Everyday Biophilia

The United States is home to some of the world’s most beautiful and cherished national parks. One of the loveliest is Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, home to the Brooks River and its world famous brown bears. In his new book, The Bears of Brooks Falls: Wildlife and Survival on Alaska’s Brooks River (Countryman Press, 2021), Mike Fitz takes us on a tour of the park, opening a window on one of our few remaining, largely unspoiled, and truly dazzling wildernesses. As a former, long-time National Park Service ranger at Katmai, Mike Fitz is the perfect person to escort us through the park and its extraordinary wildlife. From first page to last, he delivers a detailed, fascinating mosaic of Katmai, particularly the population of brown bears that, in his words, “make a living” fishing for salmon in the Brooks River. Katmai National Park and Preserve   Katmai is located about 300 miles SW of Anchorage, on the Alaskan Peninsula. It’s a remote destination, accessible only...