Life in the Treetops: Adventures of a Woman in Field Biology

The director of research and conservation at the Marie Selby Botanical Gardens in Sarasota, Fla., offers a rare tour of the treetops in this lively and engaging memoir. From her first climb up a coachwood tree in Australia, using a slingshot rappel and a harness hand-sewn with seat-belt webbing, Lowman knew she wanted to devote her career to studying the mysteries of forest canopies, ""one of the last biotic frontiers on Earth."" In straightforward prose, she writes about a variety of canopy access techniques and the scientific hypotheses she explored while using each one. She details, for instance, using a single rope to climb giant stinging trees as a graduate student in Australia; squeezing into a cherry picker while pregnant to study that continent's failing eucalyptus trees; battling temperatures of over 100 degrees while suspended from a hot air balloon above the African tropics; and broadcasting, from a swaying canopy bridge in the Belizian rain forest, live via satellite to students thousands of miles away. Often the only woman on her jungle excursions, Lowman confronted challenges on the ground as well, such as the attentive group of African Pygmies who followed her each time she headed for the shower stalls. More serious was the pressure to abandon her fieldwork after she settled down with a grazier in the Australian outback, and the cultural differences that eventually led her to return to the U.S. with her two young sons. Readers will empathize with Lowman's struggles to balance family and career, but it is her fascinating research and amusing adventures in the jungle that will keep them turning pages. 30 illustrations. (June)