The North Shore Rescue Team has existed since 1965 and has performed thousands of search and rescue operations on the North Shore Mountains and other locations throughout British Columbia and Washington State. Team activities have assisted at least 4,500 lost or injured individuals in mountain and wilderness settings. While these operations have been featured in numerous media reports throughout Canada and other countries, there is an additional element to these operations to which few people have been exposed. This book presents the oral history of the North Shore Rescue team. Team members, their spouses, and subjects provide unique insights, recollections and perspectives on search and rescue operations. Some stories reflect life and death struggles, others are humorous, some generate disturbing thoughts and some are politically incorrect. Nevertheless, these are the memories and stories from people involved with the most experienced, best trained, best equipped volunteer search and rescue team in Canada. This is a book about selfless volunteers performing complex rescue operations, camaraderie under stressful conditions, lives saved, lives lost, as told by people who were involved. These stories will be of interest to those who climb, snowshoe, ski, hike, kayak, explore or engage in any other form of outdoor recreational activity. None of these stories have ever been revealed to the general public. Each operational story contains a lesson associated with personal safety and provides insights into what to do, or not do, when lost or injured in the wilds.

More than 25 wildlife professionals provide in-depth information on every aspect of this popular game bird's life.

The ten currently recognized species of grouse in North America have played an important role in America's history, from the famous but ill-fated heath hen, a primary source of meat for the earliest New England immigrants, to the ruffed grouse, currently one of the most abundant and soughtafter upland game birds in more than 40 states and provinces. This book summarizes the ecology, reproductive biology, and social behavior of all ten of the extant North American grouse species. It also describes the current status of grouse populations, some of which are perilously close to extinction. The social behavior of grouse is of special biological interest because among these ten species there is a complete mating system spectrum, from seasonally monogamous pair-bonding to highly promiscuous mating patterns. The latter group illustrates the strong structural and behavioral effects of sexual selection resulting from nonmonogamous mating. These influences reach a peak in the development by some grouse species of engaging in mating "leks," arena-like competitions performed by males while attempting to attract fertile females, and also provide opportunities for females to select optimum mating partners. These sexual competitions also promote strong differences evolving in sexual signaling behaviors ("displays") among closely related species. Nevertheless, a relatively high incidence of mating errors and resulting hybridization often occurs in spite of these marked behavioral differences. In addition to a text of 101,000 words, the book includes 16 range maps, 37 line drawings, and 38 photographs by the author, as well as nearly 1,400 literature citations.

Towards the end of the 1870s Comeau gave up trapping for various administrative activities, which he would engage in for many years. He was simultaneously postmaster (from 1877), fisheries agent (around 1879), and telegraph agent (around 1884) for the settlements in his region (Manicouagan, Godbout, Baie-des-Cèdres, Pointe-des-Monts, Îlets Caribou, Îles de Mai, and Rivière-Pentecôte) ... In January 1886 Comeau attained fame by rescuing two relatives who had become lost on the St Lawrence River during a severe storm. After wandering about on the ice for a great many hours, he succeeded in guiding them to the south shore ... Comeau's skills, his hunting and fishing exploits, and his knowledge of aboriginal culture formed the basis of the articles he published in the National Geographic Magazine (Washington) and in Forest and Stream (New York). In 1909 he brought out at Quebec an autobiography full of anecdotes and observations which also included his inventory of birds; entitled Life and sport on the north shore of the lower St. Lawrence and gulf, it would be reissued in 1923 and 1954 ..."--Excerpts from www.biographi.ca/en/bio/comeau_napoleon_alexandre_15E.html.