Book of the Month: March 2020
I set a goal for myself this year to read more books about nature, the environment, wildlife, conservation, sustainability, and pretty much anything in those veins. This blog is a place for me to talk about things I learn through these books and the further curiosities they foster. This isn’t a book review blog, but rather a place that will hopefully inspire others to join me on this journey down the paper trail in an effort to learn more about our planet.
I started my quest in March with a book called American Buffalo: In Search of a Lost Icon by Steven Rinella. I chose this book largely because I know close to nothing about buffalo. I love Rinella’s storytelling style and his way with words (I listen to his podcast and watch his show - he has been a huge inspiration to me as I’ve started this blog), so who better to learn about this incredible creature from?
We follow Rinella on a trip to Alaska after his very lucky drawing of a buffalo tag. But the book is so much more than this hunting endeavor alone. Rinella also shares a story about a buffalo skull he found in Montana and his efforts to learn more about it via radiocarbon dating and other science. He also sprinkles in historical tidbits about the buffalo - everything from the origin of the buffalo nickel, to the use of “buffalo jumps,” to the relationship between buffalo and other species like wolves, frogs, and (of course) humans.
Rinella’s passion for this iconic North American creature is at the root of every chapter. His writing about his hunting trip in Alaska puts you right at his side through every hardship and triumph. You can almost see the buffalo he spots on a distant ridge. You feel anxious when he sees grizzly tracks by his camp. You feel a chill to your bones when he’s wading through the ice-cold Chetaslina River. You feel a mixture of success, sorrow, and respect when he finally finds and shoots his buffalo.
Toward the end of the book, Rinella poses a question that I often used to wonder about hunters: “How can I claim to love the very thing that I worked so hard to kill?”
Reading this book and listening to Rinella talk on other platforms, however, this guy’s love for these animals is glaring and admirable. He has a deep knowledge of what he’s hunting and its relationship with its environment. This book shifted my perspective on hunting. In order to hunt an animal, you must learn everything you can about that animal. You need to know where it likes to hang out, what it likes to eat, what it smells like, what it sounds like, and more. In learning these things, you’d figure out what is important to that animal and, in turn, what is also important to you.
This is the side of hunting that most fascinates me. The vast knowledge and the constant effort that goes into it. The active pursuit of conservation issues and learning about the land. In engaging so deeply with animals, we also hold a mirror up to ourselves and ask what we can do for the environment we share with them.
Rinella argues the buffalo is the perfect icon for this. Bringing the buffalo back from the brink of extinction allows us to see “our innermost desires and failures” all at once. I’ll leave you with my favorite quote from the book, which expands on this point of duality:
“At once it is a symbol of the tenacity of wilderness and the destruction of wilderness; it’s a symbol of Native American culture and the death of Native American culture; it’s a symbol of the strength and vitality of America and the pettiness and greed of America; it represents a frontier both forgotten and remembered; it stands for freedom and captivity, extinction and salvation.”