Stories from Afield: Adventures with Wild Things in Wild Places

by Bruce L. Smith

2017 Great Northwest Book Festival in the Nature Writing Category
2017 WWA Spur Awards, Finalist in Best Western Contemporary Nonfiction

Over the past four decades, Bruce L. Smith has worked with most big-game species in some of the American West’s most breathtaking and challenging landscapes. In Stories from Afield , readers join Smith on his adventures as a naturalist, sportsman, and wildlife biologist, as he pulls us into the field of learning and discovery across wilderness areas of western Montana, the National Elk Refuge in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and a South African temperate forest.

Ranging from humorous to harrowing, Smith’s essays recount capturing newborn elk calves, stalking mountain goats on icy cliffs, being stranded on a mountain after riding out a helicopter crash, confrontations with bears during his research, plus quirky and edifying hunting tales. Throughout his adventures, the magnetism and danger of wild nature are ever present, reminding us that our fascination with wildness often stems from its unpredictability. 

Genres: Nonfiction

222 pages, Paperback

Published October 1, 2016

About the author

Bruce Smith is a wildlife biologist who holds a PhD degree in Zoology. During his career with the federal government, he studied and managed most large mammal species that roam the western United States. He’s authored five nonfiction books of natural history, conservation, and outdoor adventure. Among them is Life on the Rocks: A Portrait of the Mountain Goat, which won the National Outdoor Book Award.

In his middle-grade novel series, Legend Keepers, Bruce draws upon his experiences and fascination with wild animals to stir the imaginations of young readers and immerse them in the natural world. Bruce and his wife Diana live in southwest Montana not far from mountain goats. Visit him at www.brucesmithwildlife.com

Reviews

[Lindsay Martinez · Rating 4 out of 5]

Did I take this book from my office months ago and only just now finish it? Yes. Will I ever get the chance to return it to the office? Perhaps no. Can I mail it to someone who wants it? Sure!

This book is a collection of stories from a wildlife biologist who focused on studying and managing elk and mountain goats. While his stories of hunting and fishing may be less compelling to some, I do think Megan and Nicole would enjoy this one. The author shares stories from the wild that span his whole life, from finding turtles as a kids to his backpacking trips as a retiree. Perhaps most interesting are tales of taking helicopter rides or horse trips through wildernesses to find baby elk and capture them for research. Short nonfiction stories about nature are occasionally boring but usually very nice and peaceful. Ecology is a beautiful subject!

[Steven Sweeney · Rating 5 out of 5]

For readers who revere wild things and the places they dwell, Stories from Afield is a gem of a book. The author, Dr. Bruce Smith, is a former biologist with the Department of Interior and an authority on two of North America’s keystone big game species – elk and mountain goats. In Stories from Afield, Bruce shares a collection of narratives from his childhood in Michigan, education as a Montana college student and sportsman, and his profession as a wildlife scientist and conservationist studying the lives of creatures great and small.

As a reader and naturalist myself, I found many of Dr. Smith’s adventures rekindling memories from my own life experience, and the drama, warmth and humor in this book kept me fully engaged. Early in the book Bruce recalls a hilarious episode when he and his two young classmates wrangled an angry 25-lb snapping turtle during grade school recess. On a much more serious note, he recounts a harrowing escape from a mountaintop helicopter crash during a survey for elk and mule deer in the Wind River Range of Wyoming. Later, the reader joins Dr. Smith as he clambers after mountain goats on the icy ridges of the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, and as he faces off with a black bear that has captured and killed one of his radio-collared elk calves in Grand Teton National Park.

Throughout these adventures and misadventures, the depth and breadth of Bruce’s field experience – and his commitment to conservation – shines through, and he approaches the risks and rewards of his life’s work with grace, humor, and a rare talent for storytelling. Stories from Afield is a highly entertaining natural history contribution and leaves the reader clamoring for a sequel.

[Claire Helmke · Rating 4 out of 5]

First half of the book included stories of growing up and going hunting, not really want I had wanted to read, although I get the importance to the author of a backstory. Hunting stories almost always sound like exaggerated self promotion over fact.

Once the stories turned to the author's experience as a biologist is when the book got good. Reading about creeping over rocky ridgelines to observe mountain goat behavior and trying to dart elk calves from a helicopters is fantastic and so much more interesting.

[Alyson Indrunas · Rating 3 out of 5]

This took me a bit to finish because I had to put it down several times to mourn this current moment. It's highly unlikely that conservation and care for wilderness will be a priority of this country moving forward, so books like this can provide an historical record about wild places.

"I had the rest of my life to live among the bustle of civilization, but only this short time to be immersed in truly wild nature."