Waiting for Coyote's Call

Inspired by Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, and Annie Dillard, Jerry Wilson's eco-memoir Waiting for Coyote's Call covers twenty-five years of trying to live life leaving as small an environmental footprint as possible. Wilson encourages readers to think about their place in nature through his family's quest to live equably with the natural world on 160 acres of prairie and woodland near the Missouri River in South Dakota. Wilson chronicles how he built their eco-friendly solar home and set about returning the plowed-under prairie to its original state. He muses on the difficulties of doing this in the modern world, where time is ever-more precious and convenience often outweighs the benefits of traditional methods of life. Taking the reader on journeys through his "Big Woods," Wilson examines the wonder of the creatures that also make their home on the "North Forty," noting how all that life fits together. From delight in home-grown tomatoes and passing Sandhill cranes to fears about humans' interaction with the web of life, Wilson's twenty-five years on the Missouri River bluff spring off the page, mirroring the fawns' leaps and bounds viewed from his window.