Listen to the Land Conservation Conversations
Stories of Grassroots Environmentalism by Dennis Boyer Reviewed
Jul 31, 2009
A collection of personal stories offering a variety of perspectives towards understanding environmental activism and the conservation lifestyle is found in Listen to the Land: Conservation Conversations. Dennis Boyer, a Wisconsin author, visits with many who have taken that path on purpose or by happenstance, including many lovers of the land who have never labeled themselves an activist.
This book review offers a glimpse into the pages of Listen to the Land: Conservation Conversations. It is for readers wondering what drives someone towards the environmental movement.
Grassroots Environmental Movements
The short essays are laid out in seasonal terms; spring in the east, summer in the south, autumn in the west and winter in the north. As Boyer recounts in his Beforeword, “in deference to the Native perspective of the wheel of the year as metaphor for human growth.” Although from Wisconsin, Boyer’s stories span the upper Mississippi Valley, across to Lake Michigan and north to the Canadian border.
Boyer contends local environmentalism is developed from experiences living with the land and valuing its importance. In “Ice Ages,” making common cause involves understanding what exactly curling means to the North Country. As is explained, it is the relationship between cold and winter events like tree bark explosions, ice fishing, twenty below zero weather and human polar bear plunges keeping life moving as citizens await the spring thaw.
“The Quiet in the Land” story recounts how two diametrically opposed groups came together, the Amish in central Wisconsin and the Ho-Chunk Nation, to oppose expansion of a military bombing range. Although both value the land, they do so in their own ways not always easily understood by the other.
Urban Environmentalism
Conservation and environmentalism terms quickly spring images of the wide-open savanna spaces, forested woods, and massive lakes to mind. But Boyer reminds readers of advocating resource-use that goes on in urban environments every bit as valuable.
Issues of urban sprawl and sustainable growing are uttermost in city life by activists as told in “In Defense of Neighborhoods.” From the progressive island of Madison, Wisconsin, surrounded on all sides by conservative rural countryside, comes a commentary on land use and neighborhood networks.
In the end, Listen to the Land: Conservation Conversations is about listening as Boyer plainly states. That since the time of popular environmental activism in the 1960s but throughout when quieter voices have spoken in defense of land and wildlife, there has always been many speaking up. This book brings together a collage of voices that do not call themselves environmental activists, yet have had a lot to say.
Wisconsin Author Dennis Boyer
Dennis Boyer is a lawyer for conservation groups and lives near Dodgeville in the southwestern corner of Wisconsin. Boyer is the author of many stories of the Midwest including Prairie Whistles: Tales of Midwest Railroading. The Wisconsin author is also coeditor of A Place to Which We Belong: Wisconsin Writers on Wisconsin Landscapes, an anthology of short essays.
How to Locate Listen to the Land
Readers will find Listen to the Land: Conservation Conversations by Dennis Boyer by using ISBN 978-0-299-22564-3. Terrace Books, a trade imprint of the University of Wisconsin Press, published the book on April 22, 2009.
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