to the decline and death of autumn and winter that will establish the fertile ground needed for next springs rebirth. Throughout each instance of personal history and story Petersen illustrates the complete reciprocity of nature where the same impulse that governs the flight of elk or bear also governs the predators impulse of pursuit. In the past we listened to Henry David Thoreau and Aldo Leopold; today it is Petersens turn. A committed believer in Thoreaus dictum "in wildness is the preservation of the earth " Petersens observations are lyrical scientific and from the heart. In this chaotic age his clear direct prose is rich with mystery and soul his words a plea for the survival of the remnant wilderness that surrounds us.