The Northern Rockies Ecosystem Protection Act (NREPA) was developed in response to federal government spending on land management that was jeopardizing the existence of numerous species in the Rocky Mountain region from Yellowstone to Glacier National Parks. It quickly gained the support of over 800 independent businesses, conservation groups, and Native American religious groups.

NREPA has earned bipartisan political support. Members of both major political parties are sponsors who have introduced NREPA in the US House of Representatives. Former president Jimmy Carter has endorsed it. So has political columnist James Kilpatrick, and Pulitzer prize-winning poet Gary Snyder. Numerous scientists including the Craighead family, famed for its grizzly bear research, support NREPA for its promising potential to cut risk of extinction of the grizzly bears of Yellowstone and Glacier National Parks.

Despite bipartisan political support and scientific support for NREPA, political opposition from wealthy industries has stalled its passage through Congress. The oil-gas, mining, logging, and motorsports industries want access to the acreage that NREPA would protect for a wide variety of other economic and environmental purposes. But a growing base of support across America is putting pressure on politicians to listen to the grassroots instead of the mighty lobbyists. Wilderness and many species of wildlife are rare in America nowadays, and NREPA will make sure they don't disappear. This is an excellent piece of wildlife legislation, and an example of how pioneering legislation of this kind should be written.

This is an excellent guide to paddling in the northwest. It is up to date and concise, and includes all the things you want to know when going on a paddling vacation with the family.

My favorite picture book. Combines the beauty of the West with the saga of the pioneers.

This is a very good book to start out with if you are interested in the Oregon Trail. Tells a great story.

This is a terrific book for teaching kids about the rigors of life on the Oregon Trail. Most kids can identify with John Sager, who begins the book as a problem child, but then ends up leading his brothers and sisters to Oregon after his parents die. There is adventure and heartbreak, along with great historical information. I use this book when teaching about about the Westward Movement. Most of my students list this book as one of their favorites. Highly recommended!

I am very impressed with this new release of Mary Walker's Diary. I am a direct decendant of Mary and Elkanah Walker and am very proud that there is such a wonderful book with her's and Myra Eells' diary entries. It gives us a view of how women's lives were, how people's views about the Native Americans were at that time, and shows us the hardships of pioneer life. I want to thank the authors for keeping this piece of history alive.

Carrie Walker

I was pleasantly surprised!!! I am a teacher who is in search of good information on Oregon, Oregon Trail, Applegate Trail, etc. It was with great relief and joy that I opened the pages of this book to find almost everything I need to complete my unit on Oregon. The book lays information out in a well organized and easy to follow format. Thank you!...it makes my "life" much easier.

Great resource!

Short,but lively and descriptive account of a curtailed journey to Oregon in 1832. John Wyeth joined his cousin Nathaniel Wyeth and several other New Englanders to travel to Oregon to seek the riches and fortunes which that land had to offer. Although the author quit the expedition at Pierre's Hole in Idaho, he did write a first-hand narrative which is of historical significance. He described the many hardships and sufferings which they encountered along the way; being ridiculed for Nathaniel's original mode of travel when departing from New England in so called "amphibiums' (a cross betweeen a "wagon and a gondola") which were given up in St. Louis; an account of the famous Battle of Pierre's Hole; and on the way home to Boston via New Orleans, a very detailed and grotesque description of the cholera epidemic in that city. Wyeth speaks most admirably of their veteran guide Bill Sublette, who escorted them from Independence to Pierre's Hole, and at the same time belittles, demeans and humiliates his cousin Nathaniel for his leadership abilities throughout the expedition. I believe the author, and being only nineteen at the time, was simply too thunderstruck and bewildered by the hardships and sacrifices one must withstand to acccomplish such a feat. Simply put, he was spoiled from the comforts and conveniences of life in Boston and should not have undertaken such a mammoth adventure. An excellent little book (only 87 pages) but with an abundance of historical importance.

I used this as my main reference book on a trip to Oregon last summer (1998). The info was current, easily understandable, directions were very accurate. I loved the list of radio stations at the end of each chapter - it eliminates searching around the dial while you drive. And I contacted cities from the list of Chambers of Commerce and received a lot of additional helpful info. The best recommendation that I can give is that I'm headed for California this summer and the Martin's book is at the top of my short list of books to buy! PS - There is a 1999 update available now.