The Nebraska Sandhills is the largest area of sand dunes in the western hemisphere, covering an area about as large as Vermont, New Hampshire, and Rhode Island combined. Unlike most dunes, the Sandhills region supports an astonishing variety of wildlife. Sixty million years ago the area lay submerged in a vast inland sea. As the land lifted and the waters receded, the sandhills were formed, built upon a sandy floor above a sandy basement. Paul A. Johnsgard's appreciation for the region includes its evolution, a process that continues today making a very special place, patiently shaped by water, wind, and time. Sometimes 450 feet higher than their sloping valleys, the hills themselves are almost entirely covered with plants that manage to survive on an unstable substrate and in a climate of merciless heat and cold. They provide homes and resting places for rare species and sustain the livelihoods of a remarkable variety of people. Though firmly established in science, this book is an extended love letter to the Sandhills region and its people, plants, and animals. Johnsgard is now in his third decade of research in the Sandhills. This Fragile Land lets others see what he sees, a land with a fascinating range of geological, biological, and ecological vistas. Paul A. Johnsgard is Foundation Professor of the School of Biological Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Widely published throughout the English-speaking world, he has become a foremost authority on ornithology and bird behavior. His thirty-three books include Birds of the Great Plains, The Platte, Birds of the Rocky Mountains, Those of the Gray Wind, and Diving Birds of North America, all available from the University ofNebraska Press.

This atlas examines nearly every aspect of the natural history of the Nebraska Sand Hills, including Indian occupation, settlement, current range practices & the "cow-country" lifestyle. These 19,300 square miles comprise the largest dune area in the Western Hemisphere. The grass-stabilized dunes, some as high as 400 feet & as long as 20 miles, were formed by blowing sand during a surprisingly recent time, mostly the last 8,000 years. The climate ranges from subhumid in the east to semiarid in the west. The area is an ecological meeting ground, where species from different vegetative & faunal regions coexist, creating distinctive biological communities. The sandy soils & underlying sands & gravels have allowed for the accumulation of a vast quantity of groundwater, much of which "outcrops" at the surface. This accounts for another unique characteristic: the dry, dune-top prairie ecosystem beside a wetland, lake, or constantly flowing stream. "But this atlas is much more than an explanation of the climate & geology of the Sand Hills. Illustrated with wonderful color photos, fold-out maps, graphs & numerous charts, the book explores the entire ecology of the Sand Hills," said Francis Moul in his review for the DES MOINES REGISTER.

After her life as she knows it ends in heartbreak, Mary Rasmussen, a strong-willed and independent young ranch woman living in the Sandhills of western Nebraska, suddenly feels that everything she has believed in--God, her instincts, the land itself--has failed her. She abandons her cultural and emotional ties, succumbing to circumstances she thinks she is powerless to control. In a rash decision, she marries a conservative, patriarchal preacher who doesn't understand her, the ranching community, or anything beyond his own beliefs. Mary's inner turmoil builds as she comes to appreciate the gravity of her situation and the need to take action.

“A beautifully written epic that seamlessly intertwines a family’s history with a region’s, and, ultimately, with a nation’s. An ambitious novel.” —Ron Rash, New York Times–bestselling author of Above the Waterfall Ten years after the massacre of more than two hundred Lakota men, women, and children at Wounded Knee, J.B. Bennett, a white rancher, and Star, a young Native American woman, are murdered in a remote meadow on J.B.’s land. The deaths bring together the scattered members of the Bennett family: J.B.’s cunning and hard father, Drum; his estranged wife, Dulcinea; and his teenage sons, Cullen and Hayward. As the mystery of these twin deaths unfolds, the history of the dysfunctional Bennetts and their damning secrets is revealed, exposing the conflicted heart of a nation caught between past and future. At the center of The Bones of Paradise are two remarkable women. Dulcinea yearns for redemption and the courage to mend her broken family and reclaim the land that is rightfully hers. Rose, scarred by the terrible slaughters that have decimated and dislocated her people, struggles to accept the death of her sister, Star, and refuses to rest until she is avenged. Jonis Agee’s bold novel is a panorama of America at the dawn of a new century and the durable men and women who dared to tame it. “Deceptively leisurely, intensely heart-rending . . . Rose and Dulcinea are women strong enough to cow John Wayne.” —Kirkus Reviews, starred review “Deadwood has nothing on Nebraska’s Sand Hills. Jonis Agee serves up a gritty, bloody romance.” —Stewart O'Nan, bestselling author of A Prayer for the Dying “The finest western novel since Lonesome Dove . . . an epic saga with elements of a Greek tragedy.” —New York Journal of Books

The co-author of "The Shortgrass Prairie" paints a startlingly vivid portrait of the Nebraska Sandhills as he delivers riveting accounts of the flora, fauna, wildlife, and rich cultural history of the region.

"Nearly forty essays about the history, geography, geology, ecology, and conservation of the Nebraska Sandhills, supplemented by numerous remarkable photos of the region"--