Read by John Patrick Walsh

John Seibert Farnsworth's delightful notes are not only about nature, but from nature as well. In Nature Beyond Solitude, he lets us peer over his shoulder as he takes his notes. We follow him to a series of field stations where he teams up with scientists, citizen scientists, rangers, stewards, and grad students engaged in long-term ecological study, all the while scribbling down what he sees, hears, and feels in the moment. With humor and insight, Farnsworth explores how communal experiences of nature might ultimately provide greater depths of appreciation for the natural world. In the course of his travels, Farnsworth visits the Hastings Natural History Reservation, the Santa Cruz Island Reserve, the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, the H. J. Andrews Experimental Forest, the North Cascades Institute's Environmental Learning Center, and more. "I keep saying that what we need are stories from the original real world, from what, in our estrangement from nature, is called 'the field.' And here they are…Farnsworth has found, and shares with us: great places, fine people, and the right words."

Mode of access: World Wide Web