Bruce BarcottCritiques

One of the most interesting books I've ever read. This is a love story to a mountain, and it makes the reader fall in love right along with the author.

There's a chapter on the soil of Rainier, and it's fascinating. Yes, a chapter on dirt is amazing.

Despite this being nonfiction I didn't look up what happened to the project until after i finished... and now I"m pretty bummed, because SPOILER ALERT the dam gets built anyway. I picked this up from the Friends of Library booksale at the Boise Public Library last summer and didn't get around to reading it until I moved and found myself without a library card for a week (my backlog of used books could keep me going for a while).

The biology of the Macal River and Belize is covered early on, but pretty soon the story turns into a political fight, which isn't quite what I was expecting from the title, especially as things quickly get bogged down in corruption and cronyism. An interesting look at a recent clash between environmental deals and the need for electricity with a sketchy government officiating deals.

3.5 stars

Sharon Matola runs the Belize Zoo. At her zoo, they rescue and rehabilitate injured or orphaned animals. When there was a dam proposed in Belize that would threaten the habitat of the few remaining scarlet macaws in Belize, she made it her purpose to fight the dam with everything she had. The author travelled to and from Belize for a number of years to document what happened.

This was really good. The book also takes a look at the history and politics of Belize, as well. It's so frustrating, though, the corruption in the government! I found the book quite gripping and wanted to keep reading to find out what would happen. Of course, I have a particular interest in the environment and wildlife.

Barcott's style is the illegitimate lovechild of Bill Bryson and Jon Krakauer. This book is informative as well as humorous. If you like the great outdoors (with a healthy dose of history and botany), it's a great read.

At 14,411 feet (summit elevation), Mt. Rainier is the highest mountain in Washington State and is considered a starting ground for those wishing to try their luck with Everest. The Measure of a Mountain, is the story of one man's obsession with Mount Rainier. Bruce Barcott shares his findings on the history of the mountain, his personal quest to circumnavigate Rainier via the 92 mile Wonderland Trail and ultimately his journey to the summit.

Barcott's writing style reminded me of a healthy blend of Bill Bryson and Jon Krakauer; the wit of Bryson with the intensity and journalistic flare of Krakauer. The story jumps between Barcott's personal experiences and a history lesson of the mountain. I personally would have liked if the book focused more on his personal accounts, but it was interesting to read about the geology, flora and fauna of this great Pacific Northwest landmark nonetheless. I would highly recommend this book to any mountain/climbing book enthusiasts.½

One gets used to nature and science books often being a bit of a slog. Not so with this fast paced, interesting, and entertaining account by Bruce Barcott of Sharon Matola's efforts to save the scarlet macaws in Belize. Known throughout Belize, as the "Zoo lady", Matola is an enigmatic figure who takes on a corrupt government officials, international corporations, and dubious environmental reports to wage a fight for the nesting grounds of the last 200 scarlet macaws in Belize. Barcott does a great job weaving a story of politics, history, and science together into a compelling narrative that you simply don't want to put down. I highly recommend this book if you want to know more about what Belize is all about.½

Bruce Barcott's The Last Flight of the Scarlet Macaw reads more adventure novel than non-fiction book--a book which is, as it turns out, mostly about dams.

Read the rest of my review at http://www.contrarymagazine.com/Contrary/Barcott.html.

A fascinating look at Belize and conservation, this features the "zoo lady" of Belize and her efforts at fighting a dam project in Belize that endangers the future of Belize's scarlet macaw population. The history and development of vacation hot spot Belize is fascinating, and the echos of colonionalism caused by white conservationists politicking in primarily black Belize and other countries are also explored.

In 1982 Sharon Matola, a feisty, curly-haired native from the rusty working-class town of Baltimore, left home for adventure - after some false starts hopping trains and training lions, she eventually landed in the green jungles of Central America where, in the tiny country of Belize (pop: 250,000), she created the first and only "zoo" (more like an animal rescue). Because of her passion for animals and the environment she earned a reputation as the 'Jane Goodall of Belize'. So it was inevitable when a corrupt Belize government wanted to build a fiscally questionable dam that would obliterate some of Belize's richest biological resources - including the unique roosting area of the beautiful but endangered Scarlet Macaw - she became the driving force behind a movement to stop powerful and shadowy forces. Bruce Barcott, an environmental journalist with Outside magazine based in Seattle Washington, heard about Matola's struggle and for a number of years followed her story as it went from a single womans crusade into an international turmoil involving Fortune 500 companies, the Canadian Government, movie stars and Englands secretive and rarely used highest court the "Privy Council".

The Last Flight is structured as a "non-fiction narrative", meaning there is a main character (Matola) following an evolving story (struggle to stop the dam) in which the reader is kept in suspense to find out what happens. Along the way the author imparts factual background knowledge such as: a history of Belize; Belize culture and geography; Belize wildlife; a history of dams and the environment; wildlife extinction; backgrounds on institutions like the NRDC and Englands Privy Council; how companies and environmental groups operate during disputes. In both the suspense story and factual tangents Barcott has succeeded marvelously in creating a highly readable page turner. Just as Matola is the stories personification of conservation, the iconic Scarlet Macaw becomes the symbol of all the animals that would be impacted by the dam, and ultimately of endangered animals everywhere.

Rather than a black and white "man vs nature", Barcott reveals how ambiguous and complicated conservation is, often not a question of ethics but politics. This is a book about a tiny valley, an unknown woman in a country where fewer people live than most American counties. But it is a larger more important work, it is a window into the world of conservation struggles, an awareness of the Belize people, culture and geography, and most importantly a profile of Sharon whose passion and determination is an inspiration for anyone, in particular young women and men to follow their dreams and make a difference in the world.

--Review by Stephen Balbach, via CoolReading (c) 2008 cc-by-nd½

well-written and helped me know The Mountain and appreciate it when it's out.