Cougar’s Crossing “To read a book by Lillian Ross is to travel to another time and place with characters who quickly become family. Read this true-to-life novel to feel the essence of the rugged era on the Canadian prairies… raw, messy, inspired by hope and motivated by grit. Ross weaves a poignant drama of wounded love, jealousy and human emotion.” Corrine McConchie, Librarian Vancouver Excerpt from Iris Tuftin’s Editor’s Comment …Could this be ‘his’ remains, we wondered? The hated man who killed our Aunt Florence in 1921? …The facts were overwhelming – more fascinating than we ever imagined. Now the story of Cougar’s Crossing would have to be changed. We knew the truth – or most of it. A Historical Novel with a Mysterious Twist The loud, brash, irreverent Cougar Wright swore like a trooper and didn’t believe in a higher power than his own strength, but he loved his family and wanted them to join him in his struggle to tame the wilderness. His family’s dance with destiny in Alberta’s Northwest would shake his world and theirs.

Discover the amazing true story of P-22, the wild cougar living in Los Angeles, in this inspiring picture book. P-22, the famed “Hollywood Cougar,” was born in a national park near Los Angeles, California. When it was time for him to leave home and stake a claim to his own territory, he embarked on a perilous journey—somehow crossing sixteen lanes of the world’s worst traffic—to make his home in LA’s Griffith Park, overlooking the famed Hollywood sign. But Griffith Park is a tiny territory for a mountain lion, and P-22’s life has been filled with struggles. Residents of Los Angeles have embraced this brave cougar as their own and, along with the scientists monitoring P-22, raised money to build a wildlife bridge across Highway 101 to help cougars and other wildlife safely expand their territories and build new homes—ensuring their survival for years to come.

This powerful nonfiction picture book explores wildlife crossings around the world and how they are helping save thousands of animals every day. Around the world, bridges, tunnels, and highways are constantly being built to help people get from one place to another. But what happens when construction spreads over, under, across, and through animal habitats? Thankfully, groups of concerned citizens, scientists, engineers, and construction crews have come together to create wildlife crossings to help keep animals safe. From elk traversing a wildlife bridge across a Canadian interstate to titi monkeys using rope bridges over a Costa Rican road to salamanders creeping through tiny tunnels beneath a Massachusetts street, young readers are certain to be delighted and inspired by these ingenious solutions that are saving the lives of countless wild animals.

The real story of Frank (Cougar) Wright tells of a loud, brash, irreverent, pioneer to the Canadian Northwest from Wisconsin and the forests of Washington. Cougar swore like a trooper, and didn't believe in a higher power than his own strength, but he loved his family and wanted them to join him in his struggle to tame the wilderness in Canada. The book is filled with romance, adventure, even a ghost story, and there is a thread of mystery winding through its pages. Tempers run high in a drama of wounded love and jealousy in this rugged era. Cougar's family's dance with destiny would shake his world and theirs.

The relationship between humans and mountain lions has always been uneasy. A century ago, mountain lions were vilified as a threat to livestock and hunted to the verge of extinction. In recent years, this keystone predator has made a remarkable comeback, but today humans and mountain lions appear destined for a collision course. Its recovery has led to an unexpected conundrum: Do more mountain lions mean they’re a threat to humans and domestic animals? Or, are mountain lions still in need of our help and protection as their habitat dwindles and they’re forced into the edges and crevices of communities to survive? Mountain lion biologist and expert Mark Elbroch welcomes these tough questions. He dismisses long-held myths about mountain lions and uses groundbreaking science to uncover important new information about their social habits. Elbroch argues that humans and mountain lions can peacefully coexist in close proximity if we ignore uninformed hype and instead arm ourselves with knowledge and common sense. He walks us through the realities of human safety in the presence of mountain lions, livestock safety, competition with hunters for deer and elk, and threats to rare species, dispelling the paranoia with facts and logic. In the last few chapters, he touches on human impacts on mountain lions and the need for a sensible management strategy. The result, he argues, is a win-win for humans, mountain lions, and the ecosystems that depend on keystone predators to keep them in healthy balance. The Cougar Conundrum delivers a clear-eyed assessment of a modern wildlife challenge, offering practical advice for wildlife managers, conservationists, hunters, and those in the wildland-urban interface who share their habitat with large predators.

In Crossing the Next Meridian, Wilkinson explains to a general audience some of the core problems that face the American West, both now and in the years to come. An expert on federal public lands, Native American issues, and the West's arcane water laws, Wilkinson looks at the outmoded ideas that pervade land use and resource allocation. He argues that significant reform of Western law is needed to combat environmental decline and heal splintered communities. Interweaving legal history with examples of present-day consequences, both intended and unintended, Wilkinson traces the origins and development of Western laws and regulations. He relates stories of Westerners who face these issues on a day-to-day basis and discusses what can and should be done to bring government policies in line with the reality of twentieth-century American life. His examination seeks a middle ground between those who champion unrestricted growth and those who advocate complete preservation.