Crown of the Continent: The Last Great Wilderness of the Rocky Mountains

by Ralph Waldt, I Van Doig (Foreword), Douglas Chadwick (Afterword)

A professional naturalist's incredible, personal portrait of America's largest and most pristine wilderness in the lower 48 states: the Northern Continental Divide ecosystem in Montana, Alberta, and British Columbia. This vast area includes two national parks in two countries (Glacier in the U.S. and Waterton Lakes in Canada), three designated wilderness areas (including the famous Bob Marshall Wilderness, the largest in the lower 48) and numerous adjacent national forests and private land. The book describes the area's geology, wildlife, plant life, and crucial environmental issues. An extremely timely release because of renewed plans to drill for oil and gas along the Rocky Mountain Front.

164 pages, Paperback

First published October 30, 2004

About the author

My deep passion for wilderness and the study of natural history began in early childhood. I started learning about the natural world via walks into the forests of western Europe and New York’s Adirondack Mountains, then spent nearly four decades of my life in the wildest parts of Montana. Shortly after the turn of the millennium, I began living and working in Arizona. My professional career as a naturalist spanned over 19 years of employment by The Nature Conservancy. As an interpretive naturalist, I designed and conducted a wide variety of adult natural history field courses, managed an outdoor education program that exposed thousands of school children to the wonders of nature, and led more than 1,600 educational hikes in Montana and southern Arizona. I served as keynote speaker at events for The Wilderness Society, the international Crown of the Continent Workshop, the Montana Audubon Society’s statewide meeting, and others. I have lectured and given presentations at universities, private and public schools, and for many civic organizations throughout the United States. I also served as a guest lecturer for the staff of Glacier National Park, and led numerous field trips for The Glacier Institute, The Sierra Club, The National Audubon Society, The Boy Scouts of America, and other groups. I currently live in the Middle San Pedro Valley of southeastern Arizona where I continue to study—and learn from—the natural world.

Reviews

[Tom · Rating 4 out of 5]

The author does a very thorough job of describing the wide variety of flora and fauna found in the Crown of the Continent through his many years of first hand experiences hiking and trapping in this wild land. The Crown (as it is sometimes called) is a beautiful stretch of land from Glacier National Park in northwestern Montana heading north into the Canadian Waterton Biosphere Reserve. This unique area is home to grizzlies, elk, mountain lions, otters, wolverines, lynx, brown and golden eagles to name just a few. The author has anecdotes about all of them. He also describes in detail some of the numerous wildflowers and other vegetation the careful observer can enjoy in this spectacular part of North America. The excellent photos in this book help to visually explain what the author is expounding upon and are a great addition to the text. I recommend this book to anyone that loves learning about nature and all that it has to offer humankind.

[Brianna Norris · Rating 3 out of 5]

The photography is stunning. The captions with each photo were informative and interesting.

As someone who has visited this area of the country, I loved the representation of my favorite National Park. What I didn’t love about this book was the writing. I found certain pages to have a “skippy” feel, like the author couldn’t decide what to focus on, so he wrote sentence after sentence that didn’t mesh together.

This would be a great book for students and travelers interested in visiting this part of the country.