Writing the Land - by Lis McLoughlin (Paperback)

About the Book

A celebration of the Connecticut River. Each of 10 anthology chapters contains poems, photos, maps, and information about conserved lands. They celebrate the beauty and value of the environment, inhabitants, and history of this watershed.

Book Synopsis

This anthology is a celebration of the Connecticut River. Each of 10 chapters contains poems, photos, maps, and information about actual conserved lands from official divisions of the Silvio O. Conte National Fish and Wildlife Refuge (Part I), to a variety of non-profit, municipal, and other dedicated River Partners (Part II). They celebrate the beauty and value of the environment, inhabitants, and history of this great watershed. A prologue by Professor Richard Little interprets the unique geology of the valley, while a foreword by David L. Deen of the Connecticut River Conservancy and Trout Unlimited encourages everyone to explore. Commissioned by the US Fish and Wildlife Service, we hope you are inspired to visit the many public lands featured here.

Review Quotes

Rivers are a part of Earth's circulatory system--and we human beings take rivers to heart. They transport us, feed us, bathe us, offer us beauty and essential habitat. Here is an essential book that celebrates the great Connecticut River in prose and poetry and in so doing encourages us to care for a river that runs through the heart of Connecticut.

-Margaret Gibson

Poet Laureate of the State of Connecticut (2019-2022)

Author of The Glass Globe and Draw Me without Boundaries

This slim volume elegantly complies with the area's history (geologic history through recent conservation projects), information on local wildlife and habitats, photographs, and even maps of trails into a sort of naturalists' travel guide to the Connecticut River watershed. It is all woven together by the poets, who invite us along to attend the "the church of each rolling stream, / where congregations of ferns meditate in prayer/ against choral backdrops from welcoming warblers" [excerpt from "Big Pondicherry Amphitheatre" by Rodger Martin]. This is a church which I, too, have found in some of this area's tremendous public open spaces.

--Julia Blyth, naturalist and resident of the Connecticut River watershed

A sweeping and poetical picture of New England's premier river, from Fourth Lake New Hampshire to Old Saybrook Connecticut on Long Island Sound.

-Brendan J. Whittaker

Former Secretary of Vermont Agency of Natural Resources,

and Former Chair Connecticut River Joint Commissions

This book folds intimate moments in the woods together with big-picture landscape ecology and conservation to capture wild places and opportunities for nature connection up and down one of the most beautiful - and most historically important - river valleys in North America. Through a juxtaposition of poems, essays, and photographs we are brought to the frontlines of conservation through multiple modes, giving us a holistic appreciation. Whether or not you live in the valley, the poetry inspires, the essays educate, and the locations will give you directions to explore.

-Noah Charney, PhD

Assistant Professor of Conservation Biology at the University of Maine

author of These Trees Tell a Story: the Art of Reading Landscapes