Summer is upon us, and throughout the United States this is the best season to explore the mountains. Here in the eastern US our mountain range is the Appalachians, and while these mountains are lower and less rugged than many other ranges, this is a region of remarkable biological diversity. Well over a hundred million people live within a few hours’ drive of the Appalachian Mountains. If you’re one of them, there’s a good chance you’ll visit part of the range this summer.
Before you go, if you’d like a stellar overview of the biological richness of the Appalachians, dig out an old classic: Maurice Brooks’ The Appalachians. First published in 1965 by Houghton Mifflin, and reprinted several times by the small regional publisher Seneca Books, this title is readily available in the used book marketplace. If you love the eastern mountains, snap up a copy while you can; you don’t have to pay much on the current market.
Maurice Brooks taught forestry at West Virginia University and was well known and revered among naturalists throughout the mid-Atlantic region up to the time of his death in 1993. In the early 1960s Houghton Mifflin, publisher of the Peterson Field Guides and hundreds of other first-rate natural history books, began a series of books that they titled “The Naturalist’s America.” I don’t know how many titles came from this project; I’ve found only two others: Desert: The American Southwest, by Ruth Kirk, and Sierra Nevada, by Verna R. Johnston. The series was edited by Roger Tory Peterson and John A. Livingston. The idea was terrific: a series of books to provide overviews of the country’s great biomes.
Peterson and Livingston couldn’t have picked a more passionate and eloquent voice for the Appalachian Mountains than Maurice Brooks. The Appalachians is loaded with great information about many aspects of natural history—birds, plants, salamanders, geology, ferns, etc.—and all the facts are woven together in a well-written series of wonderfully entertaining tales. Many chapters focus on habitats, not on individual taxa. Brooks dearly loved these mountains, and for thirty years I’ve dearly loved this book. I’ve read vignettes during field trips so many times I can quote several passages verbatim. I’ll share just a few of my favorite stories and leave you to discover others on your own.
The southern Appalachians hold a higher diversity of salamanders than any other place on earth. While describing these fascinating creatures and their evolution through the various habitats of the region, Brooks pauses to tell a tale of discovery, when Leonard Llewellyn and Graham Netting discovered the Cheat Mountain Salamander. A few pages later he tells of an encounter with state troopers bewildered by Brooks’ midnight salamander studies.
He also tells of the secluded spot on Cabin Mountain in West Virginia where two species of European heaths are growing far away from civilization, the only known location where these plants are known to grow outside of gardens in North America. He begins the tale with a wonderfully succinct theory: “I suppose some homesick Scot planted them there.” But nothing beats the short first chapter, “It All Ties Together,” which ends, “No others emphasize the oneness of the mountains so compellingly as do a white bird and a white flower.” What bird and one flower? You really must read this book.
Brooks, Maurice. The Appalachians. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company, 1965, reprinted 1975 by Seneca Books, Grantsville WV. 346 pages. ISBN-10: 0-89092-005-2. Out of print but readily available in the used book marketplace, often under $10.