Ecology of a Cracker Childhood

Ecology of a Cracker Childhood by Janisse Ray  285 pp.

Janisse Ray is a naturalist and environmental activist. She grew up in a junkyard...literally. Her family owned a junkyard in south Georgia on U.S 1. She lived there with her parents and siblings, surrounded by derelict cars, broken washing machines, tractors, and a miscellany of other detritus her father accumulated to repair or sell as salvage parts. In alternating chapters Ray reminices about her childhood and details the destruction of the old growth longleaf pine forests in the south. She includes in family memories her father's care for injured animals, wild and domestic, his bouts of mental illness which required hospitalization, and his talent for recycling junk into usable items. The environmental chapters cover the rapid destruction of the forests and the subsequent and heartbreaking endangerment and extinction of species that relied on the very specific ecology of those forests.  I ran across this book when searching for recommendations for our April "Staff Picks." Since it was about a part of Georgia where I have family, I thought I'd give it a look. I'm glad I did. The biography parts are interesting and I learned a lot about the unique ecology of the longleaf pine forests that sadly have dwindled to just a few areas of the south. I wish I could have seen them as they were when this country began.