Thunder Tree: Lessons from an Urban Wildland

""When people connect with nature, it happens somewhere," writes Bob Pyle. "My own point of intimate contact with the land was a ditch." The High Line Canal, originally built outside of Denver as part of an ambitious plan to bring water to eastern Colorado for irrigation, became the young Pyle's place of sanctuary and play, his birthplace as a naturalist, and the inspiration for his widely quoted concept of "the extinction of experience."

An engrossing memoir and an eloquent portrait of place, The Thunder Tree reveals the deep relationship between people--especially children--and the natural world. For a new generation of readers, Pyle's environmental coming-of-age story offers a powerful argument for preserving opportunities to explore nature.