The Nature of the Place: On the Flora and Fauna of the Adirondacks

A love letter to the Adirondacks, revealing the hidden wonders and interconnected lives of its wildlife by one of the region’s most prolific and prominent residents.

In these dazzling pages, readers meet the big charismatic animals of the Adirondacks, the black bear and the moose. We encounter little creatures, too, all of which lead fascinating lives while nearly unseen: tiny fish that live in exquisite mountain streams; the infuriating and almost invisible biting insects called no-see-ums; centipedes; millipedes; and earthworms. Discover an orchid that pays a steep price for its rough treatment of bumblebees; plants so desperate for nitrogen they’ve taken to catching animals and eating them; poison-ivy and the reasons why we might want to exchange our dislike of it for love; and a common wildflower that goes through serial sex changes. Loons, owls, falcons, eagles, and songbirds pour out effusions of apparent ecstasy here, along with much about bobcats, foxes, snowshoe hares, beavers, and flying squirrels. Snakes, frogs, salamanders, and big predatory fish make appearances also, as well as fungi that produce light in the dark, and bacteria that manipulate the atmosphere to their own advantage, even causing rain and snow to fall.

Gathered materials from his decades-long column at the Adirondack Explorer and elsewhere, extensively revised and rewritten for this book, Kanze’s singular meditations on the flora and fauna of his home resonate far beyond his own beautiful, beloved, biologically vibrant neck of the woods.