MOTHER'S DAY SPECIALS! SHOW ME MORE
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- There are species of trees in Tasmania that predate the last glacial age, and are found nowhere else on the planet. These paleo-endemics are scientifically fascinating, and there are individuals that vie for the titles of oldest living trees, having survived for millennia. But they are under threat, as climate change wreaks longer and harder bushfires on the landscape, and these survivors of an ancient age – and the greed and ignorance of colonial history – are threatened.
Darby sets out to see them for himself, to talk to the scientists and conservationists who have taken on the tasks of protection and preservation. From the rarest tree of all, King's Lomatia – one individual of one species – to the 'pines' Pencil, King Billy and Huon, the grand eucalypts and the Myrtle Beech, and finally the deciduous beech Fagus, Darby weaves a tale of the trees and their worst enemy, mankind – who might also be their best chance of survival.
Short chapters make this an easy read, even if the topics are sometimes cause for despair (for me, that is the history of over-extraction, waste and thoughtless fire-setting). A section of photographs and reproductions of lithographs by Hobart artist Kaye Green add to the worth of the book, which I think already to be one of my books of the year. Lindy
Andrew Darby is the author of Flight Lines, on long distance migratory shorebirds, and Harpoon on whales and whaling. Flight Lines won the Royal Zoological Society of NSW's Whitley Award for the Best Natural History, and the Premier's Prize for Non-fiction in the Tasmanian Literary Awards. It was shortlisted for the Prime Minister's Award for Non-fiction. He was the Hobart correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
ABBEY'S BOOKSELLER PICK ----- There are species of trees in Tasmania that predate the last glacial age, and are found nowhere else on the planet. These paleo-endemics are scientifically fascinating, and there are individuals that vie for the titles of oldest living trees, having survived for millennia. But they are under threat, as climate change wreaks longer and harder bushfires on the landscape, and these survivors of an ancient age – and the greed and ignorance of colonial history – are threatened.
Darby sets out to see them for himself, to talk to the scientists and conservationists who have taken on the tasks of protection and preservation. From the rarest tree of all, King's Lomatia – one individual of one species – to the 'pines' Pencil, King Billy and Huon, the grand eucalypts and the Myrtle Beech, and finally the deciduous beech Fagus, Darby weaves a tale of the trees and their worst enemy, mankind – who might also be their best chance of survival.
Short chapters make this an easy read, even if the topics are sometimes cause for despair (for me, that is the history of over-extraction, waste and thoughtless fire-setting). A section of photographs and reproductions of lithographs by Hobart artist Kaye Green add to the worth of the book, which I think already to be one of my books of the year. Lindy
