Author Talk: Jason Mark, ‘Satellites in the High Country’

In New Mexico’s Gila Wilderness, 106 Mexican gray wolves may be some of the most monitored wildlife on the planet. Collared, micro chipped, and transported by helicopter, the wolves are protected and confined in an attempt to appease ranchers and conservationists alike. Once a symbol of the wild, these wolves have come to illustrate the demise of wilderness in this Human Age, where man’s efforts shape life in even the most remote corners of the earth. And yet, the howl of an unregistered wolf—half of a rogue pair—splits the night. If you know where to look, you’ll find that much remains untamed, and even today, wildness can remain a touchstone for our relationship with the rest of nature. But wildness is wily as a coyote: you have to be willing to track it to understand the least thing about it. “Satellites in the High Country” is an epic journey on the trail of the wild, a poetic and incisive exploration of its meaning and enduring power in our Human Age.

In “Satellites in the High Country,” journalist and adventurer Jason Mark travels beyond the bright lights and certainties of our cities to seek wildness wherever it survives. Jason Mark’s writings on the environment have appeared in The New York Times, TheAtlantic.com, The Nation, and Salon.com, among many other publications. He is the editor in chief of Sierra Magazine, was the longtime editor of Earth Island Journal, a quarterly magazine, and is a co-founder of San Francisco’s largest urban farm. Time has called him “a rebel with a cause.”