Author Gary Ferguson first answered the call to adventure at age 12, loading up his purple sting-ray bike with camping gear and riding with his older brother through the central Midwest. By age 18, bicycles had given way to boxcars and backpacks, as he made his way across North America by rail and by thumb – as often than not heading west, and heading for mountains.

At 25, Ferguson plunged full-time into the freelance writing life. Soon thereafter his work found a home in the national media – both his personal profiles of American nature, as well as a wide range of social and environmental stories from Europe, Africa and North America.

Formerly an interpretive naturalist for the U.S. Forest Service, Gary is the author of 16 books on nature, science and history. His recent work, Hawks Rest (National Geographic), became the first book in history to win nonfiction Book of The Year from both the Pacific Northwest and Mountains and Plains booksellers associations. He was the 2002 Seigel Scholar at the School of Political Science at Washington University, St. Louis; in January 2007, he begins a five-month tenure as Distinguished Visiting Writer at the University of Montana. Gary's nature and science-based essays can be heard on National Public Radio affiliates throughout the country.

Over the past twenty years Gary has written for a wide variety of publications, including Vanity Fair, the Los Angeles Times, Outside, and Men's Journal.

Selected Books

• The Great Divide: The Rocky Mountains in the American Mind (2005, W.W. Norton)
• Decade of the Wolf: Returning the Wild to Yellowstone (2005, Montana Book of the Year – Lyon's Press)
• Hawks Rest: A Season in the Remote Heart of Yellowstone (2005, National Geographic)
• The Worlds Great Nature Myths (1996, Crown Publishing)
• Shouting at the Sky (1999, St. Martin's Press)
• Through the Woods (1998, St. Martin's Press)
• Walking Down the Wild (1993, Simon & Schuster)
• The Sylvan Path (1997, St. Martin's Press)

Decade of the Wolf – An insider's look at the most successful conservation project in American history.

Rising from the Ashes – An intriguing look at the changing face of American conservation – part science, part politics, and part cosmology.

Nature as Healer (multi-media) – A captivating portrait of how compassion-based wilderness therapy is providing new hope for troubled teens.

American Wild – The remarkable history of how nature shaped American patriotism, politics, and religion.

The Hero's Journey (story-telling and lecture) – What the world's oldest stories tell us about unleashing human potential.

Into the West – The most amazing Western history you never knew.

• 2005 Montana Book of the Year – Decade of the Wolf
• Mountains and Plains and Pacific Northwest Booksellers Associations Nonfiction book of the Year – Hawks Rest
• Lowell Thomas Award – The Sylvan Path
• Seigel Scholar, School of Political Science, Washington University, St. Louis.
• William Kittredge Distinguished Visiting Writer, University of Montana, Spring 2007