cover image Heron Hill Chronicle

Heron Hill Chronicle

George Reiger. Lyons Press, $19.95 (196pp) ISBN 978-1-55821-296-1

Conservationist Reiger (Wanderer on My Native Shore) here recounts his and his wife Barbara's move from New York City to a 67-acre farm on the coast of Virginia in the early 1970s. An abandoned cemetery and artifacts he found on his property told him of the self-sufficiency, respect for nature and strong family values of the people who had once lived there. Chapters describe home restoration, the great variety of wildlife in this marshy land, hunting and bird watching, and how vividly his slow-paced Southern neighbors contrast with his visitors from New York City and other urban areas. Reiger wraps up his charmingly bucolic memoir with lessons he has learned from nature, and his controversial ideas on conservation, which do not shun hunting, ``wildlife management'' or other forms of human intervention. Illustrations. (Nov.)